The FBI’s annual crime report is out, and the anti-gun crowd won’t like it

From Conservative Review.com (Oct. 1):

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its Uniform Crime Report for 2018 on Monday, and the numbers indicate that more people were killed by knives than rifles.
The annual report touts an overall drop in violent crime for the second consecutive year, according to the Bureau’s news release on the numbers. However, the numbers specifically on homicides in the United States offer some insight into America’s ongoing gun control debate.
Due to multiple shooting massacres that took place in August, gun control proponents have once again turned their animus toward semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15. Perhaps the most salient example of this is 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke’s pledge, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
However, as has been the case in previous years, the numbers show that rifles in general — including semi-automatics as well as others — only account for a fraction of a percent of the total homicide rate in the United States.
……………….
Once again, deaths from knives and “personal weapons” like hands, fists, and feet were higher than the number of homicides committed with rifles. More than five times as many murders were committed with knives (1,515) as with rifles, and more than twice as many people were killed with “personal weapons” (672). Other years included in the FBI report’s table — which spans 2014-2018 — show similar disparities between the same weapon types. [read more]

More stories on firearms and the 2nd Amendment:

• 11 More Examples of How Firearms Save Gun Owners’ Lives, Property
• Navy pilots demand right to bear arms on Pensacola base
• Wag Illustrates Second Amendment Quotes  
• Gun sanctuary revolt goes 'organic' in Virginia, 9 other states
• Virginia taxpayers to be charged for new gun-control laws

New York City Will Fine You for Saying ‘Illegal Alien.’ That’s an Assault on the Constitution.

From The Daily Signal.com (Oct. 3):

The propaganda, surveillance, and censorship of Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel “1984” has now arrived in New York.

The city’s Commission on Human Rights recently released new legal enforcement guidelines that ban the use of the term “illegal alien” by employers, housing providers (including hotels), and law enforcement as “discriminatory.” Violators can be punished with exorbitant and punitive fines—up to $250,000 per offense.

In other words, the city will now censor and penalize anyone for using the correct legal term that has been used in both federal immigration law and numerous court decisions, including by the Supreme Court.

This is an outrageous violation of the First Amendment.

Open-borders advocates and pro-illegal alien groups have been waging a propaganda war for years, very successfully, to convince media outlets and government officials to abandon the term “illegal alien.”

They want it replaced with a euphemism, the term “undocumented immigrant,” to disguise and hide the unlawful conduct of aliens who break our immigration laws and enter this country illegally.

“Undocumented immigrant,” the preferred term used by the New York commission in its guidance, is a made-up term that ignores the law.

As noted in a prior Daily Signal article, “illegal alien” is the correct legal term and it makes no sense to say you are being “offensive” when you use precise legal terminology. [read more]

That is a stupid law. The city should be more worried about the homeless spreading diseases.

Another free speech article: Is Twitter Really Censoring Free Speech?

13 Pro-Abortion Assertions & How to Give a Pro-Life Response Part 2

Assertion #4: If a woman can’t afford to deliver and raise a baby, she has the right to end the baby’s life so they’re both not financially burdened.

First of all, the pro-life view is to show compassion to a woman in that situation. She’s facing real-life struggles. A pro-life response is to encourage her to visit a pregnancy resource center, where healthcare professionals and caring people could give the mom direction and help. But notice what this line of thinking is really saying — that the pre-born baby is not human. Here’s why: We wouldn’t apply the same rationale to an older child. No mother would end the life of her 2-year-old toddler so she could balance her checkbook or pay her rent. No family would eliminate a son or daughter so they’d be in a better financial position. Why would it be OK to end the life of a pre-born baby for financial reasons? It’s not. In a hardship situation, adoption would be an option that allows the mother to choose life.

Assertion #5: An embryo isn’t life.

It’s true that human beings were less developed when we were embryos in their mothers’ wombs. But tell me why that matters? Why would size determine value? Why would level of development be the thing that gives us rights? It doesn’t and it shouldn’t. Adults aren’t more  human or have more value than kids do. We don’t think Shaquille O’Neal is more human or valuable than we are, simply because he’s 7 feet tall and we’re not. Remember what embryology says: The pre-born are human beings from fertilization. When a male sperm unites with a female oocyte, it forms a single cell called a zygote that has its own DNA distinct from the mother’s DNA. That’s a new life!

Assertion #6: A baby isn’t human until it is born. Therefore it has no rights.

How do two parents — two human parents — create offspring that is not human, but later becomes human? Can you explain that? The argument that a pre-born baby isn’t human until it’s born is actually claiming that location determines human value. But that’s faulty. At the delivery of a baby, how does a change from inside the womb to outside the womb change the essential nature of the baby? How does a journey of eight inches from the womb to the birth canal suddenly transform a baby from non-human to human? How does that baby change from a non-valuable thing we can eliminate to a human being who is valuable? In reality, location has no bearing on our worth. No one believes that a resident of Colorado has more inherent value than someone from Texas. Our intrinsic human worth doesn’t change based on our address.

Assertion #7: Abortion is healthcare.

What do you mean by healthcare? The original Hippocratic Oath explicitly forbade abortion as valid medical practice. Even the maxim, “Do no harm,” which undergirds the Hippocratic Oath, suggests that ending a life is antithetical to the purpose of medicine. Healthcare involves health and wellness, not the intent to kill. Elective abortion does involve the intent to kill. Therefore, elective abortion is not healthcare.

Source: Focus on the Family.com.

The Gospel of Marx: A False Religion Explained

Commentary from Daniel Davis on The Daily Signal.com:

Karl Marx once called religion the opium of the people—an imaginary coping mechanism that makes suffering in this world more bearable. His vision was a secular, atheistic one. But my guest today argues Marx’s vision was still intensely spiritual. In fact, he says Marx hijacked key themes from Christianity to create a false religion. Theology professor Bruce Ashford joins me in today’s episode.

……………..

Daniel Davis: I’m joined now in the studio by Dr. Bruce Ashford. He is the dean of faculty and provost at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary down in North Carolina, where he also serves as a professor of theology and culture. He also blogs at “Christianity for the Common Good.” And as a note of personal disclosure, he is a professor of mine. I’m a part-time student at Southeastern.

……………

Davis: Bruce, you’re an interesting blogger and writer because on the one hand, you’re kind of like waist-deep in historical theology and philosophy and writing the journal articles and all of that. But you’re also writing contemporary books for your audience, which is largely Christian, and you’re also blogging about contemporary political issues.

………….

You’ve written about not just socialism, but the Marxist underpinnings of it. You write about how Marxism as an ideology is actually a false religion. And I think that’s an interesting angle.

I think a lot of folks, even conservatives, think of Marxism as just a set of bad ideas, but you’re saying it’s actually false religion and even idolatry. Why do you frame it that way?

Ashford: Yeah. And so you know, I’m not the first person to bring this up. The great French philosopher Raymond Aron, who’s a contemporary of [Jean-Paul] Sartre, explored this in a book that he wrote called “The Opium of the Intellectuals,” which is a play off of Marx’s “opium of the masses.”

He argued that structurally and existentially, Marxism functions more like a religion than just kind of a mirror ideology that’s been picked up on by some contemporary political scientists and philosophers like David Koyzis and Peter Kreeft.

The critique is really Augustinian, and Augustine argued that any time you take some aspect of the natural order and elevate it to a level of ultimacy, absolutize it, you’ve got yourself an idol or a false religion. And I think Marx did that with material equality.

What happens is when you take any one aspect of reality and you elevate it that high, you absolutize it, it becomes a cudgel with which you beat down other good aspects of reality. And we can talk about this later, but that’s exactly what Marxism has done, is taken this drive for material equality and beat down other good aspects of reality. It induces poverty and decreases liberty. [read more]

I agree with Sartre. Marxism is the opium of the intellectuals.

How 1 Man Is Leading the Fight for School Choice in Richmond

Commentary from Lindsey Burke on The Daily Signal.com (Oct. 2):

Antione Green is working to open a second charter school in Richmond, Virginia. The school, called Richmond Urban Collective, would serve at-risk boys in grades six through eight.

Although he is facing steep opposition from the school board in the city, Green has mobilized parents around Richmond who are supportive of his fight to bring more quality education options to an area that desperately needs them.

That fight may not be easy, however. Jason Kamras, the superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, said he’s “100% committed to ensuring that [Richmond Public Schools] remains a traditional public school system.”

I interviewed Green, president of the Richmond Urban Collective, to learn more about his efforts to increase the charter school supply in Virginia.

Lindsey Burke: Tell me about the education options currently available to elementary, middle, and secondary students in Richmond. Do charter school options exist?

Antione Green: Our city school system currently has what is called an “open-enrollment process,” where families can enroll in out-of-zone schools, based on seat availability at the desired schools.

On the high school level, we have an academically selective process for students to apply for our magnet schools and governor schools.

Yes, we have one independently created charter school, Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, and a district-incubated charter to serve students with special needs.

In addition, our school system contracts with a private company to operate an alternative school for select students. [read more]

Other articles about education:

• How 1 Woman Helped DC’s Underprivileged Kids Find School Success
• 2 + 2 = 5: Now math slammed as 'racist,' 'western'
• Woke Math Aims to Teach Seattle Kids That ‘Western’ Math Is Racist
• K–12: Fake News, Fake Education
• House Democrats’ New Bill Would Drive Up College Costs Even Further
• Better Than a Loan
• Why It's a Bad Idea to Tell Students Words Are Violence
• Intolerance in Academia
• Sexually Explicit Books Were Put in These Virginia Classrooms. Parents Want Answers
• Reading, writing and socialism: Public education and America's youth
• Five Reasons to be Thankful for School Choice
• ‘It’s Not Enough To Be Smart’: Students With High ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Get Better Grades
• Why LBJ’s Great Society Gets a Failing Grade in Improving Education
• https://www.justfacts.com/education

Democrat Dilemma: The Failure of Prophecy

Commentary from Christopher Chantrill on American Thinker.com (Oct. 1):

Last week I took apart an NRO critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “limitless ideology” on my American Manifesto blog. I said that it is not enough to critique the constant ideological expansion of government. You have to have an alternative. And anyway the key thing about progressives is that their politics is their religion.

But now I want to look at a different aspect of our political moment which expands on the lefty-politics-as-religion theme. It is that our Democratic friends are in the middle of a “failure of prophecy.” If you are a progressive believer the world was supposed to be all tucked up in progressive heaven by now. And yet here we have Trump siccing foreign governments on Deep Stater Joe Biden. The nerve!

Somehow the Prophecy has failed. But how? Everyone who was anyone agreed decades ago that way you bend the arc of history towards justice was with progressive politics. So of course they are all freaking out.

We humans desperately need to know about the future. Will it rain tomorrow? Will there be a drought next year? Will we run out of natural resources? The astonishing human way we try to divine the future is with prophecy. Some techniques of prophecy are extremely effective; I am thinking about science. Some prophecies are not so good. I am thinking about Marxism.

But When Prophecy Fails, according to Leon Festinger et al., the believers don’t just throw up their hands and go back to ordinary life. Instead they intensify their faith and sharpen up the prophecy. The problem, they decide, is that their faith wasn’t deep enough; they didn’t read the texts right. It is not till later that they lose heart and #WalkAway. [read more]

Since Leftism is a religion this analysis fits perfectly. Although the Left doesn’t see themselves as religious.

Other articles about the Left:

• Violence against the Citizenry Is the Left's Intent
• Progressives bent on purging conservatism
• The Left to America’s Children: Your Past Is Terrible, and Your Future Is Terrible
• The Dangerous Lessons the Left Is Teaching Our Kids
• Elizabeth Warren: Leading Liar in the Party of Liars
• 'The Leprosy of Unreality' and the Demise of the Left
• The Left’s Dangerous Assault on Free Speech
• The Totalitarian American Left
• The Progressive Socialist Left’s New McCarthyism
• 7 Leftist Words in a Dictionary Near You
• Liberal Policy Failures Are the Reason for Socialism’s New Appeal
• Nihilism Is Driving Leftocratic Rage
• The New Nihilists: Political Nihilism and the Progressive Movement in America
• 6 Reasons to Believe Left Hates America
• 3 Reasons Why the Left Doesn’t Like Christmas
• The Democrats are engaged in a coup. What do we do about it?
• Democrats aim to abolish right-to-work laws
• California’s Disastrous State Illustrates Limits of Progressivism

Schiff pushed Volker to say Ukraine felt pressure from Trump

From Washington Examiner.com (Oct. 16):

In a secret interview, Rep. Adam Schiff, leader of the House Democratic effort to impeach President Trump, pressed former United States special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker to testify that Ukrainian officials felt pressured to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter as a result of Trump withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Volker denied that was the case, noting that Ukrainian leaders did not even know the aid was being withheld and that they believed their relationship with the U.S. was moving along satisfactorily, without them having done anything Trump mentioned in his notorious July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

When Volker repeatedly declined to agree to Schiff's characterization of events, Schiff said, "Ambassador, you're making this much more complicated than it has to be."

The interview took place Oct. 3 in a secure room in the U.S. Capitol. While the session covered several topics, the issue of an alleged quid pro quo — U.S. military aid in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens and a public announcement that such an investigation was underway — was a significant part of the discussion. [read more]

Adam Schiff-head is a bastard! He should be kicked out of Congress.

Other stories of the impeachment circus:

• The Left Doesn’t Really Believe ‘No One Is Above the Law’
• This Impeachment Effort About Ideology, Not Constitution
• DOJ inspector general finds 17 'significant errors or omissions' in Carter Page FISA applications
• 6 Takeaways From the IG Report on FBI’s Spying on Trump Campaign
• Dick Morris: Dossier Victims Should Sue Hillary Clinton
• We Just Got a Rare Look at National Security Surveillance. It Was Ugly.
• 6 Big Takeaways From Watchdog’s Senate Testimony About FBI Spying on Trump Campaign
• The FBI didn't commit 'errors and omissions.' It abused its power
• Inspector general says Comey not vindicated by Russia report
• Letter from President Donald J. Trump to the Speaker of the House of Representatives
• Trump wants an ‘immediate trial!’ in the Senate after House delay
• What’s Next in the Impeachment Process
• Here’s How Much the Formal Impeachment Inquiry Has Cost Taxpayers So Far
• 3 Democrats Defect as House Votes to Impeach Trump
• Article I: Remove This Beast From My Sight!
• Schiff has no regrets about falsely accusing Carter Page

13 Pro-Abortion Assertions & How to Give a Pro-Life Response Part 1

Assertion #1: A woman has the right to decide what she wants to do with her body.

True, if it’s an organ she wants to remove or a let’s say a tooth. But a pre-born baby has its own DNA—half from the mother and half from the father. Our society says that it is not acceptable for a mom to end the life of a 2-year-old toddler simply because she can choose to do so. Why is that? Because that 2-year-old is a human being. So, by the same logic, if the pre-born are human, how is it acceptable to end their lives for the sake of a mom’s right to choose? Embryology holds that the pre-born are human beings from fertilization. When a male sperm unites with a female oocyte, it forms a single cell called a zygote that has its own DNA distinct from the mother’s DNA. That’s a new life!

Assertion #2: A decision about an abortion is a private matter between a woman and her doctor.

Deciding whether or not to have an abortion is serious and should be made with wise counsel. But before we get into the privacy part of this issue, we have to answer the most foundational question in the abortion debate: “What are the pre-born?” Would you say it’s acceptable for a mom to end the life of a 2-year-old toddler if she first discusses it privately with her doctor, family, or a counselor? Of course not! Why? Because that 2-year-old is a human being. The same logic has to apply to the pre-born if they are human. As for privacy, a woman certainly has a right to talk discreetly with her doctor as any patient does. But having a private consultation doesn’t excuse ending the life of a human being.

Assertion #3: It’s more humane to end the life of a baby who would otherwise be born into an abusive home.

This is a difficult situation. First of all, a caring response is to come alongside that woman and offer as much help as possible. That’s the pro-life position. She is facing real-life struggles that might require the help of law enforcement or a pregnancy resource center or both. However, a pro-life advocate would disagree that the mother is better off ending the life of her baby. Imagine that mother had a 2-year-old. Would it be OK to end the toddler’s life to spare him or her future abuse? No. The mother would seek a safe space for her child or find a friend, relative, or agency to help. A pre-born child should be treated with the same love and care. As a society, we don’t take the life of an innocent human being because someone wants to rough them up. Similarly, we shouldn’t end a pre-born baby’s life either because of hardship. Adoption or foster care would be a better option that allows the mother to choose life.

Source: Focus on the Family.com.

Other pro-life articles:

• THE VALUE OF EVERY LIFE
• WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
• THE SLED TEST – FOUR TOP ARGUMENTS
• SCRIPTURES ADVOCATING FOR THE PRE-BORN
• FACTS AND RESEARCH ABOUT THE UNBORN AND ABORTION
• The Best Pro-Life Arguments for Secular Audiences
• Life begins at fertilization. Thanks, Science!

No One Noticed When Clinton and Obama Abused Whistleblowers

Commentary from Jack Cashill on American Thinker.com (Oct. 1):

Here are two unfortunate realities: the first is that whistleblowing becomes virtuous only when a Republican is the one being whistled on; the second is that deep state Democrats have a habit of manipulating whistleblower laws when it suits their purposes. I could write a book -- I’ve written several, in fact -- on whistleblowers the major media chose to ignore. The two examples that follow, one regarding Bill Clinton, the other Barack Obama, should give a sense of how the worms in Washington turn.

The first case involves TWA Flight 800, the 747 that inexplicably crashed off the coast of Long Island in July 1996. As to deep state involvement, the Clinton Department of Justice illegally seized control of the investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board and handed it off to the FBI, which, in turn, ceded real control of the investigation to the CIA.

In 2008, the CIA’s Randolph Tauss went public with an authorized explanation for the agency’s involvement. According to Tauss, the FBI immediately requested CIA assistance given “the possibility that international terrorists may have been involved.” Tauss claimed the agency responded to the FBI’s request for help less than twenty-four hours after the plane’s destruction and cited Executive Order 12333 as justification. A clause in that order authorizes the CIA to “conduct counterintelligence activities outside the United States and, without assuming or performing any internal security functions, conduct counterintelligence activities within the United States in coordination with the FBI.” It would not surprise me if the contemporary culprits cite this Reagan-era order to justify their involvement in the Russia collusion hoax.

Although President Clinton preferred to work through his fixers, on March 11, 1997, Clinton quietly signed Executive Order 13039, effectively removing all federal whistleblower protection from anyone, civilian or military, associated with U.S. Navy “special warfare” operations. This would include any Navy divers charged with finding TWA 800’s black boxes. There is compelling evidence that divers secretly removed the boxes and put them back into place after they had been doctored. When finally “found” a week after the crash, neither the cockpit voice recorder nor the flight data recorder offered any clues as to why the plane crashed. [read more]

It’s okay when a democrat abuses his authority. At least the press doesn’t care.

How To Be A Journalist [Satire]

Humor from Andrew Klavan on Daily Wire.com (Oct. 2):

So you want to be a journalist. As a leading professional in the field, I would like to share some of the techniques that would have made me who I am today if I had not turned out to be someone else.

As a journalist, it is your job to get what we professionals call “the story.” The story is any series of events that might cause people to vote for Democrats.

In order to get the story, you have to gather “the facts.” The facts are any opinions held by Democrats that might cause people to vote for Democrats. You can always tell a fact because after you state it, you will say, “That’s a fact.” You may also add, “And I’m being completely objective,” which makes it even more of a fact.

To be a good journalist, you also have to understand what we professionals call “the issue.” The issue is a lens through which you see the story so that it might cause people to vote for Democrats so Democrats can increase the size of government and lessen the freedom of ordinary people who are yucky and sometimes don’t even live in New York.

So for instance, if a white man shoots someone, the issue is the guns that cause violence. If a black man shoots someone, the issue is the racism that causes blacks to use guns that cause violence. If a police officer shoots a black person, the issue is police racism, whereas if he shoots a white person, the issue is violence among white people. If a Muslim shoots a white person, a black person and a police officer, the issue is climate change, which caused a drought in the Sudan, driving Muslims to use guns which cause violence.

Now be prepared: some people may say you’re a second rate lowdown partisan hack telling lies to help your fellow Democrats. But saying that is a clear violation of the First Amendment. Also it’s the truth and, as a journalist, you want nothing to do with that.  [source]

This is what is taught to wanna-be journalists now. Sad but true.

3 Monster Black Holes Are About to Collide

From Live Science.com (Sept. 27):

They're at the core of a triple galaxy merger 1 billion light-years from Earth.

A rare trio of supermassive black holes has been caught in the act of coming together.

Three of the light-gobbling monsters nuzzle shoulder to shoulder in SDSS J084905.51+111447.2, a system of three merging galaxies about 1 billion light-years from Earth, a new study reports.

"We were only looking for pairs of black holes at the time, and yet, through our selection technique, we stumbled upon this amazing system," lead author Ryan Pfeifle, of George Mason University in Virginia, said in a statement. "This is the strongest evidence yet found for such a triple system of actively feeding supermassive black holes." [read more]

More articles about black holes:

• Black Holes As We Know Them May Not Exist
• Could life survive on an Earth-like planet orbiting a black hole?
• Astronomers may have discovered a new class of tiny black holes
• Black Holes Grow Hair, Then Go Bald Again
• Stellar Black Hole Is So Massive It Shouldn't Exist

3 Reasons It’s Tough to Defend Against Drones and Cruise Missiles

From The Daily Signal.com (Sept. 26):

There’s a lot of hand-wringing going on in defense circles across the globe over the increasing challenge of armed drones and cruise missiles, especially after the strike on Saudi oil facilities and oil fields earlier this month.

The fact is that defending against these modern weapon systems can be tough—and the failure to be able to defend against them can be quite consequential. 

The Sept. 14 strike on the Abqaiq oil facility and Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia—likely involving Iranian armed drones and cruise missiles—shut down 50% of Saudi Arabia’s oil production.

That’s 5% of global oil supply.

…………….

Cruise missiles and drones have some distinct advantages that make them uniquely appealing to military planners—and, in some cases, such as the attack on the Saudis, a weapon of choice.

First, drones and cruise missiles can fly low to the earth, hugging the terrain en route to their targets. That essentially allows drones and cruise missiles to “hide” in the topography, making it difficult for opposing ground-based radars to detect them.

Low-level flight can mask the attacker’s approach.

Second, these weapons systems, which are often smaller in size than larger conventional aircraft or ballistic missiles, are harder for radar systems to detect due to their smaller radar cross-section.

If you can’t see the target, you can’t shoot it down.

Third, cruise missiles and armed drones are often mobile, meaning the threat can come from any number of directions. Indeed, cruise missiles can be launched from the ground, from aircraft, and from ships and submerged submarines.

If radar isn’t pointed in the right direction at the right time, you won’t see the attack coming. [read more]

And if cruise missiles and drones are intelligent that will make them even more difficult to defend against.

The Genesis Story

• In Hebrew, "Adam" means “from the soil."
• When Dr. Jackson analyzes the passage on Adam's duties, he provides “serve” and “guard” as alternative translations to "till" and "watch".
• Dr. Jackson explains that Adam's naming of the animals signifies a participation in the act of creation.
• When confronting Eve, the serpent tells both the truth and a lie at the same time.
• The purpose of God questioning Adam and Eve was to provide a call for repentance.
• According to Dr. Jackson, God's expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden should be understood as an act of mercy.
• At Isaac’s birth, Sarah is 90 years old.
• Hebrews 11 explains that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice knowing full well that God would restore Isaac from the dead.

Source: The Genesis Story: Reading Biblical Narratives course.

• The creation account is neither literal nor figurative but analogical.
• For example, the creation narrative discusses the creation of light (Genesis 1:3) before the creation of the heavenly bodies (Genesis 1:14). So the creation account is not strictly literal.
• But the language in the first chapters in Genesis is not strictly figurative either. God intends to communicate, and he is a good communicator (the best). So we are certain that the analogical language in Genesis is reliable and sufficiently like the literal.
• The verses of Genesis 1 do not specify the age of the cosmos.
• Genesis was not written to address evolution or geologic ages. The story was written to tell us who God is.
• Humanity was created to rule because we were created in the image of God who rules.
• Both men and women make up the image of God because God is plurality in unity (Trinity).
• When God names a thing, he demonstrates his sovereignty over it. For example, God named darkness because he is sovereign over darkness.
• Woman was created as man’s helper. But this does not mean that woman was created to do the “grunt work.” Woman was created to be man’s helper in the sense that she was his savior—enabling him to fulfill God’s command to cultivate, till, and keep the garden.
• No indication of masculine dominance exists until Genesis 3, and it happens only because of sin.
• The nakedness of Adam and Eve has more to do with their vulnerability than their lack of clothing.
• The gold, pearls, and lapis lazuli placed in the Garden of Eden were a challenge to man to grow aesthetically.
• Dr. Allman argues that the craftiness of the serpent is not necessarily bad (Proverbs 1). However, the serpent’s denial of the words of God does signal that there is something wrong with the serpent.
• Elements of faith: Knowledge of the person and plan of God, assent (James 2) , love commitment as changed behavior and risk, and hope (Romans 4 and Hebrews 11).
• God intended the serpent’s craftiness to help Adam and Eve learn wisdom (Proverbs 1).
• God cursed the serpent and the ground; He did not directly curse Adam and Eve.
• Noah found favor with God because God was gracious.
• The flood reveals that God is a judge who does make distinctions.
• The sign of the rainbow would remind God of his covenant affectively—not cognitively.
• Canaan was cursed for breaking the bonds of family loyalty.
• When Isaac was born Abraham laughed in joy; Sarah laughed in disbelief.
• The construction of the Tower of Babel was a direct refusal to follow God’s plan for blessing.
• God often sets up circumstances that seem impossible so He can display His glory.
• What God has done in the past is a model and a promise of what he will do in the future. But He’s too creative to do the same thing the same way twice.
• When you live your life by scheming and cheating, you lose the ability to recognize a lie.

Source: DTS Genesis course.

Using math to blend musical notes seamlessly

From News.mit.edu (Sept. 27):

In music, “portamento” is a term that’s been used for hundreds of years, referring to the effect of gliding a note at one pitch into a note of a lower or higher pitch. But only instruments that can continuously vary in pitch — such as the human voice, string instruments, and trombones — can pull off the effect.

Now an MIT student has invented a novel algorithm that produces a portamento effect between any two audio signals in real-time. In experiments, the algorithm seamlessly merged various audio clips, such as a piano note gliding into a human voice, and one song blending into another. His paper describing the algorithm won the “best student paper” award at the recent International Conference on Digital Audio Effects.

The algorithm relies on “optimal transport,” a geometry-based framework that determines the most efficient ways to move objects — or data points — between multiple origin and destination configurations. Formulated in the 1700s, the framework has been applied to supply chains, fluid dynamics, image alignment, 3-D modeling, computer graphics, and more.

In work that originated in a class project, Trevor Henderson, now a graduate student in computer science, applied optimal transport to interpolating audio signals — or blending one signal into another. The algorithm first breaks the audio signals into brief segments. Then, it finds the optimal way to move the pitches in  each segment to pitches in the other signal, to produce the smooth glide of the portamento effect. The algorithm also includes specialized techniques to maintain the fidelity of the audio signal as it transitions. [read more]

Not bad. Interesting.

Why Giving Pot Pushers Access to Our Banks Is Dangerous

From The Daily Signal.com (Sept. 25):

The House of Representatives is about to consider a bill called the Safe Banking Act, which, like many titles of federal laws, is completely misleading.

It should be called the “Let’s Pretend Marijuana Is Safe and Give Pot Pushers, Cartels, and Terrorist Organizations Access to Our Banking System” Act.

Don’t hold your breath for a title change. Regardless of the title, the idea behind the act ignores reality and, if passed, will lead to disastrous results.

This bill is all about protecting people and businesses who openly commit federal crimes by selling marijuana, and rewarding them by giving them access to the most important banking system in the world to further give them the patina of legitimacy.

And at the same time the House is considering this bill, the data on the impact of the legalization experiment across the country is proving just what a dangerous and bad idea legalization has become.

………………..

Why Giving Pot Pushers Access to Banks Is Dangerous

The act would ostensibly allow businesses selling marijuana in compliance with state law to take advantage of the federal banking system.

Right now, they cannot, because, by opening up accounts, the businesses and the banks would violate the federal statutes outlawing the distribution of controlled substances as well as the federal anti-money laundering statutes.

And since federal law currently prohibits pot pushers from accessing the banking system, these businesses are primarily all-cash businesses. Many use armed security guards to safeguard their drug money because they are often located in seedy parts of town where they get burglarized.

So pot vendors want to be able to deposit their cash and let purchasers use credit cards. They want to use our banking system, just like Nike, Starbucks, or Walmart do. Of course the difference is, the latter three companies sell legal products; pot pushers don’t.

……………..

Substitute the word heroin, meth, or LSD with marijuana, and ask yourself this: Do you support allowing distributors of those drugs to have access to our banking system? If not, why not? They, too, are Schedule I controlled substances.

………….

Plus, illegal drugs, including marijuana, fund transnational cartels, gangs, and terrorist organizations. [read more]

Yea, that law is a dumb idea. Hope it doesn’t pass Congress.

These Gut Bacteria Brew Their Own Booze, and May Harm Livers in People Who Don't Drink

From Live Science.com (Sept. 19):

It's common knowledge that drinking too much alcohol can lay waste to your liver. But now, researchers have spotted a strain of gut bacteria that produces its own booze in copious amounts — high enough to potentially pose a risk of liver problems in people who don't drink at all.

Although much more research is needed to confirm the results, they suggest that these boozy bacteria may contribute to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition in which fat builds up in the liver for reasons unrelated to alcohol consumption.

The researchers first stumbled upon this unusual microbe while they were studying a patient with a curious condition: The patient had so-called auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), an extremely rare condition that leaves people drunk after eating sugary food. In the week before he sought medical care, the unfortunate patient became inebriated each time he consumed a carbohydrate-rich meal and his blood-alcohol concentration had occasionally spiked to potentially lethal levels, around 0.4%. He was even suspected to be a "closet drinker" by his friends, according to the new study, published today (Sept. 19) in the journal Cell Metabolism.

ABS has been linked to yeast infections, wherein the fungus ferments alcohol in the intestines just as it brews beer in barrels; but in this case, yeast wasn't the culprit. [read more]

Peter Schweizer: Biden Ukraine dealings – 7 essential facts

From Fox News.com (Sept. 24):

Editor’s note: Peter Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute spent three years investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter and their dealings in the Ukraine and China. The research culminated in the #1 New York Times bestselling book “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends” (Harper Collins, March 2018). Below are some of the results of the investigation.

1. Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma in April 2014, according to RSB bank records. Hunter Biden had little background in energy. Over a 16-month period, Burisma paid $3.1 million to a bank account associated with Hunter’s business.

2. Joe Biden led the Obama administration’s policy toward Ukraine when he served as vice president. Biden helped shape Ukraine’s energy and anti-corruption policies, issues that directly impact Burisma.

3. Burisma sought to capitalize Hunter Biden’s name and relationships. According to The New York Times, Hunter Biden helped assemble the company’s legal team, which consisted of American attorneys and consulting firms, including a former Obama Justice Department official.

4. Burisma is led by an oligarch named Mykola Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky served as ecology minister under pro-Russia former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich, leading to allegations that he used his office to benefit Burisma.

5. Burisma was under legal scrutiny. Shortly before Hunter Biden was appointed to Burisma’s board, British authorities froze $23 million of Zlochevsky’s assets as part of a corruption investigation. Ukraine opened its own probe later that year.

6. Financial records from Morgan Stanley show numerous lines of money going into the account of “Robert H. Biden.” The funds originated from oligarchs and anonymous LLCs in Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan and elsewhere.

7. In 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew aboard Air Force Two to China. Ten days later, Hunter Biden’s firm scored a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China.  [source]

Something smells in Ukraine.

The Western Outside Rider Analogy

President Trump is like the outsider cowboy in the western who rides into a corrupt town and tries to bring order to the town then rides away when his work is done. In the process of bringing order to the town, the outsider encounters resistance from the corrupt establishment while the everyday townspeople cheer for the outsider. This process of bringing order to the town is the stage where the President is now.

James Carafano: China bears watching — even at the UN

From Fox News.com (Sept. 23):

Turtle Bay is awash with heads of state this week. They’ve come to New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are among those in attendance, and they come with an agenda of their own. Item 1 for the Americans is to remind world leaders — in subtle and not-so-subtle ways — that Beijing is up to no good.

China is bad on many levels. And Trump will call attention to one facet of their badness that gets too little attention: the fact that the world’s leading persecutors of the Islamic religion reside in Beijing.

While many of the world’s dignitaries sat in the General Assembly to pontificate sanctimoniously about the climate, Trump chaired a roll-up-your-sleeves side session to explore ways to combat the global assault on religious liberty.

It was an opportunity to turn the spotlight on China’s abuses of Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim, Turkic group found in about a dozen countries.  [read more]

Yea, China cannot be trusted.

Other stories on China:

• Satellite images reveal China is destroying Muslim graveyards…
• 70th Anniversary of Communist China a Dark Day for Mankind
• China’s War on the Bible
• China fines church for owning ‘wrong’ version of the Bible
• Pro-China App Can Spy on 100M Users' Data
• Weapons Displayed at China’s Military Parade Should Be a Wake-Up Call to US
• Uighur woman tells of life and death in Chinese gulag
• China Is Attempting to Control What Americans Think
• Survivors and victims on shocking state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China
• Why and How the U.S. Should Stop Financing China’s Bad Actors
• BreakPoint: Exposing China’s Cultural Genocide
• Sources: China Hacked US Manufacturing Group as Trade Talks Intensified
• China Poised to Benefit If Ukraine’s Western Relationships Fray
• Two People In China Have The Plague
• China exploiting U.S. schools to steal research, Senate report finds
• Chinese Communists Infiltrate British Universities, Confiscating Papers and Cancelling Events

Google's "Quantum Supremacy" To Render All Cryptocurrency & Military Secrets Breakable

From Zero Hedge.com (Sept. 22):

The 53-qubit quantum computer can break any 53-bit cryptography in seconds, meaning Bitcoin’s 256-bit encryption is vulnerable once Google scales its quantum computing to 256 qubits, something their own scientists say will be possible by 2022.

Modern military cryptography will also eventually be rendered obsolete given that the number of qubits in Google’s quantum computers will double at least every year, according to the report, growing at “double exponential rate,” which is even faster than Moore’s Law.

At this rate, Google will be able to break all military encryption by 2024, a frightening prospect given the company’s close ties to China. [read more]

I hope Google doesn’t give that technology away to China. That would be bad.

Other stories on quantum computers:

• Explainer: Google Hails ‘Quantum Supremacy’, But Don’t Chuck Out Your PC Just Yet
• WHAT HAPPENS IF CHINA ACHIEVES QUANTUM SUPREMACY?
• Quantum Computer Made from Photons Achieves a New Record

Police test 'Spider-Man' device as alternative to Taser

From Reuters.com (Sept. 17):

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With 49 people killed last year after being shocked by Tasers, police departments across the United States are trying out a “Spider-Man”-like device that fires a tether that entangles and restrains the suspect.

Called Bolawrap, the device fires an eight-foot (2.4 meters) bola-style tether at a suspect to entangle his legs and prevent him from getting away. It works at a range of 10-25 ft (3-7.6 meters).

“Whether it is a Taser, pepper spray, baton ... there’s been this gap created by the courts requiring that a higher level of force be used at the appropriate time,” said Tom Smith, president of Wrap Industries, which manufactures the Bolawrap device.

“This tool fits perfectly into that gap giving the officers another option to use before having to use that high level of force to end that conversation very early, very safely,” he said.

…………

The Bolawrap is a little bit larger than a cell phone and designed to fit easily onto a police belt. The synthetic fiber tether exits the device at about 640 feet (about 200 meters) per second “And that is... you won’t see it,” Smith said. [read more]

No American Company Can Produce 5G Tech. We’d Better Fix That, Fast

From Daily Caller.com (Sept. 16):

In journalistic parlance, a “buried lede” is a news item that should be of primary importance, but somehow is made secondary. And so on September 10, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman buried the lede.

Friedman’s topic was a puffy interview with Ren Zhengfei, the founder and CEO of Huawei, the mammoth Chinese tech company. And okay, it was interesting to see Friedman give space to Ren, so that the Chinese executive could broadcast his government’s latest negotiating point in the worldwide struggle over 5G technology.

5G is, after all, supremely important; no one needs to be reminded that the Internet and its many parts are now central to everything — including military power. In the words of the Nikkei Asian Review, “5G networks, which transmit huge amounts of data, can be likened to artillery. And having them controlled by China could vastly boost that country’s political and military influence.” [emphasis added]

Given the centrality of 5G, it was notable that Friedman dropped the most important words — what should have been the lede — in a near-throwaway dependent clause: “And if the United States — which has no indigenous 5G networking manufacturer…”

There! That’s the buried lede: The U.S. can’t make its own strategic materiel.

According to Reuters, the leading players in 5G technology are the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, followed by two European firms, Ericsson and Nokia. Way back in the pack is an American company, Qualcomm. [read more]

Yea, America can’t let China be the first to produce 5G.

Another article about 5G: 5G is finally here – but is it safe?