April 22, 2019

Pope allows Muslims to desecrate Vatican

Timothy Birdnow

Yet again Pope Francis intimates he is the False Prophet or at least someone hell bent on destroying Christendom.

Yes, Francis actually did allow Muslims to say Islamic prayers and read the Koran in the Vatican.

We are in a state of emergency, at least as far as Christianity is concerned and especially as far as Catholicism. Islam is rising fast and hard, and the Muslims fully plan to Islamize the world, or at least impose Sharia on us. Everywhere Sharia is imposed terrible acts of oppression follow. There are no majority Muslim countries that are free. Meanwhile, in the West Christianity's stock has dropped to the assaults of atheism and agnosticism, or the growth of paganism. More than ever, the world needs a strong christian leader to pull us from the precipice. But we've got Frankie; a "woke" neo-marxist who is more concerned with "social justice' than in saving souls and keeping people out of Hell. He is the exact wrong man for the job.

Since God chooses the Pope, we must assume He is punishing a wicked Mankind by giving us this wimpy internationalist, accomodationist Pontiff.

So, Muslim prayers were heard in the Vatican at the Pope's request. How long before those same prayers are heard there to the exclusion of Christian ones?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 223 words, total size 2 kb.

April 20, 2019

Cartels using Facebook to Recruit Illegal Aliens

Timothy Birdnow

Well, now we know!

One of the big questions about the influx of illegal aliens was how was this thing being organized? How were so many of these "refugees" being recruited to come here? They had to be recruited, because this sort of thing does not occur spontaneously, and there has been no sudden change in conditions in the home countries to justify the huge expansion of aliens trying to violate American sovereignty. So how have these people been recruited?

Sara Carter gives us the answer; Facebook:

Upon first glance, postings on a Facebook "buy and sell” classified page in Central America appear as innocuous travel listings for trips from Guatemala to the United States. In fact, they are anything but innocuous.

These postings are operated by criminal human trafficking organizations, according to multiple sources who spoke to SaraACarter.com. Smuggling organizations use the social media platform to lure potential migrants, promising security, ‘special rates’ for those traveling with minor children and ‘financing’ to make the roughly 1,500 mile trek from Guatemala to the U.S. Mexico border.


Guatemalan officials noted that Facebook – as well as other major social media platforms – are used by traffickers to coordinate and reach larger groups of potential migrants.

Guatemalan authorities assured SaraACarter.com that they are working closely with U.S. counterparts. One senior Guatemalan official said , "social media presents a real challenge, since monitoring is out of the question due to respect for citizens privacy, and smugglers and organized crime are taking advantage of the social media platforms and privacy settings.”

Strange; Facebook has shadow banned or otherwise suppressed conservative postings on a regular basis. I recently found comments I had made had disappeared from our social media overlord. But Facebook finds postings made by people openly trying to break the law to be sacred.

Let me offer another point to ponder; if these people coming on these caravans and whatnot are so desperate and poor, how is it that they are being solicited on Facebook, a computer website? Shouldn't these people be too poor to afford computers?

Silly me.

At any rate Sara Carter asked Facebook, who did their usual equivocation and waffling:

more...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:32 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 631 words, total size 5 kb.

College Prof tries to Burn Down St. Patricks

Timothy Birdnow

Selwyn Duke details an incident where a college professor just tried to torch St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Fro the New American:

"Marc Lamparello, 37, of New Jersey, entered the historic Midtown church about 8 p.m. [Wednesday] with the flammable paraphernalia, but was quickly intercepted by church security, law enforcement sources said,” reports the New York Post. "He turned around, but spilled some gas in the process, prompting the guards to alert counter-terrorism cops stationed outside the church.”

The paper continued, "When questioned, Lamparello claimed he was simply cutting through the church to get to Madison Avenue because his van, which was parked outside on Fifth Avenue, ran out of gas, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said at a press conference outside St. Pat’s Wednesday night.”

Of course, this claim is problematic when your vehicle isn’t actually out of fuel, which Lamparello’s mini-van wasn’t. Moreover, his "‘answers were inconsistent and evasive, although he remained conversational with them [the authorities] and cooperative,’ Miller said,” the Post further reports.

So, dim Lamparello tried to copycat what has been declared by authorities an accident (in Paris). This was as inevitable as the Sun rising; it worked beautifully on Notre Dame, even if it wasn't terrorism. It gave everyone a roadmap.

Selwyn continues: more...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:03 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 923 words, total size 7 kb.

AP Just Discovers Notre Dame is a Church

Timothy Birdnow

The Associated Press just discovered that Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is a place of worship and not just a tourist trap.
https://www.apnews.com/f309ea14c9b346acb1d3b72c2564c56b?fbclid=IwAR1q4Do7OdgzESqdO7sPOJXK1Pk85pw37wNLdbMUP6Q8JWuI6gaAV-gyHrY

It's little wonder we can't resist Islam in the West, with people this thick providing us with "news". There was every reason for Moslems to attack Notre Dame, but I doubt any in the media can even begin to understand why.

Hat tip: Warner Todd Houston

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:16 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

April 19, 2019

How the Democrats are destroying their party

Dana Mathewson

Clear-headed analysis by a Democrat! Well, he may not be an active Democrat these days, but Mark Penn certainly was one -- indeed, he worked for Bill Clinton in the days of the Monica Lewinsky "business" and knows first-hand what kind of pressure an investigation can cause. He is worth listening to, especially since he is calm and cool-headed here.

The walls were not coming down. They were not closing in.There was, at the end of the day, no evidence whatsoever of any collusion — and there was nothing but a president frustrated at being wrongly accused and wrongly investigated over a very effective hoax.

Most people don’t understand what it is to not only to be personally investigated for something you didn’t do but to have your friends, family members and associates placed in legal jeopardy over it. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team systematically targeted the people around the president, squeezing them like lemons, indicting them on mostly process crimes created by the investigation itself. They reviewed everyone’s emails, text messages, phone calls, bank statements — and yet, their conclusion on collusion was clear and definitive. It has to be believed.
I was there working with President Clinton in 1998 when he pondered whether to send missiles against Osama bin Laden but was concerned it would be viewed as "wagging the dog.” We missed bin Laden that day. It was symbolic of how everything in the White House was affected by the Monica Lewinsky investigation; it changed everything we did. And, yes, there was a good bit of cursing then, too.

The big difference between today and what happened in 1998 or during the Nixon era is that, at the end of the day, the Mueller investigators found no stained dress, no break-in, no hush money, no enemies list. There never was a crime, and what seemed far-fetched was simply that — this time, a duly elected president was investigated for a crime that never even existed. In fact, evidence is mounting that the investigation itself was launched on phony grounds.

And so, the screaming partisan antics of Democrats in the House are likely to set the Democratic Party back a decade if they do not get a grip on themselves. In partisan unison, with scripted talking points, they keep calling everyone else "partisan.” It simply does not pass the laugh test at this point.

But the problem is that Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) are congressmen from safe districts who are nobodies if they have no investigations to launch. It’s in the interest of their egos to keep it all going so that they can have daily press availabilities. And they are whipping up their political bases. It will take some Democrats of courage to turn this off and stop the abuse of going after the president’s financial records. These are the kinds of things Nixon was doing, and there is no justification for those in Congress to be doing exactly those things for which Nixon resigned from office — going after his political enemies.

I love his characterization of Schiff and Nadler!

This article is quoted from The Hill, here: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/439691-mueller-done-dems-should-be-too-trump-is-no-nixon  However, I lifted it from Urgent Agenda, here: http://www.urgentagenda.com/PERMALINKS%20IX/APRIL%202019/19.DEMS.HTML  which is worth reading for proprietor William Katz's comments.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:00 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 553 words, total size 4 kb.

The Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ

The Gospel according to Luke

1 Now the feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was drawing near, 2 and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to put him to death, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered into Judas, the one surnamed Iscariot, who was counted among the Twelve, 4 and he went to the chief priests and temple guards to discuss a plan for handing him over to them. 5 They were pleased and agreed to pay him money. 6 He accepted their offer and sought a favorable opportunity to hand him over to them in the absence of a crowd.

Preparations for the Passover. 7 When the day of the feast of Unleavened Bread arrived, the day for sacrificing the Passover lamb, 8 he sent out Peter and John, instructing them, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 They asked him, "Where do you want us to make the preparations?” 10 And he answered them, "When you go into the city, a man will meet you carrying a jar of water.[d] Follow him into the house that he enters 11 and say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 12 He will show you a large upper room that is furnished. Make the preparations there.” 13 Then they went off and found everything exactly as he had told them, and there they prepared the Passover. more...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:22 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 2604 words, total size 14 kb.

Scientists Discover Poor Neighborhoods look Poor

Timothy Birdnow

In an example of the study syndrome, where egghead researchers spend big bucks to discover what anybody with a lick of sense already knows, researchers have uncovered evidence that extternal imagery from neighborhoods in cities can tell them about economic inequality. In other words, poor neighborhoods look poorer than rich ones!

https://techxplore.com/news/2019-04-inequalities-uk-deep-image-analysis.html

These visual signals include building materials and disrepair, cars, or local shops. Combined with government statistics on outcomes such as housing conditions, mean income, or mortality and morbidity rates for one city, images may be used to train a computer programme to detect inequalities in other cities that lack statistical data.

The authors found that their computer programme was most successful at recognizing differences in quality of the living environment and mean income.

'Measuring social, environmental and health inequalities using deep learning and street imagery' by E.Suel et al is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Who'da guessed? I guess you need a computer to learn this kind of stuff.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:04 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 170 words, total size 1 kb.

Slacker Stress

Timothy Birdnow

In our era of unprecedented peace and plenty, in a world of undreamed-of wealth and pleasure, in a time when people work less, own more, and don't have to worry so much about disease or hard-scrabble living, college students are suffering an anxiety epidemic.

The snowflake effect is in full force.

According to the article:

The percentage of all students nationally who reported being diagnosed with or treated for anxiety disorder climbed from 10 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2018, according to the findings by a research team led by Richard Scheffler, a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy and School of Public Health.

Rates of anxiety disorder grew at higher rates for students who identified as transgender, Latinx and black, and they increased the closer all students got to graduation.
more...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1019 words, total size 7 kb.

Barr Press Conference: No Obstruction on the Facts of the Case

Dana Mathewson

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or anywhere else. But I must admit I am happy when a real one, such as Andrew McCarthy, clarifies things that, well, need clarifying, as he does here.

Since Attorney General William Barr released a redacted version of the Mueller Report, and even before -- when he gave his press conference prior to doing so, he released some information that may have been a bit confusing to those of us who lack a legal education. And it sure exploded a number of heads of Congressional Democrats, though as we know, it doesn't take a lot to make THAT happen. I'm referring to his reference to possible acts of obstruction of justice.

Here, the great Andrew McCarthy clarifies things.
The most interesting new disclosure to come out of Attorney General William Barr’s press conference on the Mueller report was about obstruction of justice.

As I pointed out in a Fox News column this morning, the obstruction issue was one of the main reasons why the media-Democrat complex’s caterwauling about Barr’s unremarkable decision to hold a press conference was ludicrous. Special Counsel Mueller declined to render a prosecutorial judgment on whether obstruction charges should be brought against the president. Since it is the attorney general who made the judgment, for that reason alone it was worth hearing from him this morning.

The attorney general stated that the special counsel evaluated ten incidents with an eye toward whether they amounted to an obstruction offense. Barr elaborated that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disagreed with Mueller on whether these incidents even could have amounted to obstruction as a matter of law.

It is important to grasp what that means, and what it doesn’t, because I’ve heard some inaccurate commentary. Barr was not saying that Mueller found one or more of these incidents to constitute obstruction; Mueller was saying that the incidents involved actions that could theoretically have amounted to obstruction.

A concrete example may make this easier to grasp: the firing of FBI director James Comey. Before a prosecutor considered evidence regarding that incident, there would be a preliminary question: Could the president’s dismissal of an FBI director amount to an obstruction offense as a matter of law? If prosecutors were to decide that, even if the evidence showed corrupt intent on the part of the president, a president’s firing of the FBI director cannot constitutionally amount to an obstruction crime, then the prosecutors would not bother to investigate and make an assessment of the evidence.

What Barr is saying is that he and Mueller did not agree, with respect to all ten incidents, on whether the incident could legally amount to obstruction. What the attorney general therefore did was assume, for argument’s sake, that Mueller was correct on the law (i.e., that the incident could theoretically amount to obstruction), and then move on to the second phase of the analysis: Assuming this could be an obstruction offense as a matter of law, could we prove obstruction as a matter of fact? This requires an assessment of whether the evidence of each element of an obstruction offense – most significantly, corrupt intent – could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

It's a two-step process, in other words. First, could the act be a matter of obstruction of justice in the first place? If not, go on to the next one. If it could, only then should it be analyzed to determine if, in this case, it actually WAS an obstruction of justice. And as we'll see in the article found here, https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/william-barr-press-conference-no-obstruction-on-the-facts-of-the-case/  in none of the ten cases was it actually an obstruction of justice.

But of course those loathsome creatures Schiff and Nadler won't accept that. They'll continue to insist that in this pile of stinking dung there just HAS to be a pony somewhere.

And so they'll insist on seeing an unredacted version of the report, even though that's against the law. And if somehow one of their subcommittees gets their hands on such a copy, you can bet your boots there'll be leaks, and information that should never be made public WILL be made public.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 710 words, total size 6 kb.

Skinny Genes

Timothy Birdnow

Researchers have found a gene that keeps people slim. From th U.K. Telegraph:

The research team analysed the genetic profiles of more than half a million volunteers from the UK Biobank.

They found that around six per cent of British people with European ancestry have a particular combination which means they are more likely to avoid putting on weight regardless of their lifestyle.

Published in the journal Cell, the study focused on a gene known as MC4R which was previously identified by the same Cambridge scientists to play a role in appetite by controlling a receptor in the brain called melanocortin 4.

People who had certain variants of MC4R which disrupted this receptor tended to gain weight easily, the study found, while those who had a different combination caused the receptor to stay "switched on”, enjoying the opposite effect.

Participants with these variants would eat less, which probably explaining their lower weight.

The team found that people with two copies of these particular variants - one in over 1,000 people in the UK - were on average 2.5 kg lighter than people without the variants and had a 50 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Professors Sadaf Farooqi, who co-led the project, said: "This study drives home the fact that genetics plays a major role in why some people are obese - and that some people are fortunate enough to have genes that protect them from obesity.

Maybe Rashida Tlaib might want to consider this rather than going on an extreme, political diet.

At any rate, if scientists could find a way to mimic this gene with drugs, we may have a tool for losing weight other than starvation or dangerous surgical proceedures.

Don't hold your breath, though; such "weight loss pills" are probably a long, long way off. But it's nice to know that help may be on the way for those of us who suffer from chest-of-drawer syndrome (our chests have sagged right into our drawwrs).

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 337 words, total size 2 kb.

Tlaib threatens Diet, er, Hunger Strike

Timothy Birdnow

Muslim Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is threatening a hunger strike until ICE is abolished.

If she wants to go on a diet that is her business. I'm not sure how this is a national news story.

From the Federalist Papers article:

In addition, her office is NOT denying that Tlaib might soon launch a hunger strike of her own to protest ICE. Apparently, that option could soon be on the table for the controversial Michigan Democrat.

From The Daily Caller:

A spokesman for Tlaib did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation when asked if the congresswoman is planning to engage in a hunger strike, but denied that Tlaib called for supporters to launch one of their own.

"She did not call for a hunger strike,” Tlaib’s office told TheDCNF. "‘She mentioned that she knows of folks who have done hunger strikes. After that, she mentioned folks going to the southern border which she said she plans to do.”

So, hungry hungry hippo might cut back on the Halal cart food. Fine. In fact, I praise her efforts and suggest she follow her "strike" to its' inevitable conclusion.

That said, I would like to point out that she is calling for open rebellion against the law of the land and the American government:

"I want you all to shut [ICE] down. We can shut them down,” Tlaib said. "Don’t wait for this Congress to act. Shut ’em down.”

Now, a Congresswoman has no business calling for open lawbreaking, and as such she should be subject to severe disciplinary action, up to and including removal from her office.

Here is the oath Tlaib swore when taking office:

"I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Shes seems to be ignoring multiple parts of that oath. But then, in Islamic law one can disregard an oath if something more appealing comes along. Taqqiya means never having to say you're sorry. In fact, it means you can lie with impunity to advance Islam and your own cause. I doubt an oath sworn to infidels means a whole lot to Tlaib.

Happy dieting!

POSTMORTEM, ER, POSTSCRIPT:

Looks like a bunch of Central American scofflaws are taking Tlaib's advice by NOT eating the food the U.S. taxpayers are providing them. Maybe they can get in the habit of not leeching off the ample bosom of Uncle/Auntie Sam (antha), the transgendered teet flowing with milk and honey.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:31 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 474 words, total size 4 kb.

Earth Struck by Interstellar Debris

Timothy Birdnow

Is Earth occasionally hit by meteors from outside the solar system? Here is a paper suggesting that one such meteor has been found.

From the abstract:

Discovery of a Meteor of Interstellar Origin
Authors:Amir Siraj, Abraham Loeb
(Submitted on 15 Apr 2019)

Abstract: The first interstellar object, `Oumuamua, was discovered in the Solar System by Pan-STARRS in 2017, allowing for a calibration of the abundance of interstellar objects of its size [Math Processing Error] m. One would expect a much higher abundance of smaller interstellar objects, with some of them colliding with Earth frequently enough to be noticeable. Based on the CNEOS catalog of bolide events, we identify the [Math Processing Error]m meteor detected at 2014-01-08 17:05:34 UTC as originating from an unbound hyperbolic orbit with an asymptotic speed of [Math Processing Error] outside of the solar system. Its origin is approximately towards R.A. 3h24m and declination [Math Processing Error], implying that its initial velocity vector was [Math Processing Error] away from the velocity of the Local Standard of Rest (LSR). Its high LSR speed implies a possible origin from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy. The local number density of its population is [Math Processing Error] or [Math Processing Error] (necessitating 0.2 - 20 Earth masses of material to be ejected per local star). This discovery enables a new method for studying the composition of interstellar objects, based on spectroscopy of their gaseous debris as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 244 words, total size 2 kb.

Centenary of Alvin Yorks CMH; now THERE was a Man!

Timothy Birdnow

From the Tennessee Secretary of State's Facebook page courtesy of Tim McNabb:

April 18, 1919: 100 years ago today Fentress Co. native and WWI Hero, Corporal Alvin C. York, received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Army’s 82nd Division. York destroyed German machine gun nests and captured 4 German officers and 128 soldiers occupying France.

Here is a brief bio of the famous WWI marksman and Seargant.

From the article:

York's war exploit typified that of the nineteenth century American hero. He appeared larger than life and was most often compared to three peculiarly American icons: Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Abraham Lincoln. Literally growing up in a quasi-frontier existence tucked away in a remote Tennessee backwater unscathed by industrialized America, York was born and raised in a log cabin near the Tennessee-Kentucky border--a region which bore no resemblance to the break-neck bustle of New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles--so York seemed to belong to another more idyllic time. As late as 1917, he hunted squirrel, raccoon, quail, wild boar and deer with a muzzle-loader. York's life caught fire in the American imagination not because of who he was, but what he symbolized: a humble, self-reliant, God-fearing, taciturn patriot who slowly moved to action only when sufficiently provoked and then adamantly refused to capitalize on his fame. Ironically, York also represented a rejection of mechanization and modernization through his dependence upon personal skill. George Pattullo, the Saturday Evening Post reporter who broke the story, focused on the religio-patriotic nature of York's feat. He titled his piece The Second Elder Gives Battle, referring to York's status in his home congregation in Pall Mall, Tennessee.

End excerpt

In fact, York - a one time hard-drinking hell raiser who found solace in a deep Christian faith and tried to avoid military engagement as a consciencious objector - would be the greatest hero of the early twentieth century and one of America's most famous soldiers.

Despite being wooed by Hollywood he returned home to work to better the lot of Tennessee backwoods children.

Alvin York - now there was a man!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 366 words, total size 4 kb.

No Collusion - Get Over It!

Timothy Birdnow

Warner Todd Houston gives us the news:

AG Barr: "The Mueller report shows that Russian agents did NOT have the cooperation of Trump or anyone in his campaign. No other American conspired or coordinated with the Russians to affect the 2016 elections."

-"The special counsel found NO collusion."

He also points out:

Once again the Mueller report shows how liberals (in Congress and the media) lie and how they just blurt out garbage to get a line of attack.

Remember how they were all upset that there would be redactions in the Mueller report and that the redactions made the report worthless? Well, notice that almost NO ONE is using that line now because there weren't many at all. Suddenly that "important point" is ignored as if they never said it.




Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 139 words, total size 1 kb.

Passover

Timothy Birdnow

Passover begins today, and I want to wish my warmest regards to all of our Jewish readers and friends. Here is the story:

The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb[a] for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

17 "Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

24 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 890 words, total size 5 kb.

Backpacks For Life wins second prize in Veteran Small Business Award competition

Jack Kemp

The Streetshares Foundation and the Burt Williams Memorial Veteran Small Business Award competition was decided last evening .

The finalists gave their pitch at Bourbiz at MGM National Harbor Hotel just outside Washington, D.C. - and Backpacks For Life won the second prize of $15,000.

I wrote the following in an email to the co-founders, Brett D'Alessandro and Alexa Modero, this morning.

"Congratulations on all your efforts paying off with getting a pretty good prize and lot of national recognition. I think this second prize you won will lead to some great new contacts with people in America who now know your names and the work you do. Frankly, I believe you will be contacted by people who think Backpacks for Life is the first place winner in their eyes.

Congratulations once again to both of you, Alexa and Brett, on this great national recognition of all the work and planning the achievements you have done."



Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 04:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 170 words, total size 2 kb.

April 18, 2019

Did San Antonio City Council lay an egg with Chick-fil-A ban?

Dana Mathewson

Last month, the San Antonio City Council voted to exclude Chick-fil-A from the city's airport.On Wednesday, the religious freedom law firm First Liberty launched an investigation into the decision, demanding the release of related documents.

District 1 Councilman RobertTreviño led the effort, arguing that "San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior." Councilman Manny Pelaez added, "I want the first thing [a visitor to] see is a San Antonio that is welcoming and that they not see...a symbol of hate."

"What San Antonio government officials did was so blatantly unconstitutional that First Liberty thinks everyone should know what happened and any legal action that can take place should," Keisha Russell, associate council at First Liberty, told PJ Media on Wednesday. She argued that these "public statements are enough to show that they were religiously discriminating against Chick-fil-A. It's so blatant and so brazen."

The decision came shortly after a ThinkProgress article blasting Chick-fil-A for donating to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Paul Anderson home (which Chick-fil-A no longer supports). These Christian organizations stand by the Bible's teaching on sexuality, that sex is only acceptable in marriage and marriage is between one man and one woman. Chick-fil-A used to support Christian nonprofits like the Family Research Council, but stopped doing so after the original controversy in 2012.

Russell presented at least six ways the San Antonio decision was unconstitutional.

The city council engaged in "viewpoint discrimination because the government disagrees with Chick-fil-A's Christian viewpoints." The decision also involved "unequal treatment," since "they're only treating Chick-fil-A this way, and they're not doing it to anyone else."

"It's blatant religious hostility," Russell argued. "The government is supposed to be neutral," but the city council clearly targeted Chick-fil-A for its Christian beliefs. In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), the Supreme Court ruled that this kind of religious hostility violates the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.

The First Liberty lawyer also argued that the San Antonio decision involved "a denial of patronage on the basis of disfavored speech."

Shades of the Obama Administration's practice of picking winners and losers.

Ironically, the city council also engaged in discrimination, the very claim that LGBT activists level against Christian organizations that operate on the basis of their beliefs on sexuality.

"The irony of the whole thing, that the government officials would accuse Chick-fil-A of being a symbol of hate or discriminating, but they don’t discriminate against anyone. It’s the government officials that are really breaking all of these laws," she argued.

"San Antonio city officials are accepting federal grants," Russell noted. "In order to accept federal grants, they have to agree not to discriminate on the basis of religion."

Finally, the First Liberty lawyer argued that the city council "broke its own non-discrimination ordinances."

"There's really no justification here, because Chick-Fil-A serves everybody," Russell noted.

San Antonio must face strong pushback because the government needs to learn this kind of behavior is unacceptable, she argued. "We don't want the government to think that these kinds of actions are legal, and we certainly don't want the American people to think that this is something that they should stand for."

Be nice to see the city get sued till the cows come home... er, the chickens come home to roost!


It appears, however, that not all the City Council members are bigoted louts. Greg Brockhouse, who is running for mayor, filed a motion to reconsider the ban (it was rejected), arguing that "the Chick-fil-A ban symbolizes a rejection of "religious freedom” as he worries about the consequences of the decision in a larger sense."

"When this Council kicked Chick-fil-A out of the Airport we sent a message to our City, the State and the Nation that we do not respect religious freedom. It has hurt our reputation and sent a message that does not reflect San Antonio and its families,” Brockhouse stated. "We had a chance to fix that today and follow the will of our City, who have spoken clearly that the removal of Chick-fil-A was a mistake. This Council again rejected religious freedom and voted against people of faith.”

"We failed our City today and it will hurt our community reputation as people and businesses will now have to consider who is next when it comes to singling out people of faith,” he continued.

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/san-antonio-rejects-bid-chick-fil-a-airport-ban

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 01:31 PM | Comments (608) | Add Comment
Post contains 762 words, total size 7 kb.