News Weakly - 9/30/2017

Double Standards
A Christian in a government job says she cannot in good conscience, both because of her faith and because of the state constitution, issue a marriage license for a same-sex marriage. The country is outraged. "She can't do that," they shout. "It's free speech and the freedom of religion," others respond, but they are adamant. "Oh, she can say it, but she will have to pay the consequences. She should be fired! Maybe even imprisoned!"

Right or wrong, President Trump suggested that football players that refuse to honor the nation for which they play ought to be fired. The players' union and the NFL respond, "[We] will never back down when it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of our players." Right or wrong, one thing is abundantly clear. It is a double standard. A Christian is free to exercise his or her constitutional right to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but there may be consequences. Football players should not face consequences for doing the same.

Meanwhile, while the Pittsburgh Steelers team opted to remain in the locker room for the national anthem, a former Army Ranger, Alejandro Villanueva, left his team and paid tribute to the flag. Turns out sales for his jersey have gone through the roof. His team was not exactly pleased. Head coach Mike Tomlin was “looking for 100 percent participation.” Put another way, they were defiant about being allowed to protest and not happy that a patriotic player exercised his own freedom of speech.

(And you gotta love this. "It took a few years, but Tebowing has finally taken over the NFL.")

Let's See if I Got This Straight
Okay, so apparently California has a problem -- too many prison inmates. "Too many prison inmates?" Yes, apparently federal judges have declared "You can only have this number of prisoners. If you exceed that, you are in trouble. California does. Their solution? Release prisoners, of course. On what basis? For the severity of the crime? Or maybe it was a questionable verdict? No. "California lawmakers want to release more of the state's older prisoners and more of the inmates who were young when they committed their crimes." Age. Release younger prisoners and older prisoners. That'll solve the problem. And it will ... if you see the problem as "too many inmates." If you see the problem as "too many criminals", then that will simply put convicted criminals on the street. (This while the FBI reports a second year of increase in violent crimes.) And remember, "No justice, no peace." Yeah, maybe they'll try that solution out for awhile.

Not All Bad News
I find myself complaining at times because all I see on the news is bad news. So, in order to avoid my complaint being about me, here's a story that is not bad. Meet Staff Sgt. Cory Hinkle of the North Carolina National Guard. He and another man were on the scene immediately after a woman was in a head-on crash in Shelby, NC. Together they pulled the woman from her burning car just before it exploded, Hinkle shielding the woman with his body. "I made the decision right then that if something came off the car, it’d have to go through me first," Hinkle told the newspaper. It was instinct, he said. He had served in Iraq clearing roadside bombs. Heroic.

The Sky Is Falling!
Well, now we have the story. It's the one we all feared. The Russians didn't merely hack the DNC and release (true) information about their nasty goings-on. They actually hacked the voting machines of 21 states. Well, that's what we're hearing. That's not what's being said. What's being said is that the DHS notified 21 states that Russia attempted to hack their election systems. Be careful here. The story actually says, "In the majority of the states, the Department of Homeland Security only saw preparations for hacking." (Emphasis mine) Voting machines are not connected to the Internet and cannot be hacked. Read the key paragraph.

The United States intelligence community believes that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and other political targets in an attempt to influence the election. They do not, however, believe voting machines were hacked or votes were directly altered by Russia.

So, no voting machines or votes were hacked or directly altered by the Russians. Their "hacking" was an attempt to influence the election. Voter rolls may have been compromised, but not the votes.

The complaint, then, if understood from this information, is that Hillary lost and Trump won because the voters got more information than Hillary and the DNC wanted them to have. But you know that the general public won't see it this way and will yell long and loud that Trump was elected because Russia "hacked the election". Sensationalism over substance. And, no, the sky is not falling.

Why Science Makes a Bad God
They tell me that believing in God is foolish because you can't test for Him and you can't measure Him, so you can't know (and, therefore, believe) He exists. They tell me that Science is much better. That is something we can know, test, measure, rely on. So, Science tells us that coffee can cause cancer and prevents cancer. It is, in fact, this firm basis that may require coffee in California to have a cancer warning ... because we know that it causes and prevents cancer. That's why Science makes a bad God. Not reliable.

(Great line in the story. "Experts in the field think the suit has no grounds." Get it? No grounds? Coffee? Oh, never mind.)

Not to be outdone
Oregon already has the new and improved method of killing babies in the womb -- using tax dollars. But that's what you might expect from a left-leaning state, right? So it is with great sadness that we learn that Illinois' governor signed into law the very same taxpayer-paid murder plan. Governor Rauner (R) had promised to veto the bill but failed to do so. "I believe that a woman living with limited financial means should not be put in the position where she has to choose something different than a woman of higher income would be able to choose." Where that "something different" is whether or not to murder a baby. If rich people can do it, poor people should be allowed to do it, too ... on your dime.

Note: Governor Rauner is a Republican who has long supported the rights of a mother to kill her baby. I would suggest that voters who expected something different simply bought a lie. Caveat emptor -- Buyer beware.