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U.S. Abortion Politics is Following a Well-Worn Path

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Abortion politics follows a predictable cycle. In the U.S. several decades ago Roe was passed making abortion legal in all states. I don't recall much discussion about how many abortions went on before that but we know there were a lot of them. From what we can tell, abortions, even though illegal, were about as common as they became when they were made legal by Roe v Wade.  As soon as Roe made abortions legal religious political operatives, including the U.S. Catholic Bishops, began lying by saying there were no abortions before Roe. Before Roe made abortions legal there were wings of Catholic hospitals devoted to young women with infections from amateur abortions. Those records could be located today. Conservative branches of Protestantism joined in on the hoax. The lie was exposed after Roe was overturned and abortion was left up to the states. We have seen the numbers rise as the number of women in the fertility age cohort increased. Neither making abortion legal or not legal c...
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On the U.S. 250th Birthday, Get Ready for God Talk

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Already the false history that the U.S. was founded as a "Christian Nation" has started. Recently a prominent Christian pundit falsely quoted Benjamin Franklin. The quote and its context is almost humorous because no one claims to have recorded the remarks. The link "quotes" Benjamen Franklin talking about the virtue of a country following Christianity. It seems to refer to remarks and a motion made by Franklin toward the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1789. The groups had been meeting all summer and was cranky. Franklin made a motion to start each day's business with a prayer. Instead of agreeing to this simple request, the motion set off a big argument. Ultimately it was voted down. So much for a group of pious Christian fathers founding a Christian nation.   No doubt we will see a lot of inaccurate history in the coming year claiming the U.S. was founded to have prayer in schools and preaching by its Presidents. That the founders purp...
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Kid Rock Has Hit the Rocks

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Kid Rock is a MAGA star. He is rich from sold out concerts with music and ridicule of liberals. Now, he has lowered ticket prices by half . One concert was cancelled because of low ticket sales. Polling numbers tell us Trump is not popular. Those of us who don't like him have been blindsided by his supporters.  There have been several actual elections to state government won by opponents of Trump. These seem like more important events than polls. To me, a decline of hard-earned dollars spent on Kid Rock also are more important than poll numbers in revealing what the public is thinking. That Rock's ticket sales are down needs to be put into perspective with the entire concert industry. I've read it had a very successful 2025 but may be slipping a bit now. Kid Rock appears to be falling instead of slipping. Personas such as Kid Rock are perceived to be standing up to what we generically call, "The establishment." Every reader here has an idea of what is the establis...
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Do You Remember Benny Hinn

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The rich mega-church preachers are mostly rather boring people. They preach prosperity or hell-from-your-sins, pass the collection plate and that's about it. One, though, stands out as so outrageous he entertains just by existing. That is Benny Hinn. Benny is of Middle East heritage and was born in Israel. He speaks with a slight accent. You can find clips on You Tube of Benny healing huge numbers of people just by waving his hand. People came in wheelchairs and walk out. According to some who wrote about it, there was a bus load of "sick" people who were hired to go from event to event as stage props.     Benny made millions and lived big. Then complications began. He divorced his wife. Then the fake healings and his flashy lifestyle were made public. Eventually, he remarried his wife but divorced again recently. Apparently, the showmanship of his healing events has lost its appeal. But, not to worry. I saw on Benny's website he has big healing events coming up this ...
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Why is Pete Hegseth so Odd

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Hearing and watching the "Sec. of War" makes one wonder if he is a actual official or someone performing parody. The constant God and war talk is from way back when. It turns out Hegseth belongs to a denomination that is all in for the same things. In that branch of Christianity there is no separation of church and state. There is no state except the church. The denomination, Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches is more an association of churches than what we think of as a denomination. It's founder, Doug Wilson, preaches at a church in Idaho where the central office is located. It preaches we are in a great war with Jesus fighting at our side. Women should not be allowed to vote and are to submit to men sexually. Needless to say women are not equals.  Hegseth's public pronouncements about bombing Iran reek with holy religious overtones. It's as if victory over Iran is a victory for Jesus. It's too bad we cannot hear a billion eye rolls around the world ...
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Who Is the Biggest Republican That Will Give Trump the Bird

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When the President's cabinet meets each member present takes a turn at lauding the President. There are a very few Republicans in Congress who criticize him. Readers know most prominent Republicans speak no ill of him. The news day after day is about his mistake after mistake.  Following the news like our readers here do, I noticed something curious. After the bombing of Iran and the chest beating about how successful it was, Trump said Iran would call an end of its attacks in other countries and would turn over its uranium to the U. S. The political theater of such a development requires Trump or someone he assigns the task to to meet with Iranian officials, draw up such an agreement and come home to announce and brag about it.  Suppose you were one of Trumps cabinet members and knew Iran would not agree to this nor could be forced to agree. In other words, you knew it was not in any way possible. There had to be two men Trump would logically turn to to meet with Iran and pul...
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New Books I've Read About China

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In the past few months I've read three recently published books about China. Perhaps some readers have been to China. I have not. We have friends, a couple from China who were our students, that offered to host us on a trip there. That would have been wonderful but the time when we could do that has passed.  All of the three books were written by Chinese people. The first one explained how a person from the U.S. might understand the economic system. He wrote that China is like the U.S, would be if we took the presidents of the largest companies in the country and assigned them the highest posts in government. If we did that, without our kind of elections, he said, we would be China. Bill Gates would have the budget of the Federal Government to build the U.S. tech industry. The trucking exec for government truck policy, the road contractor, car manufacturer, housing, etc. Each industry chases its own growth without a broader view. This is why China has hundreds of skyscrapers that a...
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