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The Obama administration dropped a skill-based system for selecting and hiring air traffic controllers (ATCs), and replaced it with a new system designed to favor applicants on the basis of their race. It makes no sense. Worse yet, it is illegal and unconstitutional. The FAA purged its system of thousands of previously-qualified, ready-to-hire applicants simply because they did not fit the right biographical profile. The government endangered public safety and owes restitution for this grave injustice.
A new study says that many large-scale hydropower projects in Europe and the US have been disastrous for the environment.
Dozens of these dams are being removed every year, with many considered dangerous and uneconomic.
But the authors fear that the unsustainable nature of these projects has not been recognised in the developing world.
Thousands of new dams are now being planned for rivers in Africa and Asia.
'They dammed everything' - hydropower gone sour
Are too many hydropower dams being built?
Hydropower is the source of 71% of renewable energy throughout the world and has played a major role in the development of many countries.
But researchers say the building of dams in Europe and the US reached a peak in the 1960s and has been in decline since then, with more now being dismantled than installed. Hydropower only supplies approximately 6% of US electricity.
Dams are now being removed at a rate of more than one a week on both sides of the Atlantic.
The problem, say the authors of this new paper, is that governments were blindsided by the prospect of cheap electricity without taking into account the full environmental and social costs of these installations.
More than 90% of dams built since the 1930s were more expensive than anticipated. They have damaged river ecology, displaced millions of people and have contributed to climate change by releasing greenhouse gases from the decomposition of flooded lands and forests.
January 27, 2025
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland that stood at the center of the Holocaust and focus for their systematic slaughter of the Jewish people. Between 1940 and 1945, more than one million Jews, religious leaders, disabled persons, and other innocent victims were viciously and mercilessly executed in Auschwitz at the hands of the evil Nazi regime — culminating in one of the darkest chapters in human history. On this solemn day, America joins the Jewish community, the people of Poland, and the entire world in mourning the lives lost, the souls battered, the heroes forgotten, and the countless men and women who gave their lives for the cause of freedom. //
As we commemorate this somber occasion, we pay tribute to the undying spirit of the Jewish community. We reaffirm our commitment to educating our children and every future generation about the horrors that took place within the confines of Auschwitz and other concentration and death camps. We renew our resolve to end anti-Semitism and religious bigotry of all forms. We proudly reassert our strong bonds of friendship with the State of Israel. And we declare the timeless truth that every human being is a child of God and inherently worthy of dignity and respect.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 27, 2025, as a National Day of Remembrance of the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. On this day, I call upon every American citizen to observe this day with programs, ceremonies, and prayers commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and honoring the sacrifices of the men and women who helped liberate the victims of the Nazis at Auschwitz.
PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS AND EXPANDING INDIVIDUAL OPPORTUNITY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an historic Executive Order that protects the civil rights of all Americans and expands individual opportunity by terminating radical DEI preferencing in federal contracting and directing federal agencies to relentlessly combat private sector discrimination. It enforces long-standing federal statutes and faithfully advances the Constitution’s promise of colorblind equality before the law. This comprehensive order is the most important federal civil rights measure in decades: //
RESTORING THE VALUES OF INDIVIDUAL DIGNITY, HARD WORK, AND EXCELLENCE: Individual dignity, hard work, and excellence are fundamental to American greatness. This Executive Order reaffirms these values by ending the Biden-Harris Administration’s anti-constitutional and deeply demeaning “equity” mandates, terminating DEI, and protecting civil rights:
Reversing the progress made in the decades since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 toward a colorblind and competence-based workplace, radical DEI has dangerously tainted many of our critical businesses and influential institutions, including the federal government.
- In the private sector, many corporations and universities use DEI as an excuse for biased and unlawful employment practices and illegal admissions preferences, ignoring the fact that DEI’s foundational rhetoric and ideas foster intergroup hostility and authoritarianism.
- Billions of dollars are spent annually on DEI, but rather than reducing bias and promoting inclusion, DEI creates and then amplifies prejudicial hostility and exacerbates interpersonal conflict.
She broke barriers at NASA and contributed to its earliest space missions as a rocket scientist, mathematician and computer programmer.
Annie Easley was a member of the team at NASA’s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland (now the Glenn Research Center) given the critical task of fixing the Centaur’s design. Unlike most people working on the project, she was not an engineer. She hadn’t even finished college. But she was an excellent mathematician and computer programmer who was adept at solving problems.
The Department of Defense had concluded that the Centaur would not be ready for at least several more years, a critical setback for the country.
But 18 months later, on Nov. 27, 1963, the redesigned rocket system successfully blasted into space. It was the beginning of a new era in spaceflight, and Easley’s calculations had been vital to the mission. //
Easley had been hired in 1955 to work at Lewis as a human computer — one of a group of gifted women who calculated and solved complex mathematical problems before there were mechanical computers powerful enough to do the work.
The 2016 book and film “Hidden Figures” memorialized the work of some of these pioneers. Like the women depicted in that history, Easley was Black and had to overcome obstacles to succeed, but she did not let that stop her.
“When people have their biases and prejudices, yes, I am aware. My head is not in the sand,” she said in a 2001 oral history interview for NASA. “But my thing is, if I can’t work with you, I will work around you.”
Many bureaucracies within the federal government are stocked with people who believe they are above being accountable to voters, and one of the worst is the Government Services Administration (GSA). While it ostensibly exists to manage federal workspaces, it has long been run by far-left lunatics who seek to subvert any attempts at reform while pushing woke nonsense. //
Remember that viral video from 2022 of Kamala Harris telling people at a meeting that her pronouns are "she and her," and that she's "wearing a blue suit"? That was the doing of 18F's policies. //
neverenoughcaffeine
an hour ago
Anyone wonder what PDT was doing over the last 4 years besides fighting lawsuits and criminal prosecutions? I'd say he was learning a whole lot about the crap that goes on inside the US government and then hiring the peole who clued him in. No other way he could have uncovered this nonsense and done what he has in less then 2 weeks. //
Cafeblue32
an hour ago
I think describing people for the blind is hilarious. What if they're born blind or have been from infancy? How does a born blind person know what the color purple looks like? I don't know. For me, describing things to blind people they can't see and that they never asked for is just one more reminder of the world they're missing out on.
Describing a color is impossible. We know what they do and scientifically how they are made, but the actual color itself defies description. Thus, it is all for the sighted people in the room to approve of their virtue. //
Tech in RL
41 minutes ago
GSA was in Trump's crosshairs because of the documents "scandal." The National Archives and the GSA have a service for every outgoing president to organize and ship their documents. GSA has offered this service to every president but Trump. They didn't coordinate with Trump's transition team but just jammed documents randomly into boxes so that no one knew what was in any of them. That's how napkins and magazine articles ended up in the same boxes as classified documents. I doubt Trump even knew half of the documents that went to Mar-a-lago because GSA didn't bother to organize them.
The Trump team probably thinks GSA set the trap for an FBI raid by stuffing classified documents in places no one expected. That is their incentive to gut that agency.
While we wait for Attorney General Nominee Pam Bondi to hopefully be confirmed, Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. isn’t sitting around sipping tea, and on late Friday afternoon, he axed about 30 federal prosecutors who worked on J6 cases over the last four years. Different accounts are reporting different numbers, but at this hour, the Associated Press calls it “dozens” of personnel fired while the Washington Post reports “about 30.” //
The prosecutors were on probationary status after being converted to full-time from shorter-term positions after Election Day under circumstances the Trump administration is investigating, according to documents from Martin and acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove that were emailed around 5 p.m. and viewed by The Washington Post. //
That wasn’t Martin’s only move, however, and on January 21 he sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) inquiring about Schumer’s incendiary comments aimed at the Supreme Court in 2020 when he appeared to call for violence against the justices. //
“We take threats against public officials very seriously. I look forward to your cooperation,” Martin wrote Schumer in a Jan. 21 letter obtained by The Post.
Sean Spicer
@seanspicer
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@POTUS @realDonaldTrump kicks off #BlackHistoryMonth with a proclamation from @WhiteHouse recognizing the work of Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass
6:47 PM · Jan 31, 2025
Throughout our history, black Americans have been among our country’s most consequential leaders, shaping the cultural and political destiny of our Nation in profound ways. American heroes such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Sowell, Justice Clarence Thomas, and countless others represent what is best in America and her citizens. Their achievements, which have monumentally advanced the tradition of equality under the law in our great country, continue to serve as an inspiration for all Americans. We will also never forget the achievements of American greats like Tiger Woods, who have pushed the boundaries of excellence in their respective fields, paving the way for others to follow.
This National Black History Month, as America prepares to enter a historic Golden Age, I want to extend my tremendous gratitude to black Americans for all they have done to bring us to this moment, and for the many future contributions they will make as we advance into a future of limitless possibility under my Administration.
This is a long time coming. For years, the accomplishments of black Americans like Thomas and Sowell have been overlooked, downplayed, and blatantly ignored by the left, who seemingly can't handle any black person who doesn't fall into line with their radical policies. Back in 2016, the Smithsonian opened the National Museum of African American History and Culture with nary a word about Clarence Thomas to be found in the entire building, something Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) later called an "irresponsible bias." The Smithsonian eventually added Justice Thomas to an existing display about Justice Thurgood Marshall. Mighty nice of them. //
Ronster
3 hours ago
Since the very first time I heard the phrase "celebrate diversity" I have asked why not celebrate unity. As in United States. But then that's the Leftist/Marxist/Democrat way: diversity = divide and conquer.
Baja Sun Ronster
2 hours ago
Diversity is the key to controlling the population.
The more diverse the cultures, the less likely we are to stand united against a tyrannical government.
Divide and conquer.
Broceephus anon-x8p1
5 hours ago
There were over 1200 plane crashes in the US in 2023. Most don’t make national news unless there are more than 2 casualties. Unfortunately, it literally happens every day.
anon-545z Broceephus
4 hours ago
Non were commercial aircraft. There hasn’t been a commercial crash in the US since 2009. Also, 1017 of those crashes were non fatal. The remainder never saw anywhere close to the loss of life we have seen the past two days. Yes, you are right, if there is not more than 1 or 2 deaths, it is not reported. Also we rarely see a crash in a metro area.
Whale Psychiatrist ™️ @k_ovfefe2
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Today President Trump fired everyone at the DOJ who persecuted people for walking through the open capitol building on January 6th and then he fired everyone at the FBI who raided his bedroom and then he rescued 6 hostages from Venezuela and then he flew to Florida to spend the weekend with his supermodel wife. What a boss.
8:00 PM · Jan 31, 2025
President Donald Trump is taking further action against the 50 former intelligence officials who falsely suggested Hunter Biden’s laptop was “part of a Russian disinformation campaign,” instructing agencies to also ban those individuals from stepping foot in secure U.S. government facilities, according to a memo obtained by The Daily Wire.
The Jan. 29 cabinet memorandum, first obtained by The Daily Wire, expands Trump’s day-one executive order, which revoked the security clearance for the 50 individuals. Sent “on behalf of the President,” it orders the country’s top national security agencies to “revoke unescorted access to secure U.S. Government facilities from the 50 former intelligence officials named in the Executive Order.” //
NorCalGC
6 hours ago
This seems to suggest that one or more on the list visited a secure facility after they had their security clearances revoked. //
It’s a dry heat
5 hours ago
"despite the fact they had no solid evidence to support that conclusion."
That suggests they had some "evidence" but it just wasn't "solid." The truth is far more damning. They not only didn't have any "solid evidence," but that they had no evidence at all, and what evidence there was established precisely the contrary. There was ample evidence, solid, concrete, irrefutable and otherwise, that the Hunter laptop was genuine and that its owner was a genuine criminal, drug addled dipwad. //
GBenton
5 hours ago edited
Trump should have a gallows built with 51 nooses just to send a message to the traitors.
Getting your hall passes yanked is getting off far easier than you deserve.
What happened in 2020 was beyond election interference. It was a color revolution and with China and Iran and other nations involved I'd argue they are guilty of treason.
They may not actually be publicly hanged but in an earlier era they know they could have and they should be reminded of that.
In the last 20 years or so people got waaaay too comfortable engaging in treasonous and anti-American activities and that really does need to stop.
How hard they need to learn that lesson is up to them for now.
Is this too harsh of language? Welp, they tried to imprison Trump after convicting him of made up crimes and then they tried assasination - and they stole the last election.
I'd argue that not being clear about the boundaries is how we got where we are.
Keep in mind, we won in 2024 but if we'd lost the country would have been lost or we might have had to fight our way back to freedom. It's all fun and games until the Marxists consolidate power and we MUST never let that happen.
We won the Cold War. If WE became the force for Communism around the world humanity is basically over.
Play time for traitors is over. And Trump appears to be serious about making the necessary reforms and kicking out the bad actors. Full disclosure of what they did is next, IMO.
GBenton NavyVet
an hour ago
How I really feel is we need to make people fear the consequences of betraying the people and engaging in sedition, corruption, and yes, treason. There's a long list of folks who did all of the above who are used to being rewarded for it and they need to get their minds right.
I'm being somewhat tongue in cheek about the gallows, somewhat, since these cretins got Americans imprisoned and even killed during the Biden years in an illegitimate presidency that could have sent our nation into an age of darkness.
Call me crazy, but we really need to make sure that never happens again and bad actors respond to consequences so examples need to be made. Destroy their reputations, strip their access to power and money (already in progress), and yeah, some of them belong in prison - shunned from society, cautionary tales to future scumbags who consider selling out our country for money and power.
The only people who pay a price in this country are the law abiding ciitizens who believe in our Founding values - that has to change or one day we'll wake up and not have a country.
Political Polls
@Politics_Polls
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Trump Job Approval:
Approve 49%
Disapprove 41%
.@EmersonPolling, 1,000 RV, 1/27-28
https://emersoncollegepolling.com/january-2025-national-poll-trump-starts-term-with-49-approval-41-disapproval-rating/
1:56 AM · Jan 31, 2025
But even more amazing was the response to a question in the same poll about whether the country is now on the right track. They had numbers from earlier in January -- before Trump was inaugurated -- that had 67 percent saying it was on the wrong track, and only 33 percent thought it was on the right track.
But now -- with Trump in office -- there was a 19-point shift, to a majority of Americans -- 52 percent -- thinking the country is now on the right track, with 48 percent saying it's on the wrong track. That's a huge and significant shift, and it's an indication they're embracing/approving Trump's actions, that they believe good things are happening and are going to happen. //
According to a Quinnipiac poll, 57 percent of registered voters have an unfavorable opinion about Democrats. Only 31 percent are favorable. That's the worst for the Democrats since Quinnipiac started asking the question in 2008. Meanwhile, according to Axios, they didn't ask this question about the unfavorability of Democrats between August 2019 and January 2025. That says so much right there. Gee, I wonder why that would be?
Forty-three percent have a favorable opinion of the Republicans versus the 31 percent favorability for the Democrats, also the largest favorability gap favoring the Republicans since 2008. And 58 percent of Democrats or independents leaning Democrat think the party needs "major changes or to be completely reformed." //
media is corrupt
6 hours ago
Biden did not campaign on being woke. Once he got into office, he and his "handlers" threw open the border and went wild with leftist "woke" policies. He was not the Moderate he ran as.
Trump told everyone what he would do when he ran for office. No one should be shocked that he's actually doing what he promised on the campaign trail.
A team including current and former employees of Musk assumed command of OPM on Jan. 20, the day Trump took office. They have moved sofa beds onto the fifth floor of the agency's headquarters, which contains the director's office and can only be accessed with a security badge or a security escort, one of the OPM employees said.
The sofa beds have been installed so the team can work around the clock, the employee said. //
Musk wrote:
Before even getting to timed scripts, the number of government jobs that could be replaced simply with a mouse macro is astounding!
ConservativeInMinnesota
4 hours ago
This is very good news. I’ll bet Musk told Trump to so. I work in InfoSec and this is best practice when there’s a risk of employees sabotaging systems.
Locking out HR means they want to review historical records like job titles without interference. The HR data will help expose deep state operatives via unearned promotions as well as DEI hires.
Expect to see a lot of people let go who worked on DEI, for hiding DEI hires or sneaking political appointees into non-political positions. This is a solid win.
TK421 ConservativeInMinnesota
4 hours ago
Preventing them from hiding what they were doing, especially with respect to DEI crap, does seem like the most likely reason for this action.b
Kneeman TK421
2 hours ago
In Trump 1 he was resisted by the deep state in the shadows of the government. Trump 2: shine lights in those shadows before they have a chance to destroy evidence like the J-6 committee did. They never thought he would lock up the HR records on day 1. Who is working from ‘home’ and charging 20 hours of OT per pay period. Who applied for accommodations for a new disability after Nov. 5 so they could keep working from home. Etc.
stripmallgrackle ConservativeInMinnesota
an hour ago
Post J6. How much research? How many interviews? How many task forces assembled? How much does Trump know that he didn't know at the end of the first term?
Consider the last four years a gift. Add one bumbling figurehead and a successor that instilled no confidence, and the colossal loss to the democrat brand just ices the cake. //
anon-onh5
5 hours ago
"The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said."
I'm gonna stop right there and ask what in the hell those systems were doing unlocked?! After all Obama sold my info once, it's not like it's any better the second time. //
GALTean
5 hours ago
This is to keep malicious actors from’Leaking’ personal information and blaming it on DOGE…this ain’t checkers ya taxpayer fatted dingleberries!
Nor are American pharmaceutical companies altruistic heroes; they’re in business to make a profit for their shareholders. But profits are the reward for risking capital and producing something of great value. My wife’s Tagrisso is such a product. Tagrisso got approval in the United States before Europe thanks, in large part, to the United States’s robust pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory system that accompanies it.
And yes, the United States has a tragic chronic disease burden, for which medications are probably not the exclusive, or even primary, answer. But Big Pharma is becoming a scapegoat for problems that often originated in, or were compounded by, poor lifestyle choices.
For all its well-documented inefficiencies, the American healthcare system is second to none. And the pharmaceutical industry is an essential part of it. My son and my daughter still have their parents because of Big Pharma. I have a wife because of Big Pharma. And millions of others are alive because a scientist, paid well out of the revenue generated by a company’s previously issued medicines, discovered a new miracle medicine that could save or prolong a life.
Ordo amoris was defined by Saint Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century, but best exposition on this heirarchy is in Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_Theologica
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There is an order in charity, and God is the principle of that order. God is to be loved out of charity, before all others. The other beings that are to be loved out of charity are, so to speak, lined up in their proper places, subordinate to God.
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God is to be loved for himself and as the cause ofhappiness. Hence, God is to be loved more than our neighbor, who isloved, not for himself, but for God.
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And we are to love God more than we love ourselves. What we love in ourselves is from God, and is lovable only on account of God.
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A person rightly loves himself by charity when he seeks to be united with God and to partake of God's eternal happiness. And a person loves his neighbor as one to whom he wishes this union and happiness. Now, since seeking to obtain something for oneself is a more intense act than wishing well to one's neighbor, a person manifestly loves himself more than he loves his neighbor. As evidence of this fact, consider this: a man would rightly refuse to sin if, by sinning, he could free his neighbor from sin.
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While we love ourselves more than we love our neighbor, we are required to love our neighbor more than we love our body.
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And we rightly love one neighbor more than another - our parents, for instance, or our children. In this we violate no law so long as we do not withhold requisite love from any neighbor.
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Our dearest objects of charity among neighbors are those who are closest to us by some tie - relationship, common country, and so on.
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The tie that is strongest of all is the tie of blood. Hence it is natural that we should love our kindred more than others.
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And in those related to us by blood there is an order. St. Ambrose says that we ought to love God first, then our parents, then our children, then the others of our household.
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We are to love father and mother. Strictly speaking, the love of father precedes the love of mother.
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A man loves his wife more intensely than he loves his parents. Yet he loves his parents with greater reverence.
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It seems that we love those on whom we confer benefits more than those who confer benefits on us.
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The order of charity, since it is right and reasonable, will endure in heaven.
In fact, Aquinas, being Aquinas, even offered objections to his thesis and defended against the objections.
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3026.htm
During 2024, but particularly during the election, we were assailed by warnings of the boogeyman of "Christian nationalism." No one was ever quite sure what it was other than using Christianity as a guardrail for public policy and guaranteeing Christianity had a place in the public square. Both of these ideas were insufficiently inclusive to satisfy the secular left.
JD Vance appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Wednesday, and, in my view, he gave a masterclass on how a Christian worldview provides answers to difficult problems. The intertwined issues were immigration and foreign aid.
Jack Poso 🇺🇸
·
Jan 29, 2025
@JackPosobiec
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JD VANCE: There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world
A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. //
Immediately following this, he was hit by leftists shouting, "No way, that's not Christian." //
This is the type of stuff that is not only wrong, but it is such a grotesque misrepresentation of Christian thought that it drives many people away.
I had to look him up, but Rory Stewart is someone who is supposed to be important when up and has his trousers on.
Rory Stewart @RoryStewartUK
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A bizarre take on John 15:12-13 - less Christian and more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians, assume to speak for Jesus, and tell us in which order to love… //
JD Vance @JDVance
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Just google “ordo amoris.” Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense. Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone? //
What is ordo amoris? It is the Christian idea of "properly ordered love." All love is not equal. We are told to love God above all else, something the left ignores. In the same way, they use the English word "love" interchangeably for the eight Koine Greek words for love, those rendering love for God the same as homosexual sex because, you know, "love is love."
Ordo amoris was defined by Saint Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century, but best exposition on this heirarchy is in Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica.
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There is an order in charity, and God is the principle of that order. God is to be loved out of charity, before all others. The other beings that are to be loved out of charity are, so to speak, lined up in their proper places, subordinate to God.
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God is to be loved for himself and as the cause ofhappiness. Hence, God is to be loved more than our neighbor, who isloved, not for himself, but for God.
.... //
In fact, Aquinas, being Aquinas, even offered objections to his thesis and defended against the objections.
Then Vance returned to Mr. Stewart.
JD Vance @JDVance
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Replying to @JDVance
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: the problem with Rory and people like him is that he has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130. This false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years.
4:11 PM · Jan 30, 2025
Just as the Constitution is not a suicide pact, neither is Christian Theology. Just as we use the Constitution to order our public lives, we should use well-formed Christian thought to order our personal lives and, through those lives, order the nation. //
anon-todh
2 days ago
Christian hospitality is to welcome the stranger as demonstrated by Jewish law. Welcoming is to offer them food and shelter as they pass through, not to permanently support them. Jesus fed the 5,000 but did not open a housing agency and focus his work there. //
streiff anon-todh
2 days ago
food, drink, clothing, shelter, medical care...and then back home.
Laocoön of Troy anon-todh
2 days ago edited
In fact after Jesus fed the 5K, parts of the crowd followed him to another part of the lake looking to be fed again.
"They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
John 6
Jesus was there to teach them about himself and God. Most of the rest were there to get another free meal. //
Indylawyer
2 days ago
This is true, but I suggest there is a more relevant distinction to be made: charity is an obligation of individual Christians, often exercised in churches and other organizations. It isn't something that can be done through involuntary taxation. Christians can and should be aiding strangers whom they find in their communities, just as the Good Samaritan aided the Jewish stranger who fell into his path. But it's not compassion for the government to tax people to do it, nor is it compassion for the government to forsake its duties to protect its own citizens by allowing mass migration - particularly when it is largely facilitated by criminal gangs.
She's crying over illegal immigrants being deported. I'm angry over American people, including children, suffering and dying.
My people.
Her people.
Yet the left seems to give no mind to them. It's as if they're too privileged, too American. I have a very simple question for people who give no thought to these victims.
Were these people worth sacrificing for the act of giving a home to foreign nationals illegally, even if it means we invite unmitigated crime and violence? Are you willing to look the families of the murdered, raped, or kidnapped in the eye and say, "your unimaginable pain is necessary for the dice roll that the person who came here illegally might be upright and good?"
As it stands, the actions from people like Gomez are a wordless affirmation that, yes, your life, and even the life and safety of your child, are worth losing in the name of a simple virtue signal.
This isn't virtue, this is sickness. This is willing to sacrifice innocents on the altar of your projection of being a good person. This isn't compassion, this is spite disguised as pride in one's heritage and care for the needy.
Whose side is the left on. Not yours, but I'd venture to guess it's not even on the side of the people they profess to care about.
Their side is their own feelings about themselves and how they're seen to the wider world. So long as they feel like they're compassionate and virtuous, the world can burn to ashes, blood can flow, and their own nation can erode to death from within, but at least they can say to themselves "I did it in the name of doing right by the underprivileged."
While Democrats don't get it because they like to pretend we have an endless pile of money that we can hand out, former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta gets it and may just have delivered the best remarks I have ever seen from a foreign leader on the subject. His remarks have gone viral, and it's easy to see why. He's talking about countries/leaders who are upset about the freeze on the money and that Trump might not just give out blank checks anymore.
Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok
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Former president of Kenya mocks countries who are upset Trump that said he won’t give blank checks anymore to foreign governments.
“Why are you crying? It’s not your government! He has no reason to give you anything. You don’t pay taxes in America.”
11:33 AM · Jan 29, 2025
"Why are you crying? It's not your government, it's not your country," he says to cheers from the audience he was speaking on Wednesday at the East Africa Health Security Summit in Mombasa, Kenya.
"He has no reason to give you anything...You don't pay taxes in America. He's appealing to his people," he continued.
"This is a wake-up call for you to say, 'What are we going to do to help ourselves, instead of crying,'" he declared to more clapping.
"What are we going to do, yah, to support ourselves? Because nobody is going to continue holding out a hand there to give you. It is time to use our resources for the right things. We are the ones using them for the wrong things."
For one, just as I speculated, the Black Hawk was in a nose-low attitude, which you can see based on where it's rotor beacon is in relation to the lights on the first of the helicopter. That means their upward visibility was very limited. If they were wearing night-vision goggles, which were reported by the Department of Defense as being on board, it would have been even more so. That's the first major issue.
Secondly, while some keep referencing how bright the landing lights were, those would not be very visible to an aircraft approaching from the side, as the Black Hawk was. That's especially true on a clear, dry night where there's not much moisture in the air for the lights to project on and reflect back. There is also an enormous amount of light pollution in the background for beacons and strobes to get lost in.
Thirdly, and perhaps most telling, is that the regional jet was descending on the final approach path after making its base-to-final turn while the Black Hawk seemed to be in a slight climb (according to the track data). That means the two aircraft were not at the same altitude until the moment of impact. In other words, the regional jet essentially descended into the flight path of the helicopter, with the latter's crew having little to no upward visibility.
As a point of clarity, the regional jet was where it was supposed to be. The Black Hawk's flight path was the issue, and it never should have been where it was. Further, given that the helicopter appeared to have called the wrong traffic in sight when warned by air traffic control, it's also very possible they were distracted and not even looking in the direction when the collision occurred.
The last question (one President Donald Trump himself has raised) revolves around why the Black Hawk was at the wrong altitude, and there are several possible explanations. You can gain a hundred or so feet of altitude in an aircraft in the blink of an eye. That could happen due to a lack of proficiency. It could also happen due to being distracted.
We are well past the point of this being a matter of Republicans being confident this stuff is an electoral loser. The empirical data tells us it is. The 2024 election saw Donald Trump come roaring back into the White House, winning the popular vote while heavily promoting an anti-woke agenda. Analysts in the press repeatedly claimed the now-president's ads on transgenderism that ended with "Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you" (or some variation) would alienate people. Instead, they were the most effective ads of the cycle.
Democrats hinted at changing course on far-left identity insanity shortly after the election, but if the answers at this DNC forum are any indication, they've dropped that idea altogether and are going full-bore in the other direction. //
Democrats can't help but do the Principal Skinner meme again and again. You see, it's not that they are out of touch and completely unappealing to normal people due to their insane policy prescriptions and ideological viewpoints. It's just that people are too stupid to see how great they are and simply need to be fed better propaganda. //
But hey, if Democrats want to keep banging the woke drum, I'd encourage them to do it. Republicans may never lose another election if they keep this up. //
The Left only destroys
35 minutes ago
Bonchie, I HATE this headline. It ain't over till it's over, and it will never be over. Complacency almost cost us the republic, and we came back from the brink. Conservatives need to run their elections at all times as if they are behind. Don't let up on efforts to eliminate leftism. Never assume victory.
Vince Lombardi told his players in their first meeting, "Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly pursue perfection, knowing all along we will never achieve it, but in pursuing perfection, we will catch excellence." A similar sentiment applies here. We must relentlessly pursue elimination of Leftism, knowing all along we will never achieve it, but in pursuing it, we will catch peace and prosperity. //
Laocoön of Troy bk
23 minutes ago edited
There might be a reason for the Dems to keep American Indians out of the leadership of the DNC. In the 2024 election, 65% of American Indians voted for Trump. That was his highest percentage among the various "minorities". 65% is a MASSIVE landslide in terms of preference in a General Election.
The craziest of the crazy lefties...I'm lookin' at you Hogg...are soft, white, wealthy women with a terminal case of white liberal guilt. Except for the girl thing...that would be Hogg and his comrades.