Seven Reasons to Read the Bible in 2017

1. The Bible will bring you to God.

2. The Bible will lift your burdens.

3. The Bible will guide your steps.

4. The Bible will lead you to wisdom.

5. The Bible will give you peace and joy.

6. The Bible will keep you from sin.

7. The Bible will give you a reliable lens for viewing and interpreting life's events.

Adapted from Seven Benefits from Reading Your Bible, The Daily Walk Bible.

Terrorist Attacks In The Past Year - How Many Can You Remember?

Can anyone recall all the Islamist terrorist atrocities committed in the past year?

Can anyone put them in the right order?

Corruption USA: The Politicized DOJ

Schweizer: DOJ Funneling Fines To Left-Wing Organizations

[H]ere’s the other shocking thing. if you are a bank, and say you are fined $70 million because you have committed offenses or crimes, the Department of Justice under obama will give you a 7 to 1 discount. if you owe $70 million, if you give $10 million to a progressive group, they will wipe the $70 million clean. So, they have a financial incentive to not say anything and to go along with the scam.”

Someone please tell me this isn't true. Corruption destroy's a nation's soul and kills its economy.

The USA appears to be on its way to becoming a corrupt nation -- thanks in no small part to the Democratic Party.

Democrat Thuggery -- Where's the Outrage?

Anti-Trump Violence Sweeps the Nation

While the mainstream media has been working day and night promoting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, it has largely ignored or downplayed violent attacks against supporters of Donald Trump.

But assaults on Trump supporters appear to be growing increasingly common as Election Day approaches and tensions intensify. 

People have been assaulted; people have been hurt; personal property has been valdalized and destroyed.

The thuggery of the Hillary Clinton campaign should be a national scandal of the first order.

Instead, it's a media ho-hum.

Where's Bob "where's the outrage" Dole when we need him?

Michelle Obama's Hypocrisy

Michelle Obama's Promotion of Misogyny and Date Rape

Donald Trump's statements, which were probably empty boasts in contrast to Bill Clinton's well-known behavior, were indeed lewd and unacceptable. While two wrongs do not make a right, Michelle and Barack Obama have openly promoted rap artists who glorify misogyny, sexual objectification of women, and even date rape. That's right; I am indeed calling out our country's sorry excuse for a First Lady for her and her husband's deplorable legitimization of the most despicable misogynistic language on earth.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/10/michelle_obamas_promotion_of_misogyny_and_date_rape.html#ixzz4OCiJjMG2 

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The hypocrisy of the left knows no bounds.

Hillary Channels John Lennon

Did you Hillary Clinton's white suit in the 3rd debate?

Looks like she's channeling John Lennon:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do...

Hmm. You mean open borders, John?

Is Toyota Canada Trying To Lose Business?

Our 2006 Toyota Matrix -- a great car -- has had a recall notice on the front passenger airbag since 2015. For the past 14 months we have not been able to use the front passenger seat. When I called the dealer about when the airbag would be replaced, they said they knew nothing and directed me to the Toyota national website.

Finally I got a letter in the mail from Toyota today saying they now had the parts and were ready to replace the potentially defective airbag. I should call the dealer immediately to schedule. I called within one minute of receiving the letter. I was told that they were out of parts, and I should call back in two weeks. I indicated I had just received a letter saying parts were available.

The response? "That's from Toyota national. Thanks, and have a great day."

* * *

Most businesses work really hard to gain customers, and, when they have got them, they work hard to keep them. Message to Toyota: Customers view Toyota Canada as a single entity. Your schizophrenic distinction between national and dealer Toyota is not working.

Our loyalty to Toyota has been reset to zero, and I'm having a great day looking at a Subaru Forester.

"Why Do They Hate Us?"

Another terrorist massacre, this one a truck missile in Nice, France.

Remember when this current era of terrorism started (or at least, hit critical mass) on 9/11? The question on media and politicians' lips was, "why do they hate us?" -- the inference being that it has to be our fault.

Well, we blamed ourselves. We blamed Bush. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and embarked on his world apology tour, prostrating himself before Muslim leaders and disavowing American/Western exceptionalism.

If we thought all this would somehow help, it didn't. If terrorist acts are a barometer, they hate us more than ever.

But now we no longer ask, "why?".

Why is that? Has something changed?

War on Cops author Heather Mac Donald weighs in on Black Lives Matter

Fox News interview with The War on Cops author Heather Mac Donald.

Here.

The war on cops: The big lie of the anti-cop left turns lethal

“What do we want? Dead cops.”

Remember that Black Lives Matter chant. Well, they got 'em. Five policemen slain in Dallas, with more to come.

This is a must-read article: "The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe" by Heather Mac Donald.

Via Fox News.

Obama's Divisive Presidency

Five policemen slain in Dallas.

I lay a lot of this at President Obama's feet. President Obama has gone out of his way to fuel black grievance, anger, and entitlement. The trajectory, as I remember it, has gone like this:

* First, there was Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the black university professor accosted by cops. Obama rushed to judgement and blamed the cops. Wrong. This was followed by the Rose Garden kiss-and-make-up "Beer Summit". Too late. Obama had sent out a strong signal: Cops bad/blacks victims.

* Then, Trayvon Martin and Obama's "If I had a son" comment. The media turned light brown George Zimmerman into a white to advance their white racism narrative. The evidence in this case was, at the very least, murky. There's a good chance Martin was throttling Zimmerman on the sidewalk.

* Then, Ferguson and the "gentle giant" thug Michael Brown. Another federal government rush to judgment and a rush by the justice department to interfere in local/state matters.

All of this fueled a sense of black entitlement to protest, destroy, and kill. The liberal media -- not least the prestigious New York Times, took Obama's narrative and ran with it.

I view Obama as a failed President who divided the nation. He spent too much time being a black President and not enough time being an American President.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Go, UK, Go!

Tiny Great Britain, in many respects the father of the modern world, has shown sufficient self-confidence to reassert its sovereignty in the Brexit vote. My earnest hope is that Britain and the other anglosphere countries -- Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and, possibly, India -- will see their mutual self-interests and realign into a blockbuster trading block.

Conrad Black's article from May "If Britain leaves the EU, where will it turn?" is well worth a read if you haven't read it (and a re-read if you have).

Meanwhile, go, UK, go!

The American Student Loan Crisis: It helps if Bob's your uncle!

Thoughtful Forbes article on the American student loan "crisis".

Student Debt Crisis: The Recession Started It; Colleges Sustain It; And Politicians Make It Worse

As expected, government gets involved and makes things worse.

Bernie's solution is to get others to pay your debt. Bob's your uncle! It frees students to pursue their colonial/feminist/queer studies without having to worry about whether there's a payoff at the end. In effect, it makes others your slave, because you are free to pursue whatever you want, while they are now required to work for you.

For some reason, this is wildly popular among students.

Scientists: Save Australia's Great Barrier Reef (or, at the very least, our funding)

The Great Barrier Reef -- is it dying/dead as some media outlets have suggested? Is man/climate change the cause? Is urgent, expensive action required immediately?

In short, no, no, and... no.

As these two articles show, alarmism drives science funding -- the greater the alarm, the more publishable it is.

The Great Barrier Reef Wars by Kip Hansen. Extract:

The latest round of El Niño coral bleaching events brought headlines:

Coral bleaching hits 93% of Great Barrier Reef: scientists by Madeleine Coorey — April 20, 2016 – Yahoo News online  

“Sydney (AFP) – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering its worst coral bleaching in recorded history with 93 percent of the World Heritage site affected, scientists said Wednesday, as they revealed the phenomenon is also hitting the other side of the country.

After extensive aerial and underwater surveys, researchers at James Cook University said only seven percent of the huge reef had escaped the whitening triggered by warmer water temperatures.2016″ 

 Is this the end of the Great Barrier Reef? — April 8, 2016  by  Tom Arup — Environment editor, The Age 

Study: Over 90% of Great Barrier Reef suffering from coral bleaching by Euan McKirdy, CNN Wed April 20, 2016
“At some reefs, the final death toll is likely to exceed 90%. When bleaching is this severe, it affects almost all coral species, including old, slow-growing corals that once lost will take decades or longer to return.” 

 Only 7% of the Great Barrier Reef has avoided coral bleaching.  Media Release  — 20 April 2016 —  issued by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University
“The final results of extensive aerial and underwater surveys reveal that 93% of the reef has been affected. …. “We’ve never seen anything like this scale of bleaching before. In the northern Great Barrier Reef, it’s like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once,” says Professor Terry Hughes”

The Reef’s Self-Serving Saviours by Walter Starck. Extract:

Coral reefs are highly diverse dynamic environments frequently subject to large natural perturbations.  Environmentalism primes us to believe in a “fragile balance of nature”, with any significant fluctuation as evidence of some unnatural “impact” caused by humans. Researchers soon discovered that investigation of environmental threats assured generous funding and the result is now  a whole generation of researchers whose entire training and experience of the reef has been in the context of  investigating such threats. They see every fluctuation as a threat and while they proclaim deep concern for the reef, their true commitment is more to the threats. This becomes apparent if any suggestion is made that a purported threat may not be as great as they claim to fear.  The reaction is never hopeful interest. Always, it is angry rejection.

As the second article makes clear, reef scientists -- and their funding -- are wed not to dispassionate discovery, but to environmentalism. And they live not to save the reef, but to save their funding.

h/t WUWT

Orlando Shooter's Radical Imam Released By Clinton Appointee in 2015

Fox News is reporting that the Orlando shooter was a follower of a controversial imam released from prison last year.

Prosecutors tried to tack another 10 years on to the imam's sentence, but a Clinton-appointed judge ixnayed that.

Some relevant links here, here, here, and here.

Here's a 2015 money quote from a CAIR spokesman:

Hassan Shibly, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations who had advocated on behalf of Robertson and met with him in prison, cited the judge’s ruling as a rare positive legal precedent in post-9/11 terrorism prosecutions. “This is a huge blow to the FBI’s attempts to criminalize first amendment protected activity and maliciously entrap and prosecute American Muslims,” Shibly said. “We repeatedly warned the U.S. Attorney’s office that their charges were baseless and would be thrown out by any fair judge. We were proven right, and they should frankly be ashamed of themselves today.”

If the Fox News-reported links between the terrorist, the imam, and the Clinton-appointed judge prove true, this is going to be a bombshell.

Islamophobia: It Ain't What It Used To Be

UK Equalities Chief Who Popularised The Term ‘Islamophobia’ Admits: ‘I Thought Muslims Would Blend into Britain… I Should Have Known Better’

As the great Mark Steyn put it:

When it comes to querying the benefits to the west of semi-Islamization, Trevor Phillips packs more of a punch than most of us. First, he's black, which shouldn't matter but does. Second, he's the former head of Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission, one of those identity-group grievance bodies which made such considerations matter (as did the Commission for Racial Equality, which Mr Phillips previously chaired). Third, he's the guy who introduced the word "Islamophobia" into the English language, in a celebrated report on "discrimination" two decades ago.

Now, in a new Channel 4 documentary with an accompanying poll of British Muslim attitudes, he has issued a mea sorta culpa:

For a long time, I too thought that Europe's Muslims would become like previous waves of migrants, gradually abandoning their ancestral ways, wearing their religious and cultural baggage lightly, and gradually blending into Britain's diverse identity landscape. I should have known better.

"Islamophobic", like other pejorative labels tossed around by the left, is used not to facilitate debate, but to end it. We are rational, discriminating creatures; the left uses language to get around this. There is a difference between, say, the Muslim faith and the Amish. These differences should be brought out into the open.

Sustainability’s War on Doubt by Peter Wood

Sustainability’s War on Doubt

by  Peter Wood

June 12th, 2015

"Sustainability encompasses not only a particularly aggressive form of environmentalism, but also a strong attack on market capitalism and a progressive vision of social justice."

Money quote:

We have spent a year scouring the nation for a college campus willing to hold a public debate on the premises of the sustainability movement. In a few cases, we gained a tentative acceptance only to have it cancelled, usually without explanation. When an explanation has been offered, it has turned out that no one could be found willing to represent the pro-sustainability position because to agree to debate it implied the existence of contrary arguments and evidence worthy of consideration.

 Worth a read.

And that's the way the Ball Bounces.

via  a reader @ WUWT

The Khairuldeen Makhzoomi Poll Results: Islamophobia or Security?

Arabic-speaking Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for questioning. He was innocent of any wrong-doing. He accused his interviewers of "Islamophobia". It seemed obvious to me that his questioning had more to do with the threat of plane hijackings and murders of innocent passengers by Islamic extremists than some irrational, fact-free prejudice against Muslims. But, the media blared and the blogosphere howled "Islamophobia".

Hence the poll.

Forty-six of you voted Security, two  Islamophobia, and two "a bit of both". That's 92% for Security and 4% each for Islamophobia or "a bit of both".

Makhzoomi's self-described "ordeal" and moment in the sun was pushed off the front pages by Canadian John Ridsdel, who underwent an ordeal of his own: beheading by Muslim extremists. Perhaps I should have a poll on whose ordeal was greater or whether we should be grateful for security steps to keep us safe.

Thanks for voting. If you haven't read it, there's a more detailed post below.

Peace on earth, good-will towards men.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Last Day to Vote in the Khairuldeen Makhzoomi Poll: Islamophobia or Security?

Last day to vote! Please read the article below then vote in the poll on the left. Thank you.

Vote in the Khairuldeen Makhzoomi Poll: Islamophobia or Security?

Was The Khairuldeen Makhzoomi Incident Islamophobic? Or was it America's security apparatus working to keep innocents -- Khairuldeen Makhzoomi included -- safe?

Please read the article below and then vote in the BallBounces poll to the left.

Was The Khairuldeen Makhzoomi Incident Islamophobic?

 *** PLEASE READ THE POST THEN VOTE IN THE BALLBOUNCES POLL TO THE LEFT ***

Arabic-speaking Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for questioning. After questioning, he was freed to go and caught a later flight home on another airline. He was completely innocent and subjected to an undoubtedly unpleasant interrogation. He claimed Islamophobia.

The media jumped on the story and played it to the hilt. Typical headline: "Muslim Student Kicked Off Southwest Airlines Flight for Speaking Arabic". They cast the event into a broader narrative: "... the latest Muslim customer to be kicked off a U.S. plane."

The blogosphere went nuts. Bad, Americans, bad.... Morons!

Let's take a closer look.

* First, he wasn't "kicked off a flight". A drunk is "kicked off a flight".  He was removed for questioning. There's a difference. Hundreds of media headlines perpetuated this inflammatory, factually inaccurate statement.

* Second, evidence indicates he was not removed from the plane for "speaking Arabic" as the  headlines blared. Here is Southwest Airline's statement [my bold]:

Statement Regarding Customer Situation on Flight 4620

Flight 4620 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Oakland (OAK) on April 6:

A passenger onboard flight 4620 requested that our Crew investigate what were perceived to be threatening comments made by another passenger onboard. Both passengers involved in the situation spoke a shared language, Arabic. Our Crew responded by following protocol, as required by federal law, to investigate and report to law enforcement agencies any potential threat to civil aviation. It was the content of the passenger's conversation, not the language used, that prompted the report leading to our investigation.... 

This contradicts both the media narrative and a statement by Makhzoomi. A recent NPR article accepts the SWA account as factual.

* Third, during the interrogation Makhzoomi played the Islamophobia card. But, was it "Islamophobia", i.e., a warrantless, irrational prejudice or fear towards Islam? Or was it America's post 9/11 security apparatus functioning as it should based on facts and reason?

Let's start with two obvious points.

// First, not everyone who is removed from a plane for questioning is going to end up being found guilty. Only Canadian Human Rights courts operate like that. Innocents are caught in security nets all the time. That's why there is a filtering process. So, the fact that Makhzoomi was innocent of wrong-doing is not in itself evidence of security staff wrong-doing.

// Second, security in the post-9/11 era is largely concerned with protecting citizens from Muslims who seek to do them harm. That's a fact, and there's no point denying it. For better or worse, terrorism and Islam are closely connected. It is therefore entirely rational in higher-risk contexts to look at Muslims more closely. Given that most if not all of the 9/11 attackers were from the Middle East and spoke Arabic, as have other terrorists, it is also rational to take a closer look at Arabic speakers. That is fact-based and rational, not Islamophobic.

When Makhzoomi said to his interrogators, concerning his interrogation, "This is what Islamophobia got this country into" he was accusing them of wrong-doing. Probably not a good move on his part.  Not likely to endear himself to them, and it may have precipitated a hardened response on their part.

Makhzoomi escaped the oppression of Iraq -- an Islamic nation that murdered his father. America welcomed him. Unlike what he might have expected in Iraq, he was not beaten, imprisoned, tortured, or beheaded. If Makhzoomi is looking for a culprit for his "ordeal", I suggest he save his anger for Muslim extremists and terrorists who have ruined a lot of things for everybody, and done much worse than inconveniencing the occasional innocent traveler. American and Western security forces, acting in the light of 9/11 and ongoing threats and atrocities, are trying to ensure the safety of all innocent passengers, Khairuldeen Makhzoom included.

For that, we should be grateful.

As for the blogosphere's knee-jerk  howl of Islamophobia, this kind of clamouring leads to a fear of being labelled Islamophobic. Its effect is to silence those who see or hear something. It has already gotten people killed at Fort Hood and San Bernardino.

For this we should be ashamed.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Cue the Punishment: ESPN Fires Curt Shilling over "Anti-Trans" Post

 ESPN Fires Curt Schilling Following Anti-Transgender Facebook Post

 I don't really know Curt Schilling, but I feel sorry for the guy.

Apparently, the right of a biological male to use a woman's restroom or change room is beyond discussion.

With homosexuality,  there was at least a debate until the slur of "homophobic" shut it down.

With transsexuals, it seems we've skipped the debate phase and gone straight to the punishment phase.

Let's hope this proves to be the high-water mark of intolerance and bullying in America.