Baltimore was being hyped earlier this year for supposedly rapid decline in crime rates. Unfortunately, it appears this was not reality:

The Barbarian said:

There are also left wing bigots. For every Trump or Cotton, there is an Ilhan Omar or a ... well, I can't think of another at that level, but I would be very surprised if there wasn't one. Evil is not soley on the right wing.


I'm trying to think who says that slavery should be criticized at the expense of truth. Who, exactly? Trump is furious that the Smithsonian is saying that slavery is bad. We get that. And there are some things the Smithsonian could do to balance it. For example, Washington was a supporter of slavery, but the Smithsonian could have said that he freed all slaves he personally owned at his death. Oh, wait, they did.

On the other hand, they could have said that Lincoln strongly opposed slavery, but said that he did not think whites and blacks could live together as equals. Oh, wait...

What we shouldn't do, is deify our great leaders; they were men, subject to faults, and we shouldn't try to hide those faults.


That estimate has been updated to reflect new data.

If we apply the 13% excess mortality rate to the remaining three Confederate states not in our analyses and include excess mortality from the Border States# and foreign-born fighters who fought for the Confederacy then the total estimate of deaths in the Confederacy would approach 300,000. Doing the same for the Union states would bring the death tally there to more than 400,000. Combined, these totals match the national tally of 698,000 deaths reported earlier.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2414919121

But as you see, many of those dead in the Civil War were fighting to keep black people enslaved. Interestingly, not all of them were white. There were some Native American soldiers, and while blacks were not allowed to serve as combat troops in the Confederate army, some did serve as support troops.


About 75% as high, according to best estimates.

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I don’t know why acknowledging the good things that occurred in that whole mess is so hard for some people. You could consider the alternative, that NOBODY stepped up to free them, that everyone who did give their lives to free people they didn’t know just said ‘let them secede and deal with their own problems themselves’. To suggest that there is never good happening is just a miserable way to live.

BelieveItOarKnot said:

The enemy was in Paul's own mind and body. Romans 7, 2 Cor. 12:7, Gal. 4:14

Yet we know he was in Truth because he exposed it openly. Slaves of sin can't do thàt because the liar and deceiver is still in control

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AND what do you say about other believers and you. are not !!

dan p

Oompa Loompa said:

Once again, the liberal left accomplished nothing. Despite their best attempts, the wife beating gangster is out of the country.

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They got him to be returned from El Salvador which was such an embarrassment to this administration that they’re now trying to disappear him before he can be proven innocent in court.

Ham-fisted Ham

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:

I'm noticing that. The sad thing is the president is worse, that the people, that he sending to horrible conditions.

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I’m fully aware, unfortunately.

Hans Blaster said:

Who are any of those people?

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My good sir. Elrond was there the day the strength of men failed.

ralliann said:

So too the Cartels. Groups involved terrorism are not confined to 9/11. How sad this is...

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But the authorization of military force is confined to 9/11. This use of military force may have been extrajudicial.

The stats for Seattle I gave are corroborated by an AI overview which takes the same stat from different sources.



AI Overview



+10

Seattle's total crime rate in a recent 2024 study was 5,782.7 per 100,000 residents, placing it fourth among the 30 largest U.S. cities, with a total crime number 172.9% higher than the national average. Property crime is higher than the national average, though violent crime rates were lower in the first half of 2025 and declined significantly in 2024 from previous years.

Specifics of Seattle's Crime Rate

• • Total Crime Rate (2024): 5,782.7 per 100,000 residents.
  • Violent Crime (2024): 775.1 per 100,000 residents.
  • Property Crime: Significantly higher than many smaller cities, though recent data shows a 17% decrease in 2024

Hentenza said:

Giving an apology never hurt anyone.

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It might very well hurt someone if it makes the wrong person appear to be responsible for the harm done.

thisguy777 said:

I am not questioning what she wants or doesn't want. the question is to what extent does the Christian female population like. I think its higher than what she thinks. because they don't want to look "sinful"

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Okay, well, wild guess time.

I expect that many Christian women enjoy sex, including foreplay.

I expect that many women who were raised in a conservative Christian home or church have been messed up by the wildly mixed messages we heard growing up, and have a lot to unlearn before we can relax and enjoy.

Don't slap her on the bum unless you've confirmed beforehand that she's into BDSM.

I'm still uncomfortable with the wording of the multiple-choice answers. For the last option, instead of "my body is fair game for him", how about something like "we enjoy each other's bodies when we're together". Something that indicates that she's an active participant too, that sex isn't just something that's done to her.

ozso said:

So what are the official seven out ten cities people are talking about in regard to Trump deploying the national guard?

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You’d have to ask them.

ralliann said:

I wonder. Should they have taken the ship is People, including Children were being trafficked? Or would they say ah, they are being taken to Venezuela.

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I don't know what that means.

The Liturgist said:

Are the laity in your parish opposed to holy water fonts? Because I have seen those in Lutheran churches. I would note the Orthodox usually don’t use fonts except for baptism, rather, laity receiving Holy Water receive it in a container and it is treated as a holy thing. This also avoids sanitary issues, since unlike the Eucharist, Holy Water can be contaminated.

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A former Pastor wanted to move the baptismal font to the rear of the Church, so parishoners could, if they chose to, remember their baptism with it. We got no traction on that whatsoever. Such was deemed too "catlick". LOL However, since that time, we have seen an ever increasing number of members, old and new alike, making the sign of the cross.

So much negative influence in North America from reformed evangelical and pietist Christians as well as Masonic and Orange lodges. German Lutherans and Catholics were in a minority in this part of Upper Canada, being a British Colony. Only in about the last 50 years have we began to see a return to the fulness of our Liturgical heritage.

So much easier in Europe, our Sister Church in Latvia and their new Archbishop:



Baby-steps as they say; someday.

Hans Blaster said:

I'm not claiming that you are sneaking it it. Rather it seems that you just quote it credulously. The problem may just be that you don't recognize the psuedohistory for what it is. I don't know.

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Probably, belief is a hard concept to express and in some ways its all it comes down to. But its the same for skeptics who 'believe' not as fact that there is only rational, scientific evidence for all this. I have gone through the metaphysics and epitemics.

Maybe its more my poor articulation. But either way in the end I am not promoting conspiracy and have clarified this.

Hans Blaster said:

Oh well.

It grows less fun with time.

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Yes it seems to lose steam and decend into opinions. Thats why the specific examples are possibly the only way to establish that there is some advanced knowledge in our past. Or maybe the overall view that our history shows a period of great works that seems to be early and a contradiction to the primitive to modern idea.

Hans Blaster said:

I really don't think it has anything to do with philosophy, metaphysics or epistemics, or any "worldview" thing. Certainly not a naturalist versus non-naturalist view.

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Why not. I have found that for the most part those who see alternative histories are those who support the naturalistic and material worldview of no God or gods or anything transcendent that invites something beyond as a factor to that in the orthodox material science.

When it comes to the final evidence unless it has to be empiricle and due to naturalistic causes which include the orthodox methods because they reflect the naturalistic processes. Which are used to defeat any alternative view as pseudoscience or conspiracy.

Which as seen as unreal and not reflecting the naturalistic processes. Its called Woo for the reason it is not grounded in material science. Whereas I think a Theist or someone open to transcedent ideas (not necessarily religious) will be more open to such alternative ideas.

Seems to speak of metaphysics and philosophy to me. The persons worldview on what they consider valid evidence is setting the epistemic criteria before the evidence is assessed.

Hans Blaster said:

I'm not sure I'm going to respond to much of what remains of this post. I am, however, going to go back to the first page and reply to a few bits you wrote in the earliest posts (particularly before I responded the first time) to try to show you what concerned me at the time and still, but do so more carefully.

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Ok.

Another painting that looks 3D

rambot said:

Help me understand why all nations should abide by international rules except the United States.


I'm just having trouble grasping that level of American Exceptionality. How come other countries with drug problems are obliged to abide by those agreements but the US is not.

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Because Merica! That's why. Just try to stop us. The world won't because they cant.

Valletta said:

DEVELOPING: MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be Deported to African Country of Eswatini | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila

MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been informed that he will be deported to the African country of Eswatini.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

The U.S. has been quite accommodating to Mr. Garcia and I am so happy this matter has been settled. While I have been to Africa I have never been to Eswanti, they have a nice temperate climate there.

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Once again, the liberal left accomplished nothing. Despite their best attempts, the wife beating gangster is out of the country.

Trump is angry at the Smithsonian for making slavery look bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/us/politics/trump-smithsonian-slavery.html

Amo2 said:

Oh yea, the NY Times is where we can all get the unbiased truth.

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They quoted Trump. C'mon.
Don't see any of those. Must be like those cancer-causing windmills, um? But if I'm wrong, link to the evidence of people saying all Americans support slavery. What do you have?
(links presented, none of which say that all Americans support slavery)
So nothing?

Our fathers were not only Christains; they were, even in Maryland by a vast majority, elsehwere almost unanimously, Protestants. Now the Protestant reformation, considered in its largest influence on politics, was the awakening of the common people to freedom of mind.

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The Founders were mostly Christians, with some deists, Jewish believers, and some "free-thinkers." None of them wanted a system based on Christian, much less Protestant belief. I put more confidence in what the founders actually said, than what some later-day revisionist says they meant.

Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution....Because it will destroy that moderation and harmony which the forbearance of our laws to intermeddle with Religion has produced among its several sects. Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease. The American Theatre has exhibited proofs that equal and compleat liberty, if it does not wholly eradicate it, sufficiently destroys its malignant influence on the health and prosperity of the State.9 If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly...
James Madison, Against Religious Assessments

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.
Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography

RocksInMyHead said:

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove by this whataboutism exercise. If he explicitly ordered the SEALs to kill him rather than capture him, then yes that could be considered murder. Pretty sure that's not what their orders were though.

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Nope. I think his order were ro take him dead or alive. Which is extremely endorsed.