'Death of Winter' But Hype is Alive and Well

'Death of winter': Jet streams cross equator, 'chaos' predicted

The streams now connect from pole to pole according to the data. © RT

Scientists have observed an “unprecedented” event that could lead to an end of seasons as we know them, after Northern Hemisphere jet streams crossed the equator and linked with others in the south.

Usually separated entirely from each other by the equator where warm air acts as a barrier, both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere consist of jet streams made up of either warm moist air or cold dry air.

The streams usually run from east to west but new data shows that the Northern Hemisphere’s streams have changed path and linked with streams in the south.

“Welcome to climate chaos. We must declare a global climate emergency” warned Paul Beckwith, a climate scientist from the University of Ottawa, when analyzing data from Earth Nullschool.

Beckwith explained the data in a video online in which he warned it could disrupt the world’s food supply and lead to “massive geopolitical unrest.”

Beckwith was alerted to the data by a blog post from environmentalist Robert Scribbler, who said the warming of polar air due to “human-forced climate change” was flattening the atmospheric slope from equator to pole, allowing the streams to deviate.

“It’s the very picture of weather weirding due to climate change,” said Scribbler. “Something that would absolutely not happen in a normal world, something, that if it continues, (on a significant scale) basically threatens seasonal integrity.”

For some reason RT chose to leave that phrase 'on a significant scale', out of that sentence, but it is in Scribbler's original blog: "Something, that if it continues on a significant scale, basically threatens seasonal integrity." 

Scribbler's use of the word 'continues' makes it obvious that he thinks this is 'a significant scale' event. Have a look below.

A “death of winter” scenario could occur according to Scribbler, where summer heat occurs in winter and vice versa.

Not all scientists have agreed with this summation though, with Meteorologist Marshall Shepherd warning that the new data would require proper vetting before he could give an informed opinion.



Scribbler: The big trough today begins near the Northern Hemisphere Pole. It pulls Arctic air down over Eastern Siberia and into a Pacific Ocean storm track. There, a second big dip in the Jet Stream pulls a crazy loop of this upper air flow further south. And here is where things get really weird — for the upper level river of air that began in the Arctic then makes a jump directly across the Equator.

Let's look a little closer: There is a small jet (pink) over Siberia in the top-right corner. It splits into a stream that eventually circles the globe in the Arctic, and a weak stream that connects into another stream which flow eastward then southeast to join yet another stream, a strong stream from over Korea and Japan.

That stream heads east-northeast toward the Aleutians where it weakens and splits, part of it joining a stream that crosses North America along the Canada-US border, the other part, probably the main part, loops around toward the southwest. Some of that stream seems to continue westward while a small portion of it loops back around heading toward Hawaii.

Some of the Hawaii stream breaks off northeastward, but the main stream loops around toward the southeast and then south across the equator as it weakens. 

That it is a significant event is not doubtable since it has rarely, if ever, been seen before. But to call it a 'significant level' event is a big stretch. Furthermore, the connection between Siberia and the equator is very weak and tenuous at best and certainly does not warrant the hysterical cry of the 'death of winter'.

We have just finished the strongest el nino ever recorded and it will be a few months before jet streams get back to normal patterns. Once they do, we may never see this phenomena again, although I suspect we will in another record el nino as the planet continues to warm. 

But as I have stated many times, I believe that little if any of that warming is anthropogenic in origen. 

HRW, Amnesty Call on UN to Suspend Saudi Arabia from Human Rights Council

People inspect damage at a house after it was destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen's capital Sanaa. © Mohamed al-Sayaghi / Reuters

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the United Nations General Assembly to “immediately suspend” Saudi Arabia from the UN Human Rights Council because of numerous serious human rights violations.

“Saudi Arabia has committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its time as a Council member, and it has used its position on the Council to shield itself from accountability for its violations in Yemen,” the two human rights watchdogs wrote in a joint letter to the UN on Wednesday.

They were referring to the actions of the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni conflict that resulted in numerous casualties among civilians.

The two organizations said they documented “69 unlawful airstrikes by the coalition, some of which may amount to war crimes,” that took lives of at least 913 civilians and hit homes, markets, hospitals, schools, civilian businesses, and mosques.

The human rights NGOs also stressed that the Saudi-led coalition used internationally banned cluster munitions in 19 strikes, some of which also targeted civilian areas.

The organizations urged the UN General Assembly to suspend Saudi Arabia from the Human Rights Council until it ends its “unlawful attacks” and conducts credible investigation into all cases of alleged human rights violations or agrees to cooperate with an independent and impartial international inquiry.

“Saudi Arabia has amassed an appalling record of violations in Yemen while a Human Rights Council member, and has damaged the body’s credibility by its bullying tactics to avoid accountability,” Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch, said.

His words were echoed by Richard Bennett, Head of Amnesty International’s UN Office, who said that “the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council is at stake, as “to allow [Saudi Arabia] to remain an active member of the Council, where it has used this position to shield itself from accountability for possible war crimes, smacks of deep hypocrisy.”

“It would bring the world’s top human rights body into disrepute,” he added.

Bennett also accused Saudis of using their membership of the Council “to derail a resolution to establish an international investigation, by garnering support for their rival, toothless resolution backing a national Yemeni inquiry,” which failed to investigate allegations of the coalition’s alleged war crimes.

The organizations also blasted other countries that continue to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia despite its poor human rights record.

“What’s particularly shocking is the deafening silence of the international community which has time and again ceded to pressure from Saudi Arabia and put business, arms and trade deals before human rights despite the Kingdom’s record of committing gross and systematic violations with complete impunity,” said Richard Bennett.

Earlier in 2016, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International already called on the United States, United Kingdom, and France to suspend all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia until it stops its unlawful airstrikes in Yemen.

The two NGOs also harshly criticized the Saudi Arabia’s internal policy, involving “crackdown on all forms of dissent” as well as “use of grossly unfair trials at a special counter-terror court and long prison terms for peaceful dissidents and human rights defenders.”

“Saudi Arabia must release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally, and end its shameful reliance on the death penalty,” Bennett said.

The Saudi-led coalition launched its aerial campaign in Yemen in March, 2015, after the “Ansar Allah” Houthi movement captured huge territories in Yemen including the capital of Sana’a and the country’s second largest city, Aden.

The conflict has left nearly 4,300 dead since March, half of them civilians, according to UN figures. Since that time, the coalition has been repeatedly accused of numerous and grave human rights violations. The most high profile incidents involving Saudi coalition airstrikes include bombing a wedding party in September 2015 that claimed lives of 135 civilians; hitting a Yemeni hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) a month later and bombing a market in north-western Yemen in March 2016, where more than a hundred people died.

At the press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner tried to deflect the questions about Saudi Arabia.

“Because we only have observer status on the Human Rights Council, and we don’t have a vote, I’ll refer you to the UN for more details,” Toner told reporters. His comments were met by protests that the US was a major financial backer of the HRC, that Washington supervised the election of the members, and that Saudi Arabia was a major US ally and partner.

“We’ve been very clear about our involvement in Yemen – our support for the GCC, led by the Saudis, in combating the threat that it faced on its borders from the Houthis,” Toner said. “With respect to this movement with regard to their position on the Human Rights Council, we’re not going to comment on it. Just not.”

On June 3, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed the Saudi-led coalition for “killing and maiming” children in Yemen, and added it to an annual blacklist of countries and armed groups that have violated children's rights in conflict.

According to the report presented by Ban Ki-moon, the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year, killing 510 people and wounding 667 others. The coalition was also behind half of the attacks carried out on schools and hospitals in Yemen.

In March, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said that the coalition was responsible for twice as many civilian casualties as all other forces put together.

Saudi Arabia repeatedly dismissed all accusations and even forced the UN to remove it from the blacklist of child-killers in Yemen just days after it was added to this list. Later, Ban Ki-moon admitted that his decision to remove the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from the UN blacklist came after threats from a number of countries.

It came after a diplomatic source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the UN was faced with “bullying, threats [and] pressure” from Riyadh, adding that it was “real blackmail.”

This incident also caused the outrage of the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. “Allowing Saudi Arabia to obstruct independent scrutiny and avoid accountability threatens the credibility of both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly,” the two organizations wrote in the joint letter to the UN.

Saudi Arabia joined the Human Rights Council in January 2014 and is now in its final year of a three-year term on the 47-member Human Rights Council.

A two-third majority vote by the UN General Assembly can suspend a country from the Human Rights Council for continuously committing grave and systematic violations of human rights during its membership, according to the General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which created the Human Rights Council.

Was Charles Darwin Psychotic? A Study of His Mental Health

by Jerry Bergman, Ph.D.



Darwin's many lifelong and serious illnesses have been the subject of much speculation and study for over a century. Darwin stated that his health problems began as early as 1825 when he was only sixteen years old, and became incapacitating around age 28 (Barloon and Noyes, 1997, p. 138). Horan (1979, p. ix) concluded that Darwin was "ill and reclusively confined to his home in Kent for forty years." Darwinian scholar Michael Ruse even concluded that "Darwin himself was an invalid from the age of 30" (2003, p. 1523). And medical doctor George Pickering, in an extensive study of Darwin's illness, concluded that in his early thirties, Darwin became an "invalid recluse" (1974, p. 34). UCLA School of Medicine Professor Dr. Robert Pasnau (1990, p. 123) noted that Darwin also "remained ill almost continually" for the entire five years that he was on his HMS Beagle trip.

Dozens of scholarly articles and at least three books have been penned on the question of Darwin's illness. The current conclusion is that Darwin suffered from several serious and incapacitating psychiatric disorders, including agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is characterized by fear of panic attacks (or actual panic attacks) when not in a psychologically safe environment, such as at home. Darwin, as is common among agoraphobiacs, also developed many additional phobias—being in crowds, being alone, or leaving home unless accompanied by his wife (Kaplan and Sadock, 1990, pp. 958-959).

Agoraphobia is also frequently associated with depersonalization (a feeling of being detached from, and outside of, one's own body), a malady that Darwin also suffered (Barloon and Noyes, 1997, p. 138). A study of Darwin's mental condition by Barloon and Noyes concluded that Darwin suffered from anxiety disorders that so severely impaired his functioning that it limited his ability to leave his home, even just to meet with colleagues or other friends. This diagnosis likely explains his very secluded, hermit-like lifestyle (1997, p. 138). It also helps to explain the title of Desmond and Moore's 1991 biography of Darwin: Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist.

Other Psychiatric and Medical Problems

Colp (1977, p. 97) concluded that "much of Darwin's daily life was lived on a rack which consisted of fluctuating degrees of pain" that was sometimes so severe that Darwin called it "distressingly great." Darwin's many psychological or psychologically influenced physical health symptoms included severe depression, insomnia, hysterical crying, dying sensations, shaking, fainting spells, muscle twitches, shortness of breath, trembling, nausea, vomiting, severe anxiety, depersonalization, seeing spots, treading on air and vision, and other visual hallucinations (Barloon and Noyes, 1997, p. 139; Picover, 1998, p. 290; Colp, 1977, p. 97; Bean, 1978, p. 573). The physical symptoms included headaches, cardiac palpitations, ringing in ears (possibly tinnitus), painful flatulence, and gastric upsets—all of which commonly have a psychological origin (Pasnau, 1990). Colp noted that "behind these symptoms there was always a core of anxiety and depression" (1977, p. 97). Some speculate that part of Darwin's mental problems were due to his nagging, gnawing fear that he had devoted his "life to a fantasy"—and a "dangerous one" at that (Desmond and Moore, 1991, p. 477). This fear was that his theory was false and there was, in fact, a divine Creator.

Darwin's behavior also indicates that he suffered from a mental disorder. Although devoted to his wife and daughters, he "treated them as children" even after his daughters were fully grown (Picover, 1998, p. 289). Some of Darwin's statements to others also cast doubt on his mental stability. For example, in 1875 he wrote the following words to fellow scientist Robert Hooker:

You ask about my book, & all that I can say is that I am ready to commit suicide: I thought it was decently written, but find so much wants rewriting. . . . I begin to think that every one who publishes a book is a fool (quoted in Colp, 1977, p. 228).

Colp noted that Darwin's son Leonard claimed that his father's illness even interfered with his feelings for his children. For example, Leonard once noted that

As a young lad I went up to my father when strolling about the lawn, and he . . . turned away as if quite incapable of carrying on any conversation. Then there suddenly shot through my mind the conviction that he wished he was no longer alive (quoted in Colp, 1977, p. 100).

Darwin's mental problems were considered so severe that Picover (1998, p. 289) included Darwin in his collection of historical persons that he calls "strange brains . . . eccentric scientists, and madmen." That Darwin suffered from several severely disabling maladies is not debated; the only debate is what caused them (Pasnau, 1990, p. 121).

Other Possible Causes of Darwin's Condition

Others, including Darwin's own wife, argued that his mental problem stemmed from guilt over his life's goal to refute the argument for God from design (Bean, 1978,
p. 574; p. 28; Pasnau, 1990, p. 126). Most of the psychoanalytic studies have argued that his problems were a result of his repressed anger toward his tyrannical father and "the slaying of his heavenly father" by his theory (Pasnau, 1990, p. 122).

Diagnosis of the cause of Darwin's mental and physical disorders include parasitic disease (Chaga's disease—caused by an insect common in South America), arsenic poisoning, and possibly even an inner ear disorder (Picover, 1998, p. 290; Pasnau, 1990). All of these causes have largely been refuted. Many persons conclude he had a classic, essential mental disturbance bordering on psychosis (a severe, incapacitating mental disorder). Regardless of the diagnosis, Darwin's condition was clearly incapacitating, often for months at a time, and rendered him an invalid for much of his life, especially in the prime of his life.

Arnold Sorsby concluded that Darwin was also an obsessive-compulsive and gives the following evidence:

If Chagas's disease did not cause Darwin's symptoms what did? My personal diagnosis would be an anxiety state with obsessive features and psychosomatic manifestations. Anxiety clearly precipitated much of his physical trouble, and regarding the obsessive component there are several important points. . . .

Darwin exhibited the obsessional's trait of having everything "just so"; he kept meticulous records of his health and symptoms like many obsessional hypochondriacs. Everything had to be in its place; he even had a special drawer for the sponge which he used in bathing . . . Then there is the health diary he kept. Days and nights were given a score according to how good they were; the score was added up at the end of each week, and there is evidence of frequent changing of mind in deciding whether a night was very good or just good (1974, p. 228).

Darwin's Own Words about His Condition

In addition to the diary on his health problems and complaints (Colp, 1977, p. 136), he frequently discussed his health problems in his letters and his autobiography. Darwin's own description of his condition included the following: "I am forced to live, . . . very quietly and am able to see scarcely anybody and cannot even talk long with my nearest relations" (quoted in Bowlby, 1990, p. 240). Darwin once complained that speaking for only "a few minutes" to the Linnean Society "brought on 24 hours vomiting" (Darwin, 1994, pp. 98-99). At another time, Darwin had a "house full of guests" and after he visited the parish church for a christening, he was "back to square one" and his good health "had vanished `like a flash of lightning'" and sickness (including the vomiting) returned (Desmond and Moore, 1991, p. 456). The suddenness of his illness, as illustrated by these incidents, indicates that his incapacitating episodes were psychological in origin.

Another side of Darwin revealed his sadistic impulses. His own words taken from his autobiography give a vivid example:

In the latter part of my school life I became passionately fond of shooting, and I do not believe that anyone could have shown more zeal for the most holy cause than I did for shooting birds. How well I remember killing my first snipe, and my excitement was so great that I had much difficulty in reloading my gun from the trembling of my hands. This taste long continued and I became a very good shot (1958, p. 44).

The fact that he loved killing so much that killing his first bird caused him to tremble with excitement could certainly indicate a sadistic streak in Darwin. His passion for killing birds is well known. One wonders if this "passion" for killing may have, in part, motivated his ruthless "survival of the fittest" tooth and claw theory of natural selection.

Conclusions

Darwin was clearly a very troubled man and suffered from severe emotional problems for most of his adult life, especially when he was in the prime of life. The exact cause of his mental and many physical problems has been much debated and may never be known for certain. Since Darwin wrote extensively about his mental and physical problems, we have much material on which to base a reasonable conclusion about this area of his life. The diagnosis of the cause of his mental and physical problems includes a variety of debilitating conditions, but agoraphobia with the addition of psychoneurosis is most probably correct.

Unfortunately, most writers have shied away from this topic, partly because Darwin is now idolized by many scientists and others. Often listed as one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century, if not the greatest scientist that ever lived, Darwin is one of the few scientists known to most Americans. To understand Darwin as a person and his motivations, one must consider his mental condition and how it affected his work and conclusions.

There is a lot of interesting stuff here. For instance, Darwin's attitude toward his father probably reflected his attitude toward his Heavenly Father. There is a tendency to blame God when our lives are very difficult and unhappy. Then there is also a tendency to reject any belief in God for allowing such suffering. If Darwin suffered from one or both of these attitudes, it may explain his motivation for writing On the Origin of Species.

There is another possibility that I want to discuss very carefully. I have known people with some of the psychological symptoms Darwin suffered from. I have seen people shaking from fear, and I have seen people who were about to lose their jobs because they couldn't summon the courage to leave their house. I have also seen such people immediately relieved of these fears and anxieties after I prayed for them and rebuked any evil spirits that afflicted them. 

Was Darwin demonically afflicted? Probably not! But in my mind it's a possibility, especially when you consider his response to attending a Christening at a church. 

References

Barloon, Thomas and Russell Noyes, Jr. 1997. "Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder." JAMA 277(2):138-141.

Barlow, Nora, ed. 1958. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. NY: Norton.

Bean, W. B. 1978. "The Illness of Charles Darwin." The American Journal of Medicine 65(4):572-574.

Bowlby, John. 1990. Charles Darwin: A New Life. NY: Norton.

Colp, Ralph Jr. 1977. To Be an Invalid: The Illness of Charles Darwin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.

Darwin, Charles. 1994. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. Vol. 9.

Desmond, Adrian and James Moore. 1991. Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. NY: Warner Books.

Grigg, Russell. 1995. "Darwin's Mystery Illness." Creation Ex Nihilo 17(4):28-30.

Horan, Patricia G. 1979. Foreword to The Origin of Species. NY: Gramercy Books.

Kaplan, Harold I. and Benjamin J. Sadock, ed. 1990. Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/V. Volume 1 Fifth Edition. NY: Williams and Wilkins.

Pasnau, R. O. 1990. "Darwin's Illness: A Biopsychosocial Perspective." Psychosomatics 31(2):121-128.

Pickering, George. 1974. Creative Malady. NY: Oxford University Press.

Picover, Clifford A. 1998. Strange Brains and Genius: The Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madmen. NY: Quill William Morrow.

Ruse, Michael. 2003. "Is Evolution a Secular Religion?" Science 299:1523-1524.

Sorsby, Arnold, ed. 1974. Tenements of Clay. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons.

*Dr. Bergman is on the Biology faculty at Northwest State College in Ohio.

Cite this article: Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. 2004. Was Charles Darwin Psychotic? A Study of His Mental Health. Acts & Facts. 33 (1).

Earth Going Greener: Human Activity Boosts Vegetation Growth in Cold Regions - Research Claims

© NASA Goddard / YouTube

Humans' greenhouse gas emissions and a warming climate have caused increased vegetation growth on Earth, especially amid rising temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, according to newly-released research.

A three-decade greening trend can be seen in satellite images of "leaf area index" (LAI), or the amount of leaf area per ground area, in the Northern Hemisphere outside of the tropics, also known as extratropics, researchers said. The research team, led by Jiafu Mao of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, took LAI data and applied them to various sets of climate model data to determine whether northern greening was more likely to happen in simulations that take into account greenhouse gas emissions.

"We used two 30-year-long remote-sensing-based leaf area index (LAI) data sets, simulations from 19 coupled [Earth system models] with interactive vegetation, and a formal detection and attribution algorithm," the researchers said in the summary of their "detection and attribution" study — 'Human-induced greening of the northern extratropical land surface' — published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

 "Our findings reveal that the observed greening record is consistent with an assumption of anthropogenic forcings, where greenhouse gases play a dominant role, but is not consistent with simulations that include only natural forcings and internal climate variability."

Now, someone has to explain to me how anthropogenic forcings can be separated from natural forcings. Methinks there are some big assumptions here.

Earlier this month, unrelated NASA research offered a detailed snapshot of increased greening in areas of Alaska and Canada where plant life increasingly looks like that of warmer ecosystems.

Jiafu Mao's researchers, meanwhile, said their findings indicate the "first clear evidence of a discernible human fingerprint on physiological vegetation changes other than phenology and range shifts."

Plant growth in the Northern Hemisphere's colder areas is tied to greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to warming temperatures, the researchers said. Warming means lengthened growing seasons and increased moisture levels. Another factor to plant growth is increased nitrogen cycles pushed by human use of fertilizers and fossil fuels.

How this increased greening will affect climate change progression is not so clear. While some are optimistic that the greening trend means more carbon can be absorbed by plant life, Mao, the study's leader, said further predictions are difficult to ascertain.

“Although we already identify this kind of human impact on this historical vegetation growth, for the future, it’s hard to predict,” he said.

Of course, we wouldn't want to say anything that might lessen the alarm of anthropogenic global warming.

The research team said what can be understood through their study is that, to no surprise, humans are transforming the Earth in a variety of ways.

“Given the strong evidence provided here of historical human induced greening in the northern extratropics, society should consider both intended and unintended consequences of its interactions with terrestrial ecosystems and the climate system,” the study concluded.

Full-out Assault on New Front in War on Christianity

Democrats, LGBT activists’ sinister plan

to crack down on Christian schools

By Todd Starnes (The Associated Press)

If California Democrats have their way, Christian colleges and universities will no longer be allowed to require students attend chapel services or require them to profess a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Senate Bill 1146 would close a loophole that lawmakers say allows Christian universities to discriminate against students based on their gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation.

“All students deserve to feel safe in institutions of higher education, regardless of whether they are public or private,” said Senator Ricardo Lara, the author of the legislation. “California has established strong protections for the LGBTQ community and private universities should not be able to use faith as an excuse to discriminate and avoid complying with state laws.”

We knew this was coming, it was just a matter of when. This is, of course, not about discrimination against LGBTQs. It is a malicious attack on Christianity! How many LGBTQs are registered in Christian universities? Probably not enough to use up all your fingers counting, if any. 

Lara is trying to destroy Christian education in California and shame on the government for endorsing it. You are trading this possibility of a handful of LGBTQs being offended for the certainty that tens of thousands of Christians will be offended and have their education interfered with significantly. - GWM

The legislation has already passed the Senate and is expected to clear hurdles in the Assembly. Thus far, Lara has refused to compromise with the state’s Christian colleges and universities.

“No university should have a license to discriminate,” he said in a statement.

If the loophole is closed, it would only exempt schools that prepare students for pastoral ministry. 

“It discriminates against religious colleges, said John Jackson, the president of William Jessup University. “If we don’t play ball with state — the state will attempt to drive us out of existence.”

The president of the Sacramento-based university

called the proposed legislation chilling

“The passage of this bill would destroy the foundation upon which this university was founded,” said Jackson. “Systematically discriminating against religious institutions and preventing student access and choice to Christian higher education is bad policy and will have a negative effect on the state of California.”

Lee Wilhite, vice president of university communications at Biola University, said they, too, have serious concerns with the bill.

“It functionally eliminates the religious liberty of all California faith-based universities,” he told me. “It really does infringe on how we carry out our mission.”

Like most Christian universities, Biola integrates the Bible through all of their courses — something they’ve been doing for more than 100 years.

If the loophole is closed, it could have a devastating impact on faith-based institutions.

“We would no longer be able to require a profession of faith for students,” Wichita said. “That’s something Biola requires of all incoming students.”

Schools would no longer be allowed to integrate faith throughout their teaching curriculum, he added.

Leaders at three universities I spoke to say that they would not be allowed to require mandatory chapel attendance or mandatory core units of Bible courses.

“The danger for Biola University is that it prevents us from carrying out our mission the way we have for 108 years,” Wilhite said. “It would eliminate our ability to continue our mission. That’s why it has our attention.”

The legislation would also give students a right to sue if — for example -- they were offended by a prayer in a class.

Biola and William Jessup refute the notion that LGBT students are discriminated against on their campuses.

“We don’t tolerate harassment or bullying of any of our students,” Wilhite told me.

Many of the schools are working with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities to urge Lara to amend his bill to include a religious exemption.

“If passed without amendments, the new law would also very likely disqualify students attending California Christian colleges and universities from eligibility for Cal Grants, a key state-level student aid program,” wrote Kurt Krueger, president of Concordia University Irvine.

Azusa Pacific University president Jon Wallace, penned a passionate op-ed for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

“Sen. Lara wants to safeguard LGBT students. We want the same protection for all students, including members of the LGBT community. The bill calls for more transparency from schools about their beliefs and recourse for unfair treatment. We share his concerns about student safety, transparency and recourse. With every prospective student, we share who we are, we provide the framework for how we build community and do life together and we ask those who enroll to uphold our student standards of conduct. Right now the proposed bill would invite challenges to required chapel attendance and public and communal observation of Christian sacraments such as the Eucharist and baptisms, among other activities central to our identity.”

Several of the universities I contacted said they are going to respectfully stand their ground -- even if it means taking their case to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

“We are not willing to change our policies,” Jackson said. “There is a very intentional attempt to marginalize those who don’t accept the notions of sexual orientation and gender identity as the government has framed them.”

And Jackson warned that what’s happening in California could happen in other parts of the country.

“Religious freedoms are in play in California,” Jackson told me. “Ultimately, I’m concerned that what begins in California rolls across the nation.”

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

Another Doomsday Prediction on Global Warming

El Niño effect: Global temperatures hit record high for 8th month in a row

© Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center.


Last month was the hottest May on file making it the eighth consecutive month to smash world temperature records.

The global temperature for May was 1.67 °F (0.93 °C) warmer than the May base period (from 1951 to 1980), according to data compiled by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

This follows a warmer than usual April, which was 1.96 °F (1.09 °C) hotter than mean temperatures from 1951 to 1980.

Global temperature records have now been broken for eight straight months since the pattern began in October 2015. The world is on track to call 2016 its hottest year yet.

Climate scientist and director of GISS, Gavin Schmidt says there is a greater than 99 percent probability that 2016 will break all previous heat records.

The string of record-breaking months is a consequence of El Niño - a natural phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years through unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean.

Gavin Schmidt @ClimateOfGavin
With Apr update, 2016 still > 99% likely to be a new record (assuming historical ytd/ann patterns valid).

The most recent El Niño event took place in the eastern tropical Pacific from late 2015 to early 2016 and was considered “very strong.”

Strongest ever, in fact.

The weather event brought excessive rains and exacerbated drought in the Horn of Africa and in Southern Africa, sparking increased food insecurity according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It also prompted the spread of disease, including cholera.


© Feisal Omar / Reuters

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology declared El Niño finished on May 24. However, the effects of the event drag on throughout the year because of a lag in the global response to tropical disturbances, according to Schmidt.

NASA expects the current trend to subside shortly though and says it’s unlikely that the next few months will be ‘chart-toppers’.

Climate change has been raising the planet’s temperature and GISS scientist Reto Ruedy estimates that global warming will catch up with the El Niño 2015 spike in less than 15 years.

This should be a good measure by which to determine the validity of GISS temperature forecasts. As I identified in Global Warming - Getting Off the Fence, temperature increases are subject to 30 year cycles and we are in the midst of a 30 year period of little or no increase in the global temperature. 

For global warming to catch up to the temperatures recorded in this El Nino event in 15 years, it would have to break a pattern that has been very consistent for the past 130 years. Good luck with that Reto Reudy.

The Future Belongs to Islam

But for a few obvious references, it is hard to believe this article was written ten years ago

The Muslim world has youth, numbers and global ambitions. The West is growing old and enfeebled, and lacks the will to rebuff those who would supplant it. It’s the end of the world as we’ve known it. 

An excerpt from ‘America Alone’

Mark Steyn
October 20, 2006

Sept. 11, 2001, was not “the day everything changed,” but the day that revealed how much had already changed. On Sept. 10, how many journalists had the Council of American-Islamic Relations or the Canadian Islamic Congress or the Muslim Council of Britain in their Rolodexes? If you’d said that whether something does or does not cause offence to Muslims would be the early 21st century’s principal political dynamic in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, most folks would have thought you were crazy. Yet on that Tuesday morning the top of the iceberg bobbed up and toppled the Twin Towers.

This is about the seven-eighths below the surface — the larger forces at play in the developed world that have left Europe too enfeebled to resist its remorseless transformation into Eurabia and that call into question the future of much of the rest of the world. The key factors are: demographic decline; the unsustainability of the social democratic state; and civilizational exhaustion.

Let’s start with demography, because everything does:
If your school has 200 guys and you’re playing a school with 2,000 pupils, it doesn’t mean your baseball team is definitely going to lose but it certainly gives the other fellows a big starting advantage. Likewise, if you want to launch a revolution, it’s not very likely if you’ve only got seven revolutionaries. And they’re all over 80. But, if you’ve got two million and seven revolutionaries and they’re all under 30 you’re in business.

For example, I wonder how many pontificators on the “Middle East peace process” ever run this number:

The median age in the Gaza Strip is 15.8 years.

Once you know that, all the rest is details. If you were a “moderate Palestinian” leader, would you want to try to persuade a nation — or pseudo-nation — of unemployed poorly educated teenage boys raised in a UN-supervised European-funded death cult to see sense? Any analysis of the “Palestinian problem” that doesn’t take into account the most important determinant on the ground is a waste of time.

Likewise, the salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia is that they’re running out of babies. What’s happening in the developed world is one of the fastest demographic evolutions in history: most of us have seen a gazillion heartwarming ethnic comedies — My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its ilk — in which some uptight WASPy type starts dating a gal from a vast loving fecund Mediterranean family, so abundantly endowed with sisters and cousins and uncles that you can barely get in the room. It is, in fact, the inversion of the truth. Greece has a fertility rate hovering just below 1.3 births per couple, which is what demographers call the point of “lowest-low” fertility from which no human society has ever recovered. And Greece’s fertility is the healthiest in Mediterranean Europe: Italy has a fertility rate of 1.2, Spain 1.1. Insofar as any citizens of the developed world have “big” families these days, it’s the anglo democracies: America’s fertility rate is 2.1, New Zealand a little below. Hollywood should be making My Big Fat Uptight Protestant Wedding in which some sad Greek only child marries into a big heartwarming New Zealand family where the spouse actually has a sibling.

As I say, this isn’t a projection: it’s happening now. There’s no need to extrapolate, and if you do it gets a little freaky, but, just for fun, here goes: by 2050, 60 per cent of Italians will have no brothers, no sisters, no cousins, no aunts, no uncles. The big Italian family, with papa pouring the vino and mama spooning out the pasta down an endless table of grandparents and nieces and nephews, will be gone, no more, dead as the dinosaurs. As Noel Coward once remarked in another context, “Funiculi, funicula, funic yourself.” By mid-century, Italians will have no choice in the matter.

Experts talk about root causes. But demography is the most basic root of all. A people that won’t multiply can’t go forth or go anywhere. Those who do will shape the age we live in.

Demographic decline and the unsustainability of the social democratic state are closely related. In America, politicians upset about the federal deficit like to complain that we’re piling up debts our children and grandchildren will have to pay off. But in Europe the unaffordable entitlements are in even worse shape: there are no kids or grandkids to stick it to.

You might formulate it like this:

Age + Welfare = Disaster for you;

Youth + Will = Disaster for whoever gets in your way.

By “will,” I mean the metaphorical spine of a culture. Africa, to take another example, also has plenty of young people, but it’s riddled with AIDS and, for the most part, Africans don’t think of themselves as Africans: as we saw in Rwanda, their primary identity is tribal, and most tribes have no global ambitions. Islam, however, has serious global ambitions, and it forms the primal, core identity of most of its adherents — in the Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere.

Islam has youth and will, Europe has age and welfare.

The rest of this very long but brilliant article can be read here.

Number of Refugees Arrested for Terror Higher than Reported

It isn’t Islamophobic to recognize the intersection between national security and immigration and make proper adjustments to reflect reality

BY RYAN MAURO 


The Tsarnaev brothers (inset) who committed the Boston bombings were in the U.S. because their father is an asylum-seeker; they are not even included in the count.(Photo: © Reuters)

New data from the Senate Judiciary Committee reveals that 40 refugees have been arrested on terrorism-related charges since 9/11; a number far higher than the State Department’s previous estimate of a dozen.

Clarion Project reported in November 2015 that a little-noticed poll showed that 13% of Syrian refugees express favorable feelings towards the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). The Obama Administration plans to resettle between 8,000 and 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year. It is about half way towards that goal, having resettled about 4,000.

13% of 10,000 = 1300

The new congressional numbers show that 580 individuals have been convicted on terrorism-related charges since 9/11, with 131 convictions happening since early 2014 when ISIS burst onto the scene.

Of the 580, at least 40 are refugees (a little less than 7 percent of the total) and 380 are foreign-born (65.5% of the total). The top countries of origin are Pakistan (by far), followed far behind by Somalia, Yemen, Colombia and Iraq.

The convicts are most commonly associated with Al-Qaeda or one of its branches. The second most common allegiance is to Hezbollah, followed by the Colombian FARC narco-terrorist group; Hamas; Lashker-a-Taiba; the Taliban (if you combine the Afghan and Pakistani branches); the Tamil Tigers; the United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia; ISIS and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The obvious conclusion from the fresh data is that counter-terrorism efforts should be laser-focused on immigration and screening policies, particularly in regards to Muslim countries that are terror hotbeds, since over 65% of cases involved foreigners who came to the United States.

That number doesn’t include convicts whose parents came into the U.S. and may have brought ideas that helped radicalize their children. A clear example is Orlando shooter Omar Mateen’s father, who has praised the Taliban and is now known to have served as an official in a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamist organization in 1997.

The Washington Post has also addressed some misconceptions and semantics games when it comes to the security issues surrounding the estimated 800,000 refugees who have come into America since 9/11. Counts of terror-linked refugees may not include asylum-seekers and their families who are in the U.S. but have not yet acquired the refugee label.

The Post mentions that the Tsarnaev brothers who committed the Boston bombings were in the U.S. because their father is an asylum-seeker and they are not included in the counts.

In addition, the aforementioned numbers do not include information about those arrested but not convicted and those under investigation. A senior FBI official said in 2013 that there are dozens of counter-terrorism investigations into refugee suspects. That was before the dramatic spike in radicalization sparked by the success of ISIS and its declaration of a caliphate.

As Clarion explained, the U.S. can benefit from accepting some properly-vetted Muslim refugees, including those from Syria. A ban on all Muslim immigration isn’t feasible (putting aside the moral question), but a vetting process aimed at detecting Islamists is. Such ideological vetting can help genuine moderate Muslims by identifying them and possibly expediting their processing.

Homeland Security whistleblower Philip Haney had great success in detecting extremists by tracking associations with Islamist movements and institutions until the overlapping extremism of political correctness and Islamism stopped him from continuing. Almost every time someone is arrested on terror-related charges, we hear about previous signs of extremism such as attending a radical mosque or a social media posting.

The new data shows that the majority of terrorist convicts come from foreign countries, and a small but worrisome percentage are refugees. It isn’t Islamophobic or bigoted to recognize the intersection between national security and immigration and make proper adjustments to reflect reality.

Ryan Mauro is ClarionProject.org’s national security analyst, a fellow with Clarion Project and an adjunct professor of homeland security. Mauro is frequently interviewed on top-tier television and radio. Read more, contact or arrange a speaking engagement.

Suicide Attack Kills 3 at Christian Massacre Memorial in Syria

Found this story in the Manila Times

QAMISHLI, Syria: Three people were killed in northeast Syria on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked an event commemorating the massacre of Christians more than a century ago, state media and a security source said.

The attack in the city of Qamishli took place as locals gathered at a hall to commemorate the deaths of tens of thousands of Christians by the Ottoman army starting in 1915 in what is known as the Sayfo (“Sword”) massacre.


Armenian Massacre, Turkey 1915

The Sayfo massacre was decidedly the Ottoman's (read Islam's) genocide of Assyrian Christians in southeast Turkey and northwestern Iran. It amounted to between 150,000 and 300,000 dead. It was done concurrently with genocides of Greek and Armenian Christians.

The Greek genocide was instigated by the government of the Ottoman Empire against the Greek population of the Empire and it included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, summary expulsions, arbitrary execution, and the destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious monuments. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period.

The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust and the Armenian Massacres, was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of up to 1.5 million of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which lies within the present-day Republic of Turkey.

The Armenian community was made up of three Christian denominations: the Armenian Apostolic to which the overwhelming majority of Armenians belonged, and the Armenian Catholic and Armenian Protestant communities.


More Armenian Genocide, Turkey 1915

A photographer working with Agence France-Presse and attending the event said he heard the blast and saw pieces of flesh lying next to damaged cars.

“The suicide attacker tried to enter the hall where people were gathered but was stopped by local security forces, and he detonated himself among them,” a security source at the scene told AFP.

The security forces belonged to the Sotoro, a Christian militia based in Syria’s northeast.

“Three Sotoro members were killed and five wounded,” the security source said.

One Sotoro member told AFP that the suicide bomber “detonated himself near our checkpoint after he couldn’t reach his real target, Patriarch Ignatius.”

Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II is the head of the Syriac Orthodox church and was leading the commemoration.


More Armenians massacred by Ottomans, Turkey 1915-1919

Syria’s state news agency SANA also reported three people killed in a “terrorist suicide explosion” in Qamishli but did not specify whether they were civilians or security forces.

Situated along the border with Turkey, Qamishli has been regularly targeted by suicide bombings, many of which have been claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Control of the Kurdish-majority city is split between Kurdish militia and pro-government fighters.

Syriac Christians belong to the eastern Christian tradition and pray in Aramaic. They include both Orthodox and Catholic branches, and constitute around 15 percent of Syria’s 1.2 million Christians. 
AFP

    Qamishli, Syria

Where Islam is involved, some things don't change!

Reading the Bible Through in a Year and Why You Shouldn't

Most evangelical churches these days have programs where you read through the Bible in a year

Some push their congregants to do so every year. This is most unfortunate and not in the best interests of the person, the church, or God. Let me explain, borrowing from an old pastor I heard some years ago:

He worked in the coal mines in the Canadian Rockies as a young man, and he likened reading the Bible through in a year with strip-mining. Strip-mining in coal will yield great amounts of coal, but it will be soft, cheap, and dirty coal that is not worth a great deal. If you want the hard, clean, valuable coal, you have to dig for it.

Here's another analogy from my yet-to-be-published book: If you want to study a lake would you get a speedboat and roar around the lake at breakneck speed? You might; it might give you an idea of how big the lake is but it wouldn't tell you much else about the lake. 

What you really need to do is to get a small boat, some diving gear, some instruments and jump into the lake and start taking measurements of temperature, depth, currents, salinity, acidity, etc. You would try to count the various types and amounts of marine life. You would study  the condition of the bottom, the condition of the marine life, the condition of the water as to pollution. Are you getting my point?

Madame Jeanne Guyon had this all figured out in the 17th century. 

Read this excerpt from A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer:

Meditative reading is choosing some important practical or speculative truth, always preferring the practical, and proceeding thus: whatever truth you have chosen, read only a small portion of it, endeavoring to taste and digest it, to extract the essence and substance of it, and proceed no farther while any savor or relish remains in the passage: then take up your book again, and proceed as before, seldom reading more than half a page at a time.

It is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit. Those who read fast, reap no more advantage, than a bee would by only skimming over the surface of the flower, instead of waiting to penetrate into it, and extract its sweets. Much reading is rather for scholastic subjects, than divine truths; to receive profit from spiritual books, we must read as I have described; and I am certain that if that method were pursued, we should become gradually adapted to prayer by our reading, and more likely to practise it.

Guyon notes that St. Augustine, one of the great fathers of the faith, practised meditative prayer way back in the late 4th or early 5th century. She states that he blamed himself for not starting it earlier in life.

Is it possible that this skimming through the Bible is responsible for the seeming shallowness of some congregations? Many people simply don't have the time to read the large amounts of scripture needed to get through the Bible in a year, so they either don't, or they read out of obligation and with one eye on the clock. That's no way to learn scripture. 

I'm not saying don't read through the Bible; we need to do that every so many years to keep it in perspective. But there is just no need to rush through it to meet some arbitrary deadline. Read it slowly, savour it, enjoy it, even if it takes you three years to read it cover to cover.

Read it slowly expecting God to reveal something of Himself to you. Read a single verse (in some cases), reread it paying close attention to each word. Is there something there, even a single word that you don't completely understand? Stop! Look it up in a Biblical dictionary. Read commentaries on it. Follow chain links to other scriptures and follow some links to further scriptures from them. Get as much information on it as you can dig up, then sit back and meditate on it. Allow God to bring some clarity to the word or the issue before you move on. 

I like to keep notes on what I've learned, either on paper or in computer files. They can come in very handy when revisiting a particular topic.

That's how to begin to go deep. That's how to begin to understand God, to listen to Him, to be more like Him, to be made perfect and complete so that you might be made one with Him. That's why we are here!

Bulgaria Becomes Third Country to Ban the Burqa

Invisible women not allowed in Bulgaria

MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images

by DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS

The Bulgarian Parliament has overwhelmingly given the green light to a proposed ban on the wearing of burqas in the country, with only eight Members of Parliament voting against it.

The bill’s approval means that Bulgaria is on track to becoming the third European country, after France and the Netherlands, to ban clothing that covers the face in public places. Women who defy the ban will be fined 200 leva (£80) for the first offence, increasing to 1,500 leva and the cancelling of social benefits for subsequent offences, the Sofia Globe has reported.

In addition, those who persuade others to wear the veil will be fined 5,000 leva and face up to three years in prison, while for those who persuade minors to wear the veil the penalties are increased to 10,000 leva and a maximum of five years’ jail time.

The bill was tabled by the Patriotic Front (PF), who have already been instrumental in getting local bans put in place. The text makes it clear that the bill is aimed at “the aggressive enforcement of limits to personal freedom and human dignity of the women,” particularly in communities where “radical Islam exists,” reports Balkan Insight.

It was supported by the majority of the National Assembly’s 240 members, while the eight votes against came from Parliamentarians representing the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), and Turkish-rights party DOST. There were no abstentions.

The majority was not unexpected, however, as the bill was widely supported during the committee stages, with only the MRF putting up any meaningful opposition.

During the debate Lyutvi Mestan, the leader of DOST and former chair of the MRF called the bill “comic and pathetic”. MRF member Tuncher Kardjaliev, said the draft law addressed an artificial problem and slammed it as “pure populism”. And his MRF colleague Hamid Hamid said there was no need for a ban as the garment is only worn by a small number of Roma Salafists in the city of Pazardjik.

But Julian Angelov from the PF hit back: “The fact that we have 20 or 100 women with burqas does not mean that we should wait for them to become 150,000.”

The ban will cover Bulgarian citizens, migrants, and temporary residents, and applies to all public areas including parks, public and private transport, schools and gardens, but will not apply to private homes or places of worship. Exceptions may be made for medical or professional reasons, and during sporting and cultural events.

Muslims account for about 12 per cent of Bulgaria’s population, and mostly belong to a centuries old population made up mostly of ethnic Turks, among which the wearing of the veil is not common. But the garment has gained popularity with Roma Salafists living mostly in the central city of Pazardjik.

The city already has a regional ban, put in place in April to diffuse tension between communities and to boost security following the terrorist attacks on Paris and Brussels.

“I am tired to hear that Pazardjik is the town of the burqas. We want to say aloud that we are not that, but a town of responsible people and we will be associated with other achievements,” Mayor Todor Popov told national radio at the time, according to the Telegraph.

Kevin Loibl Shot & Killed Christina Grimmie Because She Was A Christian

Good luck trying to find any reference to Christina's bold faith

in mainstream media stories. If she had been a lesbian,

it would have been all the story was about

By Stan Greene
Observer Staff Writer 
Santa Monica Observer

Crime may be investigated as a hate crime

The Voice singer was outspoken in her Christian faith

It has become increasingly apparent to police from the gunman's cell phone and computer records, that singer Christina Grimmie was murdered because of her outspoken Christian beliefs.

        Click on photo for brief ET report

It is difficult to find motive in the insane ravings of a madman like Kevin James Loibl. But it has become increasingly apparent to police from an examination of Loibl's cell phone and computer records, that singer Christina Grimmie was murdered because of her outspoken Christian faith.

Loibl, 27, traveled from St. Petersburg to Orlando, a distance of some 107 miles, with the specific intent to kill the contestant from NBC's 'The Voice,' said police, adding that Grimmie and Loibl did not know each other.

Orlando police did say that Loibl carried 2 loaded guns and a hunting knife into the Plaza Live theater, and intended to follow the singer's murder by perpetrating a mass casualty event. The singers brother Marcus prevented others from dying by wrestling the shooter down, who then shot himself dead.

Orlando police are investigating the murder as a hate crime, after an examination of recent posts and e-mails by Loibl. Loibl had neither a gun permit nor a criminal record. His insane rantings were removed from the internet shortly after his crime.

Grimmie, 22, died Saturday at an Orlando hospital after Loibl shot her at the Plaza Live Theater while she was signing autographs. The shooting occurred in front of fans and family. She had been the opening act for the band Before You Exit.

Grimmie's website is outspokenly Christian in its content: http://christinagrimmie.com/users/jrraks6z/blogs/6131881

An excerpt: In the western world, especially American civilization, when asking for a person's religious standing, the most common response you will encounter is simply "I'm a Christian." Most people subtly just think to themselves "Oh, okay good. I was worried for second." But as I have traveled to Israel recently, fervently prayed and studied Scripture, and examined the culture around me, I have found that when someone says "I'm a Christian," I should be more worried for their soul than if they said "I'm an atheist."

Before you stone me to death with your subconscious judgment, let me explain. If you will, come explore with me what it should look like when a person claims Christianity. Come with me, and let's take a look at the most overused word in the English language. What is this "Christian" stuff all about anyway? "

Christina Grimmie posted Christian songs online such as Me Singing - "In Christ Alone" - Christina Grimmie Cover - HAPPY EASTER!! - YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RzseOqwn8oo

T.J. Wilkins, another Voice competitor, wrote: "What I'll remember most about you is our conversation about faith and the love of Christ." That faith was often reflected in Grimmie's tweets. This one from 2013, which her fans (she called them "Frands--Friends and Fans) are circulating today:

Sometimes God allows terrible things to happen in your life and you don't know why. But that doesn't mean you should stop trusting Him.

- Christina Grimmie (@TheRealGrimmie) February 21, 2013

This was apparently too much for the twisted gunman, who left insane rantings about her online, according to our sources. Like Mark David Chapman, who became obsessed with John Lennon, Loibl grew obsessed with the singer and her Christian beliefs.

Kevin James Loibl's Facebook page has been taken down, as is standard procedure following heinous crimes such as this one. Authorities fear they might inspire copycat crimes.

Attorneys say that to prove a murder case by circumstantial evidence, prosecutors must present 3 elements: Motive, Opportunity and Intent. What Loibl left on his computer and in his cell phone shows motivation: His hatred of Christians in general and of one young female Christian singer in particular. Loibl had the opportunity because he was present at the Plaza, and his intent could be demonstrated again by his communications, and by buying two guns.

Of course, had Loibl lived, prosecutors would not have needed to put on a circumstantial evidence type case, because there were many witnesses. They would have testified. But the point is, the evidence of his communications would support a circumstantial case against Loibl that this was an anti-Christian hate crime, with motivation, opportunity and intent.

A great rabbi once said that causeless hatred is the source of most of the world's unhappiness. It can be said for certain that Loibl had a diseased, twisted mind, and that the 22 year old singer's death defines senseless killing and causeless hatred. Perhaps we can draw some little solace in knowing that she joins a long line of martyrs for her faith.

Update, 6/13: Adam Levine, Grimmie's voice coach on "The Voice," has offered to pay her funeral expenses, and the expense of flying her body home.

Update, 6/14: Hundreds of Christina Grimmie's friends and fans gathered last night for a candlelight vigil in her New Jersey hometown, Evesham Township. Photos of her filled the field at the Township's Memorial complex.

"She loved this town," Marcus Grimmie told the crowd. "She loved this state. She loved singing. She loved the Lord and she loved me. She was my baby sister."

Her funeral will be a private affair this weekend, in Evesham Township Memorial Park.

Police have still not announced a motive for the shooting. There is no evidence that Grimmie and killer Kevin Loibl ever met or knew each other.

Update: 6/12--The tragic shooting by radical Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, killing 50 people and injuring 53, does seem too similar to us to be a coincidence. Our thoughts and prayers are with Orlando and Florida.

I received an intriguing comment from a reader I'll call "Susan," on June 17. She claims to have seen, just after Christina Grimmie's murder, but before the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, a Facebook page for Kevin Loibl. It listed Loibl as having only three friends, one of them being Omar Mateen, the nightclub shooter. "There were a few comments on both of the Facebook pages and dates (from years ago) that indicate that the pages were not recently set up." Both pages were subsequently taken down, but she claims to have screenshots of each. Stay tuned.  - Stan Greene

Palestinian: "We Fled in 1948; They Didn't Expel Us"

MUST WATCH: 1948 Palestinian: “We Fled..They Didn’t Expel Us”

By Aussie Dave

It is one of the claims of the Israel haters: Israel expelled the Palestinians living here in 1948.

As renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris has noted, while there were expulsions (as can happen during wartime with a hostile population), many of the 700,000 Arab refugees were ordered or advised by their fellow Arabs to abandon their homes. There were also those who fled in fear.

Now Israel Social TV have come out with an anti-Israel video about “Palestinian refugees” planning their return.

They are young Palestinian men and women, citizens of Israel. They have been meeting for three years, imagining and planning their return to their destroyed villages. Project “Udna” or “Return” in English, aims to pass on to the younger generation awareness of the Nakba and create actual models of return. Descendants of the displaced from al-Lajjun made a film about the expulsion from the village in ’48.

Do not bother watching it. Our own Zion Mike has isolated the only part you need to watch.

An admission by the elderly man that they fled in fear due to the “real war” going on, and his insistence about this despite the interviewer (his grandson) trying to get him to say they were expelled.

Ex-Guatemalan President, VP Among 70 Charged with Corruption

Corruption is rampant in 3rd world countries and many industrialized countries. It is a major contributor to poverty. I applaud Guatamalan

lawmakers for not allowing it to continue.

Prosecutors say that during one trip to the United States,

former Vice President Roxana Baldetti spent nearly

$30,000 in taxpayer money on clothing and shoes

By Doug G. Ware


Former Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina shakes hands with President Barack Obama during a meeting at the White House in 2014. Molina and his vice president, Roxana Baldetti, were forced to resign last year amid a corruption scandal. On Thursday, they were also charged with misappropriating millions in government funds. File Photo by Alex Wong/Pool/UPI | License Photo

GUATEMALA CITY, June 17 (UPI) -- The former president and vice president of Guatemala have been charged, along with 68 others, with embezzlement, accused of stealing millions in government funds.

Disgraced former President Otto Perez Molina and his deputy, Roxana Baldetti, face numerous criminal counts in a scheme that investigators say misappropriated public money after the pair took office in 2012.

Prosecutor Julio Prado said the officials illegally used the money, in various ways, for personal benefit.

"That money was used to buy goods and services for you and Baldetti, including real estate and luxury vehicles, as well as $4.3 million in gifts," he told Molina, 65, in court Thursday.

They face charges of embezzlement and money-laundering, officials said.

Prado said the president and vice president went to great lengths to conceal their financial crimes -- including even setting up bogus "shell" companies to hide the cash.

Baldetti, 54, prosecutors say, received nearly $40 million in unlawful bribes in awarding government contracts. They say during one trip to South Florida, she spent nearly $30,000 in taxpayers' money on clothing and shoes.

The pair's spending first attracted attention in 2013 when a Guatemalan newspaper published investigative reports into Baldetti's unexplained wealth, which the paper reported had allowed her to buy several multimillion-dollar homes and even a private helicopter.

Molina and Baldetti, who formed Guatemala's neoliberal Patriotic Party, have denied the accusations. Dozens of other government and banking executives have also been charged in the investigation.

The president and vice president were forced to resign last year over an unrelated scandal involving an alleged customs corruption ring, called La Linea, in which government officials accepted graft from importers in exchange for discounted or waived tariffs.

Baldetti resigned in May 2015, and Molina in September after the Guatemalan Congress voted 132-0 to strip him of immunity from prosecution. Vice President Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, who replaced Baldetti, served as interim president for the remainder of Molina's term, which ended in January.

Boko Haram Kills 18 Women at Funeral Wake

By Doug G. Ware  UPI  

ADAMAWA, Nigeria, June 17 (UPI) -- More than two dozen women were attacked by Boko Haram militants Thursday at a funeral wake in Adamawa state in northeast Nigeria, authorities said.

    Kuda, Nigeria

Police said the women had gathered in Kuda village when militants suddenly arrived on motorcycles and began shooting. Witnesses also reported that the militants set homes on fire.

At least 18 people were killed and 10 were wounded in the attack, news media reported.

Officials, though, said they were not initially certain exactly how many were killed or wounded.

The site of the attack, Kuda village, is near the Sambisa Forest -- where militants fled after being run from urban areas in Nigeria, and where the first of 219 kidnapped schoolgirls were rescued last month.

Boko Haram continues to operate in Nigeria, despite the nation's president, Muhammadu Buhari, saying months ago that the group had been "technically defeated."

News media also reported that the militant group killed four people and kidnapped at least three women near Chibok on Thursday.

Muslims Showered with Love and Affection from Gay Community - Astonishing!

Gay, Liberal MP Rob Oliphant condemns “with love”

the Orlando massacre

Oliphant read on June 13, 2016 the following statement in Parliament:

“Mr. Speaker, just two weeks ago, we raised the pride flag on Parliament Hill. I saw this as the joyful end of a long human rights journey.

“Yesterday, this dream was shattered when 49 gay people were killed in a shooting at a gay club in Orlando.

“My first thoughts turned to the victims. A night of community, solidarity, and simple pleasures in a place that was meant to be safe ended in a horrible bloodbath. There are no words to describe my feelings of sadness, grief, and anger.

“My second thoughts were to the Muslim community, again at risk. I am proud to represent tens of thousands of faithful, peaceful, and law-abiding Muslims, who were equally saddened and horrified by this act of terror and homophobia.

“Today, we must stand together against violence and terror and trust each other as we combat evil and build peace.”

Astonishing!

This statement is both naive and mystifying! Oliphant doesn't blame Islam in the least for Orlando even though the Quran, highly regarded Imams and scholars, and some Islamic schools (see below) teach that homosexuality is punishable by death, even stoning or immolation. The killing of homosexuals is practiced in more than one Muslim country. It is not a teaching of just radicals and jihadists, it is Sharia!

The statement is mystifying because if a Christian refused to bake a cake for a gay couple, all Hell would break loose. But a Muslim murders 50 gays and injures 53 more, and they are showered with love and affection. 

Does that make any sense to you?

Textbooks Taught at Some Canadian Islamic Schools:

Homosexuality is Punishable by Death

Jonathan D. Halevi  CIJ News



CIJnews has learned that some Islamic private schools in Canada use textbooks produced by the Saudi Ministry of Education.

Textbooks obtained by CIJnews contain chapters dealing with the wisdom of the capital punishments in Islam in cases of major sins.

In two textbooks for the school year 2014 and 2015-16, homosexuality is depicted as a “major sin” and as “one of the most heinous sins” punishable by death for both partners to the sexual act. The punishment is similar to that inflicted on the people of Lut, meaning by stoning and/or by fire.

Homosexuality is prohibited, one of the textbooks explains, because this behavior interferes with the natural state of human beings and spreads moral corruption and diseases like HIV.

The textbook suggests that early marriage and executing the fixed punishments on homosexuals can protect the society from homosexuality.

The textbook also teaches that adultery is punishable in case a married man/ woman are involved by stoning to death, and theft in certain conditions and terrorizing people by chopping off limbs.

Canadian Imams and Islamic literature sold/ distributed for free in Canada provide a context to understanding the position of Islam regarding homosexuality.