Why does the public think it's going up? “There is definitely more disorder in cities than there was five years ago," said one expert. “People confuse disorder and crime."

New FBI data confirms previous indications that crime in the U.S. declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend and belying widespread perceptions that crime is rising.

“It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest one-year decline in murder that has ever been recorded,” said Jeff Asher, a former CIA analyst who now studies crime trends.

I went shopping the other day to look for some plastic tubs and there was no shortage of them , the stores had mountains of them.
And these stores also sold packets of plastic cutlery and even straws.

After purchasing my items I then went to a takeaway shop where the woman placed my food into a plastic container along with a napkin and wooden or bamboo fork.
I said I don't like eating with these wooden forks would you have a plastic one ? And she said i'm sorry but we are not allowed to give you any plastic cutlery , it's a policy the Government has put in place , and if we are caught giving our customers plastic cutlery we will receive a huge fine.

Now you might be asking yourself why did this guy place this thread in the conspiracy forum , well hello!!

So I'm going to fast. My medicaid lapsed to I can't be seen by my GP. I worked last night and been up since 3a, had to drink energy drinks to stay awake and take kids to school.

I thought I'd be able to get a little sleep but my son has a parent training meeting for his autism at 11:30a so I have to stay awake for that.

I don't know if I'll be able to get any sleep but my mental health is dipping and I need God to help and answer me. Please pray he will take the anxiety and su*** thoughts away bc I can't make it any other way.

Also what should I do during a fast it's been a while.

Hi everyone, I would greatly appreciate your prayers. For several months now I have been having a problem with my body involuntarily jerking, sometimes it happens in my face and other times it is in my body, this happens several times a day. Also several times a day my tongue starts quivering. This does stop but then later it comes back. If you wouldn't mind pray that this all stops. Thank you!

I’m really struggling right now, I’ve not been preaching very long and it seems like every time I do it’s just a struggle to get the words that I want to speak out. I continuously fumble and don’t ever speak very long as I just don’t know how to. I really don’t know how much longer I can do this

I try to be decent with everyone online and off. I’ve been getting hints that there is gossip going about behind the scenes through PM’s. Seriously, why do people do such things especially when they know nothing about fellow posters? I remember once being contacted asking if I was having an affair with a fellow poster that made it his mission to make me miserable on the board. What makes people do these things? Especially on the internet? It seems really pathological to me but I have always ignored it even when I knew they were involved. I’m just curious if anyone else has experienced this and have any thoughts as to why people do such strange things. This is the first time I have asked for thoughts on this topic but seeing as it seems to go through cycles, I wanted hear others opinions or experiences. I just find it so odd.

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Video is AOC's questioning and not knowing what that RICO is a crime

RICO is codified under 18 U.S.C. ch. 96 as 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968.

It is a crime and the bartender has no clue

Patricia Silva was barred from the gym in Alaska after she detailed an incident online - where she said she saw a transgender woman in her locker room.
Following backlash against the ban, the company said although some members may feel uncomfortable sharing facilities, 'this discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender member.'
I don't think biological men should be allowed in women's locker rooms. If a school or a gym wants to build special facilities for trans I would be fine with that.

House Republicans James Comer and Jim Jordan, who are leading an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, refused to second a motion made by Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, to impeach the president.


Unless the GOP does not actually have the evidence to impeach Mr Biden why wait?

This thread here (below) (about piracy) got me started thinking about this?


What do you think God's views are on artistic or intellectual property?

God Bless.

I was going to wait until we know for sure but I figured I'd ask for prayers on this. My wife and I have been trying to start a family since we got married back in 2015. So it's been nearly nine years of heartache and I never gave up but my wife did years ago. Well, she's about a month and 2 weeks late and she's going to get a pregnancy test tomorrow afternoon after work and I'm hoping to hell it's positive because, it's just been so long. If the test tomorrow is positive she is going to go to her doctor to get it confirmed. If it's negative and she's still another week late I'd say go to the doctor too. They don't make very accurate pregnancy tests at the dollar store anymore.

We've been down this road before though. She was late when I had to be hospitalized in Utica back in 2017 for a psychotic episode I was having but it was more than likely stress then. She hasn't been stressed much this month so I'm hoping beyond hope that this time it's not a fluke. Please pray for us and I will keep everyone updated.

If she is pregnant this will be our one and only child because we are quite poor. I haven't told my parents yet because they've always worried about how I'm going to support a baby with our income but we will manage.

I feel very bad and I have sought help but it’s taking a while and I need more help. Thanks

See What about people of other cultures, ancient Chinese, ancient Australians, Islamic, Hindu, etc?

I just ran across this on the internet, this is a photo from the surface of Venus taken by the Soviet Venera probe. This one is extremely rare, I have never seen this one before. This one shows the horizon with mountains off in the distance, most of the photos from the Venera probe are pointed at the ground and do not show the horizon. Pic is below:

Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity…..so is Jesus God? When we receive the Eucharist, we receive Jesus but are we receiving God?

I thought that it would be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to posting thoughts/discussions on events or people from Church history or the Church fathers. The topic itself can be very edifying as it can involve things like sharing in the experiences and thoughts of the early Church, the ones who experienced terrible persecution at the cost of their own suffering and lives. Such experience cannot be easily discounted and is worth bringing to mind as it reflects Christ; "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin" (Hebrews 12:4).

God bless .

Here's a tough question that I'd love to see answered:

Re the scientific disciplines of physical science, life science, and evolution, do you feel you are academically qualified to say the Bible is wrong; in the passages where the Bible disagrees with said disciplines?

Jesus Christ had just been betrayed by one of his twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot, and he had just been arrested on false charges of a crime he did not commit, and all of his disciples had deserted him, but Peter and John did follow behind him. But when Peter was questioned as to whether or not he was one of Jesus’ disciples, he denied that it was so, but not just once, but three times, as Jesus had told him would happen. But as soon as that rooster crowed, as Jesus had said it would, Peter remembered Jesus’ words, and he went out and wept bitterly in genuine sorrow and repentance.

Have you ever denied Jesus Christ? I have previously. For I went through a period of time in my life when I was yielding to fear of my circumstances and of people and of their opinions of me and of their persecutions and rejections of me and of their pushing me toward sin and away from following the Lord. I was in and out of this over a period of time before the Lord finally got my attention and I yielded control of my life back over to him from that point forward. And it all really came down to me accepting God’s sovereignty over my life and me trusting him with my circumstances, no matter what.

So, I identify with Peter, to some degree, for I did that, too, only for a longer period of time than what Peter did. And I knew better, like he did, but we denied Jesus because we didn’t really believe that we would. I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would have ever done some of the things that I did during that period of my life, and that is where I failed. And it is where Peter failed, too, because he did not believe Jesus’ words and warnings to him. And this should serve as a warning to us all to “take heed if we think we stand lest we fall.” Pride comes before a fall!

Now, I knew very early on in my life that God was calling me to his service, and that he was going to use me as one of his messengers, not as a prophet, but just as a woman of God called of God to be one of his “watchmen,” so to speak. And he used the call of Jeremiah to let me know what that call would look like. And he warned me then with the words he used to warn Jeremiah when he said to him:


And that was in the late 1970’s. And ten years later I was being terrified by my persecutors, and the Lord did terrify me before them, for he allowed all these persecutions in my life, and there were so many of them, too. And that is when I began to cave to the pressure and to go through a rough time in my life when I was in and out of fellowship with the Lord and when I was seriously battling oppression and persecution (persecuted when I was following the Lord) and depression, and when I denied him out of fear of what others might do to me or say about me, like Peter did. But…


But thank the Lord, Peter repented of his denial of the Lord, and the Lord restored him, and he gave him the assignment of feeding his sheep, i.e. of feeding the people of God with the truths of the Scriptures for their encouragement and edification and spiritual growth and maturity in Christ. And I repented of my denial of the Lord, and the Lord restored me, and he gave me a similar assignment, like the one he gave Peter, and like the one he gave Jeremiah, but from the position of just being a woman of God who loves the Lord and who wants to obey him and to serve him with my life.

So, I want to encourage everyone reading this today to not give way to fear of what other people will think about you or say about you or do to you. Serve the Lord with your lives in the areas to which he has called you, and follow him in obedience regardless of how others treat you or what they say about you. Go to those to whom God sends you, and say whatever it is that the Lord commands you to say, and do not be afraid of the people. But say to them, “Behold your God!” And let them know what the Scriptures teach, and refute the lies of the enemy which are spreading like wildfire. God will be with you.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]

Courageous!

An Original Work / December 24, 2013
Based off Various Scriptures

The Word of God throughout taught.
Some people heard but did doubt.
Still others had faith in Christ.
By grace He purified them.

They turned from sin
And they obeyed Christ.
He opened up their blinded eyesight;
Turned them from darkness
To the true Light;
Forgave their sin by His might.

He strengthened them in their faith.
He said, “Remain my faithful.”
He called them to obedience.
By faith, they were so grateful.

By faith, they were to follow Jesus;
To daily sit and listen to Him;
To have such faith
That mountains could move;
To love those whom He gave them.

Be on your guard; courageous.
Stand firm in faith. Be thankful.
Take up the shield of your faith;
Protect against all evil.

Do not move from
The hope that you have.
Your faith in Jesus let it endure.
Hold to the truth;
Your conscience be clear.
Endure with perseverance.

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Context, Context, Context!!!

Context is everything for correct biblical understanding. When we freely interpret the Scriptures out of their appropriate context, we are in danger of possible misinterpretation of what the passage is actually teaching. So, what is the context of the book of 1 Peter so far? It is that of faith in Jesus Christ and of what that faith looks like. It begins by letting us know that our obedience to Jesus Christ is a necessary part of the package. And it lets us know that our salvation is of God and God is the one to define it for us.

And it lets us know that suffering persecution for the sake of the name of Jesus and for the sake of his gospel message, and enduring various trials and tribulations are also a necessary part of the whole package in that these persecutions and trials are used of God in our lives to test the genuineness of our faith, and to teach us perseverance, and to teach us to rely on God and not on ourselves, and to humble us, and to give us hearts of compassion and tenderness towards others who are suffering like we are.

See also: [Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

And then we are taught that, as obedient children (the children of God) that we are not to be conformed any longer to the passions of the flesh, in our former ignorance. But we are called to be holy in all our conduct, and to be holy is to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. So we are to be those who have put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, sexual immorality, idolatry, lying, and cheating and the like. They should be gone!

And now, in this context, we are taught that we must be subject to the authorities that are over us, as a people. But this is in the context of us deciding not to do what is evil and us practicing what is good. And it says, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” And we are to “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” So the context is of submission to what is good, not to what is evil. Get this?

So, this is not a blanket order to us that we must be subject to everyone on this earth who raises himself up as some type of authority figure – whether he is a preacher, teacher of the word, pastor, elder, schoolteacher, parent, and/or government official, etc. For many people in positions of authority these days, inside and outside of the gatherings of what are called “churches,” are not instructing us in what is good and is of God, but they are leading us to do what is evil and is against God. We don’t submit to that!!

And we have biblical examples of that. I mean, one of the biggest reasons that the religious rulers of Jesus’ time hated him and wanted him dead is because he did not submit to them when what they were requiring of him required that he disobeyed God. And Peter and John did likewise when they told the authorities, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” Amen! And Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are our Old Testament examples of the same. Read them!

So, submission to authorities should never be done at the cost of disobeying our Lord and his commands, and it should never involve us sinning against God in order to submit to human authority. And it should never involve blind worship of a particular government or government leader or their military as part of showing them honor. But this is what many people in America have been taught to do from birth on up, and so many are giving their undying devotion and worship (vows of allegiance) to a human government.

But we can honor those in authority without worshiping them, and without giving them our blind loyalties and devotion, without question. For the submission that God requires has to do with submitting to what is right in his eyes and to what is good and not evil, and even Jesus and Paul and the other apostles questioned the actions of those in authority (read Matthew 23) and they did not yield to them when it came to choosing them over obedience to God. So obey God above all else, and all else will follow suit.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Courageous!

An Original Work / December 24, 2013
Based off Various Scriptures

The Word of God throughout taught.
Some people heard but did doubt.
Still others had faith in Christ.
By grace He purified them.

They turned from sin
And they obeyed Christ.
He opened up their blinded eyesight;
Turned them from darkness
To the true Light;
Forgave their sin by His might.

He strengthened them in their faith.
He said, “Remain my faithful.”
He called them to obedience.
By faith, they were so grateful.

By faith, they were to follow Jesus;
To daily sit and listen to Him;
To have such faith
That mountains could move;
To love those whom He gave them.

Be on your guard; courageous.
Stand firm in faith. Be thankful.
Take up the shield of your faith;
Protect against all evil.

Do not move from
The hope that you have.
Your faith in Jesus let it endure.
Hold to the truth;
Your conscience be clear.
Endure with perseverance.

I guess I'm getting sensitive about it...

For instance, I've noticed a new trend at the grocery store.

Even though I walk up to the counter carrying my two bags myself, and unload (and sometimes re-load them), invariably I'll get asked if I need help carrying them out, or if I need a cart. My impulse is to declare, "what do I look like, an invalid?" Instead I just smile and say, "I got it." Though I admit they are getting heavier these days.

Another thing is when I pay for meds at the pharmacy. The directions on the card reader are pretty darn clear, but the clerk unfailingly feels the need to guide me through each step: "now enter your date of birth, now click 'ok', ect". I want to interrupt and say, "what do I look like, a complete moron?" But instead I just grin and bear it. Maybe it's because I'm squinting to read the dang thing causing them to offer assistance, I dunno.

I figure if I ever actually speak up I'll be betraying good Christian conduct, after all they are just being kind. But still! Sigh...

Hi,

So for those who dont know Corrie Ten Boom. Her family helped the jews escaped the Nazi Germans by hiding the jews in their home.
This was illegal, they got caught and sent to the concentration camps. Some of her family died there.
No disrespect to the Ten Boom family, but I was curious, did God himself tell them in a voice like how God told Moses to go to Pharoah ?
Or were they kinda fed up with the injustic of the Nazi killing the jews, so they decided to do something about it.

If it was me, I would do nothing until God told me in a voice like for example God speaking to Moses or Abraham.

Thing is we cannot solve all the problems in the world, I don't think God expect us to do so also.

Br,

Russia says it is pushing Ukrainian forces back, will create two new armies​

MOSCOW, March 20 (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday its soldiers were pushing Ukrainian forces back and that Moscow would bolster its military by adding two new armies and 30 new formations by the end of this year.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, swiftly pulled back some of its forces in the east and south after over-extending but has been slowly advancing after a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year failed to make significant gains.

Russia controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to push further forward after Moscow took the small eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka last month.
"Groups of Russian troops continue to squeeze the enemy out of their positions," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told senior generals. "The United States and its satellites are extremely concerned about the success of the Russian Armed Forces."

"The combined grouping of troops will continue to build on the successes achieved and increase the live fire impact on enemy targets."
Russia, which has recruited hundreds of thousands of contract soldiers, will create two new armies and 30 formations including 14 divisions and 16 brigades, Shoigu said.
Western spy chiefs say the war could be at a turning point as Kyiv needs more arms from its Western allies to avoid more battlefield setbacks. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday Ukraine's survival was in danger.
Russia has since the 2022 invasion taken 65,000 square km (25,000 square miles) of Ukrainian territory, according to Harvard Kennedy School's Russia Matters project.

SHOIGU SAYS SECURITY TIGHTENED​

Ukraine is debating a new mobilisation law as it faces a shortage of battle-ready troops, and support from Washington has been held up by political wrangling ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
Before Russia's March 15-17 presidential election, Ukraine stepped up attacks by shelling Russian border regions, attacking refineries and using proxies to try to pierce the border.

Shoigu said security had been tightened at Russian government and other facilities, and air defences strengthened.
Russia shot down 419 Ukrainian drones and 67 rockets during the election and inflicted heavy losses on the Ukrainian proxies, he said. Reuters was unable to verify the figures.
Putin has said Russia will punish Ukraine for the attacks and that he might carve a buffer zone from more Ukrainian territory as defence against attacks by Western-supplied artillery.

"The primary task is to guarantee security. There are different methods here, they aren't easy but we will do this," Putin told a Kremlin meeting on Wednesday.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-is-pushing-ukrainian-forces-back-will-create-two-new-armies-2024-03-20/

Luke Andrew Bartels, 20, of Lexington, was charged in Latimer County District Court with felony counts of manufacturing child [youknowwhat], peeping tom with photographic/electronic equipment, violation of Oklahoma statute via computer and lewd molestation, according to filed recounts in June 2023 by the District 16 District Attorney's Office.

Looks like he got 5 years for peeping, and 20 years for the other charges, but "with all but the first five-years suspended".