237 Pentecost 12: That's All It Takes
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” ~ Psalm 34
That's All It Takes
Nothing changed. Everything changed. At once. It was like the universe took a hard left turn and only some of us noticed. "The pharmaceutical industry has mice that will tell us that the drugs they are advancing into the market are safe,” said the professor of biology who was now no longer a professor because: reasons. "What are we to do about this?" asked the professional fighter-comedian. "How many 'this'es' are there?" he replied. Scribes for the Kingdom unite: Heal. Cleanse. Raise. Cast Out. Scatter the Seed. Leave the Tares. Expect the Birds. Trust the leaven. Buy that Field! Search for Pearls! Tend your Nets!
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
R.J.M.F
Don't keep us secret!
Births, Deaths and Marriages
A few years ago, California pro-life activist David Daleiden collected undercover videos which showed the shocking extent to which Planned Parenthood was trafficking in the body parts of aborted babies. Employees discussed the value of late-term abortions and deliberately using partial birth abortion to preserve organs and limbs for resale. Planned Parenthood tried to spin the candid interviews as “deceptively edited”. Kamala Harris, then attorney general of California, abetted the ghoulish trade by raiding Daleiden’s home and seizing his footage. A Congressional committee has subpoenaed the footage and it has now been unsealed and released. VP Harris is proud of her deathly record, so it may not bother her that this represents another stain on her poor record of defending life. But let’s pray that renewed scrutiny of the savage reality of abortion and the evil it spawns will jolt people to consider life. (New York Post, The Federalist)
An economist speaks honestly about the true cost of family break down. “Single motherhood is not a feminist success story,” says Melissa Kearney. While governments will devise spending and education programs to raise a child’s prospects in life, married parents are still the greatest “privilege” they can have. Money can help, but as Kearney says, marriage rates reflect the attitudes of the society around them. (Triggernometry podcast via YouTube)
Coming to America
Federal prosecutors have charged a Pakistani man with plotting to assassinate political leaders. The man who allegedly has ties to the Iranian government, was arrested in New York as he was preparing to leave the country. Justice Department officials have confirmed that Donald Trump was one of the intended targets and it was in response to this threat that the Secret Service increased security detail at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally. (Just the News)
The owner of an apartment building in Colorado says a gang of Venezuelan migrants has taken over his property and turned it into a slum. The owner says authorities ignored his requests for help, but officials say the owner is dodging code violations. (The Sentinel)
Thunderdome 2024
Vice President Harris has been on the campaign trail, telling rally attendees in Philadelphia that “We fight for a future where we defend our most fundamental freedoms, the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.” In a rally in Arizona, VP Harris advised pro-Hamas hecklers to pipe down unless they wanted Donald Trump to win. (The Briefing, Hot Air)
Donald Trump and VP Harris have agreed to debate on September 10th. (AP)
And the running mate is….:
Special counsel Jack Smith has asked for more time to consider how Donald Trump’s January 6th case can proceed. S.C. Smith proposed a delay in proceedings after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents do have immunity for acts they perform in the line of duty. (Just the News)
One “cyber squatter” is pleased with Vice President’s pick for her running mate. He had camped out on several domain names, but was able to sell the Harris-Walz address for thousands of dollars. Very online, indeed. (NPR)
Politics
Federal Air Marshal Service whistleblowers claim that the Biden administration placed Hawaii’s former representative, Tulsi Gabbard, on a watch list generated by the program known as Quiet Skies. Gabbard was deemed a “security risk” after she criticized the President’s policies, meaning she has “she unknowingly had ‘two explosive-detection canine teams, one Transportation Security specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA supervisor, and three federal air marshals on every flight she boards.’” (The Daily Signal, BBC)
Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has launched a campaign to encourage people to report any election “misinformation”, warning voters that “grifters” are trying to “hack the minds” of Americans. “Voters are treated as not entirely capable of critical thinking regarding their news,” says one critic, with Secretary Benson’s office suggesting several biased factcheckers as reliable sources of truth. (Reclaim the Net)
Three executives of voting machine company Smartmatic have been indicted for funneling money to a Phillipines electoral official in a pay-to-play scheme. (The Federalist)
The New Tolerance Campaign is pushing back against the one-sided free speech advocacy engaged by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC frequently categorizes Christians and conservatives as hateful for supporting traditional marriage and opposing transgenderism for minors. NTC has published its own “Hate Map” as a way to highlight organizations or individuals who call for violence against Christians and conservatives for their views. (NTC Hate Map, The Federalist Radio Hour podcast)
Democrat Representative Cori Bush has lost her primary race to fellow Dem, Wesley Bell. Bush, a member of the Congressional group known as “the squad”, blamed Jewish groups and corporations for her loss. (The Blaze)
Crime and Punishment
Zillow Gone Wild, a popular meme account known for highlighting extravagant or unusual real estate in America is being sued for damages by a photographer for reposting her photos without permission. Experts are divided over whether the posts are protected under the fair use doctrine that allows for limited use of copyrighted materials if it is for comment or criticism.(Fast Company)
The Digital Age
Google has lost an anti-trust suit raised jointly by the Department of Justice and attorneys-general from a number of states. U.S. Federal Judge Amit Mehta took a few months break to ponder the evidence and has now ruled that the company “has illegally held a monopoly in two market areas: search and text advertising.” Critics of the decision say Google is a “strange monopolist”, since it “doesn’t harm customers” and they are free to install other browsers. One Google spokesman said “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.” At the heart of the case is Google’s spending $26 billion in 2021 to be the default search on many devices, arguably making it difficult for competitors to get a start. For example, Microsoft has spent $100 billion on its Bing browser over the last 20 years, but has not made much headway. “While the ruling stops short of detailing the potential penalties Google may face, it raises significant questions about the future operational landscape for Google’s search engine business. An appeal from Google is anticipated.” (CNBC, Wall St Journal, Wired, Reclaim the Net)
Speaking of Google.. The company is facing a backlash over a commercial in which a little girl uses an A.I. chatbot to write a letter to her favorite Olympian. One professor slammed the ad as “encouraging the use of automation instead of authenticity”. She wrote that the ad represents a “monocultural future where we see fewer and fewer examples of original human thoughts.” Apple faced similar criticism when it released a commercial suggesting its tablet could replace a variety of tools for human creativity, as Frisby wrote up. (CNBC)
Leaked documents claim computer chip giant, Nvidia has been scraping vast quantities of YouTube videos to train its bots. The company “took pains to hide its activities from YouTube, using dozens of virtual machines’ that automatically changed their IP addresses to avoid detection.” (The Byte)
Money, Markets and Jobs
Two key factors sent global markets into a spin last week. “First, a weaker than expected US jobs number. Second, an interest rate move by Japan’s central bank” sent fears of a U.S. recession across financial sectors. But a few economists have suggested this was likely a correction to overvaluation in markets. It looks like things have largely returned to calm after the rout. (The Conversation, WNG, ABC News)
A Manhattan office skyscraper has sold for $8.5 million at auction. The building which was purchased for over $200 million in 2012 could not attract a buyer for even $50 million in recent years. (Daily Mail)
Thirty-year mortgage rates have dropped (a little). (Reuters)
Apparently, 20 million Americans would like to move to more rural locations, in a bid for greater agency over their lives. Advocates say this "Big Sort” may drive a state-based renewal of institutions and communities. (The Federalist)
Some of the most dangerous jobs in America. (IFL Science)
Straight Outta J-School
A lawsuit brought by X and Rumble has pushed Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a shadowy media rating organization, to announce it will pack up shop. GARM pressured advertisers to demonetize outlets and creators who countered GARM’s approved narratives on climate, the sexual revolution and elections etc. The censorship fight continues.. (Reclaim the Net)
A liberal media organization is painting X as a threat to democracy and Elon Musk as a unique menace. The outlet is imploring Democrats and progressives to set up shop on rival socials and post on X last, in a bid to ruin the platform’s reputation as a place where journalists can discover breaking news first. (Framelab)
Health, Medicine and Food
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued an emergency suspension on the sale of pesticide known as DCPA. The EPA has found that unborn babies whose mothers are exposed to the pesticide could suffer from “low birth weight and impaired brain development.” (WNG)
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a nasal spray alternative to the epiPen. (The Hill)
What you’re inhaling when you wear a mask. (Epoch Times)
Religion and the Church
Very online churches: A new crop of preachers in Kenya see their virtual churches as a potent way of reaching further afield, and providing those who can’t safely attend church in their home countries. “After Covid-19, generally people felt that they can actually exist without the church. Then there’s the Gen Z and the Alpha, who are spiritual but not religious, so they don’t understand why they have to go to church to be spiritually connected with God,” one pastor said. Beyond sheer convenience and low barrier to entry for an online “service”, one Catholic chaplain sees potential problems: “I think what we would want is to humanize society, not to lose our humanity in the process of advancing in technology.” (Rest of the World)
Denver Broncos’ great, Randy Gradishar, has used his induction into the Hall of Fame acceptance speech to deliver a Romans Road-style presentation of the Gospel. (WNG)
Arts, History and Sport
Bicycles in the 1890s: “Bikes facilitated unchaperoned dates—even elopements. Just as troubling to some moralists of the day, cycling women often wore bloomers, widely seen as indecent, that were much like men’s pants…Another charge against the cycling craze was that people were spending their Sundays…on bike rides rather than at church. Already, male church attendance had been on the decline. As a sport open to both women and men, cycling threatened to leave preachers with congregations made up of only the sick and the elderly.” Eventually “The price of bicycles fell, transforming their image into a working-class mode of transportation rather than an accessory for leisure” and clergy started worrying about the impact of the automobile. Little did they know that TV and the internet were just around the corner! (JSTOR)
“The benefits of the “democratization” that modern technology has brought to music are ample. I wouldn’t have experienced many of my own musical delights without it. And yet, letting music wash over every moment of life without cultivating places for quiet is like reading the classics and never pausing to reflect on their meaning.” (Plough)
The Spielberg Face: “A childlike wonder in the act of watching..it’s as if their total submission to what they're seeing mirrors our own. If Spielberg deserves to be called a master of audience manipulation, then this is his master stroke.” (Kevin B Lee via Vimeo)
Last week in history:
3114 B.C. The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar begins. (Smithsonian)
612 B.C. (approx.) The Babylonians and Medes sack Nineveh, one of the greatest cities in the ancient world. (Britannica)
1782 George Washington creates the “purple heart” badge of honor for soldiers. (History)
1822 America’s first boardgame featured a map of the States, with just 24 states. (Atlas Obscura)
1893 Rudolf Diesel obtains a patent for his internal combustion engine. (On This Day)
1945 The U.S. drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (National WWII Museum)
From the Mad☧Tank
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Science
Two NASA astronauts are stuck on the International Space Station after their Boeing Starliner craft ran into trouble. The original 8-day mission has been extended indefinitely as NASA decides whether to attempt a return in the Starliner which may malfunction or to wait until 2025 for Space X’s next launch. (ABC)
A NASA program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket contracted to Boeing has been delayed by years and run billions over budget. A new report claims Boeing has been using an unqualified workforce, naming “unsatisfactory” welding or propellant tanks as the culprit for a seven-month delay in the program. (ArsTechnica)
Hearts and Minds
One couple deliberately built a casement window at the front of their house during a remodel, inviting their neighbors to socialize. Escape the Algorithm’s post encourages readers to consider ways to build “figurative casement windows” into their lives: they formed a private social media group to invite other parents to join “last-minute kiddie plans”. (Escape the Algorithm)
“20 Classic Poems Every Man Should Read.” (Art of Manliness)
Cleaning house in 15 minute chunks. (LifeHacker)
The use of the expression “ope” may not even be a midWestern thing. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
God’s Green Earth
Trees can “hold their breath” during wildfires. (The Conversation)
UNESCO has listed 24 new heritage sites around the world. (EuroNews)
Looks very Monday-ish out there..
War and Rumors of War
Ukraine has launched an offensive inside Russian territory. The attack used drones and tanks to capture several settlements a few miles inside the international border. (Institute for the Study of War)
Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as its new leader. Sinwar is on several “most-wanted” lists and is believed to be hiding underground in Gaza. (BBC)
Stories from Far Away
🇧🇩 Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus has been sworn in as Bangladesh’s interim leader. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled the country for 15 years resigned and fled to India after weeks of student protests. Pro- and anti- government groups clashed as protests over government job quotas morphed into public anger against Hasina’s administration. Hasina has ruled as an autocrat, according to reports, silencing dissent and entrenching her power. President Mohammed Shahabuddin has agreed to conditions set out by student leaders and military chiefs, appointing Yunus to lead for now, as he attempts to reconcile hostile factions. “With practically every government institution politicized by the Awami League, distrust of the security services, military, courts, and civil service runs deep across society” in the nation of 170 million. (BBC, Time)
🇦🇹Taylor Swift’s concerts in Austria have been postponed after police foiled a terror plot. Three young ISIS recruits were planning to drive a vehicle of explosions into the venue and kill as many people as possible with machetes, according to reports. (PJ Media)
🇬🇧 Some British MP's are reportedly wanting to haul Elon Musk in for questioning after he posted a fake headline on his X account. The fabricated article claimed that right-wing protestors in the U.K. would be sent to detention camps. Anti-illegal immigration protests continue across Britain with perceived discrimination by police in favor of Muslim gangs have lead to the internet branding PM Starmer, “two-tier Keir”. (The Guardian, ZeroHedge) Britain has certainly been cracking down on people posting “misinformation” on social media. (Hot Air, Konstantin Kisin via X) An interesting potted history of British immigration policy. (Collingwood via X)
🇻🇪 Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has blocked access to X for ten days, accusing Elon Musk of inciting hate and fascism. Maduro claimed victory in recent presidential elections though his opposition say he rigged it. (Al Jazeera)
🇷🇺 A Russian chess player is being investigated after allegedly trying to poison her opponent, smearing a piece with a mercury-laced substance. (NBC)
🇩🇰 A Polish man has been sent to prison for punching Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as she was walking in Copenhagen. The accused man said he was very drunk at the time and can’t remember. (Reuters)
🇫🇷 Amazing pics from the Olympics
👟 Sneaker wars: The bitter tale of the two brothers who built rivals Adidas and Puma
🎶 Hurdy gurdy! An electronic device to compose music using medieval instrument samples. The marketing is kind of out there.
🤙🏼 The origins of the word “dude”
🧞 Disney honors a free ticket from 1985
🔧 Nuts and bolts and a creative mind
🐛 The costliest coding error lost a company $450 million
🌸 Cartoon characters from flowers and sticks
🇮🇹 The ancient engineering that built Venice
🇵🇷 Rare “jets” of lightning captured over the skies of Puerto Rico
🏃🏻 The most complicated English word
Episode 237 of Starfall2029 was chock full of gems, with Jonathan and Meridith talking about homeschooling, comforting heathen friends and Rev Fisk’s seven seeds: Biblical imagery that communicate powerful promises to us saints! Watch on YouTube or Rumble, or listen here. Show links this week are the excellent previous articles from Pastor Fisk on how to stop outsourcing your survival:
Salting the Prepper Shakedown - what’s in your stay-bag
Personnel Matters - a clear chain of command
Home at the Gate - know your allies
When Pushed, Pushed Back - defending yourself
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. Gracious Father, Your blessed Son came down from heaven to be the true bread that gives life to the world. Grant that Christ, the bread of life, may live in us and we in Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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