19,000 Israeli Kids Physically or Mentally Injured Since October 7th

A new report shows the devastating impact of the war on the children of the Jewish state. 

An alarming new report demonstrates the devastating impact of the Hamas-led terrorist attack of Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza on the children of Israel, including nearly 20,000 physically and mentally injured in hostilities.

From Oct. 7 to Feb. 28, the National Insurance Institute recognized 19,407 children as physically or mentally injured, according to the data published by the Child Safety Council on Sunday. About 37% of them (7,257 children) are under the age of 6.

Other notable data points published include 84% of parents responding to a national survey saying that their children aged 2-12 were in emotional distress, 64% reported fear and 62% reported anxiety.

In addition, 116 children were left orphaned after the massacre of some 1,200 people, including 20 kids losing both parents and 96 losing one parent.

Nearly 50,000 children of school age as of December 2023 lived in areas that the government forcefully evacuated after Oct. 7, of whom 17,725 were children of preschool age (up to 6 years old). That is in addition to the many families who voluntarily relocated away from the northern and southern border areas.

As of December, there were 8,000 children who had not been integrated into the education system, and if a military campaign is launched to remove Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon, many more will be evacuated.

There is a shortage of about a thousand educational psychologists and also a shortage of educational counselors, according to the report.

RELATED ARTICLE: Clan-Based ‘Local Committees’ Emerge in Gaza to Replace Hamas

EDITORS NOTE: This JNS – Jewish News Syndicate column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

A Showdown on the Freedom of Speech in Europe

Will Europe embrace and defend the freedom of expression or blasphemy laws? And once Europe makes its choice, what will the United States of America do in turn about the same issue? The showdown is coming in Europe, and it’s coming quickly.

Sweden has ordered Salwan Momika, an Iraqi freedom fighter who has burned the Qur’an in protest against the violence does in its name and in accord with its teachings, and to stand for the freedom of expression.

On Friday, Salwan Momika stated his case on X.

Will he be heeded?

Morocco World News reported back on February 8 that “Sweden is set to deport Salwan Momika, the controversial man behind last year’s Quran-burning protests, as local reports indicate that a Swedish court has upheld the deportation order against the controversial man.” On Friday, Momika wrote: “My extradition to Iraq means that Sweden will participate in my execution, and that it will be the turn of the rest of those who stand against the Islamization of the West.” Exactly so. But does anyone Sweden or elsewhere in the West care?

Momika added: “The persecution I am subjected to in Sweden is tantamount to defending Islam and supporting the project of Islamizing Sweden and the West, granting asylum and protecting Islamists, and while those who criticize Islam are expelled and persecuted, this means that the law on freedom of expression is in real danger and Islamic values ​​may be imposed on Western societies and the application of Sharia law. Islamism will inevitably come to them unless we take action.” Well, it’s quite clear that the laws on freedom of expression are indeed in danger. If they weren’t, Momika wouldn’t be facing deportation; he would be being feted and lionized as a hero in Sweden.

If Momika is forced to return to Iraq, he will almost certainly be killed, as he himself explained: “I am in a humanitarian and moral struggle against the @Migrationsverk and Muslims, and I need your solidarity with me. If Sweden does not want me to stay here, then give me guarantees that your authorities will not demand me if I seek asylum in another country, and provide me with protection to reach another country because I cannot travel because Iraq has previously issued an international arrest warrant against me and distributed it to the international police.” He concluded: “How can the Swedes be so calm when Sweden is being Islamized before their eyes? What would you say to future generations? Will you tell them that one day an Assyrian came and told us about Islam and warned of its dangers while we handed him over to Iraq to be killed?

Swedes and other non-Muslims in the West can be so calm because they have no idea what’s at stake, or what’s coming. Momika has been trying to tell them. Back in June 2023, he explained why he wanted to burn the Qur’an in the first place: “I want to protest in front of the large mosque in Stockholm, and I want to express my opinion about the Quran… I will tear up and burn it.” He added: “This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can’t do this.” Indeed. And now that danger has come to pass in the form of the deportation order against Momika. If a man can be expelled from Sweden for defending the freedom of expression, then the freedom of expression is no longer permitted in Sweden.

That’s what the 56-nation (plus the Palestinian Authority) Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) wants Sweden, and the West in general, to do: abandon the freedom of expression and adopt Sharia blasphemy restrictions. Reuters reported in early July 2023 that OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha called for Western countries to ban Qur’an burning using laws against hate speech: “We must send constant reminders to the international community regarding the urgent application of international law, which clearly prohibits any advocacy of religious hatred.” This was an unmistakable indication of how “hate speech” laws can be weaponized to compel Western countries to abandon the freedom of expression and submit to Sharia blasphemy laws.

Salwan Momika is in serious danger, and so is the freedom of expression. Given the fact that the Western political and media elites already have a well-established admiration for authoritarianism and distaste for the freedom of speech, can the acceptance of the OIC’s demands be long in coming?

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: Belgian MEP is Reprimanded for Mentioning the ‘Great Replacement’ of Europe’s Population

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Why Is Israel to Be Subject to a Standard Imposed on No One Else?

Many in the political and media arenas are blaming the IDF for the deaths of 104 Gazans at a site where a convoy of aid trucks was trying to make its way to a distribution point: “US blocks Security Council motion blaming Israel for deadly Gaza aid convoy incident,” Times of Israel, March 1, 2024:

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called the deaths “unacceptable” and said they underlined “the urgency of a ceasefire.”

Which deaths are “unacceptable”? The fewer than ten who were shot by IDF soldiers protecting themselves? Those who were trampled or crushed to death in the stampede? Is it the position of José Manuel Albares that IDF soldiers, who were present only to facilitate the safe arrival of the aid trucks to the point where that aid was supposed to be distributed, had no right to defend themselves from Gazans bent on harming them? Why is Israel to be subject to a standard imposed on no one else? Would the Spanish Foreign Minister have been less displeased if some Israeli soldiers had been killed?

 

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell similarly denounced the deaths as “totally unacceptable.”

Of course. What else would one expect from the virulently anti-Israel Josep Borrell? He says nothing about the Gazans’ stampede and the subsequent crush of bodies being trampled, letting it be assumed that “the deaths” were all the result of IDF fire. Should the IDF soldiers, who were there, let’s remember, to facilitate the delivery of food and other humanitarian aid to the Gazans, have allowed themselves to be attacked by those hellbent on harming them? Would Borrell be happier with that? Yes, I’m sure he would.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro announced his government was suspending purchases of weapons from Israel, describing the deadly incident as “genocide” and blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the violence. His statement came months after Israel suspended security exports to Colombia in a diplomatic spat over online messages by Petro comparing Israel’s military response to the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities to the actions of Nazi Germany and calling what is now going on in Gaza as a continuing “genocide.”…

Petro has long been a virulent Israel-hater, so it was to be expected that he would describe the Jewish state’s attempt to wipe out Hamas in Gaza, so that never again would Israelis have to endure the atrocities that took place October 7, as akin to the actions of the Nazis against the Jews.

One would not know, from Petro’s description, that the IDF makes enormous efforts to minimize civilian casualties, just as Hamas makes efforts to maximize them. To this end, the IDF has dropped a total of 12 million leaflets, made two million prerecorded phone calls and 72,000 personal calls, all to warn people in Gaza to move away from areas — such as “northern Gaza” — that will soon become a battlefield, and also to warn them away from buildings, including apartment buildings, schools, mosques, and hospitals, that are about to be targeted. Does President Petro know that when Israel held Gaza, between 1967 and 2005, the Strip’s population rose from 400,000 to 1.3 million, or more than tripled? Is that “genocide”? As for ending the purchase of military equipment from Israel, it’s a meaningless gesture, because Israel had already ended all security sales to Colombia several months ago. Finally, does President Petro know that the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in Gaza is 4:3, an unheard-of low number, almost 1:1, when the closest any other army has come to that ratio is the 3:1 ratio (three civilians killed for each civilian death) achieved by the American military in the Iraq war? No wonder that the commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, has described the IDF as “the most moral army in the history of warfare.”

Eventually the truth of what happened in Gaza on February 29 will come out. Only a very few of those who rushed to judgment to condemn Israel will issue corrections, and even then, none will come out with the shamefaced apologies and mea-maxima-culpas that they should be uttering. That truth is this: the IDF fired warning shots in the air, and then fired again at about ten individuals who continued to menacingly approach them at the checkpoint where the soldiers stood. The other 94 Gazans who died that day had either been trampled or crushed to death in a stampede by thousands of Gazans trying to grab food off the aid trucks, or they were run over when they fell under the wheels of those trucks. That is the truth. One hopes that the Bidenites, who have not been treating America’s most loyal ally with the understanding and support it deserves, will this time do the right thing, and declare its satisfaction with the Jewish state’s version of what happened on February 29 in northern Gaza.

AUTHOR

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Germany: Student faces criminal proceedings for pointing out double standards in dealing with hatred towards Jews

Mozambique: ‘Hunger, thirst and disease’ threaten Christians amid jihad attacks

Islamic Republic of Iran: Convert from Islam to Christianity found dead at age 37 of ‘heart attack’

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EDITOR NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

UK: 74% of Transgender Prisoners Found to be Sex Offenders or Violent Criminals

Last year, the UK government-staffed organization — the Pride in Prison & Probation (PIPP) group — which advances an aggressive LGBTQ agenda, called it “transphobic” to discuss the issue of protecting women in prisons from biological males. Now comes the news that “nearly three-quarters of all transgender prison inmates in Britain were convicted of sexual offences or other violent crimes.” It should go without saying that women should not be put in harm’s way for the sake of political correctness; but this is not clear to those who value “gender affirmation” more than the safety of women.

Former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss states below that “the vast majority of men who identify as transgender in prison did not do so before they came into contact with the justice system.” In other words, these biological males are perverts with nefarious intentions, which should have been obvious.

Last year, after many unfortunate assaults, the UK finally stopped allowing “transgender women with male genitalia…to be held in mainstream women’s prisons.” But of course it wasn’t the trans activists from the Pride in Prison & Probation (PIPP) group and their ilk who suffered the consequences of their own destructive activism.

74 Per Cent of UK Trans Prisoners Are Sex Offenders or Violent Criminals

by Kurt Zindulka, Breitbart, February 28, 2024:

Nearly three-quarters of all transgender prison inmates in Britain were convicted of sexual offences or other violent crimes, which campaigners say demonstrates the dangers of housing biological males in female prisons.

According to Ministry of Justice figures, 74 per cent of British transgender prisoners, or 181 out of 244, were convicted of sex offences including rape and child sexual assaults. The data, reported by The Telegraph, goes on to say that currently 144 biologically male transgender prisoners are being housed in male prisons in Britain compared to five being housed in female jails.

The figures were revealed after a whistleblower complained of a violent male claiming to be transgender was put in a female prison. “She was not huge but very athletic and very strong and had all the physical features of a man. She was a bully and was very threatening and intimidating,” the insider said.

“The belief that she should have been housed in a male prison was unanimous, not just among the prisoners but also the staff,” she added.

Commenting on the need for prisoners to be separated by sex, former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss said: “It is always an issue to have males who identify as women in women’s prisons. It’s not necessarily always the physical threat that they experience but the re-traumatisation because many women in prison are already traumatised at the hands of men. They are also faced with constant gaslighting when they are forced to call these men ‘she’.

“The vast majority of men who identify as transgender in prison did not do so before they came into contact with the justice system.”…

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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TRANS-TERROR: Lakewood Church Shooter Identified As Transgender Immigrant

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 8: Constructivism Impedes Reality-Testing Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is

Constructivism is a learning theory that has its beginnings in the educational philosophy of John Dewey (1859–1952) and the work of Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980) and Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934).

Piaget believed that human beings pass through four stages of cognitive development based on our brain’s growing ability to think in new ways. His theory of cognitive development focuses on childhood and education. In Piaget’s view the learner is a unique individual, whose childhood interactions and explorations influence his development. Piaget believed that children act on their environment to learn, and that the function of social interaction is to move the child away from the self-absorption of early childhood. Piaget saw childhood development in universal human terms.

Lev Vygotsky, on the other hand, focused on learning as a social process and developed the sociocultural theory of development called Social Constructivism. Vygotsky considered the learner to be a social being, whose development is influenced by environmental factors. He saw childhood development in culturally determined terms, and believed that children interact socially with their environment in order to learn the cultural values of their specific society. Vygotsky believed that behavior cannot be understood outside its cultural setting, and that culture actually shapes cognition.

The divergent perspectives of Piaget and Vygotsky parallel the differences in educational philosophies and pedagogy that we see in traditional education versus today’s politicized education.

An article by educator Chris Drew, PhD, published May 13, 2023, “What Is Constructivism in Education? Piaget’s Pros & Cons,”[i] defines Constructivism, describes its key concepts, and compares traditional teachers with constructivist teachers:

Definition: The constructivist learning theory explains that we learn by “constructing” knowledge in our minds through interaction with our environments. Constructivism argues that learners have an active role in thinking things through, mulling them over, and coming to logical conclusions. We also build on our prior knowledge, like a builder constructing his skyscraper.

Key Concepts: Learning is a cognitive process; we learn through experiences; we learn through social interactions; we use prior knowledge to make sense of new information; learning occurs in linear stages; students should learn actively rather than passively….

Central to this theory is the idea that we learn by “mulling over” new ideas in our heads and come to our own conclusions through logic and reasoning. To achieve this sort of learning, students need to engage in active learning, learning by doing, and personal experiences.

Chris Drew’s bias toward Constructivism is evident in his description:

Constructivism in education is the dominant educational theory in the 21st Century. It helps students to develop 21st Century skills such as collaboration, cooperation and creativity.

It is also conspicuous in his comparison of teachers’ roles:

Traditional Teacher:

Monologue (teacher talks)

Tells the answers

Expects one “correct” answer

Believes they know everything

Teacher-centered classroom

Teaches theories

One size fits all lessons

Teacher as Facilitator:

Dialogue (teacher and students discuss)

Asks questions and guides

Lets students come up with their own answers

Sees themselves as a co-learner

Student-centered classroom

Links theories to practical experiences

Differentiated lessons to meet students’ cognitive needs

Educational reformer Bruce Deitrick Price offers a very different view of Constructivism and its catastrophic effects on education. In his Canada Free Press article published September 12, 2019, “K–12: How Constructivism constructs confusion,”[ii] Price writes:

Constructivism is not just another educational gimmick. It can be used in every class, for every subject, and with students of all ages. It is multifaceted, ubiquitous, and grandiose. In fact, the Education Establishment wants you to believe that Constructivism is the King Kong of instructional theories. The educrats want you to take it home for dinner, marry it, and live happily ever after.

We are told that Constructivism adds immensely to the educational experience. On the other hand, students exposed to this thing—and virtually all American students have been exposed—seem to become dumber. In some mysterious way, Constructivism is intellectually befuddling. The acquisition of new knowledge is stymied. WNET, a TV station in Manhattan, prepared a long presentation extolling and explaining Constructivism“Constructivism is basically a theory—based on observation and scientific study—about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.” That’s the key claim. You construct your own knowledge. It is not out there somewhere in the world. You construct it. Really. Consider an instance of learning. The teacher says, “The capital of France is Paris, a very beautiful city.” Does all that verbiage about people constructing their own understanding and experiencing things, and reflecting on those experiences, add anything to the commonsense understanding of what happens when a teacher tells students about Paris?

WNET continues: “The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment.” Let’s imagine a teacher telling students, “Most early settlers in North America came from England or Spain. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a small sailing ship is a dangerous adventure.” Now look at the WNET spiel. Why do students need to formulate and test ideas? Why do we have to convey the knowledge in a collaborative learning environment? More steps, more clutter. Imagine you’re a teacher who wants to teach about the American Revolution, why water freezes, or how the dinosaurs lived. Why do we need the clutter in any of those teaching scenarios? My suspicion is that this clutter is an obstacle, obviously so. We have started to see what may be Constructivism’s unavoidable negative. Constructivism adds distractions, like a hyperactive TV series when a child is trying to read his first book. In short, there’s too much going on. WNET continues: “Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to an active participant in the learning process. Always guided by the teacher, students construct their knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the textbook.”

Apparently when somebody tells you something you are passive and that’s bad. You are mechanically ingesting. But if we label the classroom constructivist, everything changes for the better. Now you are actively constructing knowledge. Do you see any change? WNET wants us to know: “Students are not blank slates upon which knowledge is etched. They come to learning situations with already formulated knowledge, ideas, and understandings. This previous knowledge is the raw material for the new knowledge they will create.” Really? What does the child know about someone sailing from Spain? Nothing. That’s why it’s exciting. The conceit in Constructivism is that the speaker or teacher doesn’t add very much. You (a student) create the whole experience in your brain, i.e., you construct it. Is this a reasonable expectation? This next passage is so absurd, you might think I wrote it as satire. Not so. WNET explains: “An elementary school teacher presents a class problem to measure the length of the Mayflower. Rather than starting the problem by introducing the ruler, the teacher allows students to reflect and to construct their own methods of measurement. One student offers the knowledge that a doctor said he is four feet tall. Another says she knows horses are measured in ‘hands.’ The students discuss these and other methods they have heard about, and decide on one to apply to the problem.”

I think this is the paradigm of what is wrong. The obvious next step was to see a picture or a model of the ship, with people nearby for a sense of scale. You could go outside and walk off the basic design of the ship. Children learn about the Mayflower, not about measuring horses. There seems to be a lot of bait-and-switch in Constructivism. You can easily imagine that this elementary school teacher would never reach the heart of any subject. Every comment by every student would be a seductive avenue of distraction. WNET waxes ever more frenzied: “Students control their own learning process, and they lead the way by reflecting on their experiences. This process makes them experts of their own learning.” Lead the way? Experts of their own learning? Wouldn’t it be better if they became expert in the subjects being studied? WNET: “The teacher helps create situations where the students feel safe questioning and reflecting on their own processes, either privately or in group discussions. The teacher should also create activities that lead the student to reflect on his or her prior knowledge and experiences.” Reflecting on their own processes? Anything, you see, but the new knowledge we want them to learn. Ironically, Constructivism seems designed to insulate kids from new knowledge, to keep them busy with extraneous details and tangential activities. WNET says: “The main activity in a constructivist classroom is solving problems.” Maybe. But in a real classroom the main activity is learning today what you didn’t know yesterday.

Constructivism is an educational humanitarian hoax that presents its destructive methodology and relativist perspective as superior and scientific. The word Constructivism is as misleading as its source: John Dewey and his educational reform movement he called progressive education. Dewey, the “Father of American Education,” believed that “what” students were taught was not as important as “how” students were taught. His focus was on form, not content.

As discussed in Chapter 5, Dewey was a globalist, but he was also an elitist who did not believe in the value of teaching mathematics, geography, history, science, art, philosophy, archaeology, or any objective truths to the masses. His 1900 educational manifesto, The School and Society,[iii] was presented as a three-part lecture series. In Lecture 1, “The School and Social Progress,” Dewey begins:

We are apt to look at the school from an individualistic standpoint, as something between teacher and pupil, or between teacher and parent. That which interests us most is naturally the progress made by the individual child of our acquaintance, his normal physical development, his advance in ability to read, write, and figure, his growth in the knowledge of geography and history, improvement in manners, habits of promptness, order, and industry— it is from such standards as these that we judge the work of the school. And rightly so. Yet the range of the outlook needs to be enlarged. What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy. All that society has accomplished for itself is put, through the agency of the school, at the disposal of its future members. All its better thoughts of itself it hopes to realize through the new possibilities thus opened to its future self. Here individualism and socialism are at one….

The mere absorption of facts and truths is so exclusively an individual affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat.

Words matter––and some words matter more than others. The United States of America was founded as a republic, not a democracy. The distinction is essential and often deliberately obfuscated by the enemies of individualism. The main difference between a republic and a democracy is the degree to which its citizens control the process of making laws. In a republic, the people elect representatives to make laws according to the constraints of a constitution. In a democracy, the majority has almost unlimited power to make laws, and minorities have few protections from the will of the majority. In a republic, the constitution protects the rights of all people from the will of the majority. In a democracy, individual rights can be overridden by the will of the majority. Individualism and socialism are never “at one.”

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land that protects individualism and individual rights, the hallmarks of Americanism. We are a constitutional republic. It is a grave and consequential error to assume that a collectivist innocently uses the word democracy in its colloquial usage as a synonym for republic. The enemies of freedom—socialists, communists, and globalists—exploit the word in order to confuse the public, collapse our republic, and replace it with the mob rule of pure democracy that our Founding Fathers definitively and categorically rejected.

Collectivist John Dewey believed that experiential learning, social learning, and a basic Constructivist approach to pedagogy could achieve social reconstruction in America. He insisted that education and learning are social and interactive processes, and that schools are the appropriate institutions where social reform should take place. Dewey’s manifesto is the bible for the philosophical shift in American education from traditional, foundational learning to progressive education. What most Americans have not realized is that “progressive” education is not an advancement in knowledge and skills; to the contrary, it is a pivotal step in the incremental movement toward collectivism, socialism, globalism, and one-world government.

Perhaps the most disturbing of Constructivism’s deceitful claims is “The teacher helps create situations where the students feel safe questioning and reflecting on their own processes, either privately or in group discussions.” Once again, we see the emphasis on feelings, subjective reality.

Constructivism is a dangerous, crippling methodology designed to confuse children and deny them the foundational knowledge and skills required for critical thinking and life as a productive citizen in a constitutional republic. Constructivism denies objective reality by making everything a matter of opinion. The subjective reality it embraces intentionally impedes children’s developing ability to reality-test. Johnny’s feelings are not facts, and Johnny’s opinions are not equivalent to his teacher’s facts.

Generations of teachers trained in these methods have become ideological soldiers for progressive education. Children are not the only ones who live what they learn; so do indoctrinated teachers. Constructivism is an educational Weapon of Mass Destruction in globalism’s attack on America.


[i] What Is Constructivism in Education? Piaget’s Pros & Cons; https://helpfulprofessor.com/constructivism/

[ii] K-12: How Constructivism constructs confusion; https://canadafreepress.com/article/k-12-how-constructivism-constructs-confusion

[iii] The School and Society, John Dewey, University of Chicago Press, 1915; https://archive.org/details/schoolsociety00dewerich/page/n7/mode/2up

©2024. Linda Goudsmit. All rights reserved.

Pundicity page: goudsmit.pundicity.com and website: lindagoudsmit.com

Hunter And His Uncle Can’t Get Their Story Straight About Key Meeting With Joe Biden

James Biden’s Feb. 21 closed-door congressional testimony conflicted with testimonies given by both Hunter Biden and Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter’s.

James Biden says a meeting between him, Hunter, Bobulinski and Joe Biden at a California hotel during the 2017 Milken Institute conference never occurred, according to a transcript of his February testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Hunter Biden, however, attested that he, James, Bobulinski and his father did in fact meet at a hotel bar during his Wednesday testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

Hunter Biden testified that he, Bobulinski and his uncle were drinking coffee in a hotel bar at 11 p.m. while waiting to meet with Joe Biden. Once Joe Biden arrived, he shook hands with Bobulinski, and the two spoke, according to Hunter’s testimony.

Hunter was unable to recall any details of the conversation between Bobulinski and his father beyond them talking about Bobulinski’s family member who was suffering from cancer.

Bobulinski claims to remember more details about the conversation.

Joe Biden met with the trio to discuss a business deal related to CEFC China Energy, a Chinese Communist Party-linked corporation, according to Bobulinski’s Feb. 13 testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Bobulinski said “the only reason I was there” was to talk business with the Bidens.

Joe Biden claimed in August 2023 he never “talked business” with Hunter’s associates.

James Biden, when asked about the alleged conversation with Joe Biden, said, “that I know did not happen.”

James Biden claimed that he “could have been there just with Tony Bobulinski” and that he “could have been there with Hunter as well” but that Joe Biden “was never there.”

James Biden previously denied having anything to do with Hunter’s CEFC China Energy dealings but changed his story when investigators presented him with a copy of an agreement featuring his signature alongside Hunter Biden and his business associates.

James Biden brushed off the possible reputational damage to his family over their Chinese business dealings, citing “plausible deniability,” according to Bobulinski’s testimony.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Democrat Senator Calls Pedophiles ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Advocates for CHILD SEX DOLLS

The Democrat party is evil.

Good decent people should not be forced to live under their rule.

The election system has been hijacked by the Democrat party of treason.

Where is our George Washington?

Kentucky Democrat Proposes Child Sex Dolls for Pedophiles

By James Bickerton • US News Reporter

A Democratic state senator from Kentucky has suggested providing “child sex dolls” to pedophiles in a bid to reduce the chance of them abusing children.

Speaking at the Kentucky General Assembly on Thursday, Senator Karen Berg said there was research suggesting the dolls “actually decrease their proclivity to go out and attack children.” The remarks sparked an angry backlash on social media with one prominent commentator accusing Berg of “sexualizing kids and defending pedophiles.”

The Context

There is an ongoing debate involving academics and politicians over whether child sex dolls could help prevent assaults on children or whether they act as a gateway for potential abusers. Republican Representative Dan Donovan has twice introduced legislation in the House that would make the “importation or transportation of child sex dolls” illegal, while others have called for an outright ban.

What We Know

During her address in the Kentucky General Assembly, Berg said: “I was completely unfamiliar with child sex dolls, so I had of course to Google it last night…

“But there are what they call ‘MAPS,’ Minor Attracted Persons and the limited amount of research that’s done on these dolls suggests that they actually, for people who are attracted to minors, that these dolls actually decrease their proclivity to go out and attack children.

“That it actually gives them a release that makes them less likely to go outside of their home and what was interesting is the research did not support the same conclusions for people who were adult attracted using dolls.”

Footage of Berg’s remarks was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Robby Starbuck, a conservative-leaning activist who produced the Elon Musk-endorsed documentary The War on Children. The clip has so far received more than 595,000 views and 3,100 reposts from other X users.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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The ‘Transgender Revolution’: Sexual Anarchy in the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts of America and Public Schools

RELATED VIDEO: Marjorie Taylor Greene Says “Democrats Are Pedophiles” on 60 Minutes

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

He Or She Who Is Given Power Will Use It

Is this the week that the First Amendment died? 

Blaze Journalist, Steve Baker, reporting the truth backed up with photos was arrested for reporting on J6.  Soon we will find out that their was no insurrection and the regime had a hand in sponsoring J6. We regime has too much power and now they control MSM.  Do not believe anything they say. They are looking to make an example of J6.  They want us to know that if we report the truth, we could wind up in Jail. I will not comply. I will not be silent. I will not go quietly.

As the election cycle rolls around it is up to us to decide who we will give power to.

According to “Rothbard’s Law,” namely that he who is given power will use it.

Once you give power it is difficult – not impossible to change that decision.   I wonder if the people in NY have learned that lesson yet.  It sees as though their “GET TRUMP,” Affirmative Action Graduate, Soros funded AG, Letitia James is going to make sure that every business in NY leaves. As Kevin O’Leary said, “No Business in NY is safe any more.”

Does James know that she is throwing out the goose and once gone there will be no more golden eggs or does she even care? Soros-Funded New York AG Targets World’s Top Beef Producer Over “Environmental Impact”:

New York Attorney General Letitia James on February 28th, 2024 filed a lawsuit against JBS USA Food Company and JBS USA Food Company Holdings (JBS USA), the American subsidiary of the world’s largest producer of beef products, for misleading the public about its environmental impact. JBS USA has claimed that it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, despite documented plans to increase production, and therefore increase its carbon footprint.

Personally, I believe that they are so drunk with power that consequences don’t matter. After all there is always Uncle Sam or Uncle George to bail them out. Of course both DA Fani Willis and James think they are above the law. There are no consequences for their actions.  While Fani was using taxpayer funds, Letitia was using campaign funds to support their lavish lifestyle.   James misuses campaign funds.

They both thought no one could touch them and for too long they were right. Driven like they are after listening to them talk about Trump I could see the evil streak of envy and jealousy ooze out of their every word. This is what Affirmative Action and CRT teaches.  I do believe however, that the truth will prevail and these scam trials will be seen for what they are and Corrupt Fani, Corrupt Letitia  eventually will fail.

I just said that they are Affirmative Action and CRT graduates but what does that mean? Affirmative Action and CRT are rooted in Globalism which is just the latest variation of socialism where the state (government) is all powerful. The people will own nothing. Everything will be given to you by the state. You must behave and spew the latest narrative to survive or if you speak in opposition, you lose.

Everything is connected. Nothing is random, Everything is run by the same people. Everything has a plan. All plans are lies. All Globalists want is MONEY, POWER, CONTROL They will never stop taking your stuff.

We must protect our local communities. Make sure your sheriff understands the constitution. Check all grants for loopholes.  Check and monitor legislation and rules that demand:

  1. The state has ultimate power over all local events
  2. The employees are DIE compliant not the best and brightest, You don’t need those that click a box in order to fill the position. As you can see corrupt Willis and James just clicked the right DIE box.  They are obedient and just follow orders.
  3. Prohibit you from getting on your planning and zoning boards. You don’t need to hire a “central planner ‘ or a “sustainability planner” from out of town to become your town planner. Remember they were trained to eliminate private property.
  4. Laws that inhibit “free speech”.  Your town does not need hate speech enforcers or censors.
  5. Eliminate or limit your time public meetings.  Always be courteous, never lose your temper but demand your time and issue be heard.

Remember, they lie about everything so it is important for you to always reference the facts. Always ask how much this will cost and who is paying for it? Conduct oversight where ever and whenever possible. Then contact your 5. Share the information.

I just gave you 2 examples of how Affirmative Action has destroyed the legal system. Our guests today will tell you how Affirmative Action has destroyed the medical and educational profession. Just because your state might have a law against Affirmative Action does not mean that the law is being followed. That part is up to us.

Remember: 

All Globalists want is Money Control and Power. They can only get Power if we give it to them. Don’t give them yours.

Challenge them with the truth.

Doing Nothing is affirmation.

Please say a prayer for all those families were ruined at the hands of this globalist regime.

©2024. Karen Schoen, All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: FBI Orders Blaze Reporter Steve Baker to Turn Himself In with Breanna Morello – OAN

POST ON X:

Prism of America’s Education Show Link: https://www.americaoutloud.news/the-prism-of-americas-education/

Russia, Russia, Russia

After the fall of the East-Berlin Wall, in the year 1989, the Western World promised Russian President Boris Yeltsin, that NATO would not expand.

Failed leader President George Bush Senior made many speeches on live TV, in which he stated that Moscow had nothing to fear: NATO would not expand Eastwards.

Boris Yeltsin (First President of the Russian Federation) trusted Washington. He in turn agreed to the reunification of Germany.

Within a year, NATO started expanding to the East: American soldiers were being stationed in East-Germany.

Now NATO wants to encircle Russia and destroy it. But President Putin is not a fool, and he will fight AND win!

There are many warmongers who want to tell a different story.

They say there was no treaty signed that said that NATO would not expand Eastwards. But no treaty was needed. Boris Yeltsin trusted the word of President Bush! There are many fraudulent historians who tell a whole different story. They base their false claims on testimony by former USSR President Gorbachov. You can easily recognize them, as propagandists, for they spell the name of the former Russian dictator wrong: they spell it with an e in the end: Gorbachev. Russian names often end with “ov”,
but never with “ev”.

Mr. Gorbachov hated Yeltsin so much, that he tried to rewrite History. According to Gorbachov, Yeltsin was always drunk (not true) and a communist. Yeltsin had ended his membership of the Communist Party of Moscow, right after the destruction of the Soviet Union. In his heart he had never been a communist. It was very common to become a member of the only legal political party, in order to be able to buy food. Many leaders in Eastern Europe who want their countries to apply for membership of the European Union and/or NATO have been bought. They want to enrich themselves, and therefor cooperate with everything that Biden, Macron, Rutte and Sunak want from them.

True patriots in Eastern Europe know that they are all Slavic peoples, and that their future is under the leadership of President Putin.

The Western World is in a downfall. This is due to the Rise of Islam, Marxists intellectuals and Woke ideology. The Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China are strong. They are not democratic and free countries, but they will survive the madness that has gotten a hold of the Free World.

©2024. Matthys van Raalten, All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden’s blunders bolster Putin’s plans

RELATED VIDEO: U.S. and Iran Inching Toward War

The Untold Story of Israel After October 7th

The national awakening you won’t hear about in the media.

The story of what happened after Oct 7 has played out in the international media as a montage of bombs and rubble. And while Israel’s campaign against the Hamas perpetrators of the horrific massacres, rapes and kidnappings is an important part of the story, it is not the only one.

From the men who grabbed their guns and drove south in the hours after the attack began to the warehouses quickly set up to provide food and clothing for the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were forced to leave their homes after the attacks from Gaza, inside Israel, the real story has been defined by a country coming together not only to fight, but to support each other.

In the month after the attacks, one survey estimated that the majority of Israeli Jews were volunteering in one form or another at everything from baking cookies for soldiers to standing guard at potential terrorist targets. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers mobilized and hundreds of thousands of people stranded, even the most ordinary things became a problem.

Like laundry.

A Chassidic rabbi loaded up washing machines and dryers on trucks and headed with them to an army base. Laundry from displaced families was crowdsourced through social media groups with messages like, “there are at least 2000 people from Sderot who need help with their laundry. If you can help with doing one or two loads please reach out.”

Both religious and secular groups assembled massive warehouses filled with clothing and supplies for displaced people. Restaurants have set up meals and volunteers have deployed mobile kitchens in parking lots. And tens of thousands volunteer to cook in their own homes.

Weddings and bar mitzvahs have gone forward for refugee families welcomed by communities. Teenagers have volunteered to babysit and to perform household chores for military families.

At farms, including in the communities targeted by the Islamic terrorist invaders, tens of thousands headed to help. In one kibbutz, a “motley dozen-strong crew ranging from housewives to engineers and stockbrokers” could be found “tending to around 600 dairy cows”.

Polly Levine, the daughter of longtime David Horowitz Freedom Center supporter Tammy Steinsapir, recently wrote about her experiences doing everything from preparing food boxes to planting broccoli. “I was surprised to see hundreds of volunteers from all over the world: Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, France, Mexico and beyond,” she wrote.

And in grimmer work, in the days after the attacks, volunteers arrived to dig graves to bury the over 1,000 dead. “Google docs were sent out on community WhatsApp groups and it wasn’t unusual for empty 2 a.m. slots to be filled within minutes in the race to honorably bury the dead.”

“We had 50 people yesterday,” a police officer said. “Now the invitation to volunteers has gone viral, and we’re worried 5,000 could turn up.”

And there are the armed volunteers putting their lives on the line.

After the attacks, hospitals asked anyone with a gun license to volunteer as a guard. Other volunteer guards rallied to protect kindergartens in Jerusalem after the soldiers who usually defend them were summoned to war. While normal kindergartens don’t require soldiers or guards, Islamic terrorists have repeatedly targeted Israeli children. In one notorious incident in 2011, Hamas even fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus. Fortunately it hit only after most of the children had disembarked and only one teenage boy was wounded in the terrorist attack.

600 civilian security squads were established after the attacks and armed with thousands of rifles. These squads help patrol and secure communities likely to be targeted by terrorists. Volunteer forces had played a crucial role in countering the Hamas invasion at a time when the Israeli military had been caught by surprise and was outnumbered by the attacking terrorists.

The volunteerism is only the outward expression of a country at war. At a Shabbat table, I heard the story of a woman who calmly stated, “my husband is in the army, my father is in the army and my son is in the army”. After the Oct 7 attacks, reporting rates in some reserve units passed 100% with personnel showing up who had not even been called up. One viral video shows a 73-year-old “soldier” visiting his 101-year-old mother and then standing watch in the rain.

And that solidarity is really the untold story of what happened after Oct 7.

Turn on CNN and you’ll see the same montage of crying old women in hijabs and wrecked buildings that seems to have been running as a constant feed in the region since the rise of cable news, but in Israel, the story is not just the war, it’s also the peace. Before Oct 7, Israel had been tearing itself apart along political and religious lines. The underlying tensions haven’t gone away and every Hamas hostage offer calculatedly plays on those same divisions.

But Israel has also come together to a remarkable extent. That’s not a story which interests the media, but it ought to interest us because our hope for the future also lies in solidarity. In the years since 9/11, 7/7 or the other numberless Islamic terror atrocities that should have marked an awakening, we have learned all too well that superior weapons are not enough to win a war.

Wars are not just won or lost with firepower, but with the spirit of a people. The food baskets, clothing warehouses, volunteer guards, cooks and even gravediggers represent something as important, and perhaps even more important, than a military force: a national spirit.

“I see mothers of soldiers on the front lines volunteering in supermarkets. I see rabbis leaving their communities, traveling 48 hours across multiple countries to return home and fight for their country.” an email circulating after Oct 7 read. “I see police officers feeding bottles to babies who no longer have parents. I see teenage girls with flags at 2:30 in the morning dancing for soldiers who have returned to fight who simply cannot believe their eyes.”

The war against Islamic terrorism is not only a physical war, it is a spiritual war. Fighting it with weapons, but without conviction, with drones but without a national revival, has failed and will go on failing. Islamic terrorists do not just attack our bodies, they seek to destroy our spirit. They divide us in order to conquer us, they terrorize us and then play the victims, and they make every effort to convince us of the futility and wrongness of our cause so that they may defeat us.

Israel has long been the canary in the coal mine of Islamic terrorism. It has shown us how to physically fight terrorism. Perhaps it will now show us how to awaken our nations to the war.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLES:

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On an Australian tour, an Imam encourages jihadi activities and promotes martyrdom to teenagers

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In the first four days of Global Campaign, Islamic State (ISIS) affiliates claim over 60 attacks in 11 countries.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Unprecedented’: KJP’s Worst Fears Appear To Be Coming True

Karine Jean-Pierre has turned over her spotlight to Admiral John Kirby in an “unprecedented” way as the White House barrels toward a pivotal election season, a Daily Caller review of briefing data reveals.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Kirby has been a mainstay at briefings alongside Jean-Pierre to answer reporters’ questions about the foreign conflict. Though Americans have indicated the war is not their top concern, Kirby has remained at the briefings — only missing five through January until Feb. 27. Of the briefings he has attended in 2024, 19 out of the 22 total held, Kirby has fielded questions for almost the exact same amount of time as Jean-Pierre.

As of Feb. 27, Jean-Pierre has spent about 11 hours and 31 minutes at the White House press briefing podium this year across 22 briefings. Kirby has answered questions for just under nine hours and two minutes in 19 briefings. In those 19 briefings when Kirby and Jean-Pierre were together, the press secretary spoke for just shy of nine hours and 11 minutes — almost a perfect fifty-fifty split with her counterpart.

“There is no precedent for this. Press secretaries always bring guests, right. It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have the OMB [the Office of Management and Budget] guys brief you on the budget and talk to you about that.’ That’s normal,” Sean Spicer, one-time press secretary for former President Donald Trump, told the Daily Caller. “That’s as old as the job. But this idea that you have a co-press secretary is unprecedented.”

Some other names have made appearances at briefings and gaggles, either alongside Jean-Pierre or Kirby: deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations Ian Sams and a few other policy-specific officials from the administration.

But none have appeared nearly as often as Kirby, who Jean-Pierre was reportedly concerned might usurp her as press secretary when she first got the job. Biden “awkwardly” added that Kirby would be joining Jean-Pierre’s team when the president gave her the press secretary position in 2022, leaving her “upset and confused,” according to Axios.

Jean-Pierre’s appointment was lauded as historic and powerful when she got the job — she’s the first black press secretary, and is also a lesbian woman of immigrant parents. From the beginning, things have reportedly been rocky, though — Biden also allegedly said that Jean-Pierre didn’t need to worry because she’d “have an admiral looking over your shoulder,” a comment that was not received well by the new press secretary.

Amid the tension between Kirby and Jean-Pierre, the latter’s top deputy, Dalton, is reportedly ditching the White House for a gig at Apple.

That leaves a clear path to the top job for Kirby. He has told some around the White House he’s interested in the position, according to Axios, but other White House officials denied those accounts.

When it comes to gaggles, Kirby has appeared at more as of late, speaking at seven of them between the start of the year and Feb. 16 for a total of more than an hour and seven minutes. The pair has attended four gaggles together, with Jean-Pierre answering questions for more than 41 minutes.

“I don’t think the dynamic is awkward to begin with. I think they did it under the presence, under the guise of national security and foreign affairs. But the reality is, Kirby has really taken over a lot more, for obvious reasons,” Spicer said. “The press secretary should be able to handle all of the issues and it’s pretty obvious that there’s a level of competence that just doesn’t exist.”

The White House previously attributed Kirby’s frequent presence at briefings to the war in the Middle East, adding that he will be featured less once it subsides, the New York Times reported.

The White House and the National Security Council did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

Kirby’s attendance at the briefings has dipped slightly. Spanning from Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel until Jan. 5, 2024, Jean-Pierre had only held one press briefing or gaggle on Air Force One by herself, according to an Axios count. Jean-Pierre was always accompanied by Kirby or even on occasion National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

The national security council spokesperson has continued to attend the press briefings alongside Jean-Pierre specifically because the president enjoys it, Axios reported. Biden has reportedly asked the spokesman to personally brief him and also travel with him on both domestic and international trips.

In devoting roughly half their briefing time with Kirby in attendance to foreign affairs, the White House is granting a disproportionate amount of air to issues voters say they aren’t as concerned about. Americans have indicated that they are more interested in domestic topics, with immigration now the top issue among the populous, according to a February Gallup poll. Twenty-eight percent of Americans say the issue is their main priority while just 3% say foreign aid and issues overseas are the most important to them.

The next top concern was government, as 20% of Americans voted it their main worry, the Gallup poll showed. “Economy in general,” inflation, “poverty/hunger/homelessness” and “unifying the country” followed in Americans’ most important issues.

With Kirby focused on issues falling into international affairs, Jean-Pierre remains the public face of the administration on most domestic issues. Biden’s poll numbers on many of those issues are struggling, and some have wondered if she is long for the job. Her predecessor, Jen Psaki, departed the post just shy of the 16-month mark.

Kirby’s performance has been better received by some observers.

“Sometimes I’ll tweet out, like, ‘this was a good job by Kirby.’ I’ve had a number of [Republicans] tell me that Kirby gets it. I mean, I actually think he has the respect of Republicans. And so therefore, they listen to what he has to say and they find him to be a credible messenger. I don’t think anybody respects Karine,” Scott Jennings,  a longtime GOP adviser in Kentucky and veteran of numerous campaigns, told the Daily Caller.

“And so if you’re a White House, and you’re trying to communicate to the larger world and also the people in Washington, you know, your chief messenger has to be credible and respected. I think Kirby has achieved that.”

“I can’t remember a time when this has happened. I mean, it seems to me they give Kirby all the important things to talk about. And they let her talk about the rest,” Jennings told the Daily Caller.

Thomas McGiffin contributed to this report.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

An Election Integrity Analogy: Good Efforts do NOT assure Good Results

When faced with a complicated, multi-faceted problem like election integrity, it’s often easier to get a much better grasp of it by using an analogy…

home remodeling project might be a good comparison. Let’s say we have a 250-year-old, 3-story home, that has exceptional historical significance. (For example, let’s imagine that in this home a group of patriots met and drafted up the first version of the Constitution!) Additionally, it is an architecturally beautiful building.

Although the home mostly has “good bones,” it has fallen on hard times due to decades of neglect, disputes of ownership, self-serving actions by caretakers, etc.

Some of the current issues are: dilapidated siding, deuterating porches, large holes in the roof, a woefully inadequate electrical system, antiquated plumbing, floors that need refinishing, walls that must be painted or repapered, etc. Although the foundation needs minor attention, it still seems to be solid.

Since no one else is doing anything meaningful about this property (other than a lot of talk, blame, and obfuscation), a group of patriotic citizens decides that they will step in.

These selfless volunteers get permission and then (at their own expense!) energetically do the following: start cleaning up the mess, wallpapering and painting walls, sanding floors, upgrading the electrical system, installing new plumbing, fixing broken windows, repairing porches, pointing chimneys, and improving the landscaping.

Do you see any problems here in my made-up analogy?

I’ve phrased it in such a way that it’s clear that there is no professional oversight to organize and direct these excellent efforts, in an appropriate, effective way. For example, renovation of such a property needs to be done in the proper sequence. In this case, it is a waste of time, effort and money to be finishing interior walls and floors before ALL of the needed plumbing and electrical work is done.

The biggest error in this analogy is also a sequential failure. The number one priority of this renovation MUST be to fix the roof. Almost any work on the interior is likely wasted until the inside is no longer exposed to the elements.

So what’s the parallel with election integrity?

We have almost 250 years of election history, architecturally attractive, and built on a solid foundation. However, our election system has fallen on very hard times due to decades of neglect, disputes about responsibility, self-serving actions by those elected to be caretakers, etc.

One of the few positives about the 2020 election is that it woke up many citizens to the reality that our election system has become seriously deteriorated.

In response, many hundreds of patriotic people have dedicated considerable time, effort, and money in an attempt to renovate our election system. My point here is that unless the contributions of these volunteers are properly focused, it’s likely that the majority of it will do very little. (The 2022 elections should have been a wake-up call!)

So what is the elections parallel with starting by properly fixing the roof?

Meaningful post-election audits!

(See “The Solution” for election integrity: here.)

Without doing that, very little of the rest of the superior efforts will be of any avail!

©2024. All rights reserved.


Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

My Substack Commentaries for 2023 (arranged by topic)

Check out the chronological Archives of my entire Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.orgdiscusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.infocovers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.infomultiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

The Provocative Innovation of “Poor Things”

‘Poor Things’ in the limelight with 11 Oscar nominations

In 2011, Lanthimos traveled to Glasgow to meet Gray, intending to adapt his novel into a film. This meeting is intense, with Gray expressing his willingness to let Lanthimos adapt his novel. This initial meeting laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the film “Poor Things,” which Lanthimos directed with Emma Stone. Gray was probably impressed by Lanthimos’s work, particularly his film “Dogtooth,” and Lanthimos, in turn, aimed to pay homage to him through the character of Godwin Baxter, portrayed by Willem Dafoe in the film. This character was seen as an alter ego for Gray in the novel.

Thus, “Poor Things” turned out to be a fascinating collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos, renowned for his unconventional filmmaking style, and Alasdair Gray, the author of the novel upon which the film is based. Lanthimos’s reputation for blending genres and exploring complex themes is evident in “Poor Things,” a film that seamlessly combines elements of comedy, romance, science fiction, and horror, creating a unique cinematic experience.

Bella Baxter is at the center of the narrative, portrayed with depth and nuance by the talented Emma Stone. Bella’s journey from naivety to self-discovery serves as the film’s emotional anchor, guiding viewers through a world of uncertainty and intrigue. Stone’s performance is nothing short of mesmerizing, capturing the complexities of Bella’s character with grace and authenticity. From moments of bewilderment to scenes of empowering liberation, Stone effortlessly embodies the essence of Bella, making her journey both relatable and compelling.

As Bella navigates the labyrinthine corridors of her own psyche, she encounters a cast of eccentric characters, each with their quirks and idiosyncrasies. One such character is Godwin Baxter, portrayed with gusto by the legendary Willem Dafoe. Godwin is a surrogate for Gray, a larger-than-life figure whose presence looms large over the narrative. Dafoe’s performance is electrifying, imbuing the character with a sense of gravitas and menace that is both captivating and unsettling.

In addition to its stellar cast, “Poor Things” also boasts a visual aesthetic that is as bold and audacious as its narrative. Departing from his usual minimalist approach, Lanthimos opts for opulence and grandeur, creating a visual spectacle that is both breathtaking and disorienting. From the lavish sets to the elaborate costumes, every aspect of the film’s production design is meticulously crafted to immerse viewers in the surreal world of Bella Baxter.

The film’s visual splendor is complemented by a hauntingly beautiful score by the renowned Jonny Greenwood. Greenwood’s evocative music enhances the film’s atmosphere, adding depth and emotion to the narrative. Together, Lanthimos and Greenwood create a sensory experience that is as immersive as it is unforgettable, transporting viewers to a world where reality and fantasy blur into one.

“Poor Things” transcends being merely a feast for the senses, a profound exploration of the human condition. The world of “Poor Things” is eerily similar to our own but with distinct and disturbing disruptions to the laws of reality. This uncanny visual maximalism mirrors Bella’s journey through an alien world, unobstructed by societal norms, as she navigates her newly reborn body. This metaphor for self-actualization resonates with the viewers, offering a broad parable for the universality of human experiences.

The film prompts audiences to reflect on their experiences of love, loss, and self-discovery, underscoring cinema’s ability to inspire, provoke, and challenge our understanding of the world. Ultimately, it emerges as a bold statement of cinematic innovation and narrative audacity, a triumph of modern filmmaking that blends genres and themes in an entertaining and thought-provoking manner.

With stellar performances, mesmerizing visuals, and an unapologetic embrace of the bizarre, “Poor Things” stands as a testament to the power of cinema to provoke, inspire, and transcend. Whether you’re a fan of Lanthimos’s previous work or simply seeking something wholly original, “Poor Things” is an experience not to be missed.

Prepare to be dazzled, disturbed, and ultimately enchanted by the strange and wondrous world of “Poor Things.”

©2024. Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

Do Manners Matter Anymore?

We have become a nation of rude people. Does that matter? I actually think it does because there is a link between manners and morals.

As a grandfather of three little children, it’s so important to teach them to engage in good manners, to be grateful. I even write thank you notes to local places we visit, such as our unique South Florida butterfly attraction or a local farm tour, and have them each write something on the thank you card.

Manners do matter, and I’ll explain why in a moment.

In our documentary for Providence Forum, “The Beginning of Wisdom”—which is all about the extraordinary role the Bible played in early American education—the narrator says, “In the early 1960s (and earlier, going back to colonial times), schools opened in prayer.”

Then Judge Darrell White, the founder and director or Retired Judges of America, notes, “In 1962, there was a case called, Engel v. Vitale, that came out of New York Board of Regents prayer that was a very tepid prayer, asking God’s blessing on ourselves, our parents, our teachers, and our country, amen, and that was struck down by the United States Supreme Court, they nullified that prayer. And in the following year devotional reading of the Bible in a case called, Abington v. Shempp, that was nullified as well.”

Next on the documentary comes Dennis Prager of PragerU: “The Supreme Court changed America more with the 1962 decision that prayer in school was unconstitutional. That was the decision that began the end of America as we knew it. It’s as universal a prayer and non-denominational as you could have. And as I often point out, within one generation, kids went from blessing their teachers to cursing their teachers.”

Do manners matter? One of the great aspects of George Washington was his adherence to Biblical-type principles in a book he studied thoroughly, The Rules of Civility.

Meanwhile if would be fair to say that politics has virtually always had an uncivil tone. Frankly, today’s politics (generally) can be viewed as relatively tame.

In 1856, anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was nearly beaten to death by a pro-slavery Congressman from South Carolina. This took place in the U.S. Capitol.

I believe there really is a link between manners and morals. William Wilberforce, the great 18th-19th century Christian statesman, who spent his lifetime championing the cause of abolishing the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire as a longtime Member of Parliament, was also engaged in a lesser-known crusade.

He and other reformers in pre-Victorian England pushed for what they called “the reformation of manners.” The modern translation of that would be “the reformation of morals.”

In short, manners and morals are related. But they are not the same. A person can have great manners and be morally corrupt. The Eddie Haskell character on Leave it to Beaver provides a classic humorous example of that.

However, if you remove manners from society, we are left with a crasser and cruder world. Outward good manners are generally a reflection of inside decency and kindness, and reflect the Christian concept of putting others ahead of self.

We know we’re supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. At just about every wedding, they read the love chapter from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Included in that chapter is: “Love is…not rude.”

Employing basic good manners also applies the golden rule of Christ. It’s treating others as we would want to be treated.

Schools today often have serious problems with discipline. At a more basic level, good manners are gone. In some cases, the schools are even unsafe.

My daughter taught English as a second language in rural Thailand for a semester several years ago. She marveled at how polite and well-behaved the students were. As she would walk into each class, a student volunteer would shout out, “Stand up, class!” They all stood up for the teacher. Then they would cheerfully say in unison, “Good morning, teacher!” They would not sit down until she let them. Needless to say, there was no need for metal detectors in those schools.

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes of the “Broken Windows theory,” postulated by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling: “If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes” (p. 141).

Rudeness and boorish behavior send a signal that anything goes. Bad manners can signal a breakdown in civilized behavior. All the while, the test of good manners is to put up with bad ones.

Yes, sir, manners matter.

©2024. Jerry Newcombe, D. Min. All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: J.D. Vance To Endorse Kari Lake For Senate

Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will endorse candidate Kari Lake on Monday for U.S. Senate, the Daily Caller has learned.

“Kari Lake is a battle-tested warrior who will secure the border and advocate for policies that put the American people first. Kari is running against a far-left Democrat who has been a rubber stamp for all of Joe Biden’s destructive policies that have gutted the middle class. I am proud to endorse Kari as the next U.S. Senator for Arizona,” Vance told the Caller.

Lake, a Republican from Arizona, has the endorsements of fellow Republicans President Donald Trump, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York and Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana.

“I am humbled to have the endorsement of Sen. J.D. Vance. He has been a conservative hero in the Senate, standing up for America First values and never backing down to the DC Swamp. I look forward to joining him in the Senate to get our country back on track,” Lake told the Caller.

Cook Political has rated Arizona as a toss up, one of the best pick-up chances for Senate Republicans. (RELATED: Kari Lake Officially Launches Bid For US Senate)

On Oct. 3, Lake registered her Senate campaign committee with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) ahead of her campaign launch.

The Arizona Republican, who ran for governor in 2022, is heavily favored to win the GOP primary. If selected as the primary candidate, Lake will then likely face Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego in a three-way general election.

Cook Political rates Arizona Senate as a toss-up, meaning it will likely be a better pickup opportunity for Senate Republicans than Pennsylvania or Montana, which are rated to lean Democrat in 2024.

Two recent polls show Lake with a slight lead over Gallego.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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Kari Lake Officially Launches Bid For US Senate

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.