Monthly Archives: April 2022

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Daily Broadside | What Leftists Want is Not What They’ll Get

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 5:26
But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants or maidservants?”

Thursday’s Reading: 2 Kings 6-8

Thursday and I don’t know if you’re feeling it, but I am. The latest Issues & Insights editorial is called “America Moving From A Permission Society To A Repressive Regime” and it helps illuminate the slow but perceptible movement toward a society that can only operate as the government sees fit.

The Democrats who for now dominate policy making in Washington believe there is nothing so private that they cannot regulate, nothing so personal that it can’t be intruded upon. The only question is the pace of the arrogation of our freedoms. They have to be taken down in increments, so that the country won’t notice the slippery slope toward tyranny. In many cases, often regarding energy and conservation policies, restrictions are even celebrated by the loudest factions to help numb the public to the constant attacks on liberty.

Timothy Sandefur, author of “​​The Permission Society,” and a vice president of the Goldwater Institute, has said one of the fundamental problems with living in a permission society “is that it violates the principle of equality.”

“Who,” he says, “has to ask permission?”

The answer, of course, is “an inferior has to ask permission of a superior.”

That certainly describes the country we live in. But more and more, our “superiors” are closing our options before we can even ask for approval. What requires a government permit or certificate, or some other consent today will tomorrow by verboten.

They go on to suggest that restrictions on gun ownership, building regulations, and of social media acting as an agent of the state, are all examples of what happens in a “permission” society, then conclude:

There is a reason America’s ruling class, made up primarily of Democrats with a few RINOs on the fringes, is aptly labeled. It has no interest in protecting and promoting a free society – its objective is to control the country in a way that increases and consolidates its power. Small steps such as dishwasher guidelines and pool heater rules don’t do much damage on their own.

But combined with decades of directives, mandates, and restrictions that affect personal choices, manufacturing processes, and even expression, and they become a bulwark of fascism. Small offenses add up. We’ve come to live under a tyranny of regulation that grows without rest, a regime of repressive laws, a bureaucracy that inflates itself while making life harder for the supervised masses. The government has become a blob that ate American liberty.

In a different opinion piece, author J.B. Shurk writes of the Ten Steps to Totalitarianism:

  • Destruction of Religion
  • Gun Confiscation
  • Control Over Energy
  • Control Over Communication
  • Control Over Money
  • Doomsday Fearmongering
  • School Indoctrination
  • Elimination of Family
  • Elimination of Cars
  • Digital Identity Tracking

All noted and agreed. The only one I think is missing is Centralized Health Care. But we’re already on our way there with the creation of Obamacare and the refusal of the RINOs under Paul Ryan’s leadership to repeal that law when they had the chance under Trump.

Everyone can name something for each of the categories on that list. Religion? See the infestation of woke thinking and social justice practice under the guise of “church.” Guns? The never-ending assault on our Second Amendment rights with new restrictions imposed every time some lunatic shoots up a subway. Energy? Look at the instant destruction of our self-sustaining energy position as soon as the fool in the White House took office. Doomsday Fearmongering? What do you think the climate change alarmism is about? Indoctrination in schools? That’s the anti-American Howard Zinn agenda in our schools along with the sexualization and moral corruption of our kids.

And we’ve all recently heard about the government’s plans to digitize money. If that happens, which is likely, our self-determination and ability to make choices will be severely curtailed. We’ll be living in a social credit society.

The worst of it is that large segments of our society don’t, can’t and won’t see what’s happening. In 1984 an ex-KGB agent named Yuri Bezmenov talked openly about how the Soviets were undermining the patriotism of Americans. Listen to it and see whether what he said then still holds true today.

“What [psychological warfare] basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American, to such an extent, that despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community and their country. It’s a great brainwashing process that goes very slow and is divided in four basic stages.”

The KGB spent 85 percent of their time on psychological warfare against the U.S. And as he says, there’s no way to undo what has already been done. The most chilling irony is when he says that those who were brainwashed into a Marxist way of thinking and seeing and welcoming that ideology would be some of the first to be eliminated under such a regime. Why?

“Simply because the psychological shock when they will see in future what the beautiful society of equality and social justice means in practice, obviously they will revolt. They will be very unhappy, frustrated people. And the Marxist/Leninist regime does not tolerate this people … In future, this people will be simply fffp.”

They get the bullet, too.

That interview was in 1984—almost 40 years ago. Just think of how many more generations have been brainwashed and now occupy stations of influence in all of our major institutions. It would take another 40 years to replace them all if we started right now, as you read this. And starting right now is not going to happen.

I know you think I’m crazy for saying this, but … pay attention, pray, buy a gun if you haven’t, and make sure you have lots of ammo. You’re going to need it.

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Daily Broadside | March Data Proves the Liars in the White House Are Lying

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 2:23-24
“Go on up you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up you baldhead!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them.

Wednesday’s Reading: 2 Kings 4-5

Mid-week and our society continues to splinter and spiral out of control as Joey McWafflebrains tries to spin the worst inflation in 40 years as a product of Russia’s war in Ukraine (while escalating the rhetoric he’s using to dangerous levels) and not of his own doing.

President Biden declared Tuesday that Russia was committing a “genocide” in Ukraine, a significant escalation of the president’s rhetoric and a notable shift that comes as U.S. officials have avoided using the term.

The comment initially came at an event in Menlo, Iowa, where Biden was decrying the effects of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on gas and food prices. “Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away,” Biden said.

I’ve got news for you Fake President McLiarFace. The inflation and spiking gas prices are because of decisions you and your “brain trust” in the White House made that put us in the position we’re in. The Russia-Ukraine war is just accelerating our speed along the trajectory you set.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that the consumer price index – which measures a bevy of goods including gasoline, health care, groceries and rents – rose 8.5% in March from a year ago, the fastest pace since December 1981, when inflation hit 8.9%. Prices jumped 1.2% in the one-month period from February, the largest month-to-month jump since 2005.

Economists expected the index to show that prices surged 8.4% in March from the previous year and 1.2% on a monthly basis.

So-called core prices, which exclude more volatile measurements of food and energy, climbed 6.5% in March from the previous year – up from the 6.4% increase recorded in February. It was the steepest 12-month increase since August 1982.

Let’s see … who’s been in office for the last twelve months?

Price increases were widespread: Energy prices rose a stunning 11% in March from the previous month, and are up 32% from last year. Gasoline, on average, costs 48% more than it did last year after rising 18.3% in March on a monthly basis as the Russian war in Ukraine fueled a rapid increase in oil prices.

The March inflation data is the first to capture the full effect of the European war, which sent gas prices in the U.S. to the highest since 2008.

Food prices have also climbed 8.8% higher over the year and 1% over the month, with the largest increases in cereal and bakery products (10%), poultry, fish and meat (13.8%), fresh fruits and vegetables (8.1%), and eggs (11.2%).

I’m old enough to remember when we were newly energy independent and didn’t have to rely on foreign oil; in fact, we were a net exporter and gas was around $2.12/gal.

I am so tired of the lies we are told by those in charge. They know they’re lying; we know they’re lying; and they know that we know they’re lying. Yet they continue to lie.

What doesn’t lie are the data, and this administration that said they’d bring us back to “normal” after Trump sure did—we just didn’t know how far back they’d take us.

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Daily Broadside | The Invasion of America Will Accelerate

Daily Verse | 1 Kings 22:34
But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor.

Tuesday’s Reading: 2 Kings 1-3

It’s Tuesday of Holy Week. As millions remember Jesus making his way toward the cross on that Friday some 2,000 years ago, millions more today are anxious and angry that the current administration is planning to remove the final barrier to a flood of illegal aliens surging over our southern border.

Illegal entry and squatting in the United States is one of the subjects that severely triggers me when it comes to the issues we face. I absolutely loathe our government that not only allows the current invasion of foreigners to flood our nation, but actively encourages it, nay, invites it.

It’s a crime that’s being perpetrated on us by those in power who don’t give a rat’s patootie about American citizens.

The Biden government has publicly admitted that something bad will happen at the southwest border: an estimated 12,000 to 18,000 migrant apprehensions a day (versus the record-breaking 6,000 average now), or up to 540,000 a month (170,000 a month lately), and maybe six million by the end of 2022 (compared to the nationally historic two million apprehensions at the end of 2021). A Washington Post headline craftily understated that Biden’s Department of Homeland Security was bracing for “unprecedented strains.”

No one seems to be asking why as some 540,000 illegal migrants per month will soon be jumping the borders in all the front-line states. The overlooked real reason they will come is to defraud an American asylum system that Title 42 denied them but will now be returned, more prone than ever to abuse.

Title 42 was invoked during the Trump administration as a protection against the pandemic, denying illegal aliens access to the American asylum system and immediately expelling them from the country. But now that Joe Brandon and his handlers have decided to let Title 42 expire, foreigners are gathering in Mexico like Secretariat in the starting gate at Belmont.

Clues about the true reasons for Title 42’s demise can be found throughout the communiques of pro-illegal immigration organizations. It was never that the public health crisis had passed, only about reopening full access to the American asylum system. Why?

Because as it stands, the asylum system provides a reprieve from mandatory deportation and all but guaranteed release into the United States. An apt term for this is “Remain in America.” It allows almost anyone on U.S. soil who utters “I want asylum” to a federal officer to dodge otherwise mandatory deportation and get in for years.

So foreigners are already making their way here through Mexico because once they’re in by claiming asylum, they’re as good as settled, even though they are here illegally once they blow off their hearing.

Word about the end of Title 42 has already spread among smugglers and other migrant networks. As a result, thousands upon thousands of illegal migrants will trek to the U.S. southern border in coming weeks in hopes of filing an asylum claim and getting released into the United States for years.

Under the administration’s current policies, most of the illegal crossers will get into the United States — and be allowed to remain — without significant consequences. As my colleague John Daniel Davidson wrote earlier this week: “ending Title 42 under these circumstances means every migrant who gets over the border and claims asylum will get to remain in the United States, legally and with work authorization, for years. As a matter of policy, it is effectively indistinguishable from open borders.”

Due to these concerns of a rapid migrant surge at the end of May, there’s a small chance that the federal government will halt or at least delay rescinding Title 42. Keeping it, however, won’t deter illegal migrants who have heard the news from surging to the U.S.-Mexico border.

But who cares, right? Why should we be concerned?

“We’re getting to a tipping point,” Scott said. “This many people being released into the U.S. this fast is going to change the demographics of U.S. cities because nothing stays at the borders.”

This is a cause for concern for many states struggling with the criminal effects of an open border, not just states that sit close to Mexico. As Morgan noted in our conversation, “the overwhelming majority of illegal migrants do not stay in the border towns and states.”

“What happens and what comes through our borders does not stay there. The border cities and states there, they receive the additional brunt of it, but they’re just the throughput,” Morgan explained. “And it doesn’t matter what the danger is whether that’s an invasion of illegal migrant, or drugs or gang members or criminal migrant, or a threat to our national security vulnerability, the border towns and states are the throughput but they’re making their way to every town, city, and state.”

When illegal border-crossers are released without significant repercussions and without being forced to report to an immigration facility, it endangers the entire nation. In 2021, approximately 47,000 migrants were released into the United States because of Biden’s policies but did not report to ICE on time or at all, as they were required to do.

That’s the key. We’re facing the resurgence of a foreign invasion that has been going on for years but has increased in volume from hundreds of mostly third-world countries involving millions of people. This isn’t natural, organic growth that our institutions and communities can keep pace with.

It’s like dumping an Evergreen container ship full of invasive fish like the Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Here’s how one source describes the impact invasive species have on a native ecosystem.

Invasive species are any living organism, such as plants, animals, fungi, or bacteria, that have been unnaturally introduced into an ecosystem, and would not otherwise live in it.

Invasive species can negatively impact an ecosystem’s economic, agricultural, environmental, and public health. Non-native species change the structure of entire food webs and decrease biodiversity by adding to the competition of finding food among native species.

Invasive species affect all of the plants and animals living in an ecosystem, and can also hurt fishing industries.

Tell me how that’s any different from people all over the world rushing to our southern border and into the interior. They compete for resources with the natural population, often in the form of welfare. They overwhelm our health care and educational systems, often requiring teachers to diminish their standards for kids who don’t speak English as their first language. They compete for jobs, undercutting even the lowest wages, hurting the very citizens the Democrats supposedly champion: unskilled blacks and Hispanics. Other countries send us their very worst, releasing criminals from their prisons to find their way here, where they continue their criminal patterns and become our problem—as though we don’t have enough of our own.

I know, I know. You’re all uncomfortable with me comparing “illegal immigrants” and their impact to an invasive species. Listen to me closely: I don’t care. I’m not about nuance right now. This is an invasion, an intentional corruption of the American way of life that will affect our country not just now, but irreversibly for hundreds of years to come (assuming the United States still exists then).

It’s already too late to avoid a significant impact. And if you’re more concerned about the metaphor I’m using than the issue of foreigners spilling into our land by arrangement of the cultural Marxists, your hero is David French.

When people who come from poor, totalitarian, underdeveloped cultures are transplanted en masse into a free and prosperous country where they don’t ever take an oath to their host nation and illegally live in the shadows without integrating into society and break the laws by gaming a corrupt system, they will become a drag on that society and culture. It’s inevitable.

Resident Brandon and the cabal in Washington, D.C. should all be impeached and removed from office for their dereliction of duty. All of them. But it won’t happen because those in power, both Left and Right, won’t let it happen.

But you and I and our families, and our children’s families, and their children’s families, will experience the downstream impact of these anti-American decisions from those who make them and the cowards who refuse oppose them.

It won’t be the America we grew up in.

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Daily Broadside | Calling Evil “Evil” in a World Where Truth is Relative

Daily Verse | 1 Kings 18:21
“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

Monday’s Reading: 1 Kings 20-22

Monday and the start of a new week. But, it’s not just any week—it’s Holy Week. Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the start of Jesus’ final week as his meeting with the cross narrowed from three years to seven days. It was out of obedience to his Father’s will that he moved inexorably toward his death.

“I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”

John 14:30-31

I was inspired by something my pastor said yesterday prior to the message. Without getting detailed at all, he simply drew attention to the world in which our children are growing up, and said something along the lines of, “Our children are under attack. It is evil, and it is exactly what the enemy would do.”

What he was likely referring to is what I wrote about here last week. The gatekeepers at our public schools have allowed an infestation of disturbed, biologically-confused men and women to influence our children at the very youngest and innocent of ages right through college. Our children are facing an onslaught of intentional corruption that they cannot protect themselves from.

It is, in a word, indoctrination.

It is, in another word, evil.

That word, “evil,” was what caught my attention when my pastor said it. I read a lot of news, blogs and other types of reporting. I can say, without exaggeration, that in my reading about the educational and entertainment institutions that groom children towards sexual confusion, only one of them has included the word “evil.”

I’m not saying that no one else has used it but, in my reading, I’ve only come across it once. And that particular source isn’t primarily religious but does respect the Christian faith.

We don’t use or see the word “evil” in news, blogs or in-depth reports. Nor do you hear it in everyday conversation unless you’re among like-minded people or in a church, like I was yesterday. And even there it can sometimes feel extreme.

The reason, at least from my perspective, is because our culture is no longer “Christian” in nature, but secular. The trappings of our Christian heritage still linger—for instance, you can find a bas relief portrait of Moses above the door directly opposite the speaker’s rostrum in the House Chamber—but they only function as artifacts emptied of their meaning, curious historical tokens rather than the sober reminders of a greater Law and Lawgiver that transcend the humanistic drivel that passes for law today.

We also live in a time when calling something “evil” is to make a moral judgment, and that is the one thing that you cannot do in a secular society—especially when that society is based on individual truth and the virtue of tolerance is paramount, as long as you tolerate the right things.

It is here that the Church must object. Because the church is not a building but people, it is individual believers who must object. Not only must they object to the lie that truth is relative, but they must call evil what it is when they see it.

Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter.

—Isaiah 5:20

Aren’t those who teach children to question their sexuality calling evil good? Aren’t those who claim to be protecting children from their parents calling good evil? Aren’t they putting darkness for light and light for darkness? Aren’t they putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter?

And where is the Church in all this? The Church, I’m afraid, is timid. It is afraid to call this monstrosity what it is: vile, heinous, wicked, foul, cruel and yes, evil. The Church needs to reclaim its prophetic voice that proclaims, “This is what the Lord says.”

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.”

—Ezekiel 33:7-9

Unfortunately, the Church as a whole, with notable exceptions, is failing in its mission to call people to repentance here in the United States. We stand on the wall, similar to Ezekiel, watching the wicked, but not warning them that they will die for their sin because we are afraid: afraid of being different, afraid of being ridiculed, afraid of being rejected, afraid of being hated.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.” (Jesus, quoted in John 15:18-19)

I also think the Church has absorbed a lot more of the secular culture than the other way around.

I don’t often connect the Daily Verse at the top of the Broadside to what I write about each day, although there have been some opportunities that I’ve let go by. Today is different. The prophet Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (a mountain I’ve stood on) and says to the people of Israel, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

Elijah then proves that the Lord is God in a contest with the prophets of Baal (see 1 Kings 18:16-40).

I think something similar has to be said to the Church. If the Lord is God, follow him; but if the secular culture is God, follow it. Otherwise, God will expel you from himself like he threatened to do with the church in Laodicea:

“Because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)

This is not a dainty little spritz into the sink. The word translated “spit” means “to vomit forth.” It’s a forceful ejection. In the biblical context, it figuratively means to reject with extreme disgust.

Be one or the other. If the Lord is God, follow him—and that means to be unafraid of standing for the truth, even when it means calling evil something that is evil.

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Daily Broadside | Some Republicans Help the Democrats Be Awful People

Daily Verse | 1 Kings 12:20
Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.

Friday’s Reading: 1 Kings 15-16
Saturday’s Reading: 1 Kings 17-19

Friday and the end of another week. Beware that next Friday is April 15, when you have to hand over everything you haven’t yet to the feds and your state gubmints. “Of, by and for the people,” my eye. No rant from me, but we’ve gotten so used to being fleeced by the people we elect that we don’t even notice it anymore.

The other thing that’s happening on the 15th is Good Friday. Don’t forget to set aside some time to reflect on the sacrifice of God’s Son for the sins of the world, including you and me. It makes seeing the rampant sin among us more bearable, knowing that it will all face a reckoning someday—soon, I hope.

Yesterday was another sorry day in our history as Judge “I’m-not-a-biologist” Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate with the three votes of not-at-all-conservative Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and “severely conservative” (lol) Mitt Romney voting for Jackson.

The vote was 53-47. Brown Jackson would’ve been confirmed if the vote had been tied, with VP (Virtue Pick) Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. But the three liberal Republicans still sided with the enemies of American culture, conscience and freedom, voting to confirm a woman who has a proven pattern of leniency for child sex offenders, supports Critical Race Theory (CRT), and refused to define a “woman.”

Republicans who opposed Jackson did so on several fronts: her dodging of questions on whether she favors court packing; her inability to define a “woman,” insufficient explanation of her judicial philosophy and her “soft on crime” sentencing record, including those of several child pornography offenders.

Democrats celebrated (or should I say, gloated) over the idealogue they forced on the American people.

Joe Brandon:

“Judge Jackson’s confirmation was a historic moment for our nation,” Biden said on Twitter with a picture of him taking a selfie with the newly confirmed Jackson. “We’ve taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America. She will be an incredible Justice, and I was honored to share this moment with her.”

Chucky Schemer:

This is an “amazing day not only for Justice Brown Jackson but for the United States of America,” Schumer said. On the long road to equality, Schumer said, “sometimes you take a step back, but today we took a giant step forward.”

Don’t make me hurl.

Democrats are deeply immoral people. They stole the election in 2020, then they stole a SCOTUS seat by forcing Justice Breyer to resign.

“The Left bullied Justice Breyer into retirement and now it will demand a justice who rubber stamps its liberal political agenda,” Judicial Crisis Network president Carrie Severino said in a statement, adding “And that’s what the Democrats will give them, because they’re beholden to the dark money supporters who helped elect them.”

And give it they did, filling the vacancy with a pyrsyn who doesn’t know what the definition of a woman is.

But that’s not the worst of it. The worst of it is that the regressive, cultural Marxists elevated Jackson’s skin color over her judicial record, a record which indicates that she is a radical leftist who can’t be trusted to objectively and fairly interpret our Constitution. They put superficiality over substance.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “Biden’s pick Ketanji Brown Jackson is a radical, activist judge, one who failed to answer simple questions on her record, including leniency for child porn offenders and support of CRT. Jackson has proved to be in lockstep with the far left’s political agenda, even refusing to define what a woman is. The RNC will hold Democrats accountable this November for supporting Biden’s radical pick.”

Yep. We all know how Jackson will vote, just like we all knew how the Wise Latina and Kagan would vote.

Yet all the Democrats talked about today was “equality” and “diversity.” It’s sickening.

Still, there may be some hope in the darkness. None less than The New York Times postulates that there isn’t much Jackson’s appointment can do to stop the more conservative bend of SCOTUS from dominating.

However collegial she may be, whatever her reputation as a “consensus builder” and whether her voting record will be slightly to the right or the left of Justice Breyer’s, the court’s lopsided conservative majority will remain in charge. Judge Jackson will most likely find herself, as Justice Breyer has, in dissent in the court’s major cases on highly charged social questions.

See that? Even the NYT concedes that there’s a “conservative” bias that includes Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Comey Barrett (all three of whom, by the way, have made decisions disappointing to “conservatives” since ascending to the top court in the land). So spare me the moaning about the resistance to Jackson’s appointment.

Let’s hope that any damage KBJ has the potential to do is blunted by remaining in the minority on court decisions, a Republican take-over of the House and Senate this fall, plus the presidency in 2024.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | The House of Mouse is a Sleazy Trap for Children

Daily Verse | 1 Kings 11:6
So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

Thursday’s Reading: 1 Kings 12-14

Thursday and the Pied Pipers of the Deranged Left continue forcing on our country their latest insanity and insisting that we all skip along behind them lest they shout “racist!” or “transphobe!” at us and cancel our very lives.

We’re all aware of the woke Lefties who run Disney Corp. and who were recently found to be actively and intentionally promoting the LGBTQUERTY+ sexual deviance in their products—products that are primarily aimed at young children.

When Rufo, who’s done a yeoman’s work on this issue, got pushback from fake conservative publication The Bulwark, he brought the receipts.

At the same time, there’s an effort in our public schools to … how to say it? … GROOM our children into the perverted world of deviant sex. To show you how far it’s gotten, here’s a report on a Denver middle school that has created a “trans closet.” What’s a trans closet, you ask?

The closets are specifically designed for students to hide their clothing from their parents, and the school is facilitating that deception (and charging the parents for it through their property taxes). But if you thought that these closets are just filled with clothes, there are more pernicious things inside like breast binders and instructions on how to tuck your penis. (One closet I found offered tutoring in this area, but it was not in a school but in a church—which is equally inexplicable.) Both of these practices, binding and tucking, are extremely damaging to the body and can cause lifelong injury. All of this is paid for by your tax dollars, housed in a school you paid for, and causing harm to your kids by usurping parental authority and encouraging children to lie to you and trust agents of the state—whose salaries you also pay. Don’t forget, these are the same schools that won’t give your kid an Advil without your written permission. Are we having fun yet?

This is in a middle school, my friends, with children about ages 11-15, depending on which grades are handled by which schools (sixth grade for me was still in elementary school).

I’m with Allie Beth Stuckey:

And now there’s a war of words over the word “groomer.” You may remember that there was a popular social media meme of the words “OK, boomer” that dismissed the attitudes associated with baby boomers. Some on the Right have adopted a reworked version of the phrase: “OK, groomer.”

The idea of grooming a child has always been connected to pedophilia, and now fake conservative and NeverTrump liberal Christian David French is whining about the nuances of the term “groomer” and how anybody using it is guilty of “pure malice” that’s “incredibly dangerous.”

Really, pastor French? You’re gonna slap a Christian camp horror show on us while we’ve got pink-haired teachers with nose rings out in the field who pledge to chat up our children as young as five-years-old about their sexual preferences and identity and ALL YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT IS THAT THE WORD “GROOMER” MIGHT NOT BE TECHNICALLY ACCURATE?

What a putz.

This woman, who detransitioned, gets it.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: the only thing these large corporations understand is the bottom line. If their earnings tank, heads roll and extremes are reeled back in.

Not only that, nobody NEEDS Disney. You do realize that, don’t you? Disney is a discretionary spend. No one “needs” to visit the Magic Kingdom. No one “needs” to purchase the latest Disney DVD. No one “needs” a Disney plush toy.

Disney is not life; only Jesus is that.

I think it’s hard for some parents to let go of the idealized family vacation to the Magic Kingdom, maybe because they went as a kid and they want their kids to have the same experience. But the House of Mouse isn’t what it used to be. If you don’t believe me, scroll through Rufo’s Twitter account and look at all the ex-Disney employees who have been prosecuted for being child sex predators, plus all the reporting that CNN (¡CNN!) did on that subject.

I personally think that our culture, which is so immersed in entertainment, could use a good detoxification so that we would all know that there’s more to life than sitting slack-jawed and passive in front of the screen, even if it is Disney.

Do it for the children.

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Daily Broadside | Brandon Hosts Barack, but ‘The One’ Steals Spotlight

Daily Verse | 1 Kings 8:61
“But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

Wednesday’s Reading: 1 Kings 9-11

Wednesday and I’ll keep it short this morning by just giving you this video to watch. Don’t worry, it’s not long, but it speaks volumes about the current resident in the White House.

It also raises the specter of former president Barack Hussein Obama being busy behind the scenes—could he really be pulling strings? The current state of the union sure seems like his third term and everyone in the room wants to talk with him, not Brandon.

Hilarious and pathetic all rolled into one.

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Daily Broadside | Astonishing News That Has Nothing to Do with Politics

Daily Verse | 1 Kings 4:31
[Solomon] was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol.

Tuesday’s Reading: 1 Kings 5-8

It’s Tuesday and there have been some interesting tidbits that I wanted to call to your attention, especially since tracking the devolution of the United States is like watching a dumpster fire onboard a train jumping the tracks and arcing into the abyss in slow motion. It’s awful, but you want to see what happens.

Except I don’t mind tearing my eyes away for a minute to give them a rest.

308-Year-Old Stradivarius Violin Being Sold at Auction This Summer

A 308-year-old violin that was played on movie music from Hollywood’s Golden Age – including “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz – could fetch as much as $20 million this summer, which would make it the most expensive instrument ever sold at auction.

The violin was handcrafted in Italy in 1714 by Antonio Stradivari, the famed craftsman who made violins for the ultra-rich, including King James II of England, King Charles III of Spain and Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany.

It’s remarkable that such an instrument still has life in it, and its provenance works on several different levels to make it valuable. The first is its age, the second is its maker, and the third is its link to one of the most iconic American movies ever made and one of that film’s most iconic songs. It’s literally holding a piece of history in your hands.

Speaking of history, the next item is also connected to a well-known historical moment.

Fabric from Actress Laura Keene’s Bloodied Dress For Sale

A blood-stained fabric swatch that’s said to come from a dress worn at the time of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is going up for sale.

The small rectangular strip reportedly belonged to actress Laura Keene, who starred in an onstage production of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the day of Lincoln’s assassination, April 14, 1865.

While this one is sort of macabre, there’s something compelling about holding a physical object in your hand that “was there” when that moment happened, as though by possession it connects you to the moment. The relic of the tragedy gives us literal color and texture that words or primitive photos could only approximate. “So that’s what it looked like,” we say.

And finally, there’s this, which makes concrete something that up until now, was conceptual and disputed.

Curse Tablet Found on Mount Ebal Suggests Early Literacy Came to Israel

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse… thou shalt set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal.” (Deuteronomy 11:26, 29)

Now an official curse has been found, engraved on a lead tablet that dates to the biblical age and had sat in the detritus of an excavation of Mt. Ebal for decades, the Associates for Biblical Research of Houston, Texas announced on Thursday.

This is very exciting. What we have here is a tiny piece of folded lead (about the size of a postage stamp) on which is proto-alphabetic writing also known as Sinaitic script or proto-Canaanite script. If it’s dating is confirmed, it will be the earliest-known Hebrew text by several hundred years, and the first to contain the Hebrew name of God, YWH (or YHWH), also known as the tetragrammaton.

Consisting of 40 ancient proto-Sinaitic letters on a lead sheet that was subsequently folded, and could only to be read by tomographic scanning, the inscription reads:

“Cursed, cursed, cursed – cursed by the God YHW.
You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die.
Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed.”

It’s a warning to those who break the terms of a covenant. The amulet was discovered on top of Mt. Ebal at the site of Joshua’s altar, where scripture reports he built one after entering the Promised Land.

Critics say that the accounts of Joshua and the Israelites were written hundreds of years after the events they claim to report. If the dating holds up, it’s more likely that the accounts in the “Old” Testament were contemporaneous, being written down as the Israelites walked through a parted Red Sea, trudged through the desert and crossed the Jordan.

Archeology always confirms the Bible’s accounts, never contradicts them.

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Daily Broadside | Would You Be Able to Tell if Joe was a Sinister Commie Plot to Wreck Us?

Daily Verse | 2 Samuel 24:24
“I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

Monday’s Reading: 1 Kings 1-4

Monday and for those of you who are reading through the Bible with me this year, we’ve completed the first quarter of the plan. You can download and print it here if you’d like to join us: Bible Reader 2022. Better late than never!

I know that I don’t have to convince any of you that Resident Brandon is, without doubt, the very worst man to ever hold the office we call “president.” He has been compared unfavorably to Jimmy Carter and to Barack Hussein Obama, who some claim are two of the worst presidents we’ve ever had. I’m not going to argue that claim either way, because the brain-dead moron we currently have in the White House has done more damage to these United States than any other in our recorded history.

Richard Condon’s bestselling novel, The Manchurian Candidate (1959), is a story about a platoon of U.S. soldiers fighting in South Korea who are captured by the Soviets and sent to Manchuria in China. There they are brainwashed to believe that one of their own members, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, single-handedly saved their lives in combat. After the war he is awarded the Medal of Honor when his story is told.

In reality, Shaw and the platoon were conditioned as part of a long-term operation by the communists to infiltrate the American government by planting one of their own in the White House. The plot is discovered, disrupted and the threat is eliminated, so we never see what would’ve happened had the communists succeeded in installing one of their own at the top of the American government.

But you know what? If Joseph Robinette Biden had been ambushed by communists and taken to a secure location where he was brainwashed by Soviet operatives who would install and activate him as their secret agent at the pinnacle of global political power, he’d look a lot like the blithering fool currently residing in the White House.

End our newly found energy independence by killing the Keystone Pipeline and end drilling or fracking on federal lands?

Check.

Beg dictators and hostile regimes to increase production and sell us their oil, even though we have enough in our own country to supply what we need with enough left over to export on the global market?

Check.

Drive up the price of gas, contributing to record inflation in the U.S., then release fifty million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—meant to provide energy security in the event of a catastrophic event—even though there was no supply disruption, just high prices; then authorize an emergency release of another thirty million barrels, followed by the release of up to 1 million barrels a day for six months, or a total of about 180 million barrels—the largest release in the reserve’s history.

Check.

Tell citizens who can’t afford the high price of gas to purchase a $55,000 electric car.

Check.

Revive a very flawed and potentially very dangerous agreement (JCPOA) with an extremist anti-American foreign power (Iran) which is trying to develop nuclear weapons with which they can destroy the “Little Satan” (Israel) and the “Big Satan” (America) and solidify their hegemony in the Middle East.

Check.

Reduce barriers to entry including a wall, police powers, and a public health provision so that foreigners from third-world countries can invade our land unmolested, thereby driving down wages and increasing the welfare state, requiring more taxes from working Americans that are distributed to an imported welfare class dependent on the largesse of the government for whom they will keep voting.

Check.

Oppose any kind of law that requires voter identification, even though we require a photo ID to purchase airline tickets, buy alcohol, open a bank account, apply for welfare, apply for a job, apply for a mortgage, purchase or rent a car, get married, purchase an “M” rated video game, cash a check, buy a gun, or purchase a cell phone—claiming that asking for a photo ID in order to vote is somehow a violation of civil liberties or an attempt to prevent people from voting.

Check.

Support the indoctrination of our youth so that they loath themselves and the country they live in by teaching them to criticize everything around them. That way they aren’t motivated to defend the land they despise.

Check.

Support the indoctrination of our youth by exposing them to sexual perverts who want to groom them starting at five-years-old so that by the time they’re in college they’re mentally confused about who they are and reject the biological reality of their physical body. That emasculates the boys and forces the girls to defend themselves from men pretending to be women.

Check.

Alienate children from their parents by calling parents who protest what public schools teach their children “domestic terrorists” and keep secret from parents the grooming that goes on in the classroom.

Check.

Divide the American people by claiming that “systemic racism … is a stain on our nation’s soul,” implying that white citizens are morally bankrupt because of the color of their skin.

Check.

Reduce the fitness standards for our military services so that more women can remain enlisted, thereby reducing the military readiness of our armed forces.

Check.

These examples are more than adequate to make my point, every one of them chipping away at our cultural cohesion and national security. What’s the difference between this Joe Biden and one that was installed by our political enemies?

The commies could hardly have done worse if they’d planned it themselves.

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Daily Broadside | Two Old Pop Culture Stars Remind Me That Life is Fleeting and That’s a Good Thing

Daily Verse | 2 Samuel 15:30
But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot.

Friday’s Reading: 2 Samuel 19-20
Saturday’s Reading: 2 Samuel 21-24

It’s Friday, April 1, 2022 and I’m going to keep it on the lighter side today.

Do any of you play April Fool’s Jokes on anyone? You know, salt-in-the-sugar-bowl kinda stuff? Cling wrap under the toilet seat? I don’t, but I get a laugh from those who do.

Today also marks the start of Year Three for this blogging venture. I started on April 1 back in 2020, just as we arrived at the end of two weeks to flatten the curve. On April 2 that year, Tony Faux Chi told us, ““If we get to the part of the curve where it goes down to essentially no new cases, no deaths for a period of time, I think it makes sense that you have to relax social distancing.” We all know how that worked out.

He didn’t flatten the curve but he flattened the economy and people’s lives because he is The Science.

Are we done with this charade yet? No? Should we get ready to have Big Government crush us again?

Apparently.

Anyhoo. Weird that the primary cultural context out of the chute for this blog has been the Chinese Lung Pox.

I plan to complete year three and then evaluate whether this is something I will continue to pursue—basically because I got three years of web hosting at a ridiculous rate.

At the end of the three years, I have to decide if I’ll make more of a financial investment in keeping it going. It’s been fun, I’ve settled into a format that I like – – but, really, how much of a difference is it making? That’s the big question.

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you find it valuable or not.

Two pop-culture icons from my youth are bowing out of their respective entertainment fields. Phil Collins, 71, played his last show with Genesis this last week, and is retiring from performing. His daughter, Lily, shared some pictures from the last-ever Genesis show.

I’ve been a fan of Phil Collins’ music, especially his solo work. When I say I’m a “fan,” I don’t mean that I buy his music, that I go to his concerts, or that I sought out his autograph. What I mean is that when I heard his songs on the radio, I enjoyed them.

I particularly enjoyed In the Air Tonight, Sussudio, and his collaboration with Philip Bailey on Easy Lover. His work with Genesis also produced some great songs including That’s All, No Reply At All, Follow You Follow Me, and Mama.

I learned during a documentary years ago that as a thirteen-year-old child actor, he was an extra in The Beatles’ movie A Hard Day’s Night. He didn’t make the final cut of the film, but you can find outtakes of his appearance on YouTube.

Here’s an outtake played during an interview with a young(er) Conan O’Brien:

The second icon is Bruce Willis, 67, who announced he has retired from making movies.

I used to watch Willis and Cybill Shepherd in “Moonlighting,” the comedy-drama TV series. Willis was that wry-humored, self-confident renegade who frustrated the chic Shepherd, the two detectives always pulling off the perfect resolution in the end.

He’s got a condition called aphasia, a communication disorder, which affects cognition and memory.

Ex-wife Demi Moore released a statement announcing his retirement at age 67.

“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” Moore, 59, shared on Instagram. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”

The announcement provided no further details as to the type or cause of the “Die Hard” star’s condition.

However, recent reports allege that Willis’ cognitive issues are not necessarily a new development. An insider told Page Six that the actor had recently used “earpieces, hearing things, for them to feed him the lines” on sets, and that “it was increasingly difficult to have him on screen.”

“He was having cognitive problems, they all knew Bruce was having problems,” the insider added. “Everybody knew, the cast and crew. His family has stepped in, they moved in to take care of him.”

[…]

Aphasia is outwardly marked by difficulty with speaking and comprehending language conversation. It occurs due to injury at the brain’s speech center — usually a result of neurological disease, stroke, a brain tumor or bleeding. The diagnosis is confirmed with MRI or CT scans, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Reports in another article said that one production made extensive use of a body double for Willis, “not just for action [sequences], but for maximizing his screen time.”

It’s tough getting old.

I’m not a huge Bruce Willis fan, although I liked the original Die Hard movie (which, yes, is a Christmas movie).

The reason I notice these two guys retiring—both because of physical ailments that won’t get better—is because Phil Collins and Bruce Willis were part of the cultural milieu I grew up in. They were two famous icons, touchstones, of my generation.

Now they’re old and creaky and because they’re old and creaky they confront me with my own age and creakiness.

Yippee-ki-yay.

Plenty of my generation’s cultural icons have already disappeared from this life: David Bowie, Michael Landon, Eddie Van Halen, Carrie Fisher, Andy Warhol, Peter Sellers, Ted Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Rogers, Liberace, Billy Graham, Lucille Ball and Michael Jackson, to name a few.

The retirements of Phil Collins and Bruce Willis are a blessing because they remind me of “how fleeting my life is.” That prompts me to pay attention to what’s important and to what will ultimately last—and it ain’t pop culture.

Have a good weekend.