James L. Paris's Blog, page 151
August 2, 2016
Pope Francis Sees an Equivalency Between Islamic Violence and ���Catholic Violence���
Anyone who has been paying attention knows that Pope Francis is no fan of the global war on terror, particularly when people even begin to single out radical Islamists as the primary force behind the terror attacks that have plagued so many Western nations throughout recent history.
The pope held true to form during a Sunday press conference, when he was asked very pointedly by a reporter about the recent murder of an elderly French priest by two disciples of ISIS. Specifically, the reporter asked Pope Francis, ���Why do you, when you speak of these violent events, always speak of terrorists, but never of Islam, never use the word Islam?���
Answered Pope Francis, ���I don���t like to speak of Islamic violence, because every day, when I browse the newspapers, I see violence, here in Italy��� this one who has murdered his girlfriend, another who has murdered the mother-in-law��� and these are baptized Catholics! There are violent Catholics! If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence . . . and no, not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent. It is like a fruit salad; there���s everything.���
The pope���s answer is characteristic of those given by so many others cursed with the compelling need to remain politically correct in the face of an effort at global conquest perpetrated by a single demographic. The pope and too many others like him, when confronted by someone who sees things as they really are, breathlessly try to establish an equivalency between the systematic effort by radical Islamists to wipe out anyone who is not a radical Islamist, and the guy down the street who kills his girlfriend in a domestic dispute. That���s what the pope did here, and it was, frankly, embarrassing.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
August 1, 2016
Has LA Marzulli Discovered The Winged Creature From The Abyss? (Revelation 9:10)
On this episode Bible prophecy expert and filmmaker LA Marzulli discusses his new movie Watchers 10. Topics discussed include winged fairy creature, giants in Afghanistan and Catalina Island, nephilim, and more.http://www.watchers10video.com
Does The NSA Have Hillary's Deleted E Mails?
On this episode Jim discusses one theory that the NSA presently has Hillary's deleted e mails. The Catholic Church continues its legal maneuvering to block legal financial claims of sexual abuse victims, write a negative online review and get sued, the huge risk for consumers with the new chip credit cards, Texas to allow guns on campus, former NFL player turned pastor shot dead in Houston, the Pope says terror not tied to religion but world economic problems, and Facebook could owe $5 billion in back taxes.
Wikileaks Assange: Next E Mail Dump Will Lead To The Arrest Of Hillary Clinton
There has been speculation for days that another e mail dump was coming from Wikileaks. Julian Assange now confirms that another release of e mails is imminent and he predicts it will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton. Speculation is that the e mails may prove Hillary's knowledge of the U.S. sending weapons from Libya to Syria in 2011, which she denied under oath. If this is not bad enough, that she was involved with the arming of Jihadists, including ISIS (source: Gateway Pundit). This all goes back to the Benghazi attacks, and if true, it could be the biggest scandal ever facing a nominee for president in U.S. history.
ChristianMoney.com Staff
Conspiracy Theories Abound Over Mysterious Death of DNC Staffer
Whenever someone is killed in what looks to be a random street assault, but items of value are found with the deceased, the assumption that robbery was the motive tends to fly out the window.
During the morning hours of July 8, DC resident Seth Rich was shot and killed���after being beaten���while he was walking back to his home and chatting on the phone with his girlfriend. Police have no leads to speak of, and are unsure as to a motive for the killing. Rich���s wallet, watch, and phone were still on his person when he was found.
While Rich���s killing may ultimately prove to be a robbery gone wrong, many are now speculating that his job as a Democratic National Committee (DNC) staff member may have played a part in his demise, and a lot of the ���energy��� behind this speculation is coming from Reddit users.
Reddit, which calls itself ���the front page of the Internet,��� is a social media site where users vote on content submitted by other users; the more votes gathered by a piece of content, the more prominently it appears at the site. Anyway, many ���Redditors,��� which are registered users of the Reddit site, have taken to openly pondering if there is more than meets the eye with respect to Rich���s death, and some of their ideas are taking the consideration to some rather foreboding places.
For example, according to an article over at Heatstreet by Emily Zanotti, some Redditors and others on social media were working on a ���lead,��� just after the murder, pertaining to the idea that Rich was actually on his way over to see the FBI when he was killed, for the purpose of discussing a court case regarding the Clintons about which he supposedly had knowledge.
Other folks have taken to Reddit in support of their idea that it was Seth Rich who was actually the person who managed to give Wikileaks the Democratic Party���s 30,000 emails to publish. Part of the basis for embracing this line of thought is Wikileak���s Julian Assange���s recent, public dismissal of the idea that Russian hackers were somehow responsible for capturing the emails. Assange said in that interview with ITV that someone working inside of the DNC could have set up the release of the emails, and many conspiracy-minded people are now thinking that Rich may have been the one who did so, and was then killed for his betrayal.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
VA Way Out of Control: $20 Million Spent on Art by the Agency, While Vets Languished Without Care
There���s more evidence���like you needed any���that the Veterans Administration has essentially been operating for many years as a rogue agency in our midst.
According to a report complied jointly by the taxpayer advocacy group Open the Books and COX Media Washington, DC, the VA spent $20 million on expensive artwork between 2004 and 2014, all while care for our nation���s veterans by the agency had been getting progressively worse.
In an editorial penned for Forbes in which he describes the report���s findings, Open the Books founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski wrote, ���In the now-infamous VA scandal of 2012-2015, the nation was appalled to learn that 1,000 veterans died while waiting to see a doctor. Tragically, many calls to the suicide assistance hotline were answered by voicemail. The health claim appeals process was known as ���the hamster wheel��� and the appointment books were cooked in seven of every ten clinics.���
���Yet, in the midst of these horrific failings the VA managed to spend $20 million on high-end art over the last ten years���with $16 million spent during the Obama years.���
How about this for prudent VA expenditures?
$21,000 for a fake Christmas tree.
$330,000 for glass art.
$115,600 for art consultants at the Palo Alto, CA VA facility.
$670,000 on two sculptures at the VA���s Palo Alto center for blind vets.
You read that last one correctly - the VA spent well over a half-million dollars on art at a facility where none of the patients can see it.
Andrzejewski summarizes that pathetic irony perfectly:
���In an ironic vignette, at a healthcare facility dedicated to serving blind veterans���the new Palo Alto Polytrauma and Blind Rehabilitation Center���the agency wasted $670,000 on two sculptures no blind veteran can even see. The ���Helmick Sculpture��� cost $385,000 (2014) and a parking garage exterior wall fa��ade by King Ray Studio for the ���design, fabrication, and installation of the public artwork��� cost $285,000 (2014).���
���Blind veterans can���t see fancy sculptures, and all veterans would be happier if they could just see a doctor.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
July 31, 2016
DNC Event Speaker Says It���s White Christian Males Who Should Apologize for Terrorism
In comments that can only be described as ���bizarre,��� a white, American clergyman who spoke at a Democratic National Convention event last week expressed weariness at the idea that his ���Muslim friends��� should feel the need to apologize for acts of terror, and said that it is actually white Christian men who should be apologizing for such acts.
Rev. Ron Stief, who is the executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, made his remarks while speaking as part of a panel discussion.
Said Stief, ���I���m tired of my Muslim friends having to be the ones having to stand up and say ���hey we are not terrorists. It doesn���t have anything to do with our religion.������
���If anybody should be saying that, that should be me, a white Christian man.���
In follow-up remarks made to The Daily Caller after the panel discussion concluded, Stief added, ���If you look at the hate crimes that are being committed in this country and all the violence that is being done against Muslim people, Sikhs, folks of south Asian descent it is clearly white male Christians that are doing this kind of violence.���
���If anybody needs to be apologizing for violence in this country it does need to be American white Christians.���
A particularly screwball component to Stief���s remarks is the idea that white Christian males in the United States are in the midst of a reign of terror against Muslims, Sikhs, and Asians. We all know that if this remotely the case, the ���mainstream��� media would play it for all it���s worth, but even our pals on the left (except, I guess, for the acutely unhinged ones, like Rev. Stief) are making no such claims.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
NARAL President Sings Praises of Her Abortion at DNC���and the Crowd Goes Wild
In case you had any lingering doubts about the indecency of hardened Democrats when it comes to the matter of protecting life���
At the Democratic National Convention this past week, featured speakers included Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the leading pro-abortion groups in the United States.
By the way, before we proceed, it���s worth noting that NARAL Pro-Choice America used to be known simply as NARAL, which stands for ���National Abortion Rights Action League.��� However, in the interest of trying to further hide the word ���abortion��� while simultaneously being a pro-abortion outfit, NARAL figured it could rename itself in a way that would make it harder for anyone to actually find the word ���abortion��� in its name.
Very clever.
Anyway���
When Ms. Hogue took the stage in Philadelphia, she did something that we are seeing more of from the pro-abortion crowd: she spoke about her own abortion in a way that portrayed it as a badge of honor���and, judging from the reaction of the crowd, that is precisely how it was received.
Said Hogue, in part, ���To succeed in life, all we need are the tools, the trust, and the chance to chart our own path. I was fortunate enough to have these things when I found out I was pregnant years ago. I wanted a family, but it was the wrong time. I made the decision that was best for me���to have an abortion and get compassionate care at a clinic in my own community.���
Hogue���s comments here were received warmly, with cheers and applause. Apparently, not many (no one?) in the convention crowd found it ghoulish that Hogue counts baby-killing as a ���tool��� by which to ���succeed in life.���
And there you have it.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
July 30, 2016
U.S. Homeownership Rate Drops to 51-Year Low
The rate of homeownership in the U.S. has fallen to a low that, up until a relative handful of years ago, would have seemed unimaginable.
According to U.S. Census data, the rate is now just 62.9 percent, the same level at which it sat back in 1965. The rate of homeownership in America was nearly 70 percent before the bottom fell out of the real estate market as a result of the 2008 crash.
CNBC real estate reporter Diana Olick, in an article entitled, ���Millennials cause homeownership rate to drop to lowest level since 1965,��� informs us, as the title of her piece suggests, that the reason for such a low rate is principally due to the substantial financial challenges millennials now face in America. Writes Olick, ���The drop in homeownership is largely due to a delay in homebuying by the millennials, who have the lowest ownership rate of their age group in history. Millennials are not only burdened by student loan debt, but they have also delayed life choices like marriage and parenthood, which are the primary drivers of homeownership.���
Among those quoted in Olick���s article is Svenja Gudell, Zillow���s chief economist, who points out that another reason ownership rates are so poor is because renting is proving itself to be ���an increasingly viable longer-term option��� for everyone, not just young people.
While it���s easy, and convenient, to see this as a problem resulting from the financial difficulties that typically plague young adults, the fact that the home ownership rate is the lowest it has been in a half-century telegraphs something much more ominous.
Take Svenja Gudell���s comment about the increased viability of long-term renting for everyone, not just young people. What does she mean by that, exactly? That older folks who should be homeowners sitting on a pile of equity���are not, and there���s nothing we should see as being amiss about that? ���Viability��� simply refers to having the fitness to survive, or, more generally, the ability to do something. OK, older folks have the ability to rent, just like anyone else. Wonderful. The real issue, however, is why so many of them are renting, as opposed to being homeowners moving closer to having fully-paid homes.
In other words, the ���big picture��� answer to why homeownership is low, one that far outsizes the millennial issue or problems unique to any particular demographic, is that the American economic infrastructure has been falling apart for decades now. The low-growth environment in which the economy has persisted for too long has deprived corporations of money for capital investment, and as that problem becomes greater, jobs and personal economic viability, more generally, end up in increasingly short supply. The abysmal home ownership rate is, in the end, nothing more���and nothing less���than a symptom of that.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Think the ���France at War��� Talk is Hype? Nation Resurrects Civilian Militia to Fight Terror
French President Francois Hollande has put out the call, seeking all able-bodied countrymen to enlist in a new, civilian-oriented National Guard designed specifically to help the besieged nation in its fight against terrorism within its borders.
The response has already been substantial, with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirming that ���2,500 French people have said they are interested and we are getting constant new inquiries.��� As a matter of fact, even Marion Le Pen, the niece of Marine Le Pen, head of the National Front, France���s leading right-wing political party, tweeted, ���Faced with the threat that weighs on France, I decided to join the military reserve. I invite all the young patriots to do the same.���
While France has a rich military history, it has not had a militia since 1872. Although the National Guard is expected to be highly-functional, the decision to resurrect a civilian defense force in the country at this time is also rooted in a desire by the government to help coalesce patriotic French���and French youth, in particular���as much in spirit against the threats posed by terror and radical Islam.
Hollande���s record on terror has been considered weak by many of his constituents, but he���s made it clear that he is serious about getting this new civilian force up to speed as soon as possible. According to Agence France-Presse, the president has said that work on operationalizing the militia will begin in earnest come September, in order that ���this force can be created as fast as possible to protect the French.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
