225 Pentecost: Not All Roads
“You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.” ~ Psalm 139
Not All Roads
History has one clear lesson: You can choose offense. You can choose defense. Or, you can choose both. But if you don’t do anything, you and your people will not be around very long.
Nature is cutthroat, brutal and unforgiving. When your words, your works and your risks are not aligned, stupidity is the natural result.
Not all roads lead to good. Bad people do bad things. Without clear words, even the meaning of bad things is lost.
Confusion is the seed of chaos.
Good men know that it will not last. We are the apex predators in this system. We are the ones born for this.
You are the one that God put right there right now.
That wasn’t a mistake.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
The Mad Christian
Births, Deaths and Marriages
Target says it will only put its “pride month” merchandise in “select stores” this year after backlash last time. However, this is not a moral change of heart but rather a financial decision. Target assured LGBT customers that it still has their back, but stores will be selected “based on historical sales performance.” It didn’t nominate what the qualifying sales target is, so maybe all stores? (Target)
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing 11 pregnancy centers for “fraud, deceptive business practices, and false advertising under New York law”. Their crime? Giving patients abortion reversal pills. AG James claims that abortion reversal is untested and dangerous. The suit is timed to coincide with a case being decided by the Supreme Court alleging that the FDA approved the abortion drug mifepristone without properly vetting its safety. (The Federalist, Texas Tribune)
A U.S. District Court Judge has sentenced pro-life activist Lauren Handy to almost 5 years in prison. She and several colleagues received lengthy sentences for “conspiring together to block the entrance to an abortion facility” and preventing “fellow citizens from exercising rights protected by law.” However, one report pointed out the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 2022 that “abortion is not a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. So how can individuals conspire against a right that doesn’t exist?” Handy claims to have found over one hundred fetuses in the trash behind the clinic and that she buried some of them. (WNG, Fox, Focus on the Family, Akron)
Telehealth and mail-order abortion pills have lead to an increase in US abortions according to data, despite restrictions in many states. “The latest report also captures for the first time the impact of providers offering telehealth abortions from states with protections for doctors and clinics known as shield laws – statutes that say they can't be prosecuted or held liable for providing abortion care to people from other states.” Telehealth regulations were loosened during the pandemic. The tally does not include “self-administered” chemical abortions. (NPR)
New data shows that more mothers are working, due to remote work. (Axios)
And some lovely news: A Texas couple have welcomed their third, fourth, fifth and sixth children to their family – rare identical quadruplet girls. (Not the Bee)
Harrison Butker has been at it again..
Crime and Punishment
Democrat Senator Bob Menendez is facing his second bribery and corruption trial in seven years. The “powerful former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his new wife” are accused of receiving gold, cash and a car in exchange for “helping a halal meat monopoly, granting favors for people from Egypt and Qatar and trying to influence a New Jersey prosecution.” (CNN)
The Supreme Court has issued a 7-2 ruling in a case about the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded. The CFPB was set up in 2011 to punish “unfair, deceptive, and abusive financial practices.” Guilty parties contribute to a Civil Penalty Fund (administered by the CFPB) which is used to compensate victims of fraud. However, the agency does not answer to Congress or the President and is funded directly by the Federal Reserve which was at the heart of this case. The majority of Justices ruled that this model does not violate the Constitution but critics say the lack of accountability means there is little recourse for anyone who is a victim of the agency’s overreach. (WNG, CFPB, Fox)
Senator JD Vance has encouraged fellow Republicans to make the public aware of the facts in Donald Trump’s legal battlers. Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Donald Trump’s New York case involving payment to a porn star, has placed him under a gag order. A similar order was issued by the judge in an earlier fraud case, which even the ACLU (which has no love for Trump) thought steamrolled the First Amendment. “The public has a right to hear speech from the defendant, especially as it affects our ability to hold fair and free elections.” (The Federalist, ACLUWV)
David DePape, the man charged with attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. (Just the News)
Miami police have deployed a new recruitment strategy: A Rolls Royce Ghost squad car. The car is a temporary addition to Miami’s fleet, sponsored by a local dealership and will be returned once the drive (no pun intended) is completed. (WSVN, Miami Beach PD Instagram)
Monday: It’s gonna be great!
Coming to America
Non-profits are making bank off the human misery created by President Biden’s border policies, according to a new report. NGOs bagged government funding to help house illegals and provide things like music therapy. “While some NGOs have long had operations at the border, ‘what is new under Biden is the amount of taxpayer money being awarded, the lack of accountability for performance, and the lack of interest in solving the problem.’” (The Free Press)
Panama’s President-Elect, Jose Raul Mulino, says he will deport illegal immigrants who come through the “notoriously dangerous stretch of jungle” known as the Darien Gap. The Gap is a key route used by people hoping to reach the southern US border. (Le Monde)
Thunderdome 2024
President Biden has accepted an invitation to debate Donald Trump. The Biden team has laid down a few conditions, such as taking turns (with the other’s mic turned off at the end of their time), and there will be no audience because it would “consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering.” RFK has expressed anger that he was not invited to debate, saying they’re both afraid he will beat them. (The Hill, Time, ZeroHedge)
President Biden has invoked executive privilege to refuse a House Committee’s request for the recording of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. You may recall that SC Hur investigated the President for mishandling classified documents, He concluded that Mr. Biden was culpable, but that a jury was unlikely to convict him on account of his age and poor memory. Attorney-General Merrick Garland requested that President Biden invoke privilege after a Congressional committee moved to hold AG Garland in contempt for not handing the recordings over. A transcript of the interview is already available but Democrats say the GOP will use audio deceptively. (USA Today, Politico)
A new analysis of the amount of “non-citizens” voting in US elections is quite alarming. Although half of those illegally registered to vote will likely not turn out, estimates are that between 10% and 27% are on the rolls. A 2016 interview with President Obama asked whether he would deport “undocumented” immigrants found to be voting. He referred to the “sanctity” of the vote: “When you vote, you are a citizen yourself.” (Just Fact, We are mtiú via YouTube)
Politics
Former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall has debated populism with Nancy Pelosi at Oxford Union. Arguing against the resolution that “This House Believes Populism is a Threat to Democracy", Marshall said, “Populism is not a threat to democracy, it is democracy” because the ‘elites have failed.’” The former Speaker maintained that 2020’s election was stolen and expressed concern for Christians because they vote against their interests. Mrs. Pelosi said “cultural issues” block Christians’ ability to see the answers that the Democrats are offering. (Real Clear Politics, MadPxM via X)
A district judge in Texas has ruled a do-over in a 2022 judicial election. More than a thousand votes were cast illegally, far exceeding the margin of victory. (The Federalist)
Some called it “Waffle House” chaos and others named it the Ghettosberg address, but a ridiculous catfight between female Representatives has left many wondering if it’s true that a nation gets the government it deserves. Senator John Fetterman tweeted, “In the past, I’ve described the U.S. House as The Jerry Springer Show. Today, I’m apologizing to The Jerry Springer Show.” Oof. (RedState)
The Digital Age
Billionaire tech critic Frank McCourt is mounting a “people’s bid” to buy TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance. If they’re willing to sell.. (Semafor)
Open AI has struck a deal with Reddit to allow real-time access to train its ChatGPT bot on user’s posts. (The Verge)
Samsung appears to have watched and learned from Apple’s mistakes. (Samsung USA)
The future of image-generating AI Stable Diffusion is shaky after talks of a sell-off. The owner of the company has faced legal and financial trouble as well as poor retention of key staff. (Futurism)
“Open source is neither a community nor a democracy.” (David Heinemeier Hansson)
Money, Markets and Jobs
A controlled demolition of the last section of Francis Scott Key Bridge was undertaken last week. A new report into the Dali ship which hit the bridge in March has found that the ship experienced several power failures in the lead up to the one which caused it to drift into the bridge’s pylon. The crew of 21 is required to stay abroad while investigations continue. They are getting care packages from the community but are not allowed to have their phones to contact their families. (AP, CBS, BBC)
A barge has hit a bridge in Galveston, Texas, after the tug which was guiding it lost control in the strong current. (AP)
President Biden has placed tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar batteries and several other goods imported from China. “The Biden administration has for months accused China of unfair trade practices by flooding the global markets with goods at artificially low prices, putting US manufacturing…at a steep disadvantage.” (USA Today)
Melinda French Gates is leaving the Gates Foundation. She and husband Bill divorced in 2021. (Just The News)
Visualizing average US retirement savings by age. (Visual Captialist)
Americans still see property as the best investment. (Gallup)
Religion and the Church
Parishioners at a Louisiana Catholic church have apprehended a teenager armed with a rifle and stopped him from firing on a first communion service, with many children present. (NBC)
A statue of Billy Graham has been unveiled in the Capitol. (WNG)
Arts, History and Sport
Research shows that writing by hand has many benefits over typing. Making letters is a complex process, forcing “different brain systems to work together.” “Giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper.”(NPR)
Blanking on a word? Use a reverse dictionary. (Reverse Dictionary)
Last week in history:
1804 Lewis and Clark set out on their famous expedition. (Wikipedia)
2004 First legal same-sex wedding officiated in Massachusetts. (History)
Health, Medicine and Food
US deaths from drug overdoses fell for the first time in five years, from 84,181 in 2022 to 81,083 in 2023. The totals are still at historical highs. Deaths from opioids were down, apart from in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, which saw increases. The CDC did not say what it thinks account for the drop in the overall total. (ABC News)
Walgreen’s is selling its own brand of Naloxone, the reversal drug for opioid overdose. (NBC)
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic last week released the transcript of closed-door interviews with former National Institutes of Health director, Francis Collins. Mr Collins confirmed that he has no idea how social distancing came to be accepted practice and admitted that the origins of covid were not “settled”. The interview was reported on earlier in the year. (Committee For House Oversight and Accountibility, The Federalist)
The man who received the first transplanted pig kidney has died. (BBC)
From the Mad☧Tank
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Hearts and Minds
It’s not just the blue light, our minds need time to relax. “There are a million and one ways screens create problems with sleep,” says Melissa Milanak, a sleep expert. “You wouldn’t take a casserole out of the oven and stick it right in the fridge. It needs to cool down, our brains need to do that too.” She says it is worth “asking yourself why checking social media has become your late-night reward.” (AP)
How fixing bicycles changed one man’s life. Getting his hands dirty changed his “outlook on manual labor, on the nature of work, and ultimately on life itself.” (Tegowerk)
God’s Green Earth
Smoke from Canadian wildfires is drifting across the northern USA. (Accuweather)
Deer hunters and farmers in Pennsylvania are debating ways to stem the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease in wild and farmed herds. (Ambrook Research)
A glowing squid has been filmed 3,200 ft below the ocean surface. (IFL)
Science
A tokamak made using a tungsten casing has set a new record in sustaining “a plasma of about 50 million degrees Celsius for six minutes.” Tungsten has a higher melting point than carbon, which has previous been used for these types of reactors. French scientists are excited that this is another small step toward nuclear fusion, which requires intense heat to get nuclei to join together. (Quartz)
Scientists in Switzerland have developed a new gel which breaks down alcohol in the digestive tract, before it can damage the liver. (ETH Zürich)
Fire: one of God’s amazing mysteries. (The Kids Should See This)
War and Rumors of War
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister and all other passengers aboard a helicopter have been confirmed dead. The chopper went missing in East Azerbaijan amid poor conditions, according to reports. (News)
The UN has voted to recognize Palestine as an independent state. Eight countries including the US voted against the resolution, 25 countries abstained. Israel said the UN had invited a terror group to its table, but the resolution doesn’t mean membership for Palestine, nor eligibility to vote. (WNG)
The UN has revised its casualty totals for the war in Gaza. While the estimated total is roughly the same, authorities say the verification process has shown that less women and children have died than formerly thought. Reports say it is difficult to verify the totals as Israel is not letting many journalists into Gaza. (WNG, NBC)
Aid trucks are beginning to deliver supplies into Gaza via a pier, constructed by US military. (AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced defense minister Sergei Shoigu with an economist, Andrey Belousov. The reshuffle is reportedly a response to the soaring cost of Moscow’s war against Ukraine. (CNN)
Ukraine has withdrawn troops around the city of Kharkiv as Russian troops advance. (NBC)
Japan’s defense chief has said anti-drone capability needs to be beefed up after drone footage of a Japanese warship began circulating on Chinese social media. (AP)
Stories from Far Away
🇸🇰 Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has survived an assassination attempt. Fico was shot several times while greeting supporters in the street. Left-wing outlets reported that Fico is “divisive” and that he was returned to the office for a fourth term on the “pro-Russia, anti-America” platform. Right-wing reports countered by saying Fico is disliked by Western elites due to his populist, Slovakia-first policies. (AP, Spiked)
🇦🇷 The International Monetary Fund thinks Argentina’s austerity measures are going well. The IMF is the nation’s biggest creditor, but has agreed to release $792 million as a loan, after praising President Javier Milei’s economic record: “Argentina’s first quarterly fiscal surplus in 16 years, falling monthly inflation and surging sovereign bond prices.” (AP)
🇳🇱 After several months of wrangling, three political parties will join Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom to form a governing coalition. The new government is “unlikely to represent business as usual” moving away from stringent climate policies, tougher on immigration and resistant to Brussels. (Politico)
🇵🇪 Peru’s government has classified transgender and non-binary people as mentally ill. (New York Post)
🇬🇧 A UK watchdog has ramped up scrutiny of spices imported from India after traces of cancer-causing pesticides were found in two popular brands. (Yahoo)
🚲 An underwater bike
👀 Red Bull’s latest stunt, wing-suit flying through London’s Tower Bridge
🇹🇼 Taiwanese artist makes tiny dioramas
🎨 Bright landscape paintings from Erin Hanson
🍴 Podcast: The curious history of forks. a devilish invention, royal favorite and everyday implement, stainless steel, silver plating
🇺🇸 A writer aiming to visit every town in the USA
🧱 A man builds Lego replica of Dulles airport
👁️ Sauron’s fortress Lego
🩰 How to make a tutu
🐜 Brutal: Army ants rampaging on the forest floor
✝️ Join us on Memorial Day in Rockford IL to learn how you can start your local men's group and nurture Christian brotherhood. Come check out the Hebron Collegium, share your experience with praying the scriptures, and participate in the mutual consolation of the brothers. Bring a tent or bedroll if you'd like to camp out, or else reach out for more info on lodging opportunities. Wives and children are welcome to attend, but lodging options are more limited. To RSVP or for more info, send an email to sos.113.487@gmail.com or reach out via the SoS contact page.
🌸 Also, if you are looking for ways to contribute to the House of Fisk oikonomia, visit Studio31twentyfour for something lovely and handmade.
Jonathan and Meridith Stop the White Noise was a surprise Thursday last week speaking about creativity and industry. Also, viewer questions about plagiarism, eldership for single men and adult children living with their parents. Watch on YouTube or Rumble, or listen here. Show links:
For good reading about the formation of the Bible canon, The Canon of Scripture by F. F. Bruce
The early show was so the Fisks could display the results of their industriousness at a local craft fair. Rev Fisk shared a photo of their impressive display:
If you missed it, Meridith put out a call for anyone who would like to make a quilt for men who stay at the Hebron Collegium. If that is something you would be interested in helping out with, please reply to this email or send a message through madpxm.com/contact.
Our disclaimer: These are some resources the Fisks have found edifying, but when dealing with human-authored texts, apply discernment liberally!
This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Let us pray. O God, on this day You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit. Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.Amen.
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