Provocative New Book Claims Recent Discoveries Prove Historical Jesus Like Gospels’ Portrayal

/2 Comments/in , /by

In a provocative book that challenges two centuries’ worth of skeptical New Testament scholarship, author Robert J. Hutchinson argues that the historical Jesus of Nazareth was very close to being just as the Gospels describe him — a fiery, courageous, charismatic populist who drew crowds by the tens of thousands and electrified all of Palestine with his announcement of God’s kingdom in their midst.

In “Searching for Jesus,” Hutchinson draws together recent scholarship and archaeological discoveries to show that many negative ideas about Jesus paraded in the media every Christmas – for example, that Jesus was a violent revolutionary – are now being rejected by leading secular scholars . . .

Among the developments Hutchinson highlights are:

The 2009 discovery of a first-century house in Nazareth that refutes those who say the village didn’t exist in biblical times.

As an example, he cites the idea that Jesus’ early followers saw him only as a powerful rabbi, noting that recent scientific analysis of the texts shows that the earliest sources of the New Testament spoke of Jesus “standing at the right hand of God.” (Read more from “Provocative New Book Claims Recent Discoveries Prove Historical Jesus Like Gospels’ Portrayal” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Crying Newborn Found in NYC Church Nativity Scene

/2 Comments/in , /by

A wailing newborn baby was found with his umbilical cord attached inside a nativity scene at a Queens church, police say.

The baby was discovered by a maintenance worker at the Holy Child Jesus Catholic Church in Richmond Hill Monday at about noon, according to the New York Police Department . . .

The Rev. Christopher Ryan Heanue told NBC 4 New York the worker was cleaning inside the church when he heard the baby crying inside the nativity scene, which had been set up earlier than usual this year . . .

Inside Baby Jesus’ spot in the manger was a newborn, a few hours old at most, Heanue estimated. Bishop Octavio Cisnero, also there, couldn’t believe his eyes . . .

The church is considered a Safe Haven under state law, which allows a parent to safely leave a newborn baby up to 30 days of age anonymously and without fear of prosecution at suitable locations, like at hospitals, firehouses or police stations. But the law also requires the child to be left with an appropriate person or for someone to be contacted right away. (Read more from “Crying Newborn Found in NYC Church Nativity Scene” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

China ‘Cloning Factory’ to Produce Cattle, Racehorses and Pets

/0 Comments/in , /by

The world’s biggest animal “cloning factory” is due to open in China, producing one million calves a year, sniffer dogs and even genetic copies of the family pet.

The £21 million “commercial” facility will edge the controversial science “closer to mainstream acceptance”, Chinese media said, following the development of a technique which began when Dolly the sheep became the first cloned mammal when she was born in Scotland in 1996.

The centre may cause alarm in Europe, where the cloning of animals for farming was banned in September due to animal welfare considerations.

But Xu Xiaochun, chairman of Chinese biotechnology company BoyaLife that is backing the facility, dismissed such concerns . . .

“Legislation is always behind science. But in the area of cloning, I think we are going the wrong way and starting to kill the technology.” (Read more from “China ‘Cloning Factory’ to Produce Cattle, Racehorses and Pets” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Chicago Braces After Video of Police Shooting Is Released

/2 Comments/in , /by

A white Chicago police officer was charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday in the death of a 17-year-old black man, just hours before city officials appealed for calm as they released a chilling video of the officer shooting the teenager as he lay crumpled on the ground.

The grainy, nighttime dashboard camera video, which a judge ordered released last week, shows the young man running and then walking past officers in the middle of the street and spinning when bullets suddenly strike him down. For a moment, lying on the ground, he moves but then is still after he appears to be shot several more times. An officer kicks an object away from his body. The video shows none of the officers on the scene offering assistance to the teenager, Laquan McDonald.

Standing with community leaders before releasing the video, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Garry McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent, said they expected demonstrations in response to the graphic nature of the video, and urged people to avoid violence. “It’s fine to be passionate, but it is essential that it remain peaceful,” Mr. Emanuel said.

The officer, Jason Van Dyke, 37, who has been with the Police Department for 14 years, is the first Chicago police officer in decades to be charged with murder in an on-duty shooting. The city previously fought to keep the video private, citing a continuing investigation into the shooting.

Officer Van Dyke was charged and the video released just over a year after Mr. McDonald was shot 16 times, even after he had stepped slightly away from the officer, prosecutors said. Witnesses said Mr. McDonald, who was carrying a three-inch folding knife, never spoke to Officer Van Dyke or any of the other officers and did not make threatening moves toward him. None of at least seven other police officers on the scene fired their weapons. (Read more from “Chicago Braces After Video of Police Shooting Is Released” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Meat Tax: Influential Report Calls for Meat to Be Taxed Like Cigarettes

/6 Comments/in , /by

An influential think-tank with close ties to government has co-authored a report advocating so called meat tax as a means to lower meat consumption worldwide.

Tackling climate change and improving public health can be achieved by forcing consumers to eat less meat in their diets, and it is up to government to force that change, finds a new report. Co-authored by the University of Glasgow and Chatham House, one of the world’s most influential think-tanks, the paper claims “our appetite for meat is a major driver of climate change”.

Finding global meat consumption has reached “unhealthy levels” and cutting consumption is key to “keeping global warming below the ‘danger level’ of two degrees Celsius”, the paper calls for urgent government intervention. Far from being a potentially fatal move for democratic governments around the world, the report findings insist the public won’t actually react badly to the State taking meat off the table.

The changes and government intervention should be packaged and served up to the public in the same way punitive taxation and gradual banning of tobacco products were, reports The Guardian.

Speaking on the findings, report author Laura Wellesley of Chatham House said: “Governments are ignoring what should be a hugely appealing, win-win policy. (Read more from “Meat Tax: Influential Report Calls for Meat to Be Taxed Like Cigarettes” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Study: Rude Behavior Spreads Like a Disease

/2 Comments/in , /by

Flu season is nearly upon us, and in an effort to limit contagion and spare ourselves misery, many of us will get vaccinated. The work of Jonas Salk and Thomas Francis has helped restrict the spread of the nasty bug for generations, and the influenza vaccine is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives. But before the vaccine could be developed, scientists first had to identify the cause of influenza — and, importantly, recognize that it was contagious.

New research by Trevor Foulk, Andrew Woolum, and Amir Erez at the University of Florida takes that same first step in identifying a different kind of contagious menace: rudeness. In a series of studies, Foulk and colleagues demonstrate that being the target of rude behavior, or even simply witnessing rude behavior, induces rudeness. People exposed to rude behavior tend to have concepts associated with rudeness activated in their minds, and consequently may interpret ambiguous but benign behaviors as rude. More significantly, they themselves are more likely to behave rudely toward others, and to evoke hostility, negative affect, and even revenge from others.

The finding that negative behavior can beget negative behavior is not exactly new, as researchers demonstrated decades ago that individuals learn vicariously and will repeat destructive actions. In the now infamous Bobo doll experiment, for example, children who watched an adult strike a Bobo doll with a mallet or yell at it were themselves abusive toward the doll. Similarly, supervisors who believe they are mistreated by managers tend to pass on this mistreatment to their employees.

Previous work on the negative contagion effect, however, has focused primarily on high-intensity behaviors like hitting or abusive supervision that are (thankfully) relatively infrequent in everyday life. In addition, in most previous studies the destructive behavior was modeled by someone with a higher status than the observer. These extreme negative behaviors may thus get repeated because (a) they are quite salient and (b) the observer is consciously and intentionally trying to emulate the behavior of someone with an elevated social status. (Read more from “Study: Rude Behavior Spreads Like a Disease” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Here’s the Shocking Number of Americans Who Don’t Have a Toilet

/5 Comments/in , /by

Did you celebrate World Toilet Day? The recent holiday is a good reminder to rejoice as you read this article on your phone, maybe even while sitting comfortably on a modern, porcelain toilet, which flushes with water so crystalline clean you could, in hard times, drink it without too much fear of dying. (We do not recommend doing that, by the way.)

Going to the toilet wasn’t always such a pleasant, risk-free experience for everyone, and even today, many people in America still go without proper sanitation. As recently as 1990, the rural stereotype of dropping trou in a shack out back was a reality for more than 1.1 million American households. If you think that’s a lot of people, here’s a little math for you. That represented 0.04 percent of the U.S. population back in 1990. Right here in 2015, a full 13 percent of the entire world’s population are still living without access to an improved sanitation facility and are forced to defecate in the open. That’s close to a billion people.

The problem overwhelmingly affects sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but Census data shows 1,136,157 U.S. households were still using outhouses in 1990 because they lacked access to a public or private sewer or septic tank. In 2014, almost half a million U.S. households still did not have complete plumbing facilities, defined as having access to all of these items: hot and cold running water, a toilet that flushes, and a shower or bathtub. (Read more from “Here’s the Shocking Number of Americans Who Don’t Have a Toilet” HERE)

Editor’s note: Alaska hold the U.S. record for residents without a toilet. A whopping 12% of Alaskans go outside.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Turkey Shoots Down Russian Jet, Tensions Escalate in Volatile Region

/0 Comments/in , /by

One of the world’s most volatile regions was roiled further Tuesday when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey said it hit the plane after it repeatedly violated Turkey’s airspace and ignored 10 warnings.

One of the two pilots was killed in the air by fire from the ground, according to Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti. The fate of the second pilot wasn’t disclosed.

Meanwhile, a Russian marine was killed on Tuesday during an operation to rescue the two pilots, who were flying an Su-24 warplane, according to RIA Novosti.

Turkey and Russia exchanged bellicose language after the downing of the plane, raising fears in the international community that the brutal Syrian conflict could spiral into something much wider.

The Russian plane was warned numerous times beforehand and was subsequently dealt with because it “did not answer our warning,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. (Read more from “Turkey Shoots Down Russian Jet” HERE)

FBI Counterterrorism Expert Just Gave Chilling Warning to All Americans – You Need to See It

/13 Comments/in , /by

An FBI counterterrorism expert has delivered a stunning warning about terrorism right here in America. Although frightening, many believe it makes perfect sense.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, an expert on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism and who runs The Gorka Briefing website, appeared on Fox News with Megyn Kelly on Wednesday to warn Americans that ISIS is already among us and that we shouldn’t sit back and expect the government to protect us.

“Don’t wait for Uncle Sam to protect you. Every American has a duty and responsibility to be aware of the threat and be prepared to protect themselves,” Gorka told Kelly.

ISIS is here, Gorka said. The guest then reminded his audience that there were at lest 82 ISIS suspects arrested in America already and that happened in just a 20-month period. He also noted that FBI director James Comey has reported that there are up to 900 terror-related investigations going on in every state in the union.

In October, Director Comey said that the number of investigations is “slowly climbing” as ISIS expands its reach into the U.S . . .

“You have to be tactically aware,” Gorka insisted. “If you’re in a state, you’re in a municipality that allows you to carry a weapon you should do so. You should get training, you should carry it, your members of your family that are prepared to do so likewise.”

(Read more from “FBI Counterterrorism Expert Just Gave Chilling Warning to All Americans – You Need to See It” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

US Issues Travel Warning in Wake of Terror Attacks

/0 Comments/in , /by

Americans should be alert to the possible travel risks, especially during the holidays, following increased terrorist threats around the world, the State Department warned on Monday.

A travel alert, which is to be in effect until Feb. 24, said current information suggests that militants with the Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups continue to plan attacks in multiple regions. U.S. authorities said the likelihood of terror attacks will continue as members of IS return from Syria and Iraq, and other individuals not affiliated with terror groups engage in violence on their own.

Extremists have targeted sporting events, theaters, open markets and aviation targets. In the past year, there have been multiple attacks in France, Nigeria, Denmark, Lebanon, Turkey and Mali. IS has claimed responsibility for the Oct. 31 bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, killing 224 people. (Read more from “US Issues Travel Warning in Wake of Terror Attacks” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.