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Saturday, August 24, 2019

News Weakly - 8/24/19

Solving Suicide
California passed a resolution (ACR-99) that addressed the problem of LGBT ... oh, sorry, they amended that ... LGBTQ suicides. In it they claim that "The stigma associated with being LGBTQ often created by groups in society, including therapists and religious groups, has caused disproportionately high rates of suicide, attempted suicide, depression, rejection, and isolation amongst LGBTQ and questioning individuals." Hey, I bet you didn't know that, did you? Therapists and religious groups are the cause of disproportionately high rates of suicide among those LGBTQ folks. This was just a resolution. The bill banning therapists and religious groups should probably be forthcoming soon. Well, at least the Bible will be banned, because "God does not approve of this behavior" is there in print.

Not Anti-Semite
The World Jewish Congress condemned Rashida Tlaib "for suggesting a boycott of Bill Maher's HBO show after the comedian denounced the international movement to boycott Israel." You see, she's not anti-Semite. She just hates Israel ... and anyone who doesn't.

Of course, it only gets worse from there. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has banned the LGBTQ community from carrying out any activities in the West Bank. According to the PA, such activities are "harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society." It shouldn't be a surprise; homosexuality is already illegal in Palestine. Now, given their affinity for the Palestinians and their hatred for Israel, what does that tell us about those who oppose Israel in favor of Palestinians? Who else are they opposed to? And I'm just wondering here: why do folks who identify as LGBTQ support lawmakers who favor those who outlaw them?

The Story in the Story
A group of student activists and survivors of the Parkland shooting of 2018 have produced the Peace Plan for a Safer America, a plan to cut gun violence in half over the next decade. The plan hopes to end mass shootings and decrease everyday gun violence. The plan includes a licensing and registry system, bans on some weapons and magazines, a "red flag" law, and a national gun buy-back program, as well as an automatic voter registration at the age of 18 to make sure the youth are politically engaged.

Buried in that story is this statement from co-founder David Hogg. "It is clear that the time for thoughts and prayers has come and gone. It is now time for real change and real action." Obviously we've been hearing this for years now, but this is the real story in the story. Being thoughtful, concerned, and caring is no longer of any value. Prayer is of no use. God is out of the picture. We're on our own. Good luck with that. It's sad that our country in general and our youth in particular seek to eliminate the best help for the problem of murder in favor of an obviously ineffective help in the form of government.

A Strange Turn of Events
Those that actually value human life have been trying for years to stop providing government funds to Planned Parenthood for killing babies. Never worked. Until now. The Trump administration put out a rule prohibiting Title X federal funds from going to family-planning organizations that refer patients for abortions. They can discuss abortion; they just can't tell them where to get one. Because Planned Parenthood is deeply concerned about women's health and all, they refused the federal dollars so they could continue to kill babies. I guess we know where their priorities lie.

What is wrong with this church?
In a gross miscarriage of justice, a church in Mississippi has exercised what appears to be biblical church discipline in the case of a (former) member who declared herself a lesbian and, after being warned, entered into a gay mirage with her female partner. Of all things, they terminated her membership and begged for her to repent so she could be restored to full fellowship. What kind of Christian church is it that abides by biblical principles and expects their membership to actually be Christian for pity sake??! What's wrong with this church? My answer: There is likely something, but it's not this.

(Note: The woman in question complained that "my church said you can’t go here" and the letter she received simply said her membership was terminated. Having seen the letter, it cannot be concluded that "you can't go here" is part of what they wrote, and for those who are offended that a church would hold to biblical standards and forbid a person who identifies as homosexual to attend, please stop. This church didn't say that. Some might (and they'd be foolish and wrong), but not in this case.)

Another One Wants Your Money
Ocasio-Cortez floated her "Green New Deal" some time back. Now Bernie Sanders has released his own plan. His idea is that the United States will be on all renewable energy by 2050. Oh, and the good news! It'll only cost $16 trillion! That should be easy ... except that our current national debt is over $22 trillion (which we can't pay -- our current GDP is around $20 trillion) and he is already hoping to institute a "Medicare for all" plan at the cost of $40 trillion. I think that ought to drain our wallets. (What is the old adage? "A fool and his money are soon parted." I guess we can guess what Bernie thinks of Americans.)

That's Embarrassing
This can't be pleasant in a politically-correct world. Cornell University created an AI program that would detect racial bias in hate speech and abusive language. They tested in on Twitter. It worked! Except the results weren't what they expected. They warned,
While these datasets are still valuable for academic research, we caution against using them in the field to detect and particularly to take enforcement action against different types of abusive language. If they are used in this way we expect that they will systematically penalize African-Americans more than whites, resulting in racial discrimination.
Why? Because, as it turns out, their system detected more racially motivated hate speech from African-Americans than from white people. So if you tried to use their system, it would have a bigger impact ("racial discrimination") on blacks than whites. Awkward!

In Other News
In the midst of all the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong, Bernie Sanders made a visit to tell them how much better they have it under communism.

Must be true; I read it on the Internet.

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