Posted on

America has a moral Crisis, not a gun control problem

America faces a moral crisis, not a gun control problem. As God and morality are purged from all our institutions, darkness, chaos, evil, and violence grow to fill in the gap. There is no political solution or regulation that will stop these evildoers. Only more armed law-abiding citizens and a true spiritual and moral revival will help reduce these atrocities and protect innocent lives.

  • The left stopped disciplining children and teaching them accountability.

  • The left used anti-depressant drugs to “fix” spiritual problems.

  • The left chased God and prayer out of the public schools.

  • The left banned the Ten Commandments from the classrooms.

  • The left removed moral lessons from the curricula.

  • The left glorified sexual immorality and depravity.

  • The left promoted abnormality as “normal.”

  • The left defended the depiction of senseless gun violence and brutal murders in films, media, and video games as “entertainment” and “art.”

  • The left praised the dangerous gang-culture infecting society as “cultural diversity.”

  • The left celebrated abortion and the murder of the unborn as “feminist freedom.”

  • The left denigrated the sanctity of life.

  • The left ridiculed traditional morality and the Christian faith.

  • The left encouraged atheism and godless ideologies.

We are now reaping the results of rejecting God and His moral laws, truth, and wisdom.
Chris Banescu regularly blogs at www.chrisbanescu.com and www.orthodoxnet.com/blog.

America faces a moral crisis, not a gun control problem. As God and morality are purged from all our institutions, darkness, chaos, evil, and violence grow to fill in the gap. There is no political solution or regulation that will stop these evildoers. Only more armed law-abiding citizens and a true spiritual and moral revival will help reduce these atrocities and protect innocent lives.

  • The left stopped disciplining children and teaching them accountability.

  • The left used anti-depressant drugs to “fix” spiritual problems.

  • The left chased God and prayer out of the public schools.

  • The left banned the Ten Commandments from the classrooms.

  • The left removed moral lessons from the curricula.

  • The left glorified sexual immorality and depravity.

  • The left promoted abnormality as “normal.”

  • The left defended the depiction of senseless gun violence and brutal murders in films, media, and video games as “entertainment” and “art.”

  • The left praised the dangerous gang-culture infecting society as “cultural diversity.”

  • The left celebrated abortion and the murder of the unborn as “feminist freedom.”

  • The left denigrated the sanctity of life.

  • The left ridiculed traditional morality and the Christian faith.

  • The left encouraged atheism and godless ideologies.

We are now reaping the results of rejecting God and His moral laws, truth, and wisdom.
Chris Banescu regularly blogs at www.chrisbanescu.com and www.orthodoxnet.com/blog.

via American Thinker Blog

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/

Posted on

Classmates: Connor Betts Kept a ‘Hit List’ and a ‘Rape List’

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended for compiling a “hit list” of those he wanted to kill and a “rape list” of girls he wanted to sexually assault.

The accounts by two former classmates emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Connor Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing the .223-caliber rifle with extended ammunition magazines that he used to open fire outside a crowded bar. Police on patrol in the entertainment district fatally shot him less than a minute later.

Both former classmates told The Associated Press that Betts was suspended during their junior year at suburban Bellbrook High School after a hit list was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern they might face harassment.

“There was a kill list and a rape list, and my name was on the rape list,” said the female classmate.

A former cheerleader, the woman said she didn’t really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list of potential targets.

“The officer said he wouldn’t be at school for a while,” she said. “But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn’t give us any warning that he was returning to school.”

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools officials declined to comment on those accounts, only confirming that Betts attended schools in the district.

The discovery of the hit list early in 2012 sparked a police investigation, and roughly one-third of Bellbrook students skipped school out of fear, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News.

It’s not clear what became of that investigation. Chief Michael Brown in Sugarcreek Township, which has jurisdiction over the Bellbrook school, did not return calls Sunday about whether his agency investigated the hit list.

Though Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly by authorities at the time as the author of the list, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school he was the one suspended over the incident.

Drew Gainey was among those who went on social media Sunday to say red flags were raised about Betts’ behavior years ago.

“There was an incident in high school with this shooter that should have prevented him from ever getting his hands on a weapon. This was a tragedy that was 100% avoidable,” he wrote on in a Twitter post on Sunday.

Gainey did not respond to messages from AP seeking further comment, but the name on his account matches that of a former Bellbrook student who was on the track team with Betts.

Former Bellbrook Principal Chris Baker said he “would not dispute that information” when the Daily News asked him Sunday about the hit list suspension. He declined to comment further to the newspaper and the AP was unable to reach him.

Betts had no apparent criminal record as an adult, though if he had been charged as a juvenile that would typically be sealed under state law.

“There’s nothing in this individual’s record that would have precluded him from getting these weapons,” Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Sunday.

Not everyone who went to school with Betts had bad things to say. Brad Howard told reporters in Bellbrook on Sunday that he was friends with Betts from preschool through their high school graduation.

“Connor Betts that I knew was a nice kid. The Connor Betts that I talked to, I always got along with well,” Howard said.

Mike Kern, a customer at the gas station where Betts used to work in Bellbrook, said he hasn’t seen Betts in about a year.

“He was the nicest kid you could imagine,” always friendly, Kern said. “I never heard him talk about violence, say a racist word, or anything like that.”

He said they sometimes played trivia at a bar near the gas station, and Betts often knew the answers on questions about current events and pop culture.

“He was real smart,” Kern said. “He knew all the answers.”

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Posted on

Nets Silent: Dayton Shooter Alleged Twitter Account Supported Antifa Violence, Elizabeth Warren

Monday morning following horrific, deadly mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas over the weekend, as well as Gilroy, California last week, the networks were eager to pin blame on President Trump for “fueling” the violence with his “hateful rhetoric” against immigrants. What they were not eager to do was point out that the alleged social media accounts of one of these shooters revealed he was a radical leftist, who supported socialism, antifa, and Elizabeth Warren for president.

via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.newsbusters.org/

Posted on

LEE & BAIRD: Recent Conference Highlights Emboldened Islamism In America

The Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) held its 2019 annual convention on July 5-7 in Philadelphia. Just as with last year’s conference — also held in the nation’s birthplace — there was no shortage of extremists sharing the podium. But in contrast to 2018, this time the focus was squarely on the Islamist charge into the political sphere.

via Daily Wire

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.dailywire.com/rss.xml

Posted on

‘He Was Delicious.’ Ted Cruz Responds After Being Accused of Eating Someone’s Son

Speaking to the 41st annual National Conservative Student Conference held by Young America’s Foundation, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made a special request of Republicans. “Have fun,” Cruz said, “look, frankly, too many Republicans, too many conservatives, they act like they’ve got a stick inserted somewhere it don’t belong. Like just lighten up and laugh, would…

The post ‘He Was Delicious.’ Ted Cruz Responds After Being Accused of Eating Someone’s Son appeared first on Conservative Tribune.

via Conservative Tribune

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.westernjournal.com/ct

Posted on

Man Arrested At Elizabeth Warren Event After Allegedly Threatening Protesters In MAGA Hats

On Thursday night, a man hostile to Trump supporters who were protesting at a Tempe, Arizona, event for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was arrested when he reportedly threatened to strike one of them.

The Washington Post reported that the man was feuding with members of the AZ Patriots, who were wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats and carrying a Trump flag at the Marquee Theater. The Post reported that Jennifer Harrison, a member of the group, claimed he threatened to strike her as well as attempt to seize a member’s cellphone being used to record the event.

ABC News reported, “The man was abruptly taken into the lobby, where he was pushed onto the ground and pinned down. At least six members of the event security staff then forcefully dragged the man, who did not appear to cooperate with attempts to bring him outside, across the lobby by his arms and legs.”

Tempe Police Sgt. Kevin Renwick said of the arrest, “It’s pretty cut and dried.” He told ABC News, "This is just people behaving badly. Absolutely it was appropriate and lawful the way the security removed him." He concluded, "It never looks pretty, but sometimes that’s the way to do it, unfortunately.”

Detective Greg Bacon, a spokesman for the Tempe Police Department, added the man would be charged with “assault and disorderly conduct for confronting another subject at the event.”

Harrison said members of Warren’s campaign staff tried to block the view of the AZ Patriots by using signs. She added that, prior to the incident with the arrested man, security at the event asked her group to leave. She said, “No problem, we left peacefully, no problem. We respect the law.” But as they were leaving, the arrested man went into action, allegedly trying to seize her compatriot’s phone. She said that later the man “came after me and tried to take a swing at me.” She concluded, “Liberals cannot keep their hands to themselves at these events. They see a Make America Great Again hat and they become unglued.”

AZCentral.com reported that the crowd at the Marquee Theater numbered roughly 3,000 people, and although the event was billed as a townhall, Warren took no questions.

In May, OH Predictive Insights released the results of a poll surveying the top six Democratic candidates at the time versus President Trump. Former Vice president Joe Biden was the only Democratic candidate to lead Trump, 49%-44%. Warren trailed Trump 42%-47%. Mike Noble, Chief of Research and Managing Partner at Predictive Insights, commented, “Biden is currently the king of the hill, although just like in the childhood game many of us used to play at recess, the question remains if he will be on top of the hill when the bell rings. The winners and losers of the 2020 election cycle will greatly depend on who ultimately lands up becoming the Democratic nominee for President.”

Fivethirtyeight.com pointed out, “Arizona’s primary is scheduled for March 17, 2020. 67 delegates will be awarded proportionally based on the results statewide and in each congressional district. In 2016, Hillary Clinton got 56.3% of the vote in Arizona, and Bernie Sanders got 41.4%.”

via Daily Wire

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.dailywire.com/rss.xml

Posted on

Poll: 9 in 10 Young Britons Believe Their Lives Have No Purpose

A nationwide poll has revealed that 89 per cent of 16- to 29-year-olds believe that their lives have no meaning or purpose.

The poll, conducted by Japanese company Yakult and reported by The Sun, also found that 30 per cent of young people believe they are stuck in a rut with 84 per cent saying that they believe they are failing to “live their best life”.

Across all age groups, over half (51 per cent) of those surveyed believe they were put on the earth to be as happy as they can be, whilst 37 per cent believe that it is their role to make people around them happy, with 31 per cent believing humanity’s purpose should be to do good.

With religion being a major source of sense of purpose, a separate survey reported last month that those professing a Christian faith in the UK is at a record low at 38 per cent, with only one per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds identifying as belonging to the Church of England.

Young people are not the only demographic to be expressing a profound level of negativity about the state of their existence. In 2017, a survey by the commission on loneliness, set up by MP Jo Cox before her murder, found that almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of older people feel lonely, with nearly half (49 per cent) of those saying they have been feeling like that for years.

The following year, the British government appointed a so-called Minister for Loneliness, with state-funded programmes and initiatives to help lonely people connect with others around them and make friends.

Research from the government revealed some nine million people “always or often feel lonely”, with some 200,000 older people saying they had not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than one month.

Forbes reported last year on a Norwegian start-up called No Isolation that aims to “fight loneliness” using “warm technology”, i.e., robots, and has developed artificial intelligence devices for two groups of identified vulnerable people, those over the age of 80 and children who are suffering from long-term illness, which it hopes to roll out across Europe to fill the care gap.

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Posted on

How to Write the Perfect Passive Description of Chappaquiddick

Are you writing an article about Chappaquiddick, the 1969 "incident" where Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond after drinking at a party, swam out while 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne was still stuck inside, gave up trying to rescue her as she eventually died of suffocation, didn’t tell the authorities who likely could have saved her life until the next morning, worried first and foremost about the harm to his political career, tried to fake an alibi, never spent a day in jail, and went on to serve 40 more years in the Senate?

Well, yuck. That sounds a lot like manslaughter that should have sent the scion to prison and put an end to his unearned political career. We can’t have that, so here are some examples of how to passively frame this atrocity in the friendliest possible terms.

"Senator Kennedy Becomes Entangled in a Tragic Car Accident"

In a 2015 piece for The Hollywood Reporter, the writer framed the plot of the upcoming film Chappaquiddick this way: "On the eve of the moon landing, Senator Kennedy becomes entangled in a tragic car accident that results in the death of former Robert Kennedy campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne."

In addition to making Kennedy a seeming witness to an accident he caused, this is also an interesting choice of words since he was able to free himself from the watery wreckage almost immediately.

Bonus: Producer Mark Ciardi added you’ll see what Kennedy "had to go through" in the story.

"Everyone has an idea of what happened on Chappaquiddick and this strings together the events in a compelling and emotional way," he said. "You’ll see what he had to go through."

The movie was eventually released in 2018 to positive reviews, and it was far more devastating in its account of Kennedy’s conduct than Ciardi made it out to be with that description.

"Kennedy’s car went off a bridge into the water"

On the 50th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, the Associated Press tweeted out its description of the event: "Sen. Edward M. Kennedy left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne, 28; some time later, Kennedy’s car went off a bridge into the water. Kennedy was able to escape, but Kopechne drowned."

"The car went off a bridge into the water" allows the reader to think that perhaps it wasn’t Kennedy’s negligent—and very likely drunken—driving that plunged the car into the tidal basin. Perhaps it was unknown forces like the bad luck that’s long plagued the Kennedy clan. Clearly, mistakes were made.

"The Ted Kennedy accident"

You also can go the route of Vox, which explains the news and decided in its assessment of the Chappaquiddick film to throw up its hands. Sigh, we just may never know what happened!

Writer Alissa Wilkinson conceded the movie was "skeptical of Kennedy’s version of events:"

That Ted Kennedy got different treatment than virtually anyone else in America would in the same position is obvious — even if the version of events in the film is different from what really happened (something nobody knows). And no matter what happened, Kennedy got away with something because he was a Kennedy — that much is clear — which is a striking indictment of a country that still tells itself stories about equal justice under the law for every citizen.

Vox promoted the story by tweeting the film was about "the Ted Kennedy accident" and "part of a larger entertainment pattern deconstructing the iconic family."

We, of course, do know what happened, thanks to extensive reporting both then and now, but that doesn’t mean we have to be jerks to the deceased titan.

"A car driven by Kennedy went over the side of a bridge"

The end of the official caption of the Getty Images photograph with this story reads: "Kopechne died when a car driven by Kennedy went over the side of a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island four days earlier."

"Another Kennedy family tragedy"

The New York Times referred to Chappaquiddick as "another Kennedy family tragedy" Thursday in a report on the overdose death of Saoirse Kennedy Hill, Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter:

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, another Kennedy family tragedy that took place when Edward Kennedy drove off a bridge on a small island next to Martha’s Vineyard. The accident killed Mary Jo Kopechne, the 28-year-old passenger in Mr. Kennedy’s car.

While the death of Kopechne was really a "Kopechne family tragedy" and a "Kennedy family distraction," this portrays Kennedy as the true victim in this situation. Don’t let the reader forget the truly sad part of this saga: Kennedy never became president because of this silly car bridge drowning pond thing.

"Another huge tragedy for the Kennedy family"

ABC’s Cokie Roberts, described accurately in Slate as the living embodiment of "conventional wisdom," mourned Ted Kennedy’s lot in life in an episode of the docuseries 1969.

"There was a party going on on Chappaquiddick in Massachusetts, and it turned out to be another huge tragedy for the Kennedy family," Roberts said, in a clip flagged by NewsBusters.

"Tragedy has again struck the Kennedy family"

That’s how New York Times reporter James "Scotty" Reston dictated the first line of his initial story on Chappaquiddick. He was on the island the weekend the accident occurred, and as Slate tells it, didn’t mention the female victim until the fourth paragraph. The print edition was edited to include her:

A 28-year-old woman passenger drowned today when a car driven by Senator Edward M. Kennedy plunged 10 feet off a bridge into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island near this community on Martha’s Vineyard.

According to a biography of him, he fished at the site of the accident while another Times reporter took statements from boys who discovered the car.

"Nothing much was covered up"

Neal Gabler, who is working on a biography of Kennedy, griped in the New York Times that the 2017 film amounted to "character assassination" of the man, and hey, "nothing much was covered up."

"Let’s set aside the fact that, despite the film’s advertisements claiming to tell the "untold true story" of a "cover-up," the story has been told plenty, and no one but the most lunatic conspiracy theorists see this as anything but a tragic accident in which nothing much was covered up," Gabler wrote.

"Nothing much," although a judge didn’t subpoena anyone at the party Kennedy was at to determine if he drank before the accident. Kennedy’s account that he was taking Kopechne back to her hotel didn’t make sense since she left her purse and room key behind, his claim to be unfamiliar with the roads didn’t make sense since he knew the island well, a 1970 inquest on the subject was done in secret, a grand jury convened months later wasn’t allowed to view evidence from the inquest, and the chief investigator of the accident told Vanity Fair, "The Kennedy machine buried what really happened."

I can’t wait for this biography.

"A 28-year-old named Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in his automobile"

Behold left-wing crank Charles Pierce’s description of "the dead woman" who "drowned in his automobile."

Pierce wrote in 2004 about Kennedy’s legacy in the Senate, acknowledging that Kennedy "would have done time" if his last name were different. Yet, the poor plutocrat had soldiered on from the tragedy to a celebrated Senate career, in Pierce’s estimation. NewsBusters flagged the column:

And what of the dead woman? On July 18, 1969, on the weekend that man first walked on the moon, a 28-year-old named Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in his automobile. Plutocrats’ justice and an implausible (but effective) coverup ensued. And, ever since, she’s always been there: during Watergate, when Barry Goldwater told Kennedy that even Richard Nixon didn’t need lectures from him; in 1980, when his presidential campaign was shot down virtually at its launch; during the hearings into the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, when Kennedy’s transgressions gagged him and made him the butt of all the jokes.

[…]

He has spent so much of his professional life draining that line of its meaning — the defining line, what would have been the knockout line if his name hadn’t been Edward Moore Kennedy. He went to the Senate. He respected its traditions. He learned from its elders; his office today is in the building named after Richard Russell, with whom, according to Adam Clymer, Kennedy first attempted to break the ice by mentioning that Russell himself had entered the Senate when he was 36. Yes, Russell replied, but I’d been governor of Georgia by then, and Kennedy had had the good grace (and the good sense) to laugh.

"Maybe she’d feel it was worth it"

If you must discuss Kopechne in your piece on Kennedy, consider the fact her ghost was probably cheering on Kennedy’s legacy of expanded government and Borking.

Melissa Lafsky of Discovery magazine wrote following Kennedy’s death in 2009 that "maybe she’d feel it was worth it." Her words:

Mary Jo wasn’t a right-wing talking point or a negative campaign slogan. She was a dedicated civil rights activist and political talent with a bright future….We don’t know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she’d have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don’t know, as always, could fill a Metrodome.

Still, ignorance doesn’t preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn’t automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted’s death, and what she’d have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows — maybe she’d feel it was worth it.

Readers love a happy ending.

UPDATE, 3:32 P.M.: This article removed a line written by Pierce: "Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age." He claimed it was written sardonically and not as a compliment to Kennedy.

The post How to Write the Perfect Passive Description of Chappaquiddick appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

via Washington Free Beacon

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://freebeacon.com

Posted on

WALSH: Mario Lopez Proves Yet Again That It Never Pays To Apologize To The Left-Wing Mob

I often think about a certain scene near the end of Robert Bolt’s "A Man For All Seasons." Thomas More is on trial for treason (a phony charge stemming from More’s refusal to acknowledge the king as the Supreme Head of the Church), and he has just been delivered the fatal legal blow due to testimony from a former friend. His one-time confidant Richard Rich claims that he heard More making treasonous statements — a false allegation that seals More’s fate and sends him to the gallows.

via Daily Wire

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.dailywire.com/rss.xml