James L. Paris's Blog, page 83

Robot Preacher Beams Lights from Its Hands, Gives Automated Blessings

It was just a matter of time.

According to the Daily Mail Online, there���s a new preacher in town, and this one is likely very different from the one you see each Sunday morning at your local house of worship.

This preacher is neither male nor female���because this preacher is not even human.

This preacher is a robot ��� a robot that answers to the name ���BlessU-2.���

BlessU-2, presently being displayed in Wittenberg, Germany, is programmed to dole out blessings in a variety of languages, and beam lights from its hands.

As described by the Daily Mail, the robot first welcomes a user, and then asks if they would prefer to be blessed by a male or female voice. Next, the user is asked to choose a blessing, and once they���ve made a selection, the robot raises its arms upward and smiles.

After that, lights flash in the mechanical preacher���s arms, at which point it says, ���God bless and protect you,��� and then recites verse from the Bible. Once finished, the user has the option to print the blessing from the robot.

According to Sebastian von Gehren, spokesman for the evangelical church presently featuring the robot, ���It is an experiment that is supposed to inspire discussion.���

However, Von Gehren added, ���The machine should not replace the blessing of a pastor. In the future there will not be a blessing robot in every church.���

We���ll see.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Front Page Los Angeles Times Article Addresses Anxiety of Anti-Trump Activists

In a rather bizarre journalistic decision made by one of America���s best-known dailies, the Los Angeles Times elected to dedicate space on the front page of its Memorial Day edition to a piece discussing how activists in the anti-Trump movement are looking for ways to relieve the tension of having to persist through what they obviously feel is the trying presidency of Donald Trump.

Here is an excerpt from the article.

���Many activists in Los Angeles have been in the trenches for years, fighting for immigrant rights and social justice. They know strategy. They know crisis.

But five months into the Trump presidency, they���ve never had their endurance so tested.

So, in need of relief themselves, they go to a longtime community organizer for help.

In his workshops and webinars, Victor Narro tells them to unplug, garden, hike, dance, volunteer, build altars at their cubicles and look at photos that bring them joy. They���re in it for the long haul, after all. President Trump still has nearly 200 more weeks in office.

He teaches them how to slow down and breathe deeply. He gets them to stretch, to close their eyes and meditate.

He also tells them to be vigilant.

���He wants to make you angry. He wants you to lose focus,��� he says of Trump. ���But we���re not going to let that happen.������

This is worthy of occupying valuable space on the front page of the Los Angeles Times?

How unfortunate, and revealing, that the newspaper with the fourth-highest circulation in the United States has so obviously abandoned even the pretense of objectivity.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Teacher Who Said ���I Will Pray for You��� to Colleague Threatened with Termination

In something right out of Bizarro World, a teacher in Maine is fighting back after being threatened with termination for using the phrases ���I will pray for you��� and ���you were in my prayers��� during interactions she had with another teacher at the school.

According to The Christian Post, charges on behalf of Toni Richardson were recently filed by law firm Eaton Peabody, as well as by First Liberty Institute, the nation���s largest non-profit law firm devoted exclusively to fighting for religious freedom.

By all accounts, the issue originally bubbled up when Richardson was engaged in an apparently-contentious discussion with another teacher at the Cony School in Augusta. An investigation by the school into the one-on-one dustup somehow led it to conclude that Richardson had ���imposed��� her religious beliefs on the teacher when she uttered, during the course of their exchange, the phrases at issue.

What follows is a portion of the memo received by Richardson from the school.

���An investigation���indicated that you may have imposed some strong religious/spiritual belief system toward Mr. [redacted]. Stating, ���I will pray for you,��� and ���you were in my prayers��� is not acceptable ��� even if that other person attends the same church as you.

���In the case of, Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court applied the ���establishment clause��� of the First Amendment to the states. In the context of the ���separation of church and state,��� this case prohibits public school-sponsored religious expression. Therefore, in the future, it is imperative you do not use phrases that integrate public and private belief systems when in the public schools.

���Going forward, I expect when you disagree with a staff member, you will address it in a discrete and professional manner with no reference to your spiritual or religious beliefs.���

The memo concludes with a threat to terminate Richardson.

Representatives of both Eaton Peabody and First Liberty were sharp in their rebuke of Augusta Public Schools. Timothy Woodcock of Eaton issued a statement saying, ���What Augusta Public Schools did by punishing Toni for discussing her faith in a private conversation with a coworker is unconscionable,��� while First Liberty, through Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys, declared, ���We want to make sure that teachers and employees everywhere understand that you can certainly talk about your faith in private conversations at work. No employee, whether at a school district or elsewhere, should be punished or be threatened with dismissal for engaging in private conversations that say something like, ���I���m praying for you.������

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Cocaine Is Pouring into the U.S. Again, Thanks to Resurgent Colombian Drug Cartels

The days of free-flowing cocaine in America���s streets are back, thanks to a revival, of sorts, among Colombia���s drug cartels.

According to The Daily Caller, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration are saying they haven���t seen this much cocaine smuggled into South Florida since 2007, and that Colombian cartels are responsible for about 90 percent of it.

���There is a mountain of cocaine, much of it is likely headed our way,��� says Justin Miller, intelligence chief for the DEA���s Miami field division.

Although cultivation of the coca crop in Colombia had been in decline for years now, it is back with a vengeance. As a matter of fact, it is said that so much of the crop is now being grown, excess leaves are being left to rot in the fields.

Disturbingly, the use of cocaine by younger Americans rose between 2013 and 2015, matching the time frame during which cultivation of coca in Colombia was noticed to be on the rise again for the first time in years. Overall, 13 percent of the fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2015 were attributable to cocaine use.

What���s more, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 9,500 pounds of cocaine was seized in Florida during 2015, which represents a whopping 61 percent increase over the amount seized the year before.

Experts say that the production spike in Colombia is so sharp���that the full effects of it have yet to be felt in the U.S., which means that all of the relevant numbers, including the number of users and number of cocaine-related deaths, are only going to rise in the near term.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Jewish Student Flees Berlin School After Physical and Verbal Abuse by Muslim Students

In a frightening reminder of days gone by, a German student at a leading Berlin school has been removed from there by his parents after suffering repeated anti-Semitic abuse at the hands of fellow classmates.

The victim, age 14, was frequently kicked and punched by students of Middle Eastern and Turkish origin, according to the Sunday Times. It has been reported that the abuse was of a severity such that the student was left fearing for his life. The violent incidents took place at the Friedenauer Gemeinschaftsschule, said to be a fashionable secondary school in the city.

The student, known only as Ferdinand, said, ���First my Turkish friend Emre said he could no longer hang out with me because I was Jewish. Then other pupils started saying stereotypical things about how Jews only want money and hate Muslims.���

���This boy, Jassin, whose parents are Palestinian, asked me if I���m from Israel,��� continued Ferdinand. ���I���ve never been to Israel. He said Palestine will burn Israel and his friends said Turkey will burn Israel. He kept kicking me.���

���One day he came up to me from behind and he punched me in the back. I became dizzy . . . I had a bruise for a week or two. Every time something bad happened, I told myself I could manage it, but it only got worse,��� the student revealed.

According to the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the allegations of what took occurred at the Friedenauer Gemeinschaftsschule represent ���anti-Semitism of the ugliest form.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Billionaire Entrepreneur Mark Cuban: ���Don���t Use Credit Cards���

According to an article over at CNBC.com, billionaire Mark Cuban says the best money advice he ever received came from someone especially close to him.

���From my dad. Don���t use credit cards.���

Cuban has said ���that credit cards are the worst investment that you can make. That the money I save on interest by not having debt is better than any return I could possibly get by investing that money in the stock market.

"I thought I would be a stock market genius. Until I wasn't. I should have paid off my cards every 30 days."

Credit card management can be tricky for many people, because the messages sent by personal finance experts can seem almost contradictory at times. On the one hand, opening an unsecured credit card account can be one of the overall best and easiest ways to build a quality credit record, particularly for young adults just starting out. On the other, mismanagement of credit cards can lead to burdensome debt that not only puts downward pressure on all-important credit scores, but drains financial resources that could be used to invest for wealth.

For Cuban, the best answer ��� indeed, the only answer ��� is to avoid using credit cards altogether. While that may seem like an easy solution for a billionaire, the underlying principle is sound for people of all economic strata, even if one does not avoid the use of credit cards entirely. Ideally, beyond their strategic application as credit enhancement tools, they should be used sparingly, such as for genuine emergencies and as a way to avoid carrying large sums of cash while on vacation.

In other words, Cuban���s dad, like just about all dads, was absolutely correct.

Perhaps father really does know best.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

University Sued by Feminist Group for Not Protecting Members from ���Hostile��� Comments

And MORE stuff you never thought you���d read in America.

The College Fix is reporting that a feminist group at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia is suing the school for failing ���to protect them from a sexually hostile school environment.���

A ���sexually hostile school environment?��� At first glance, that does sound rather awful.

At second glance?

Not so much. At least, not in this case.

It turns out that Feminists United is essentially suing because the school did not, in the group���s opinion, protect them from exposure to mean comments. The comments were made by male students using the social media app Yik Yak, and the group claims that by the school allowing the access to Yik Yak through its Wi-Fi, it allowed for the creation of ���a sexually hostile school environment��� and was therefore remiss in not protecting ���the Plaintiffs from [the] effects��� of the comments.

The group is citing provisions in Title IX as the legal basis for their claim; the ���deliberate indifference��� alleged by Feminists United is something for which Title IX allows potential recourse.

The allegations, however are vigorously refuted by both the university and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-profit group devoted to the preservation of civil liberties in campus environments. Susan Kruth, program director for FIRE, writes that the supposedly offensive comments, or ���yaks,��� do not rise to the level of ���true threats,��� but ���are merely sexist or offensive,��� and, as such, not only do not rise to the standard of a threat as outlined in Title IX, but, do enjoy the full protection of the First Amendment.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Chicago-Area VA Hospital Knowingly Served Food with Roaches for Years

The crisis of conditions at many of America���s Veterans Administration facilities continues, despite promises from politicians on both sides of the aisle to finally make things right.

One of the latest pieces of evidence to reveal there���s still a long way to go to that end comes from the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

According to a variety of sources, including the Washington Examiner, the facility���s kitchen has been infested for years with cockroaches, and patients were actually served food trays with roaches on them.

As sickening as that is, however, it���s not the worst part.

The worst part is that hospital staff knew about the infestation for years, discussed it internally, and still never took anything approaching appropriate, useful steps to fix the problem.

A report on the matter was just issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and reads, in part, ���Six reports of cockroaches on patient food trays had been submitted to facility leadership between March 2011 and December 2015. Facility leadership relied on its pest control program and did not take additional action to control the problem.���

The same report also notes that patients ���became very upset and distressed as a result of witnessing cockroaches on food trays and transportation carts.���

The initial investigation into the roach problem at the hospital was prompted by complaints in 2016 to then-U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth and then-U.S. Senator Mark Kirk. From there, a formal inquiry was begun that included an unannounced visit to the hospital last year by health inspectors. During that visit, the inspectors saw dead roaches first-hand, as well as numerous conditions that were conducive to roach infestation, including trash cans without lids and cracks in the flooring.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Thousands Drop Off Georgia Food Stamp Rolls After Work Requirement Added

In another piece of earth-shattering news, it turns out that when you make work a requirement of welfare, the number of people on welfare drops.

Stunning.

The latest bit of evidence to that effect: According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, since a work mandate was added to the food stamp program in the state of Georgia, thousands of enrollees have dropped off.

The mandatory work feature of the food stamp program in Georgia applies in 21 counties of the state, at present. Of the 11,779 people enrolled in those 21 counties last year, it���s estimated that 7,251 have dropped out since the work requirement went into effect.

In the counties where it applies, benefits recipients must be on the job a minimum of 20 hours each week. The requirement may also be satisfied if a recipient is enrolled in a job training program that���s approved by the state, or by doing volunteer work at a non-profit organization or charity that is also state-approved.

While the work component of the food stamp program has unsurprisingly come under fire from progressive groups, many, including state Rep. Greg Morris, cite it as an effective mechanism by which Georgia can be smarter with tax dollars and help citizens to become more responsible.

���This is about protecting taxpayer dollars from abuse, and taking people off the cycle of dependency,��� said Morris, who also notes that the substantial drop in the number of Georgians on food stamp rolls ���shows how tax dollars are abused when it comes to entitlements.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Undercover CMP Planned Parenthood Video Reveals the Monsters Among Us

In another undercover video from investigators at the Center for Medical Progress, attendees at the 2014 and 2015 National Abortion Federation conventions can be seen and heard describing abortion procedures in a way that makes one wonder if these people are entirely soulless.

It should be noted that the video has been removed by YouTube, and that removal has turned into a controversy in itself. However, for those with even a shred of humanity, the only controversy that matters is the one arising from what abortion industry providers say on the video.

Despite the video���s removal from YouTube, most of it is still viewable in select online locations, including over at the website for the group Live Action.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the video, in case you just can���t stand to listen to supposed human beings actually saying these things.

From Ann Schutt-Aine, director of abortion services, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast:

���If I���m doing a procedure, and I���m seeing that I���m in fear that it���s about to come to the umbilicus (navel), I might ask for a second set of forceps to hold the body at the cervix, and pull off a leg or two, so it���s not PBA (partial-birth abortion).���

From Uta Landy, founder of Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS), first executive director of NAF:

���An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross!��� (It should be noted that Landy���s comments were followed by laughter from the audience.)

Monstrous. Seriously, what else can you call it?

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large