Saturday, July 06, 2024

The Top 5 (July 6)

* "Were the Founders Deist? Here’s One Sure-Fire Piece of Evidence Against That Idea" (Tyler O'Neil, Daily Signal)

From the article -- Although some of America’s Founding Fathers were deists, rather than Christians, the United States owes a debt of gratitude to a Judeo-Christian moral framework that goes beyond mere deism—and the proof is in the Declaration of Independence itself. Deism refers to the belief that God created the world and endowed human beings with reason, but after that, he left the world alone to develop naturally. Deists prefer a largely absent God who just set things in motion and then stands back, hoping everyone has a good time.

The Declaration of Independence does not envision such a God, and the document could not have formed the cornerstone of the American Revolution without a firm declaration that God—not government—is the foundation of just rule.

* "1 In 5 Auto Accident Deaths Now Involves Marijuana Use" (Jefferey H. Anderson, Federalist)

From the article -- A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health — and conducted by scholars at Boston Medical Center, Boston University, and the University of Victoria — found that the percentage of car crash deaths in America that involved marijuana has skyrocketed since 2000. The percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis alone rose from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 11.2 percent in 2018. Over that same span, the percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis and alcohol together rose from 4.8 to 10.3 percent. So the total percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis, either with or without alcohol, rose from 9.0 percent in 2000 to 21.5 percent in 2018 — to more than a fifth of all car crash deaths in America.

Monitoring the Future, a survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, finds that the percentage of those ages 19 to 30 who use marijuana on a daily basis rose from 3.8 percent in 2000 to 7.8 percent in 2018 — more than doubling. That closely tracks the rise in car crash deaths involving marijuana over that period. 

Those numbers, however, are only through 2018. From 2019 to 2022, deaths from drunk-driver car crashes rose a whopping 33 percent — from 10,142 in 2019 to 13,524 in 2022 (the most recent statistics available), according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Deaths from stoned driver car crashes likely increased even more, given that, unlike alcohol use (which hasn’t changed much), pot use has risen greatly over the past few years.

* "The devastating case against vaccine-pusher Pfizer" (Neville Hodgkinson, The Conservative Woman)

From the article -- WILL our world eventually realise the extent of the covid con trick to which we have been subjected over the past four years? While most UK authorities, including the mainstream media, are still maintaining silence on the disaster, the American legal system seems poised to break omerta around the issue.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and another three of the state’s top legal officials have announced a lawsuit against Pfizer alleging misleading claims related to its covid vaccine. ‘Pfizer made multiple misleading statements to deceive the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth,’ Kobach said. A similar action by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton remains pending, and several other states are becoming involved.

Pfizer says the lawsuits have no merit, and that its representations about the vaccine have been ‘accurate and science-based’. However, according to Dr Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-based Medicine at Oxford University, the charge sheet against Pfizer, with the main points outlined here, is ‘devastating’.

* "The Diminishing Likelihood of a Fair Election" (Brian T. Kennedy, The American Mind)

From the article -- Regardless of who the nominees are in 2024, just as in 2020, much of America will hold their elections in the least transparent, most vulnerable method possible: absentee ballots. Because of this, a free and fair election cannot be assured. It matters not that President Trump is ahead in all the polls and in ways that some pollsters believe cannot be overcome. Citizens should expect that, since America is in a war with Communist China, November’s election will be the target of a massive intelligence operation to decide the next president.

It should be noted that America’s election system was not built to stop the Communist Chinese or any nation state, or for that matter any dark money group, with the capacity and the interest in deciding an American presidential election.

The United States is made vulnerable by being the only developed country in the world to allow for this wide-spread use of absentee ballots. Every other advanced democracy conducts their elections in person, with identification shown, on paper ballots counted by large groups of people transparently tallying vote totals with the results available the same day of the election. In states around America, Secretaries of State have allowed or been part of the development of elections systems that would appear to be designed to allow for fraud. So whether not an election is stolen, a free and fair election system has been stolen from the American people. 

* "Cowboy Role Models" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- Mamas, you can go ahead and let your babies grow up to be cowboys…if, that is, they grow up following cowboy codes like the ones you’ll find below.

My sermon yesterday at Wellspring Church down in Papillion was entitled, “Let's Talk About Role Models” with the foundational text being 1 Corinthians 11: 1,2. And I introduced it with a story my Mom used to tell about me as a very young boy (before I could even read) asking her to give me my own Bible. The reason? I had just finished watching a TV episode of The Lone Ranger in which he solved a mystery by being remarkably familiar with a Scripture passage. And since one of my favorite heroes knew the Bible so well, I figured I’d do well to follow his example.

That’s a key difference between a mere hero and a role model. For the former can be “admired from afar” but the role model presents enough moral strength to influence a person’s behavior, priorities, even character. And don’t think those cinematic cowboys (and their producers, scriptwriters, and advertisers) weren’t well aware of how influential they could be. Indeed, back in the day, that influence was considered as something to be invested for a child’s good…and thus, the good of the culture.

Examples? Well, check out the following lists that I offered to church goers after the service. They are terrific moral codes that come from my 3 favorite cowboys.

Friday, July 05, 2024

Intelligent Design Creates the “Ultimate Skepticism”

Speaking of the Intelligent Design movement and the resulting cracks in the “great wall” of evolution, America’s most compelling novelist, the late Tom Wolfe writes...

“This, science’s Ultimate Skepticism, has been spreading ever since then. Over the past two years even Darwinism, a sacred tenet among American scientists for the past seventy years, has been beset by doubts. Scientists -- not religiosi -- notably the mathematician David Berlinski (‘The Deniable Darwin,’ Commentary, June 1996) and the biochemist Michael Behe (Darwin’s Black Box, 1996), have begun attacking Darwinism as a mere theory, not a scientific discovery, a theory woefully unsupported by fossil evidence and featuring, at the core of its logic, sheer mush.

Dennett and Dawkins, for whom Darwin is the Only Begotten, the Messiah, are already screaming. They’re beside themselves, utterly apoplectic. Wilson, the giant, keeping his cool, has remained above the battle.” (Tom Wolfe, “Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died,” first published in Orthodoxy Today, 1996)

Monday, July 01, 2024

Cowboy Role Models

Mamas, you can go ahead and let your babies grow up to be cowboys…if, that is, they grow up following cowboy codes like the ones you’ll find below.

My sermon yesterday at Wellspring Church down in Papillion was entitled, “Let's Talk About Role Models” with the foundational text being 1 Corinthians 11: 1,2. And I introduced it with a story my Mom used to tell about me as a very young boy (before I could even read) asking her to give me my own Bible. The reason? I had just finished watching a TV episode of The Lone Ranger in which he solved a mystery by being remarkably familiar with a Scripture passage. And since one of my favorite heroes knew the Bible so well, I figured I’d do well to follow his example.

That’s a key difference between a mere hero and a role model. For the former can be “admired from afar” but the role model presents enough moral strength to influence a person’s behavior, priorities, even character.

And don’t think those cinematic cowboys (and their producers, scriptwriters, and advertisers) weren’t well aware of how influential they could be. Indeed, back in the day, that influence was considered as something to be invested for a child’s good…and thus, the good of the culture.

Examples? Well, check out the following lists that I offered to church goers after the service. They are terrific moral codes that come from my 3 favorite cowboys.

“Ten Guidelines for Life” from Hopalong Cassidy

1) The highest badge of honor a person can wear is honesty. Be truthful at all times.

2) Your parents are the best friends you have. Listen to them and obey their instructions.

3) If you want to be respected, you must respect others. Show good manners in every way.

4) Only through hard work and study can you succeed. Don’t be lazy.

5) Your good deeds always come to light. So don’t boast or be a show-off.

6) If you waste time or money today, you will regret it tomorrow. Practice thrift in all ways.

7) Many animals are good and loyal companions. Be friendly and kind to them.

8) A strong, healthy body is a precious gift. Be neat and clean.

9) Our country’s laws are made for your protection. Observe them carefully.

10) Children in many foreign lands are less fortunate than you.

Be glad and proud you are an American.

Roy Rogers’ Rules (for a Life Well-Lived)

1) Be neat and clean

2) Be courteous and polite.

3) Always obey your parents.

4) Protect the weak and help them.

5) Be brave but never take chances.

6) Study hard and learn all you can.

7) Be kind to animals

and take care of them.

8) Eat all your food

and never waste any.

9) Love God and go to Sunday School regularly.

10) Always respect our flag and our country.

The Lone Ranger Creed

1) I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.

2) That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.

3) That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.

4) In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.

5) That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.

6) That “this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people” shall live always.

7) That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.

8) That sooner or later – somewhere – somehow – we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

9) That all things change, but the truth, and the truth alone, lives on forever.

10) I believe in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.