Religious freedom?

"An estimated 350,000 religious congregations operate schools, pregnancy resource centers, soup kitchens, drug addiction programs, homeless shelters, and adoption agencies. These serve 70 million Americans each year and the value of their services are estimated at over $44.3 billion annually." (Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Vol. 12, Art. 3 (2016)) This is from a religious freedom brochure. Considering how these "free" organizations are controlled by government regulations and are then manipulated by their grants to continue their work I question how free they are to worship, speak out, to petition the government, or to hold privately beliefs about marriage, education and business.

Don't look for Captain America

Kirk Cameron on Elon Musk and freedom of speech:

" I like Avenger movies. While we all love a savage superhero… looking to one man with lots of money and power to fix our problems is how people unwittingly enslave themselves. How? By looking to the wrong source for their freedom and protection. While I’m thankful for Elon’s crusade to save free speech, it should have been “we the people,” (all of us) full of faith and character who render bad companies powerless (by holding them accountable) and build good ones in their place (by putting our money and time where our mouth is).

 
Perhaps, and I hope, that is exactly what Elon is doing. But if we want lasting freedom and blessing, we must not look for a Captain America to be our free speech Savior. The Savior position is has already been permanently filled by the only qualified candidate, and “we the people” need to step up our game and self-govern with our combined powers of faith, character and courage or a bigger, badder Thanos will gladly fill the void and do the governing for us."

Moving right? Where's the plumb line?

 I saw an opinion piece (based I'm sure on someone's academic research while quarantined happily) that American voters are moving to the right.  I suspect that depends on where you place center.  Yes, more blacks and Hispanics are fleeing the Democrat party. That doesn't mean the spineless Republicans have any appeal.  Their personal values, particularly on sex and children, are probably more conservative than whites, who are a mishmash of many races and cultures. Minorities made huge gains under Trump, and all Biden has provided is promises and high inflation.  If CRT and wokeism in the classrooms of first graders is the plumb line, and if social media are considered the standard for American voters, I suppose it looks like we're moving to the right.  But I don't see it, particularly not in my community of Upper Arlington, Ohio.  Our public library has a miniscule collection for conservative Christians of any denomination, and as far as politics and social issues, you might find one or two authors against hundreds of the other ilk. Our churches seem as lost in the fog as the media.  I'll have to check and see if any of my conservative friends have taken off their muzzles and face masks.

Biden working for censorship like Hong Kong and Cuba

Biden is working quickly to control/shutdown freedom of speech. Like Hong Kong and Cuba. Both Communist governments.

"“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook , ” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday, referring to coronavirus misinformation. Meanwhile, the Surgeon General, an officer in the department of Health and Human Services, released a report with a page of suggestions on “what technology platforms can do” to crack down on certain information. The Verge reported that officials at Twitter “met with the surgeon general’s office on Monday to discuss its misinformation policies.” (Wall St. Journal, "Censorship coordination deepens," July 16, 2021)

The precious First Amendment

Yes, Google is a private firm, and it can censor anything it wants--it is not the government. But it has more power over you than the government and it is a public utility whether or not it has that title. No, we can't assemble and we can't petition--because petitioning the government is useless so it might as well not exist. And where would we assemble if the government has closed everything? Freedom to worship on-line is not the same as freedom of religion. Anyone who speaks against the current myths developed by the left or the intersectionality promoted by academe risks her career and sometimes life. Where is the government in protecting these rights defending us from those who would swarm on social media or on the lawn in front of our homes?

Mark Steyn and the First Amendment

Some of you, the informed ones, know who Mark Steyn is. He's an immigrant, a humorist, a wit, occasionally fills in for Rush Limbaugh, and I've seen him on Fox as a talking head. He's also being sued by an academic for not worshiping the climate gods, even after hacked documents showed him to be right.

Someone else made a joke about Michael E. Mann, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University and a climate activist, and Mann sued him and Steyn for calling his hockey stick graph "fraudulent." It was an opinion that should have been covered by the first amendment and should have been resolved with facts and data, but Mann won. So now it's going to full trial, costing the National Review millions of dollars. The Supreme Court has refused to hear it.

You need to pay attention because this is a case that will come after you. Academe, media, professional organizations, non-profits and leftist politicians are all colluding to force us to accept their religion of climate change. We all know climate changes, or Ohio would be uninhabitable. But in order to squeeze more taxes out of us, we have to bow to accepting the blame for it. More important is freedom of speech--that's priceless, not just an increase in taxes.

https://www.city-journal.org/national-review-first-amendment?

Bad framing

Don’t let the left frame the argument—where anything you say that they don’t agree with is hate speech, or they restrict your freedom of religion and redefine it as bigoted or racist.

https://www.prageru.com/video/the-dark-art-of-framing/

You haven’t seen anything yet

Wall Street Journal today opined "The left’s culture warriors always need new monsters to slay. Among their most improbable targets in recent years is the famously friendly restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, which this week appears to have surrendered.

In 2012 CEO Dan Cathy, a committed evangelical Christian, sinned against the progressive ethos by expressing support for the traditional view of marriage. That prompted a political campaign against Chick-fil-A."

Most of us who stood in front of a pastor, judge or someone with a mail-order license and daisies in her hair always believed marriage was between a man and woman. Even most homosexuals. But after activists succeeded in the insurance and work benefits demands, and told everyone it was just about love, things changed after the Supremes again made law and decided to change thousands of years of history. Now if you believe God had something in mind, or even if directionless evolution lurched forward to protect the human race, now you are a hater, bigot, and evil person. And an awful lot of gay guys ended up at the altar (and later in divorce court) who thought they were protected from all that their heterosexual friends and associates were going through.

But is wasn't enough, as we've seen from the growing transgender wars--which threaten homosexuals as much as heterosexuals and will destroy their movement. This Chick-fil-A thing is just one more hole in the wall through which the nation will be attacked at its base--the babies that are unnecessary and inconvenient; the easy divorce or no marriage at all putting generations of children at risk; the demand that we ignore biology and pretend men have periods and babies (which seems to be the only time the Left want babies to live); ignoring the child trafficking across the real border; performing drag queens during library story hour; the dropping birthrate to the place where our population can't be replaced without importing people like oxen to do the dirty work; and the required reeducation camps supplied by our "woke capitalists" and leftist universities. No one will be allowed to have a thought differing from the socialist/communist cabal that is controlling the government and academe.

It will not make any difference if in 2019 you were a social justice warrior who supported gay marriage or the chemical castration of little boys so they can pretend to be girls--eventually even YOU WILL FIND a split in the road and say you won't go down that path. You'll ask, "Where's my country?" Maybe it will be legalized pedophilia, or the redefinition of so much history you'll think you didn't go to school, or digital spying everywhere, or losing your job because you aren't a minority. Look out. Then they'll haul you off to the reeducation camp or the phony trial where you'll have no right to presumption of innocence because in 1850 your family came here from Germany or Ireland.

Oppression Olympics (ala Candace Owens)

"I'm a woman so I'm oppressed; well, I'm a black woman, so I'm more oppressed than you; well, I'm a disabled black woman, so I'm more oppressed than all of you. I'm a disabled black transwoman, so I've got you all beat--I win."

Great video with Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk with Turning Point U.S.A. meeting with Turning Point U.K. Very interesting discussion.  Many of the same problems in U.K. with free speech, open borders, political correctness that we have across the pond.

https://www.facebook.com/realCandaceOwens/videos/818228165180938/?

Candace Owens now has her own show on PragerU.  I think this is her second episode, interviewing the chair of Black Lives Matter.

https://www.prageru.com/video/the-candace-owens-show-hawk-newsome/

News of the day, Monday December 10

*I am so done with "hate speech." With AI we'll soon have "hate thoughts" and even if no word was uttered, you'll lose a job, or a position of honor or a Heisman Trophy. Right now we're down to two categories that can be insulted with impunity--Trump supporters and old ladies with white hair (I've had to leave the liberal social media platforms for the threats due to my age--"die old hag--make room on the planet for people worth it"). I hope the reporter who dug through the twitter trash of a 14 year old is happy.

I'm about to start sticking up for the ridiculous rap artists who say ugly things about light skin black women (the only black women allowed in their videos) just so they can have freedom of speech and act dumb when asked about it, denying they mean any disrespect.

**It's perfectly clear now. It has always been about getting Trump out of office, to undo the will of the people and never was about Russia. If it were about Russia, they'd be investigating Clinton and the deep state that works within the "Just-Us" Department.  They’d be going after Strzok, and Comey, and Ohl, instead of trying to rescue Obama’s “legacy” and saving Hillary. Millions of tax dollars have gone to a slush fund to protect the offices and skin of members of Congress who have been sued for various problems, but no out of control prosecutor has tried to kick them out of office. If Trump paid off a prostitute, it was his own money.  Democrats intend to do nothing of the “people’s work” the next two years, and believe they were elected to try to unseat Trump.

***Same old, same old for 40 years. Global warming aka climate change.  I think the agnostics/atheists care deeply about the creation because they don't believe the Creator, or that there was one. Let's get our priorities right. Clean up our own messes first, house, yard, neighborhood, then work outward. Rid ourselves of hate, anger and lies, then work on the plastic bottles, Styrofoam cups and plastic straws. Work up to not flying our luxury jets to climate conferences.

****If a conservative mob on social media had attacked a black business man and destroyed his small business, it would have been national news for weeks on CNN. But if leftist haters do it, then it's just business as usual.  Marcella Jackson and her husband will rebuild because they believe in the American dream, and that isn't socialism.

Marcella was a “closet conservative. . . “ until a few months ago when a radical LEFTIST attacked my and my husband's small sausage business after being seen on stage at a Delaware Trump rally.

I watched in horror as leftists smeared my husband online and called him a racist and a hate monger. I watched them leave nasty messages, write bad reviews and down vote our business without having ever tried our amazing sausages or vegan products.

Frankly, I knew people could be mean spirited, but I did not expect them to harass our business customers or convince our landlord not to renew our rental agreement. I never thought people would attack a stranger without so much as verifying if the information that they were acting on was true.

But they did. In about a weeks time we found ourselves essentially without income.”

David Horowitz and Freedom Center

“Earlier this year, MasterCard shut off our online fundraising because the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled my Freedom Center an "Islamophobic hate group," and then Discover Card came after us too.

Why did MasterCard go to war against the Freedom Center? Part of the answer no doubt has to do with the invisible advance of political correctness in the corporate world which has helped create a "progressive" culture based on virtue signaling and moral preening.

But there's more to it than that...

The forces waging this war involve a tight network of the most powerful institutions in our economy, the censorship prone social media, the liberal press, and financial giants like MasterCard.

Their marching orders are issued by radical groups such as the George Soros-funded Media Matters and their ammunition dump is provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center's fabricated blacklist of alleged "hate groups."

I know that the story of this attack on the Freedom Center is complicated and I appreciate your patience in reading about it. I hope you see the threat it poses to all enemies of the left.

I also hope you see that the Freedom Center is in the fight of its life and desperately needs your support if it is to continue our historic role as the left's worst enemy.”

Other conservatives have their accounts shut down or go to Facebook “jail” for speaking out about freedom for Jews, or abortion, or schools or support for Trump, like Diamond and Silk (2 black women who advocate for the president). Dare not aim at the Left’s sacred cows.  George Soros has a lot of power (and now you can be called an anti-Semite for speaking out about Soros!) You can’t really say social media punishment for disagreeing with Soros is about free speech because that’s a government issue, however, these sites do have bills to pay—they are a business and depend on advertising which depends on web traffic.  Big Tech is Big Monopoly.  The left also shuts down bakers and florists or fashion designers who don’t want to participate in a same sex wedding, and THAT is a first amendment right, and their businesses are also being destroyed by government.

Cupp on Kanye

S.E. Cupp, a token conservative on CNN, said this  about Kanye West and Donald Trump’s meeting, “I think you had there a man who’s clearly not okay and a president who’s willing to exploit that. And worse, to exploit that under the auspicious of race relations and black communities, joblessness, mental health, all the things that ended up in this bucket of issues that were sort of addressed in this free for all.”

S.E. Cupp can ramble on a bit herself—used to work for Glenn Beck and I watched her every evening.  West talked without interruption or coaching from Trump about fatherless homes--including his own when growing up. He talked about how welfare has debilitated men. He talked about off shore manufacturing hurting blacks. He talked about education--what's good and what isn't. He talked about being diagnosed with a mental illness (a misdiagnosis--it was sleep deprivation) even with an IQ in the top 2%. At one point, he corrected himself when he said something negative--said he wants to only be positive. 

Have you ever heard Barack Obama speak off the cuff with no teleprompter?  About 50 “uhs” and stammers.  West was actually more articulate than Obama, and since Obama was raised by upper middle class white grandparents, Kanye possibly knows more about being a black man than Obama does.

For this he's ridiculed on CNN, Facebook and Twitter.  It’s just not proper for a black man to work and live outside the Democrat bubble.

Hebdo was an equal opportunity scum bag

One of Charlie Hebdo's (French cartoonist who was killed by Muslim radicals) cartoons represented the Trinity as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit having gay anal sex as a ménage à trois--certainly blasphemy and not very flattering for gay men either. It was stupid, childish, disrespectful, hateful, typical atheist ridicule, and no Christians that I know of tried to kill him--but then, there aren't very many left in France and most people outside of France had never heard of this rag. It's sad that this was the only way we could get people concerned over freedom of speech, and questioning why our President refuses to acknowledge Islamic terrorism.

Freedom of speech in the United States?

The French are planning to have a free speech rally now that the Jihadis are dead (along with hostages and journalists). Wouldn't that be nice to have a free speech rally in the U.S., but probably only the Tea Party would do that, and then the left would call them terrorists.

A quarter of the 26,500 immigrants to Israel in 2014 were from France, where there is a growing violent anti-semitism. Until a crisis like we've seen in the last 2 days, the French government seems helpless. Along with other Europeans who have immigrated they say Europe seems dead, Israel seems alive. No sense trying for the U.S.--we're only welcoming illegals. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/…/zionist-dream-come-tr…/

In France you can't publish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed for public dissemination. In the U.S. you can't privately publish your beliefs about sex for personal use.

http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/08/atlanta-fire-chief-fired-expressing-christian-beliefs/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/01/06/atlantas-fire-chief-fired-following-controversy-over-his-religious-book/

“This is not about religious freedom, this is not about free speech.” said the Mayor of Atlanta.  No, it never is when you object to homosexuality based on religious beliefs.  It’s just old fashioned leftist bigotry.

Yesterday it looked like the Paris police were all over this. Today, not so much. Now 2 hostage situations, and possibly 2 more dead. The NYPD once had the best counter terrorism force in our country--maybe the world. DeBlasio has dismantled it. Why? It could happen here. http://www.limitstogrowth.org/…/new-york-mayor-de-blasio-i…/

Sony and Benghazi

Sony wasn't the first casualty of terrorists and films.  Remember the lies the WH told on the morning news shows about the video causing the Benghazi tragedy?  That film maker actually went to jail (supposedly on unrelated charges that were being ignored, and probably for his own safety after the government goof up). But there have been no more unflattering films made by Americans about Islam, have there? Few death threats against theaters and some bombings and beheadings seems to cool creative expression.

I am the First Amendment

I am a blogger—I support the first amendment.  The democratization of the media is threatened.  http://iam1a.com/   I am protected, and so are you.  I am the First Amendment. To exercise your first amendment rights set up a blog account, but don’t expect me to let you be nasty, insulting and mean here.

Government push back

“The year [2008] just ended was characterized by three trends: a growing worldwide demand for greater personal and political freedom, governmental efforts to push back on those freedoms, and further confirmation that human rights flourish best in participatory democracies with vibrant civil societies.” Introduction, 2008 Human Rights Report, U.S. Department of State, February 25, 2009

The assault and ridicule by the mainstream media and the Obama Administration attacking tea parties, talk show hosts, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, and cable opinion shows, including targets as minor as notes for a speech, indicates that this trend--a demand for greater personal and political freedom--is continuing and growing. Especially here at home. The push back would seem they believe our own civil society is too fragile for the freedoms for which we go to war elsewhere.

Plan to restrict free speech

A proposal sponsored by the Obama administration at the United Nations that purports to seek protection for "freedom of opinion and expression" actually is a call for a worldwide crackdown on freedom of speech and a mandate for nations to ensure "that relevant national legislation complies with … international human rights obligations" – a clear threat to the First Amendment, according to critics.

The resolution was submitted recently by the United States and Egypt. It was approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council as a first step in its process through the international organization.

It demands that all nations condemn and criminalize "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence." Steven Groves of the Heritage Foundation told WND the issue is not about free speech at all but about installing international precedents to stifle any criticism of Islam.

Full story at World Net Daily.

The United Nations has become a totally worthless organization, filled with petty tyrants and dictators who won't obey our laws when their here strutting their lies, and don't allow any freedoms in their own countries, from which people flee to come here to find what they don't have at home. Now Obama wants us to become just another third world, banana republic where everyone can be equally poor to fit his narcissistic personality. Unfortunately, he's succeeding.

Sharia Law in the U.S. (Michigan)

A group of Americans at an Arab festival are assaulted, even though the booth invited them to ask questions after they were handed a pamphlet about Islam. They had already cleared their right to have a camera with the local police, but goons wearing "security" shirts assaulted them. Lessons from the Obamacare goons? Seems Islam is not quite so "peaceful" if you can't even ask a few questions when invited.



HT Bev

And now for an alternative view, the intention of the founders and promoters of the festival.