“But in practice, progressive reformers have increasingly embraced a “throw away the lock” mentality that sees minimizing punishment as itself a positive good. Here, however, progressive reform has lost its way. Its shift from demanding just punishment to preferring little or no punishment damages justice, fairness, and equity—all values progressive reformers claim to champion.[9] If it is to ever achieve those goals, much less win over the majority of Americans, progressive criminal justice reform needs to embrace the value of just punishment.”

Always in His Presence said:

Nearly half of crime-related arrests in D.C. have occurred in Wards 7 and 8 since Aug. 8, the day President Donald Trump began flooding the capital city with federal law enforcement,​

Click to expand...

And how does that compare with the proportion before he did so?
What proportion of these new arrests involved feds?
Is the total number of arrests up or down?

The story says more than half the murders happen in these wards, so it's not that surprising that half the criminal arrests might come from there ordinarily. For an article allegedly based on numbers, it's not providing any useful ones to serve as a metric of change.

Apple Sky said:

Yer using one right now.

Click to expand...

That's not evidence.

Jerry N. said:

The other question I have is how is the genome used to support macroevolution?

Click to expand...

What we see happening in observed cases of macroevolution is that the genome usually doesn't change that much. Reproductive isolation can come about with relatively few mutations. However, common descent gets a huge boost from genetics, because the "tree of life" first noticed by Linnaeus very nicely fits phylogenies based on DNA.

There are exceptions. Polyplody (duplication of the entire genome) is pretty rare in animals but is a fairly frequent cause of macroevolution in plants.

Jerry N. said:

It seems to me that it is no different from saying that all vertebrate animals come from a common ancestor, because they share the characteristics of four limbs and a spine. Only the genome is microscopic. What am I missing?

Click to expand...

Well, homologies are very good evidence for macroevolution as YEC Dr. Kurt Wise says. But genetic data is also powerful evidence for evolution.


Notice that DNA evidence shows that coelacanths (lobed fin fish) are more closely related to tetrapods than they are to other fish, which is what the fossil record also indicates.

Apple Sky said:

There;s nothing like blowing yer own trumpet.

Click to expand...

No, just stating facts.

It wasn't me who wrote, "so is Australia upside-down, or what?"
I haven't written about the moon being made of plasma, space rockets being unable to "get through the firmament", space not existing or the ISS not existing but - oh, wait, it's 250 miles up, max.
I haven't demanded evidence for the moon landings the, when I've received it, denounced it as being lies.
Nor have I said that I can't get my head around science and I don't trust those who can. Those who have studied, read, written papers and taken exams in subjects you have probably never even heard of, are, apparently, liars. And you know that for a fact because you, who can't get your head around science have found a clip on YouTube which says so.

Half the time you don't understand those either and have to later admit that you made a mistake.

Valletta said:

Was it an error or did the prosecutor not bother? In any case, as I have already stated, in addition to those crimes twice the guy assaulted a corrections officer. An opportunity to sentence the guy to many more years in prison. Four violent crimes. Why wasn't it done?

Click to expand...

The County Attorney involved, Thomas N. Kelly, is a long time member of the Republican Party.

Perhaps he errored, but not every case goes before a grand jury. Most don't.

And even with the cases involving the prison guards have laws that the lawyers and judges have to follow.

Hans Blaster said:

Let me ask again (and I speak with my mouth, not the other end):

Click to expand...

Nice change - or perhaps a neat way of pointing out a minor typo

RileyG said:

What’s the difference between soul and spirit?

Click to expand...

Biblically speaking, nothing.

The Bible doesn't teach human beings are a "trinity", or what is more commonly call tripartism or trichotomism. Nor has this ever been the historic Christian perspective.

More common has been what is sometimes called dichotomism, man is a dichotomy of his material self (the body) and his immaterial self (the soul or spirit).

Sometimes this dichotomism also becomes a problem, biblically and theologically, when it gets forced too hard into an overtly Platonic dualism; Platonic dualism would view "the soul" as the "true self" and the body as in some sense lesser, inferior, or a facade hiding the true self of the soul. Think of what Yoda says in Star Wars, "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter" this is a very Platonic way of seeing things, and taken excessively leads to various Gnostic and heretical ideas--such as that the body is evil and false, because physical matter is inferior/evil.

But taken simply and non dualistically, the dichotomy of body and soul is a helpful way of understanding biblical teaching that human beings were created as rational, thinking, relational, and moral creatures-we aren't just our bodies, but we aren't flighty souls trapped in bodies either. We are fully integrated, fully bodied, fully "souled" creatures who reason, who were created to love God, reflect God, love each other, and be God's Image bearers in creation. This means that when the body dies, we don't merely cease to exist--there is something about us that can exist even without and apart from the body--but this isn't how we were made or intended to exist, it is an unnatural severing of body and soul caused by the unnatural reality of death, which is an affliction upon the whole cosmos wrought by and perpetuating sin.

The Bible, when speaking of human beings, uses a lot of terms to describe the "parts" of human beings--body, mind, soul, spirit, heart--to name some of the most common. We wouldn't, therefore speak of a quadrinity of human beings by speaking also of the mind or the heart; or a quintity by speaking of the mind and heart along with body, soul, spirit. Instead we understand that, biblicaly speaking, and according to the historic faith of the Church, that the human person can be described as "more than the body" and so there is something about us that gives us an "us-ness" even apart from the body (and yet, this body of ours is also very much us--my body is also me); so this dichotomous language that there is a material and immaterial dimension to the human person is something we have historically and continuously seen throughout Christian history, going back to Scripture itself.

There is, therefore, no reason to regard the human soul and the human spirit fully independent things--but rather both "soul" and "spirit" are ways of speaking of the rational, emotive, relational, spiritual, and trans-material quality of the human creature.

-CryptoLutheran

essentialsaltes said:

Millions at risk of losing health insurance subsidies after Trump's victory​

Subsidies to buy insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are set to expire at the end of 2025. If they're not extended, coverage could become unaffordable for many. Since the 2021 subsidies went into effect, enrollment in ACA plans with reduced payments doubled, particularly in Southern red states,

Click to expand...

[Op-Ed] 'Unacceptable': Arkansas gov whines about cost increases fueled by GOP policies​

Rates for individual plans are set to rise by an average of 36% next year, according to proposed 2026 rate filings by BlueCross and Centene, the two companies that sell policies on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace.

Last week, Gov. Sarah Sanders said the companies’ proposed rate hikes are “unacceptable” and called on the commissioner of the Arkansas Insurance Department to reject them.

If she truly cared about preventing rate increases for Arkansans, she’d call on Congress to keep the current ACA subsidies in place, or she’d find money elsewhere.

From the beginning ... there was a problem with the ACA marketplace: The subsidies were too stingy. Some people signed up, but many others still found individual plans to be prohibitively expensive even with the subsidy. So while Medicaid expansion was very successful in getting more Americans covered, the marketplace was less so — until the COVID pandemic created an opportunity.

President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan made the ACA subsidies larger for everyone and also removed a cap on the upper end of the income sliding scale. [And Arkansan participation ballooned from 64K to 166K.]

The enhanced ACA subsidies are set to expire at the end of 2025, though, and Republicans have shown no interest in extending them.

Strong in Him said:

If you were, you'd have some sense

Click to expand...

There;s nothing like blowing yer own trumpet.

Strong in Him said:

Evidence?

Click to expand...

Yer using one right now.

Larniavc said:

Thing is Enil wanted all the humans dead. Which would mean you were never born but Enki told Ziusudra (the inspiration for Noah) how to build a boat to save his family (just like Noah).

Doesn't sound very Satany......

Click to expand...

I won't argue with you on that point based on the Sumerian religious views. I still favor Enlil because he wanted to destroy the humans because they were too loud .

AV1611VET said:

If you're going to make the mistake of thinking 2.537 light years away means 2.537 years passed before it hit the earth, yes.

Click to expand...

I am not assuming this. It is the logical and inevitable consequence or carefully gathered empirical evidence.

Academia teaches that the farther away something is, the older it is.

Click to expand...

Nope. Something can be very nearby and yet older. If my grandma sits between me and my mother, it doesn't make my mom older than my granny. Not according to the birth certificates, not according to academia.

With God, age and distance mean nothing.

Click to expand...

Bur with empirical science, these things mean something.

How do you think God heard the sighs of the children of Israel in Egypt in real time?

Click to expand...

Did he? And is he selectively deaf?
Why didn't he hear the sighs of the Holocaust victims? Of the children on the Lolita flights? In Gaza? Not worth his attention? Does not every life matters?

timewerx said:

I seemed to have reversed in aging but I'm not sure it has anything to do with being single because I've been single all my life, never been in a relationship.

It happened when I hit forties. In my mid-thirties photos, AI estimates my age to be early thirties. Now in my mid forties, AI revised the estimate to mid twenties. Some people (strangers) ask me if I'm of voting age already.

I was thinking if it has to do with being single then I'd have constantly maintained the same age in appearance.

Click to expand...

I've been told of this. I don't think it has anything to do with singleness because I've met people with the same that aged in reverse and had a lot of failed relationships. So it could not be that. It may add to it, but it's not the only thing.

Such people, as they age, they actually get better.

Me personally, I spend a lot of time on preservation of the body and mind. It could be a directive from God, but that's what I do. No corruption, no poison, nothing beyond necessity.

Apple Sky said:

I'm not @Strong in Him .

Click to expand...

If you were, you'd have some sense - so, no, you're not.

Apple Sky said:

Their technology or invented stuff was done here on earth,

Click to expand...

Evidence?
Or should I say, "have you got any evidence that is not someone else's YouTube clip?"

Note, I'm not holding my breath.

ozso said:

Right, out of the dozens of people over the last 65 years who have been far enough up to see that the earth is a globe, maybe one will finally fess up that it's really flat.

Click to expand...

Billions actually. Anyone that has flown in a plane on a clear day can see the curvature of the earth.

prodromos said:

She's just after attention

Click to expand...

I'm not @Strong in Him .

RileyG said:

What do you mean by theology books? Theologically they’re Calvinist?

Click to expand...

The Doctrinal Stance on Scripture, the fallen state of man - salvation through Christ - the need for repentance - is the same.

My Baptist Brothers and Sisters differ in that they believe the Charisms (Gifts/Manifestations) of the Holy Spirit ended with Apostles - whereas Pentecostals believe they are valid and still available today through the Believer.

If you would like to see more of a scholarly approach, I would recommend two resources

"Bible Doctrines - a Pentecostal Perspective" - by Willam w Menzies.; Stanley Horton,

and

"The Foundations of Pentecostal Theology" by Guy R. Duffield & Nathaniel M. VanCleave

Both are found on Kindle, both well written and properly footnoted.

Skycastle777 said:

Hamas is vilely terroristic and evil, and needs to be exterminated from he earth. But a very serious problem is that most Palestinians SUPPORT Hamas and allow members to live in their midst.

Click to expand...

Most Palestinians do not support Hamas. According to polls taken in 2024 and 2025, support for Hamas ranges between 24–38%. As for Palestinians allowing Hamas to live in their midst; Palestinians in Gaza live in an environment where turning against Hamas could pose significant risks to their lives. They allow Hamas to operate in Gaza mostly because they are afraid that if they refuse, they will be its next victims. In the past, when people criticized Hamas or tried to organize rebellion against the group, they were often severely injured or even killed for doing so.

Hentenza said:

I gave you objective evidence a few pages back that you never responded to including eyewitness evidence. I’m disappointed that you can’t address things that go against what you think even after demanding that we provide proof. I think this is nothing but a game to you.

Click to expand...

She's just after attention

Strong in Him said:

How about 50 years of improved technology, greater inventions, further space missions which taught them new things each time - even when they went wrong?

Click to expand...

Their technology or invented stuff was done here on earth, come down to it.

Skycastle777 said:

Hamas is vilely terroristic and evil, and needs to be exterminated from he earth. But a very serious problem is that most Palestinians SUPPORT Hamas and allow members to live in their midst.

Click to expand...

Most Palestinians do not support Hamas. According to polls taken in 2024 and 2025, support for Hamas ranges between 24–38%. As for Palestinians allowing Hamas to live in their midst; Palestinians in Gaza live in an environment where turning against Hamas could pose significant risks to their lives. They allow Hamas to operate in Gaza mostly because they are afraid that if they refuse, they will be its next victims. In the past, when people criticized Hamas or tried to organize rebellion against the group, they were often severely injured or even killed for doing so.

Below is an article from a year ago.

In a survey published in May by the Arab World Research and Development group (AWRAD) in Ramallah, just 24% of the respondents in Gaza said they had "positive" feelings about Hamas. When asked about whether things in Palestine were heading in the right or wrong direction, 70% of Gazans said "wrong" and just 27% said "right."

In its poll, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) shows more support for Hamas. In July, 38% of Gazans said that they support Hamas. According to this poll, 24% favor the secular Fatah party, while 15% support third parties, and 24% said they don't know.

We’re lucky she’s a Christian extremist and not Muslim or undocumented or we’d never hear the end of this from the president.