Friday, October 30, 2020
Glenn Greenwald Resigns From The Intercept
“‘[T]he brute censorship this week of my article — about the Hunter Biden materials and Joe Biden’s conduct regarding Ukraine and China, as well my critique of the media’s rank-closing attempt, in a deeply unholy union with Silicon Valley and the ‘intelligence community,’ to suppress its revelations — eroded the last justification I could cling to for staying.’
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/prufrock/glenn-greenwald-resigns-from-the-intercept/
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Zanzibar
During the 18th and 19th centuries, it also became a center of the slave trade, but that trading was curtailed in the region when Britain proclaimed a protectorate over Zanzibar in 1890.
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Monday, October 26, 2020
Op-Ed: Think religion makes society less violent? Think again.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1101-zuckerman-violence-secularism-20151101-story.html
I was especially
intrigued by the op-ed
piece in the LA Times by a sociologist who claims he can prove that religion
is useless when it comes to securing a good quality of life. I am not going to
take the trouble to rebut every single point, but it is easy to prove that at least
some of what he is saying is not true—just by checking up on his alleged “facts.”
For example, he claims that secular countries like Sweden have lower crime rates
than more religious countries. But the US is clearly more religious than Sweden,
and if you look at the data,
the crime rate is far higher in Sweden than it is in the US. (Sweden had the second
highest crime rate among the countries surveyed at 138.35 crimes per 1,000
people and the US ranked 22nd at only 41.29 crimes per person.)
It is also not clear what the writer means by “religion.” People like Washington and Jefferson defined religion as a fear of God that causes people to not harm others and to not act irresponsibly for fear that God will punish them. But the countries and states that the author uses as examples of being religious don’t fit this description. For example, the author uses Mexico as an example of a religious country—presumably because of its Catholic history. But Mexico has one of the highest out of wedlock birth rates in the world, even though the Catholic Church teaches that having sex outside of marriage is a mortal sin (a sin that if not confessed will lead to eternal punishment in hell). So, based on that, I would say that there is not a whole lot of fear of God going on there. One can say the same thing about Mississippi, a state that the author holds up as one of the most religious states in the US, but has the flat-out highest out of wedlock birth rate of all the states in the U.S.
Come to think of it, could that be why there’s so much crime
in Mexico and Mississippi?
Out of wedlock birth rates--Mexico etc.
In 11 OECD countries (Chile, Denmark, Estonia, France, Iceland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden) more than 50% of children are born outside of marriage, with rates particularly high in Mexico (69%), Iceland (71%), and Chile (74%).
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Friday, October 23, 2020
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Why Milton matters
Tony Esolen shared on facebook with these comments:
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Monday, October 19, 2020
Henry Adams--Disappearance of Gold and Silver
"Except for the railway system, the enormous wealth taken out of the ground since 1840, had disappeared" (EOHA, 313)
Where did it go?
Financing the Civil War
The American Civil War cost the federal government more than $3 billion, and much of the money was raised from the sale of Union bonds. As well as relying on ordinary Americans to finance the war, a lot of investment came from overseas, as US securities became a global commodity during that era.
...
By the Reconstruction period a new financial order was emerging. In October 1868, Hunt’s Merchant Magazine proclaimed that $700 million in US securities was foreign owned. A year later, this number had climbed to $1 billion and nearly half of US debt was owned abroad. The spread of such sales abroad reveals, among other things, the emergence of the German economy centered in Frankfurt.
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Should Christians Apologize for the Crusades?
The First Crusade, for example, was begun after the Byzantine Emperor requested that Pope Urban II send help in fighting Muslim invaders who had taken much of his territory in the Levant and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The request came in 1095 and in 1096 a powerful force was put together with the purpose of winning back access to holy sites and reuniting the recently split elements of Christendom. The result was re-conquest of territory stretching from Anatolia all the way to Jerusalem.
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Neerja Bhanot
Neerja Bhanot was the Senior Flight attendant on the infamous Pan Am Flight 73 of 1986. The plane was scheduled to fly from Mumbai to the United States. Before takeoff four hijackers boarded the plane at Karachi airport in Pakistan and held 380 passengers and 13 crew members hostage at gun point in a 17 hour stand off.
Friday, October 16, 2020
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Monday, October 12, 2020
Robert E Lee and Secession
The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom & forbearance in its formation & surrounded it with so many guards & securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the confederacy at will. It was intended for pepetual [sic] union, so expressed in the preamble, & for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution or the consent of all the people in convention assembled.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Called Pietro's Bakery & Café, it's at 11625 Custer Rd.
https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/10-02-20-pietros-cafe-bakery-frisco-italian/
Prophecy--Wealth of Nations
6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2061%3A6&version=KJV
5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2060%3A5&version=KJV
Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/60-5.htm
"Your gates will be open continually; They will not be closed day or night, So that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, With their kings led in procession.
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/60-11.htm
Isaiah 60:5,11 and 61:6
Haggai
I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will come in.
'I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD of hosts.
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Friday, October 9, 2020
What We Know About Breonna Taylor’s Case and Death
Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been in bed, but got up when they heard a loud banging at the door. Mr. Walker said he and Ms. Taylor both called out, asking who was at the door. Mr. Walker later told the police he feared it was Ms. Taylor’s ex-boyfriend trying to break in.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Lithium
"One of the side effects of lithium mining is water pollution: the process of mining can affect local water supplies, potentially poisoning communities. Yet chemical leakage is also a major concern when it comes to lithium mining. The lithium carbonate extraction process harms the soil, and can cause air pollution.Jun 17, 2019"
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=334351657791175&set=a.142066023686407
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Monday, October 5, 2020
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Trump says he doesn't know who Proud Boys are after telling them to "stand by"
What Trump actually said is the Proud boys need to stand back and let law enforcement do the work
https://www.axios.com/trump-proud-boys-debate-stand-by-b47cdf10-35e0-4fc7-ac1a-5deeef325252.html
Trump to police: 'Please don't be too nice' to suspects
"When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head you know, the way you put their hand over [their head]," Trump continued, mimicking the motion. "Like, 'Don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head.' I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-police-nice-suspects/story?id=48914504
Trump: ‘Knock the Crap Out’ of Protesters, I'll Pay Legal Fees
Donald Trump encouraged supporters to rough up potential protesters Monday at his final pre-Iowa caucus rally. "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them," Trump said after warning of possible rabble-rousers. "I'll pay the legal fees," he added.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/02/01/trump-i-ll-pay-for-protester-beatings
Saturday, October 3, 2020
How to Bale Hay
Since you don’t want to start baling until early afternoon when the dew has evaporated, this means there is going to be a lot of hay dust in the air at all times. Until about a decade ago, you didn’t see that many cabbed tractors equipped with air conditioning.
Grown Here at Home: The dangers of baling hay and how to stay safe
“In the past I've needed to get off and look at my equipment, I would leave the baler engaged and tractor running and come back and look at the baler and see if it was tying and if the bales were the right weight that I wanted. But since this incident in Giles County happened, that's a thing of the past with me. I disengage my baler and let it stop before I get off the tractor and check the equipment,” Mack explained.