This is America - The Las Vegas Massacre

When an Islamist terrorist strikes, the West inevitably says, "we won't let this change us".

In the case of the Las Vegas shooter, this is "us". This is America. The shooting, the shooter -- homegrown, innate, intrinsic.

America places yuuge emphasis on success and fame. Was the killer really seeking to kill people, or was he seeking notoriety and fame? Whatever his motive, he short-circuited morality and died a killer.

And that's the way the Ball Bounces.

Undocumented Cow to be Slaughtered

The farmer should declare his property a sanctuary barnyard.

UK: Threat Level Reduced to "Severe"

Happy days are here again.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Coptic Christian massacre didn't even last a single 24 hour news cycle -- Donald Trump's phantom collusion with Russia and university campus hurt feelings are far more important than Egyptian massacres.

If you haven't dropped by Mark Steyn's website lately, please do so.

Jimmy Carter: Still Crazy on North Korea, After All These Years

How Jimmy Carter and I Were Wrong on North Korea—And How Carter is Still Wrong
December 13, 2010 | by R.B.A. Di Muccio

Wasn't it Carter who was against inspections because it would make North Korea think we didn't trust them? Presidents -- Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama -- have been kicking the North Korea can down the road ever since.

Pray that God gives President Trump wisdom to deal with North Korea. Pray for freedom and betterment for the North Korean people.

Resurrection and belonging

“The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven."

"The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.”

― N.T. Wright

What does "he was wounded for our transgressions" mean?

So, what really happened on Good Friday? What (if anything) did Christ's suffering accomplish?

The New Testament authors... saw Christ as the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, who suffered in the place of sinners, bearing the punishment they deserved, that they might be reconciled to God. -- William Lane Craig.

Read more on atonement theories: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/must-a-biblical-doctrine-of-the-atonement-comprise-penal-substitution#ixzz4eFSJlgCz

Why is this Friday good?

Isaiah 53New King James Version (NKJV)

53 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they[a] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul,[b] and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.

Footnotes:

1. Isaiah 53:9 Literally he or He
2. Isaiah 53:11 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint read From the labor of His soul He shall see light.

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

CO2: The Garcinia Cambogia Miracle Drug of Climate Science

I came across a blurb today for Garcinia Cambogia. No, Garcinia Cambogia is not some strong, brave woman Hillary Clinton plans to drag out to launch her 2020 presidential run.

Garcinia Cambogia a "miracle weight-loss" pill that MSNBC's Rachel Maddow apparently used to do some load-shedding.

I did a 5-minute google check on it. While individuals rave at what it has done for them, scientists weigh in:

It's mostly pinned on hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a substance found in garcinia cambogia that appears to inhibit an enzyme called citrate lyase and interferes with fatty acid metabolism. 

“HCA does do that—but in a petri dish," says Steven Heymsfield, M.D., the former head of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. "Converting that to actual weight loss in humans would take 1,000 steps beyond that," he says.

I realized what I had: a near-perfect analogy for CO2 and catastrophic, species-ending, mass migration-causing anthropogenic climate change. Just re-do the words:

It's mostly pinned on carbon dioxide (CO2), a substance found in human energy emissions that inhibits the release of heat through the atmosphere and causes a "greenhouse" effect.

“CO2 does do that—but in a petri dish," says Ima Scientist, PhD and former head of the physics dept at Prestige U. "Converting that to actual temperature gains in earth's complex, chaotic, climate system would take 1,000 steps beyond that," he says.

Now, here's the rub. Why is it that scientists are predisposed towards skepticism towards weight-loss formulas, but are so quick to jump on the AGW belief bandwagon?  Climate is much more complicated, complex, and chaotic than a linear physics lab experiment.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Seven Reasons to Read the Bible in 2017

1. The Bible will bring you to God.

2. The Bible will lift your burdens.

3. The Bible will guide your steps.

4. The Bible will lead you to wisdom.

5. The Bible will give you peace and joy.

6. The Bible will keep you from sin.

7. The Bible will give you a reliable lens for viewing and interpreting life's events.

Adapted from Seven Benefits from Reading Your Bible, The Daily Walk Bible.

Terrorist Attacks In The Past Year - How Many Can You Remember?

Can anyone recall all the Islamist terrorist atrocities committed in the past year?

Can anyone put them in the right order?

Corruption USA: The Politicized DOJ

Schweizer: DOJ Funneling Fines To Left-Wing Organizations

[H]ere’s the other shocking thing. if you are a bank, and say you are fined $70 million because you have committed offenses or crimes, the Department of Justice under obama will give you a 7 to 1 discount. if you owe $70 million, if you give $10 million to a progressive group, they will wipe the $70 million clean. So, they have a financial incentive to not say anything and to go along with the scam.”

Someone please tell me this isn't true. Corruption destroy's a nation's soul and kills its economy.

The USA appears to be on its way to becoming a corrupt nation -- thanks in no small part to the Democratic Party.

Democrat Thuggery -- Where's the Outrage?

Anti-Trump Violence Sweeps the Nation

While the mainstream media has been working day and night promoting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, it has largely ignored or downplayed violent attacks against supporters of Donald Trump.

But assaults on Trump supporters appear to be growing increasingly common as Election Day approaches and tensions intensify. 

People have been assaulted; people have been hurt; personal property has been valdalized and destroyed.

The thuggery of the Hillary Clinton campaign should be a national scandal of the first order.

Instead, it's a media ho-hum.

Where's Bob "where's the outrage" Dole when we need him?

Michelle Obama's Hypocrisy

Michelle Obama's Promotion of Misogyny and Date Rape

Donald Trump's statements, which were probably empty boasts in contrast to Bill Clinton's well-known behavior, were indeed lewd and unacceptable. While two wrongs do not make a right, Michelle and Barack Obama have openly promoted rap artists who glorify misogyny, sexual objectification of women, and even date rape. That's right; I am indeed calling out our country's sorry excuse for a First Lady for her and her husband's deplorable legitimization of the most despicable misogynistic language on earth.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/10/michelle_obamas_promotion_of_misogyny_and_date_rape.html#ixzz4OCiJjMG2 

Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

The hypocrisy of the left knows no bounds.

Hillary Channels John Lennon

Did you Hillary Clinton's white suit in the 3rd debate?

Looks like she's channeling John Lennon:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do...

Hmm. You mean open borders, John?

Is Toyota Canada Trying To Lose Business?

Our 2006 Toyota Matrix -- a great car -- has had a recall notice on the front passenger airbag since 2015. For the past 14 months we have not been able to use the front passenger seat. When I called the dealer about when the airbag would be replaced, they said they knew nothing and directed me to the Toyota national website.

Finally I got a letter in the mail from Toyota today saying they now had the parts and were ready to replace the potentially defective airbag. I should call the dealer immediately to schedule. I called within one minute of receiving the letter. I was told that they were out of parts, and I should call back in two weeks. I indicated I had just received a letter saying parts were available.

The response? "That's from Toyota national. Thanks, and have a great day."

* * *

Most businesses work really hard to gain customers, and, when they have got them, they work hard to keep them. Message to Toyota: Customers view Toyota Canada as a single entity. Your schizophrenic distinction between national and dealer Toyota is not working.

Our loyalty to Toyota has been reset to zero, and I'm having a great day looking at a Subaru Forester.

"Why Do They Hate Us?"

Another terrorist massacre, this one a truck missile in Nice, France.

Remember when this current era of terrorism started (or at least, hit critical mass) on 9/11? The question on media and politicians' lips was, "why do they hate us?" -- the inference being that it has to be our fault.

Well, we blamed ourselves. We blamed Bush. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and embarked on his world apology tour, prostrating himself before Muslim leaders and disavowing American/Western exceptionalism.

If we thought all this would somehow help, it didn't. If terrorist acts are a barometer, they hate us more than ever.

But now we no longer ask, "why?".

Why is that? Has something changed?

War on Cops author Heather Mac Donald weighs in on Black Lives Matter

Fox News interview with The War on Cops author Heather Mac Donald.

Here.

The war on cops: The big lie of the anti-cop left turns lethal

“What do we want? Dead cops.”

Remember that Black Lives Matter chant. Well, they got 'em. Five policemen slain in Dallas, with more to come.

This is a must-read article: "The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe" by Heather Mac Donald.

Via Fox News.

Obama's Divisive Presidency

Five policemen slain in Dallas.

I lay a lot of this at President Obama's feet. President Obama has gone out of his way to fuel black grievance, anger, and entitlement. The trajectory, as I remember it, has gone like this:

* First, there was Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the black university professor accosted by cops. Obama rushed to judgement and blamed the cops. Wrong. This was followed by the Rose Garden kiss-and-make-up "Beer Summit". Too late. Obama had sent out a strong signal: Cops bad/blacks victims.

* Then, Trayvon Martin and Obama's "If I had a son" comment. The media turned light brown George Zimmerman into a white to advance their white racism narrative. The evidence in this case was, at the very least, murky. There's a good chance Martin was throttling Zimmerman on the sidewalk.

* Then, Ferguson and the "gentle giant" thug Michael Brown. Another federal government rush to judgment and a rush by the justice department to interfere in local/state matters.

All of this fueled a sense of black entitlement to protest, destroy, and kill. The liberal media -- not least the prestigious New York Times, took Obama's narrative and ran with it.

I view Obama as a failed President who divided the nation. He spent too much time being a black President and not enough time being an American President.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Go, UK, Go!

Tiny Great Britain, in many respects the father of the modern world, has shown sufficient self-confidence to reassert its sovereignty in the Brexit vote. My earnest hope is that Britain and the other anglosphere countries -- Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and, possibly, India -- will see their mutual self-interests and realign into a blockbuster trading block.

Conrad Black's article from May "If Britain leaves the EU, where will it turn?" is well worth a read if you haven't read it (and a re-read if you have).

Meanwhile, go, UK, go!