Are Belief in God and Christianity Really Dying in America?

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What’s really happening to religion in America? Plainly stated: it’s complicated.

Perhaps the title of the latest Pew Research Center report — “U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious” — provides the most concise overview, though there’s some debate over what, exactly, is going on beneath the numbers when it comes to religious adherence and practice.

This was the second of two extensive religion reports released this year by Pew, with the data within providing a snapshot of the beliefs and practices of the American populace. In contrast, the first report titled, “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” was released in May, focusing mainly on overarching demographic changes.

The takeaway from both reports was that the American populace is becoming less religiously devout, but answering the “how” and “why” gets a bit more dicey, as pastors, faith leaders and sociologists all have theories as to what’s really happening, culturally speaking . . .

The United States remains a majority Christian country, with 70.6 percent falling under the Bible-based umbrella in 2014. This is a decrease of eight percentage points, though, from 2007 when the study found that 78.4 percent of the nation embraced Christianity. (Read more from “Are Belief in God and Christianity Really Dying in America?” HERE)

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Teen Runner Disqualified From State Meet — Was It the Bible Verse?

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Was a high school cross country runner disqualified from a state championship meet because there was a Bible verse embroidered on his headband?

Georgia Congressman Douglas Collins seems to think so.

“Religious expression being squashed right here in the Ninth District,” the Republican lawmaker tweeted. “This is outrageous” . . .

The West Forsyth High School runner was disqualified because of a headband he was wearing – a white headband that was adorned with a Bible verse . . .

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Read more from “Teen Runner Disqualified From State Meet — Was It the Bible Verse?” HERE)

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Obamacare: Big Brother vs. The Little Sisters

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The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear another Obamacare case, this one connected to the Obama administration’s mandate that religious employers help their workers buy contraceptives, including abortifacients such as the “morning after pill.” In this case we can see the stark outlines of the struggles Christians will face over future decades in America. Can we maintain any freedom of action in a country where a massive and growing federal government believes that it has a mandate to impose a godless utilitarian worldview into every nook and cranny of life? Or will we have to settle for a narrow “freedom of worship,” which covers a couple of hours every Sunday?

When Obamacare was proposed, it received broad support from naive religious leaders because it rectified a supposed injustice: unequal access to health care in America. Some, like Chicago’s Archbishop Blaise Cupich, still argue that supporting an egalitarian system of health care is the genuinely pro-life position to take: Since better health care can save lives, if you aren’t willing to do whatever it takes to offer everyone the same level of health care, then you are really not much different from doctors who abort unborn children.

This kind of sloppy thinking smooshes together the intentional murder of unborn children for convenience with the sad but stubborn fact that in a fallen world, man is mortal. There is a radical, absolute difference between directly killing someone, and not diverting all your resources to postponing his death. Otherwise, every time you switch the channel away from some hunger appeal on TV, you might as well have hired a hitman to knock off a neighbor — since either way, people die. To use “pro-life” this way is to make it mean everything and nothing, which is handy if your other political priorities make you lean toward the rabidly pro-choice Democratic party.

Conservative critics, many of them Christians, warned that federalizing health care would pose a grave threat to the independence of employers — including religious employers, such as Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor — to follow their consciences and make their own free decisions on how to spend their own money, time and talents. And the Obama administration’s fierce fight over this subject proves that conservatives were right. The Democrats know that letting religious employers opt out of paying for abortifacients won’t “force” working women into pregnancy. They are fighting on principle, the principle that no citizen’s conscience can be permitted to trump federal policy. If the mandarins in Washington, D.C., decide that a practice is in the best interest of the masses, then the masses will comply. They must be forced to be free.

It was independence of conscience which our country’s founders thought that they were declaring in 1776. They rejected those systems of government which tried to micromanage the religious and moral decisions of their citizens “for their own good,” like the Inquisition’s Spain or Calvin’s Geneva. Our government would not be closing churches because they taught the “wrong” doctrine, nor banning books because they spread “pernicious” ideas that led people astray.

Nor would our government try to iron out all the inequalities that naturally arise among human beings, who freely choose to use their talents wisely or squander them, to save their money or waste it, to run marathons or to smoke cigarettes, to invest in health insurance or face the tender mercies of the public emergency ward (which should offer a basic, minimum level of care to all comers). Instead of viewing its people as hapless children to be coddled and protected from themselves, America’s leaders were supposed to see its citizens as their equals, moral equals who could make their own decisions and face the consequences, like grown-ups. And grown-ups can decide where they want to work, who they want to hire, and what kind of priorities govern the way they run their businesses. They can also decide how to pray, and how to obey their consciences, so long as they do not violate the fundamental rights of others.

Inflate and distort those rights in the name of equality, and you take away that freedom. If everyone has the right to equal health care, why not equal housing? Interchangeable education? Equally well-cooked, nutritious food? Equal amounts of healthy exercise? That all sounds lovely at first blush, very small “c” Christian. Such a vision appeals to college sophomores still living on their parents’ dimes in spaces kept “safe” from pointy, dissenting ideas. But what such a vision yields in practice is a gray world of uniform public hospitals, public schools, mandatory gymnastics and federal cafeterias in government dormitories, where no one’s talents or choices matter since everyone’s outcome is the same. Such a system, created in the name of equality, once dominated half the world. We fought the Cold War to stop it from conquering the rest.

Our new battle is not with overt Marxist tyranny, but with something more subtle — an irreligious government that wants to agglomerate ever more power over our lives in the name of making things fairer and keeping people happier, of smoothing over our differences and soothing our fragile egos. If two men want to get married, then it is the Supreme Court’s job to protect their “dignity” and open the way for them — and the state’s job to punish those florists, caterers, or preachers who won’t cooperate. If an employee wants the abortion pill (and in five years, if the Democrats win you count on it, a sex change operation), then Mt. Zion Baptist or Our Lady of Sorrows will have to pay for it. There is no logical stopping point for this kind of radical secularism and statism. It is an ideology, which means that its appetite only grows, the more that it feeds.

Because our government is by its very nature secular, the larger the sphere of government action, the less freedom there is for Christians — full stop. The only free spaces for conscientious action by believers are those that we carve out by cutting the state down to size. Like kudzu, this invasive species won’t give up, but will keep growing back, trying to smother us. So keep your weed-whacker fueled. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. (Read more from “Obamacare: Big Brother vs. The Little Sisters” HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

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Is the FBI Closing in on Hillary? If so, Will There Be Jail Time?

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In an administration known for its disdain for accountability and appalling disregard for justice, FBI Director James Comey sets himself apart as a straight shooter and strong adherent of the equal application of the law. To those who know and/or have worked with him, Comey’s character is unimpeachable, his integrity unique, and his pursuit of justice determined, focused, and incorruptible in a capital where such traits are routinely eschewed.

According to Dr. Monica Crowley, quoted below, Comey is closely overseeing his crack cyber-forensic team, which has masterfully managed to do what many claimed couldn’t be done: they accessed the files on Hillary Clinton’s “wiped” email server. If they find ample evidence to indict her, as Crowley intimates below, and the Justice Department decides not to pursue charges, many political pundits foresee Comey resigning, or looking the other way when whatever illegal activity they found starts to leak.

Most observers agree that going after General David Petraeus, a true national treasure, for having some “Confidential” — not “Top Secret” — documents stored in a desk drawer, but not pressing charges on Clinton if she sent and received “Top Secret” documents would be seen as, at best, a blatant double standard, and at worst the same kind of collusive corruption we’ve seen for far too long in Washington.

But has the FBI found criminal offenses in their quest for justice? Apparently so. During an appearance on the “O’Reilly Factor”, Dr. Monica Crowley was granted an extremely rare waiver: she was allowed to cite “anonymous sources” on the progress of the investigation. She had managed to find two unnamed investigation insiders, who gave her solid information that should result in an indictment of Mrs. Clinton for violations stemming from the use of her private email server . . .

It should be remembered that on March 10, 2015, when Hillary Clinton gave her first explanation about her server during a presser at the U.N., she clearly stated, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material, so, I am certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send any classified material.” (Read more from “Is the FBI Closing in on Hillary? If so, Will There Be Jail Time?” HERE)

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Military Sexual Trauma Survivor: Breaking the Silence, the Black Box of Shame, Guilt and Fear

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I have PTSD. We all know what it is, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I am one of millions who are affected by it each and every day. I am also one of hundreds of thousands of survivors of Military Sexual Trauma (MST), just one of the causes of PTSD. But along with my MST Community, we acknowledge this remains a dark secret within our military and most law makers refuse to acknowledge the MST epidemic continues to occur within the ranks of our military. For decades, those guilty of assault in higher commands are seldom prosecuted, and are allowed to continue on with their ranks and pensions, creating a situation that exposes other victims to their atrocities.

Growing up, the Vietnam War was on the nightly Huntley and Brinkley Report on our black and white television set. It was amazing to me that videos and footage could be shown in my living room several days after it was made. This was a new era in communication. As the war intensified, protesters where shown spitting on returning soldiers while calling them names. Jane Fonda was making movies while receiving profits by the same soldiers that she committed treason against. This made me feel very ashamed as a young teen in America, because these men and women would give their lives for our freedoms.

During the war era, I often watched the cartoon Roger Ramjet, who portrayed a patriotic and highly moral – if not very bright – hero. Roger had the inclination to save the world, with the help of his proton energy pills (“PEP”) that gave him the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds. Invariably he saved the world by defeating the various elements that populated this series. The theme song lyrics, “Roger Ramjet is our hero, hero of our nation” stuck with me throughout my adolescence.

During my high school years, I began to look up to my brother-in-law who was a Captain in the United States Air Force. I wanted to be a part of that team “up in the wild blue yonder.” Combined, I also wanted to be like the character Roger Ramjet. So at the age of seventeen, a young man, innocent and seeking to find my manhood and purpose in this life, (not to mention leaving the authority of my parents), I joined the United States Air Force. It was midterm in high school, so I graduated early, sacrificing the attendance of my senior prom and graduation and was off to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training.

Basic training was tough, like it is to any young man or woman attempting to find their way in this world, but it was making me into a warrior. I do remember reports going around that a WAF was raped behind a dumpster on base, but that was hushed quickly. I graduated and was transferred to Tech School at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi to become a radar repairman, as I scored high in my aptitude test qualifying me for a military career in electronics. It was here at tech school that I began to build a black box of shame, guilt and fear that would consume my everyday life for over four decades. The impossible was stealing my young spirit and manhood.

I was invited to go off base to go drinking with the guys. At the first this seemed appropriate, as the offer to “”party” came from individuals the higher ranking airmen. At seventeen and eighteen years old, those same people were contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a crime, as they were the ones ordering and buying my drinks. I will never forget the establishment; a renowned hotel and resort in Gulfport, Mississippi called the White House. Since then, this place has been closed, remodeled and opened again. The White House was known for its lavish and wild parties, swimming pool and bar. Decades later, I came to the realization that as a young recruit, I became the perfect prey for a rapist fraternity of sorts.

Yes, I was raped, often when intoxicated or drugged by others to a point I had no control of my being. I can remember being told this was part of the Air Force initiation and if I was to succeed, I had to keep the secret, as it was honorable to hold such a dark secret, so, I was told. While holding this secret, I would see my assailants often in the mess hall or on base. This was horrifying for me, and I felt myself falling apart within. I began to lose sleep, became confused, and eventually went AWOL to get away from it all.

While AWOL, I stayed with a lady at a motel who felt sorry for me. During this period, I would sneak on the base to eat because I had no money. After seventeen days, I was arrested in the chow hall for being AWOL. While in the Brig, I reported the rapes to my Air Force appointed counsel as the reason for going AWOL. Nothing was done, and I was returned to duty. Shortly after, I failed to report to duty for eleven days, and was placed on deserter status. I was apprehended on base, and I am not sure how they determined deserter status when my absence was not long enough under statute to be a deserter.

I will never forget the horror of being discharged from the United States Air Force, stripped of my uniform, stripped of my rank Airman 1st Class, and escorted off base like a criminal, being told never to return. The career I had honorably chosen and enlisted for was taken away from me by criminals who raped me. Today, my DD-214 reflects an “Undesirable Discharge”, “for the good of the Air Force”. My military records of my court martial papers do not mention the rape, no mention of rape within my discharge medical exam, no mention of a “sworn statement by me”, and clearly no statement of my conversation with my military counsel about the rapes.

I will never forget that awful flight home, and the shame that was consuming me as my sister picked me up from the airport. My life was now shattered; my family disowned me, and I still do not have contact with my family. My own family, just as many Americans and with our own congress, military sexual trauma remains misunderstood and ignored. My black box of shame, guilt and fear was now my safety zone and I turned to running and acting out. I trusted no one! Acting out became my way of life in my desire to be like other people, someone with a life. The buried truth is this: I did not have a life.

I would like to think I live a normal lifestyle, but I often feel I am wrongfully judged. Like many others, I have issues with relationships, nightmares, episodes of insomnia, difficulty with communicating, inability to maintain gainful employment, acting out, panic attacks, long episodes of crying, and much more. I feel I am singled out despite the hard work I have done through therapy to become who I am today. My words seem to be misinterpreted. Due to media bias, survivors have been prejudicially classified as a potential stick of dynamite just waiting on that one match to set us off into a murderous explosion of ire.

I breathe the same air as any other enlistee, and believe that God, as I see Him/Her is the foundation of this Nation. The only difference is that at the end of every day I lay my head down in an attempt to sleep, knowing I could relive my trauma in the unconscious mind. But when my eyes close, my mind takes over and I am plagued with a graphic and amplified version of every sexual assault I had to endure while wanting to serve honorably for my country. In my dreams, I feel trapped in my past, filled with affliction and disdain. I cannot escape from the humiliation and ridicule from those around me. There is seldom nary a night that I have not had an uninterrupted night of sleep. Yet in the morning, I rise with the consistency of the sun, roll out of my sweat soaked bed, and shake off the remnants of the night’s battle and start my day…just like you.

In 2013 I met a crossroad in my life. I attempted suicide by taking my car to the edge of a cliff in Montana feeling there was nothing left for me here on earth. I cried for some time and when

another car pulled up, I could not follow through with my attempt. Shortly thereafter, I was led to call my first cousin, a sheriff deputy and then the crisis hotline. When asked if I was a veteran, I said no, but that I had been in the military. I was directed to a veteran hotline and eventually to a nurse at Fort Harrison, Montana, who then directed me to the MST Director. For the first time, ever, I was told, “thank you for your service”. That meant so much to me, because for forty years I carried shame of my rapes, and never saw myself as a veteran, and clearly it gave me hope.

I would like to think I am more functional in society, but clearly, I am more vigilant, always on the look-out for danger, avoiding large crowds and loud places. I worry about what is being said about me and being judged by those who know nothing of my experience. I can still manage to go out to eat, shop for my clothes and drive my car. I would like to socialize with others, but it is unnerving and frightening. I will find a reason to leave and return to my comfort zone in an attempt to avoid a panic attack. Unintentionally I feel like an outsider, not worthy of being in the presence of others. There are times that I use medications to control the cycle of PTSD symptoms. I struggle with taking medications, including narcotics because I believe those are made so that someone like me can’t face reality and instead be regulated. This is my life today, and in order to heal, I find it necessary to explain the circumstances that have made me the man I am today. By doing so, I am enabling myself to soar like an eagle and to fight to end MST.

A recent study has founded that up to 15 times more men in the military are being raped by other men than is being reported by the Pentagon. The report released by the American Psychological Association says the under-reporting is largely due to the stigma associated with sexual assaults and is the reason that the true extent of male-on-male sexual crimes is so vastly underestimated. I can attest to that reasoning, as for over forty years the shame, guilt and fear I carried was without help, the military’s dark kept secret. Additionally, the fact I felt like I was not a man because I could not fight off my assailants imprisoned me in that black box of hell and stole most of my life.

Other than “honorable discharges” are a growing concern, as new reports deem this method a form of retaliation from the military, as it was in my case. But retaliation does not end there. Just this year my government employment and contract was ended. I was terminated for responding to the question “why was your length of service so short”? I felt pressured to explain what MST was to my colleagues, and that I was a survivor, a voice for change. I gave them the web site for Protect Our Defenders if they wanted to read more about the atrocities our military enlistees face. In retaliation, my supervisor was given a written letter on government letter head, stating my disability was “graphic and disturbing in nature and inappropriate to talk about in the work place. I was terminated two weeks later. So twice now, I have lost careers because of the perpatrators who raped me in the military. This termination triggered my feelings for ending my life once again, but I was fortunate I had my therapy and have a supportive MST Community this time, as well as a very helpful Village of people in Pacific City, Oregon.

As an MST Survivor, I tear up whenever I hear the Nation Anthem, because I love my country and the freedom I enlisted to protect. Yet, I will never fit in as a Veteran because of the dark secrets of MST that have been kept secret for decades. Just recently while joining other Veterans in supporting a Veterans Stand Down for homeless Veterans; the question of why my service was so short came up again. A retired military officer eating with me kept pressing with his question as to what my military disability is and how did I become disabled? I felt like I was on the battlefield of the “Invisible War” once again, a term we use for our battles of MST. However, I knew as a voice for change it was my duty to explain to him and the others at the

table the effects of MST. During the conversation, I was told “rapes don’t happen in barracks”, “why didn’t you fight back”, and “you must have gone to a gay bar and asked for it.” I did my best to remain calm, but I was furious inside at these unfair and ridiculous remarks that belittled me. I then explained, “rape is a crime committed and forced upon a victim and not a choice from the victim.” I further explained that “I have gay friends today and respect them; I probably would have been safer in a gay bar then this resort full of sexual predators”. I then closed by stating “we all gave the same oath, one where we have one another’s six, even today. I am not gay, and it is not gays or heterosexuals who are the fault for rape, it is the sick perpetrators and the lack of military responsibility to change it”.

As I wait for my Veteran Disability exam, something that should have been available to me forty years ago and all victims of military rape, I received a letter. It was from the Department of Veterans Affairs stating in pertinent part: “We have your claim for compensation based on your military service. Any time a Veteran receives a discharge that is not “honorable”, we have to decide if he/she is eligible for VA benefits. The military has said your service was not “honorable”. Therefore, we have to make a decision about your service. As long as we decide that your service was not “dishonorable”, you will be eligible for VA benefits.” This letter was very disturbing considering my exams are just less than two weeks away, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has my statements and evidence submitted already beforehand, yet the obvious unfriendly stigma and ignorance to retaliation by a discharge other than hornorable remains a huge problem that needs resolving and the honor to those of us that suffered needs to be given back!.

I realize that forty years of living in a black box, stuffing this trauma of shame, guilt and fear, cannot be treated quickly. I also know that the military’s dark secret needs to be dealt with head on, therefore my pain and suffering has become a strong voice that will not quit and will for advocate laws and justice against Military Sexual Trauma. Most recently I received this statement from a woman survivor. “It is not necessary for us to be decided as a community but what I am aware of is that often some react from their pain and unhealed wounds. I am grateful Bill for your example and your strong voice. Yes we still need to have each other’s back. I wish there were more of you when our women under fire needed them.” I salute all the MST Survivors who stand together to end MST.

As nature photographer, I decided to produce several videos relevant to MST and PTSD which you may find on YouTube. It was photography and nature that got me through forty years when there was absolutely no help available and if you mentioned rape, you were considered lying.

I have been interviewed by Sara Darehshori, Senior Counsel with Human Rights Watch USA who along with her wonderful staff work effortlessly to demand governmental and VA changes to the decades of a broken system of ignoring MST. Shortly after I attempted suicide in 2013, I shared my plight to Protect Our Defenders, and they instantly gave me support and are available always for support to any Veteran of MST. Ginny Branam Lee, a very unselfish friend of my MST Community, and strong advocate has proven to be courageous and unstoppable in her efforts to end MST. Together, from different parts of the United States, Ms. Lee and I have begun to “soar like an eagle” in our unstoppable mission, “Breaking the Silence, soaring to end MST.” Most recently, I am grateful to an NBC affiliate reporter and journalist who is heading up a special investigation and report on MST and the V.A. This is who I am born to be, and my voice will not be silenced.

However, until Congress, the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the military’s Commander-in-Chief: the President of the United States, and the American people own up to these barbarities and work together with the veterans to change the military’s culture, another seventeen year old will be forced to endure a life that has no quality, and may become one of the 22 a day statistics; the number of veterans that commit suicide each day….Nothing can be given back with what was taken.

These are the many tasks a head of us:

1. Congress should reform the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to afford service members the same level of protection as civilians.

2. Congress should establish a prohibition on criminal charges or disciplinary action against survivors for minor collateral misconduct that would not have come to the military’s attention but for the victim’s report of sexual assault.

3. The Defense Department should expand initiatives, like the Special Victim Counsel Program, expedited transfers, and non-military options for mental health care, that gives the survivors the tools and control to direct their recovery and their future in the military.

4. The military should reward the systems and individuals in the armed forces that take retaliation seriously, and hold accountable those who commit or tolerate acts of retaliation.

5. Congress should upgrade current discrimination laws prohibiting retaliation in the work place specifically for MST and PTSD.

6. The division between gender rapes among all Veterans must cease, as we are one.

Like Roger Ramjet, all my Sister and Brother MST Survivors, and Advocates against MST, you are “heroes of our nation”. Together in our hearts we have redefined Ramjet’s proton pill, the PED (Prevent Excruciating Pain). Thank you.

In closing, I wish to express my deepest appreciation to Kathleen and Joe Miller who are a wonderful example of bipartisanship in working to “Restore Liberty.” Of course, I believe turning my pain and suffering into a voice for change would not be possible without my creator, who I see as God.

Bill Minnix, MST Survivor 2015

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Were Law Enforcement Leaders Aware of Threat by Terrorists to Attack California University?

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I remember the days of the street thug punks who were in supposed gangs. I mean the real gangsters were Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Seigel. These street thugs, who were calling themselves MS13, 18th Street and many other colorful names, soon learned how to organize and capitalize on street crime turning an otherwise local street problem into a global problem. And law enforcement leaders continued to see the street thugs as just that; explaining to the American people that we had nothing to worry about. But we did… we had a lot to worry about.

Gangs are now global empires taking in billions of dollars in drug, prostitution, and gun profits. Their empire has been aided by the Mexican cartels with many lives lost, families destroyed and our jails and prisons swollen to capacity. Had the problem been recognized, called what it was and addressed immediately we just may have saved a whole lot of lives, effort and money. So surely our law enforcement leaders learned their lesson, right?

Unfortunately the tragic event at UC Merced illustrates just how our law enforcement leaders have not learned from their past mistakes and may have jeopardized the lives of an entire classroom in doing so. What I am about to tell you has been confirmed by three independent law enforcement officials, all who cannot be named for fear of losing their jobs/pensions. The conversations I have engaged in compel me to believe that we are not being told the truth about the incident at our UC Merced and just who the suspect was.

From the information I have gathered, the suspect was indeed not only on the FBI’s terrorist watch list but he was also on a national watch list and had been one of the topics of discussion at a recent FBI briefing to Merced County law enforcement leaders. According to recently obtained information, about 6 months ago the FBI held a terrorist/extremist briefing with Merced County law enforcement leaders. At this meeting several suspected terrorist with ISIS links were said to be here in Merced County. Names and photos were presented including one of Faisal Mohammad. Based on the FBI’s own analysis and a number of people on the terrorist watch list that are in the area they projected an attack at the UC Merced campus. Though they were not absolutely certain of the attack on the UC they did feel that there was enough information for them to be here if it did.

According to my sources the UC Chancellor was also briefed on the potential threats. (Read more from “Were Law Enforcement Leaders Aware of Threat by Terrorists to Attack California University?” HERE)

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California Rep: What We Are Witnessing Is the Destruction of Western Civilization [+video]

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“What we are witnessing is the destruction of Western civilization, not by an armed invasion, but by envelopment,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said Wednesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill on the growing refugee crisis in Europe.

“What we have seen over the past few months is unsustainable, and if not checked, will change the fundamental nature of European countries which are now being inundated,” said Rohrbacher, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats.

“What we are witnessing is the destruction of Western civilization, not by an armed invasion, but instead through envelopment. The effects of this will not soon disappear, but instead could well turn out to be an historic change in the nature of many European countries.”

“Migrants fleeing to Europe have been an issue of humanitarian concern for several years, but a wave of immigration erupted into a tsunami this summer when the German government announced it would ignore the Dublin Rules and accept all Syrian refugees that made it to the German border,” Rohrbacher said.

The Dublin Rules are a European Union (EU) law that establishes which EU member states are responsible for taking in refugees from outside the EU. (Read more from “California Rep: What We Are Witnessing Is the Destruction of Western Civilization” HERE)

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Bill O’Reilly Slanders Ronald Reagan

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Donald Trump is just one symptom of today’s cultural pathology of self-validating vehemence with blustery certitudes substituting for evidence. Another is the fact that the book atop the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list is a tissue of unsubstantiated assertions. Because of its vast readership, “Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency” by Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and his collaborator, Martin Dugard, will distort public understanding of Ronald Reagan’s presidency more than hostile but conscientious scholars could.

Styling himself an “investigative historian,” O’Reilly purports to have discovered amazing facts that have escaped the notice of real historians. The book’s intimated hypothesis is that the trauma of the March 1981 assassination attempt somehow triggered in Reagan a mental decline, perhaps accelerating the Alzheimer’s disease that would not be diagnosed until 13 years later. The book says Reagan was often addled to the point of incompetence, causing senior advisers to contemplate using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove him from office. Well.

Reagan was shot on the 70th day of his presidency. In the next 2,853 days he produced an economic boom and the Cold War’s endgame. Among O’Reilly’s “explanations” for Reagan’s supposed combination of creativity and befuddlement are: He was brave; “on his bad days, he couldn’t work” but on good days “he was brilliant”; Nancy Reagan was in charge; it was “almost miraculous.”

When Reagan’s unsatisfactory Chief of Staff Don Regan was replaced by Howard Baker, a Baker aide wrote a memo that included slanderous assessments of the president from some disgruntled Regan staffers. This memo, later regretted by its author, became, O’Reilly says, the “centerpiece” of his book. On this flimsy reed he leans the fiction (refuted by minute-by-minute records in the Reagan Library) that, in O’Reilly’s words, “a lot of days” Reagan never left the White House’s second floor where he watched “soap operas all day long.” (Read more from “Bill O’Reilly Slanders Ronald Reagan” HERE)

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Do Muslim Lives Matter Most?

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Last week, I wrote of the growing racial divide in America typified by the latest protest cry from African-Americans: “Black lives matter.”

Over the past seven years, President Barack Obama and other progressives inside the Democratic Party, like Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), have deflected blame away from the president’s failed economic programs, which have left millions of blacks poorer. They focused anger instead on white racism in America. There has been a deliberate policy by the president and Democrats to blame Republicans for race inequality in America. This has left the nation more divided than at any point since the Vietnam War . . .

Obama and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton are willfully ignorant to the growing global struggle between Islam and the West. They and other liberals have acquiesced to a future America with the rule of law, decency and morality that may originate more from Mecca rather than from the Magna Carta.

The British story spun in 1936, which persisted until recently, was that King Edward VIII (aka the Traitor King) abdicated the British throne for his undying love of Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. The truth unveiled from documents that are no longer classified is that Edward spied for the Third Reich and was in collusion with Adolf Hitler to regain the throne. This would explain why as ruling king, Edward was such an apologist for the Nazis.

In much the same way, Obama is the leading apologist for Islam. Islam has been so praised by Obama that I wonder if his loyalties lie more with Islam than with the United States. (Read more from “Do Muslim Lives Matter Most?” HERE)

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The State of Religious Liberty

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Tuesday, voters in the overwhelmingly Democrat city of Houston struck down an ordinance granting men the right to enter female bathrooms. Despite being outspent steeply by proponents of the ordinance, this egregious super-right for a newly protected class was defeated 61-38% with high turnout.

Sadly, Tuesday was an aberration in the long march towards the creation of extra rights for protected classes because the courts and the bureaucracies have completely disenfranchised the voters from deciding societal questions.

Everyone remembers Kim Davis being thrown into jail for upholding Kentucky law and merely abstaining from serving a concept that never existed at the time of our Constitution and the ratification of the 14th Amendment. We are all aware of the numerous stories of individuals who have been fined for not servicing homosexual marriages with their private property and businesses– all while asserting religious convictions – convictions that are undeniably “deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition.”

Two weeks ago, the Obama administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recognized the “religious freedom” rights of Muslims to coerce their will on private companies. They litigated a case before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois alleging that Star Transport, a trucking company, discriminated against two Muslim truck drivers by firing them for refusing to deliver truckloads of beer, citing their religious objections to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The judge awarded the two truck drivers $250,000.

Consider for a moment what has happened to our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

The Gifford family in New York and the Klines in Oregon were unable to assert religious objections to performing a service with their own private property and private businesses to service homosexual marriages. They were fined for not engaging in involuntary servitude against their religious convictions, thereby violating their religious liberty, private property rights, and pursuit of happiness and commerce.

Yet, a Muslim is able to compel his religious objections on another private company in a way that completely undermines the job description of a truck driver, thereby violating the property rights of the private business.

This is not complicated. There are three common scenarios where religious objections come into play:

When the business owner asserts religious objections with his own property

When a government employee asserts religious objections in performing a service in the public realm

When an employee of a private business asserts religious objections against someone else’s private property

True equality expressed in the Declaration guaranteeing everyone the right to protection against harm of their life, liberty, or property, would dictate that everyone has the right to exercise their religious beliefs with their own property (#1) but nobody has the right to use their religious objections to infringe upon other people’s property rights and demand private employment (#3). Obtaining employment from an employer is a privilege, not a right. Madison was one of the most passionate believers in religious conscience, which he referred to as “the most sacred of all property,” yet he made it clear that it must only be honored “in every case where it does not trespass on private rights or the public peace.”

In the case of a government employee (#2), the tradition of our country has always been to accommodate as many religious needs to those citizens seeking employment with the federal government, assuming those beliefs don’t place an undue burden on the performance of the job.

Now let’s apply this equation to some recent examples.

In the case of Kim Davis, not only was she asserting the belief that existed in the country since its founding, she was following the law of the State of Kentucky that had never been re-written in light of the Court’s lawless decision.

In the case of the Kline and Gifford families, they were asserting their religious convictions, deeply rooted in history and tradition, to protect their own property from servicing something that is completely new – the antithesis of a fundamental right.

And finally, in the case of the Muslim truck drivers, they were forcing a private business to accommodate their burdensome objection – not delivering beer – which is not rooted in our history and tradition.

Alas, the EEOC and the courts have turned the concept of equality and fundamental rights upside down, inside out.

On the other hand, there is a degree of consistency to their agenda. They have created protected classes that are afforded super rights and privileges. Clearly, they have exhibited a biased treatment towards Muslims, gays, non-whites, and under the current leadership of the EEOC – transgendered individuals.

Governments were created to guard the unalienable rights of all citizens equally without favoring any class. The problem with concocting super rights for favored classes is that it invariably infringes upon the unalienable rights of all citizens. Nobody explained this concept more sagaciously than John Quincy Adams in a letter to a German official in his capacity as Secretary of State under James Monroe. “This is a land, not of privileges, but of equal rights. Privileges are granted by European sovereigns to particular classes of individuals, for purposes of general policy; but the general impression here is that privileges granted to one denomination of people, can very seldom be discriminated from erosions of the rights of others.” [emphasis added]

With affirmative action, the homosexual religious coercion, minority super rights, and the pursuit of politically motivated and subjective equal outcomes – all examples of privileges – the “erosions” of those self-evident, unalienable rights are in full swing. Our entrepreneurs, the backbone of our free economy, are under constant fear of lawsuits over hiring and firing and often have to accommodate absurd behavior or tolerate disturbances that defy common sense in order to pay homage to the pagan alter of political correctness – the altar that has sacrificed the only true expression of equality embedded in the Declaration.

During the debate over the 14th Amendment, Rep. John F. Farnsworth (R-IL) noted that everything in what would become Section 1 of the 14th Amendment was taken straight from the 5th Amendment and inspired by the Declaration. He observed that the only new language, “the equal protection of the laws,” was not new at all to the original Constitution but indeed the “very foundation of a Republican government.” “How can a subject “have and enjoy equal rights of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ without ‘equal protection of the laws’?” asked Farnsworth.

Indeed, now that the original Constitution and it reaffirmation in the 14th Amendment have been bastardized for the purpose of creating special privileges and protected classes, we are painfully aware of how the lack of equal protection has abridged the most unalienable rights of all citizens. (For more from the author of “The State of Religious Liberty” please click HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

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