News Weakly - 11/23/19

Weaponized Tolerance
Chick-fil-A's Chairman and CEO, Dan Cathy, is known as a Christian who opposes gay mirage. (I didn't spell that wrong.) Tax records obtained in 2011 showed that he and his operators, the WinShape Foundation, had invested millions of dollars to keep marriage marriage. This, of course, cannot be tolerated, so the LGBT community went to war with Chick-fil-A. Mind you, no one has ever been turned away from a Chick-fil-A store. No one has ever heard, "We don't want your kind around here." Chick-fil-A stores have never discriminated against anyone. It doesn't matter. They have been banned from venues ranging from airports to entire cities. Their first entry in to the UK was shutdown because of the LGBT campaigners who demanded that the Chick-fil-A owners change their religious beliefs to correspond with the LGBT views. They've won. The company will stop giving to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and to the Salvation Army per the demands of the "tolerant" LGBT. "No, you cannot have your religious beliefs because they're too intolerant. You must replace them with our beliefs or pay the consequences. Because we're the tolerant ones and we'll hurt you worse if you don't say 'uncle'." Oh, and you can be sure that they won't back off now, either on Chick-fil-A or anyone else who has an opposing opinion. Giving in to terrorists only makes them bolder.

Trademarking Ageism
Last month a twenty-something politician in New Zealand was heard to blow off an older person with the dismissive, "Ok, boomer," a meme that has been going around aimed at disregarding or mocking the older generation because the younger generation feels like they're not being heard. Now Fox has filed a trademark application for the phrase. The suggestion is that Fox will use the phrase for a new show -- reality, comedy, game show, something like that. So the idea is, "Let's expand the idea that old people are worthless. Let's address this concern that the younger generation isn't being heard ... by no longer hearing the older generation." Because, as we all know, education and life experience only makes you stupid, and the truly wise folks are the young.

Kosher Vegan
"Kosher" is a Jewish term. It refers to food or the premises in which food is sold, cooked, or eaten as satisfying Jewish dietary laws. There are foods banned by Jewish dietary law, but the rules go further, requiring, for instance, that meat cannot contact dairy. That is, preparation is part of kosher. Apparently vegans have their own "kosher." A vegan is suing Burger King because they cooked a plant-based alternative to the classic Whopper on the same apparatus as a beef Whopper. Now, Burger King did tell everyone that they would be cooked in an "open kitchen environment" and haven't called their product "vegan" or "vegetarian," and A&W has been cooking their meatless option on the same grill as the beef burgers, but Burger King (Can you say "deep pockets"?) is gonna pay! Because if it's not kosher vegan, it's not vegan ... even if they never said it was.

The New "Fair"
A self-admitted illegal alien who was in the habit of riding the light rail in Phoenix without paying was stopped last week in a fare sweep by the Phoenix police. She was going to her job with LUCHA, an immigration advocacy group, so she could pay for bills and for health care for sick family member when they did a random check. She admitted she didn't pay. She gave her name but refused to give her date of birth. Protocol required they detain her until they could properly identify her, but when the handcuffs went on she told them what they wanted to know and they released her with a citation. In response, LUCHA is demanding that police stop enforcing fare payments for illegal immigrants ... because that's what's fair. The light rail is meant for people who cannot afford it, so stop making those who can't pay pay. Laws that aren't enforced should not be on the books. And just ask California how not enforcing laws works out.

Another Brick in the Wall
We live in a world of extreme caution. It's too easy to "trigger" someone somewhere. One group labeled the "OK" hand signal as a hate symbol. We live in fear of "microagression." And Mattel is releasing a new UNO deck without any red or blue cards so the game won't be "politically charged." Because everyone knows that red isn't just a color and blue isn't just a hue. Seriously? I've played the game for years and when I first read the story I thought, "I never even noticed the colors of the cards." (Titus 1:15)

Net Zero is Not Zero
Maybe you've heard the term. They want us to have "net zero carbon emissions." "Net zero"? Yes. It sounds like "zero," like they're working to decrease emissions, but the "net" is a weasel word and they're not. So EasyJet Plc plans to become the first air carrier company to have a "net zero carbon emissions." By decreasing the carbon emissions? No. By making more efficient engines that produce less emissions? No. By "buying offsets." No actual decrease. "EasyJet will spend an estimated 25 million pounds ($32.3 million) on projects that include planting trees and protecting against deforestation," the story says. Buy trees or, maybe, just protect existing ones. No, that doesn't help the CO₂ problem; it just doesn't add to it. Net zero. Because of the outcry over its contribution to climate change. Which, as it turns out, no one has quantified.

Unreasonable Expectations
So, a genuine lunatic walks into a Walmart in El Paso and starts killing people. The nation is devastated and outraged. Apparently, though, not as much as the victims and their families, because they, with the aid of the Mexican government, are filing suit against the Walmart for "not taking reasonable and necessary measures to protect its customers from the attack." Now, I ask you: what would constitute "reasonable and necessary measures to protect its customers" from a lunatic? What do we/they expect? A ubiquitous presence of heavily armed security? Maybe bunkers for safety? What is the "reasonable" defense against the unreasonable? (And are shoppers in Mexico safer from attack than shoppers in El Paso? I don't think so.)

Science Brings Up the Rear
Scientists are excited because they've discovered that at least one kind of snake in the ancient past actually had legs. Of course, we knew that already, didn't we (Gen 3:14)?

Babylon's Jest
The Babylon Bee has a story out about how Trump has come out in favor of his own impeachment because the Democrats will do the opposite of whatever he says. Ha, ha. I'm in favor of impeaching Trump, however, because his replacement will be Mike Pence, and how many Democrats want an actual, practicing Christian in the White House? The laugh would be on them.