James L. Paris's Blog, page 71
July 31, 2017
L.A. Marzulli Discusses The 1917 Marian Apparition At Fatima
For Catholics, it is one of the holiest sites in the world, but was Fatima a miracle or a deception? L.A. Marzulli discusses his new movie and the controversial events surrounding the 1917 Marian apparitions in Portugal. Marzulli also discusses the news report of a new scientific study that concludes that ancient humans had sex with 'non humans.' Is this scientific proof of the Genesis 6 account? Why the present DNA manipulation and life extension technologies bring closer than ever to the return of Christ. Do the Serpent and Circle Mounds provide evidence of an advanced non-human race?
Memorial Featuring U.S. Flags Torn Down By County; Residents Put It Back
For years now, a roadside memorial honoring America���s military veterans, and characterized by a rich assembly of U.S. flags, has decorated a portion of King County, Washington.
As with practically all such roadside memorials, this one was erected by local residents, and thus unofficial. No matter. It was popular, and certainly well-known throughout the area. Accordingly, local authorities saw no reason to dismantle it, and so there it remained.
Until recently.
The county received a single complaint from an area resident who claimed to find the memorial display to be ���offensive.��� So what happened next? Road crews were dispatched to take it down.
As you can imagine, the removal was not at all well-received by the vast majority of local residents. One man, Robert Cunningham, as reported by WACH Fox 57, said, ���One person says they don���t like it, and they take it down. I don���t understand. We live in the United States of America. This is our flag. Why is it offensive?���
Only the same question a whole lot of people have been asking in recent years, Robert.
In this case, the locals weren���t having any of it, and went right back out and reassembled the display.
Awesome.
According to King County officials, however, the memorial will have to be permanently relocated because, in their words, ���signage and displays can create a visual distraction that may cause drivers to look away from the roadway.���
Uh-huh. Except it���s clear that this particular memorial was allowed by the county to remain in place for many years, until one person complained; complained that a roadside display featuring the American flag, of all things, was offensive.
And there you have it ��� your America, 2017 version.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Poll: Republican Musician ���Kid Rock��� Leads Democratic Incumbent in Michigan Senate Race
You have to admit���the political headlines are getting more unusual in the U.S. with each passing day.
Did anyone really think years ago that Donald Trump would actually become President of the United States? And accomplish that feat by getting the best of Hillary Clinton?
Well, this might be even more remarkable, in a way.
The musician known as Kid Rock, who shot to fame as a rapper and managed to successfully transition that popularity over to the genres of Southern rock and country, is giving serious consideration to running for U.S. Senate in Michigan as a Republican against Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow.
That���s probably strange enough. But it gets better.
Turns out, as a prospective candidate, the Trump-supporting Mr. Rock is currently ahead of Stabenow.
According to the results of a Trafalgar Group survey released Friday, Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, is presently leading Stabenow by a margin of 48.6 percent to 46.1 percent.
The survey also revealed that candidate Rock would likely crush any opposition he might receive from within his own party. According to the numbers, Rock/Ritchie is ahead of any potential Republican candidates by a 49.6 percent to 28.1 percent margin.
These aren���t the only survey numbers showing that Kid Rock would be a strong candidate in the Michigan race. A previous poll by Delphi Analytica indicated that he would beat Stabenow in a head-to-head matchup. Of those respondents who did indicate support for a particular candidate, Kid Rock finished ahead of Stabenow in the Delphi poll by a margin of 54-46 percent.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
July 30, 2017
ESPN Talking Head Thinks NFL Commissioner Must Explain Why Kaepernick Remains Unemployed
ESPN���s number one agenda these days seems to be reminding real sports fans that the network is essentially unwatchable.
As reported by The Daily Caller, last Tuesday, an edition of the network���s daily, flagship Sportscenter program���which is supposed to be a reasonably straightforward sports news show���turned hyper-leftist-political AGAIN when one commentator took up for currently-unemployed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and did so making a thoroughly bizarre assertion, even for ESPN.
Reporter Josina Anderson is clearly upset that Colin Kaepernick has yet to land another job in the league, never mind last year���s underwhelming numbers, when he went 1-10 as starter in San Francisco. In spite of that record, Anderson thinks that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has an obligation to face some sort of grilling from reporters like her about why Kaepernick remains out of work.
���Roger Goodell, any NFL owner, if you want myself or anybody here at ESPN to sit down with you and ask those questions of you, we would be glad to have you, but you also have to make yourself accessible,��� said Anderson.
She wasn���t finished. Anderson went on to demand that team owners should be looking to sign him at least as a backup QB.
���Ownership needs to step up a little bit more in terms of providing him an opportunity ��� [Kaepernick] is a proud individual, and doesn���t feel that he needs to put himself out there to beg for a job. His production stands for itself, even if it has decreased,��� Anderson opined.
When reminded during her segment that New York Giants management had said publicly teams don���t want to sign players who may anger their ticket buyers, Anderson declared that such shouldn���t be an issue ���in a state that voted blue for the past 20 years or more.���
Note to Anderson and everyone else at ESPN: If expressions like ���blue state��� and ���red state��� are now common parlance on the network, your programming is clearly a lot more political, and a lot more polarizing, than any sports network should be.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Researchers: Ubiquitous Technology Probably to Blame for American���s Declining Sex Rate
Did you happen to see this?
Americans are having less sex nowadays, and it seems that the ready availability of technology may be the culprit.
A study recently published in Archives of Sexual Behavior (there���s apparently a journal for everything), and reported on by Fortune, says that American adults in the 2010s are having less sex than they were in the 1990s.
Does that surprise you? If so, then perhaps you���ll be less surprised after hearing what the study���s authors believe to be the reason for the decline: entertainment on demand.
According to one of the researchers, Jean Twenge, ���Entertainment is more entertaining now, it���s more on demand ��� you can access it anytime you want. DVRs became more common right around that time, too.���
���Think about what���s happened over the last 10 years,��� Twenge added, referring to the explosion in the availability of personal devices, as well as the ability of those devices to access all kinds of entertainment.
Mind you, Twenge���s assessment is somewhere between speculation and hypothesis, and clearly additional research is needed to establish the validity of her claim, but when you think it through, it sure makes a lot of sense.
The good news? The study also learned that those more likely to have sex are in relationships. ���Tinder supposedly makes it easier to have sex on tap, but it���s pretty well established that people with a steady partner tend to have sex more often,��� says Twenge.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
July 28, 2017
New White House Communications Director: If Leaks Continue, ���I���m Going to Fire Everybody���
Donald Trump���s White House has clearly had it with the all the leaks coming from its Office of Communications, and has hired a pit bull, in the form of Anthony Scaramucci, to bring everyone in line.
Scaramucci, who first made his bones as an investment banker, turned to politics full time after the 2016 election, joining the Trump administration in January as Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs. On July 21, he was named White House Director of Communications.
Known as a man of action with an acutely abrasive style, Scaramucci, in his new capacity, has come out of the gate swinging in defense of his boss. In an already-infamous telephone interview with Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, Scaramucci said���among other things���that if Lizza did not reveal sources of leaked information, he���d fire everyone on the White House communications team.
The outburst was in keeping with what Scaramucci had just said on Sunday during an appearance on CBS���s Face the Nation. As reported by Townhall, when asked by host John Dickerson what will happen to leakers now that he���s in charge, Scaramucci was not shy in his answer, responding, ���They're going to get fired. I'm just going to make it very, very clear, okay?���
Scaramucci later reiterated his position, saying that ���if you're going to keep leaking, I'm going to fire everybody. It's just very binary.���
Indeed it is.
by Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Bestselling Author Malcolm Gladwell: ���There is No Way Around Hard Work���
We clearly live in an era when life - at least for those of us who live in the developed world - couldn���t be any easier. For example, technological evolution has made it such that very little physical effort is required any longer to do many jobs. While that���s pretty nifty for most of us, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell wants you to know that even if the way in which specifics tasks are done is easier and requires less physical effort, one thing will never change: the substantial amount of work ultimately required to realize genuine success.
���There is no way around hard work,��� Gladwell recently told CNBC. ���There are never any shortcuts, and anyone who tells you there���s a shortcut is blowing smoke.���
Gladwell���s first life lesson in this regard came while plugging away, if you can call it that, at his first job, working for a magazine in Indiana. After just two months on the job, Gladwell was fired because he couldn���t motivate himself to get out of bed on time each day.
���I was 20 years old and I couldn���t wake up before 11 o���clock in the morning,��� he says.
Like many other young adults who struggle at first with responsibility, Gladwell quickly realized that if he was really going to make something of himself, he would have to change his ways.
���I have learned many things subsequently, but you know, one of them is the importance of discipline,��� he says.
Gladwell writes in his book Outliers: The Story of Success that 10,000 hours of hard work must be invested in order that someone may actually perfect a skill to a level that opens the door to success. As noted in the CNBC piece, Gladwell claims Bill Gates became such a success as a software giant because he had been coding since he as a small boy, and that The Beatles��� path to superstardom was paved in no small way by the eight-hour gigs they played. It is Gladwell���s contention that keeping oneself under a pressure cooker in this fashion is ultimately how success is achieved.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
July 27, 2017
I am Woman, Hear Me Shoot: Chicago-Area Women Actively Buying Guns for Self-Defense
Chicago���s outrageous and ongoing problem with criminal gun violence is prompting the women of that city to take up arms in the interest of defending themselves, and a great many of the ladies are African-American, a particularly at-risk demographic in the city, presently.
As reported by the South China Morning Post, Chicago-area women are buying firearms and joining gun clubs as the deadly climate there continues to prevail, and authorities clearly remain unable to get any sort of handle on it. Through the middle of July, there had been 1,557 shootings and 369 people murdered in Chicago, and, according to the Post, it is local gangs that are behind practically all of the carnage. The Post also notes that the shootings are ���indiscriminate,��� and it is precisely that random nature to much of the violence that has so many in Chicago living in fear.
One local woman who���s decided to be proactive about her own safety, Shandrea Boyd, a physical therapist, cites the nonspecific aspect of much of the violence as a principal reason why she decided to become well-versed with a gun.
���Things happen in the neighborhoods all the time,��� said Boyd. ���You see people shooting on expressways. You see people shooting everywhere. You just never know. So you���d better be prepared [rather] than unprepared.���
Boyd isn���t wrong. Just last week, those wounded in shootings included a 78-year-old man, as well as a six-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother.
Another local woman, 71-year-old Marietta Crowder, is now a gun club member and frequent visitor to the range, despite her age as well as her rheumatoid arthritis.
���My husband influenced me and we thought about it a long time. Maybe you need a gun these days, in your house at least,��� said Crowder.
Especially if you live in Chicago.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
O.J. Simpson Can Expect Invite to Annual Enshrinement Ceremony for NFL Hall of Fame
Now that O.J. Simpson will be regaining his freedom, in a fashion, there is surely a great deal on his ���to-do��� list, and one of those items may be a visit to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
After all, there���s nothing stopping him from attending the annual enshrinement ceremonies to which so many past inductees go each year; not even any kind of prohibition against his attendance mandated by the Hall���because, it seems, the folks there are perfectly fine with Simpson showing up.
According to an article over at ESPN.com, when asked if Simpson might attend the annual event, officials at the Hall of Fame responded, ���All Hall of Famers are invited to attend the annual enshrinement.���
Simpson would be unable to attend this year���s festivities, however. Enshrinement ceremonies for the 2017 class will take place the first weekend of August, but Simpson won���t actually be paroled any time before October 1.
Additionally, Simpson will be subject to travel restrictions as part of the terms of his release. Once he is unshackled of those, there is no practical reason he would not be able to attend.
As ESPN notes, despite Simpson���s high-profile infamy, his own Hall of Fame bust has remained on display since he was first inducted. Additionally, the bylaws of the Hall of Fame prevent voters from considering anything other than what a player does on the field as criteria for enshrinement.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
July 26, 2017
Improving the Work-Life Balance May Not Be as Tough as You Think
As the pace of the world becomes ever-faster, the battle to successfully achieve the right balance between work and life is more difficult to win.
But is it truly as tough as it appears?
An article over at USA Today suggests ���maybe not,��� and outlines several ideas to putting the balance back more in your favor. What���s of particular note is that these ideas are simple, at least in concept, but when you think through their potential, each offers significant benefits in the realm of saving time that can go a long way to allowing you to breathe much easier each day.
One excellent way to help rebalance your life, as detailed by writer Brooke Niemeyer, involves taking the necessary steps to simplifying your daily routine as much as possible.
These steps can be very basic, but, in totality, the measures go a long way to ���decluttering��� your day. For example, Alison Kero, CEO of Ack Organizing in New York City, is quoted in the piece as saying that even ���putting a key rack near your front door so you never lose your keys��� is the kind of measure that can be extremely helpful in this regard. Think about everything you do each day, large and small, and now think of ways to make actually doing those things easier and quicker.
���The more you can implement effective systems into your life, the easier everything will flow, and you���ll find yourself less likely to be wasting time, energy or money,��� says Kero.
Another step you can take to help stay on more of an even keel involves strategically using your commute time to make peace with what goes on at work, so that you don���t do it at home.
Carrie Aulenbacher of Transportation Investment Group in Erie, Pennsylvania says, ���I���d urge [those] who commute to work in their own cars to decompress on the drive home by talking out what might have been frustrating or encouraging during the day. If they commute by rail or bus, I���d suggest making a journal entry on the way home to decompress before getting home to their personal life.���
The point is, when many think about ways to achieve that elusive work-life balance, they often think in terms of more drastic measures, like changing jobs or even careers, but taking such steps may not be at all necessary. Establishing a better relationship between work and home may be as (relatively) easy as becoming better organized and more efficient in how you process your day.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
