essentialsaltes said:

Big League Brother is Watching.

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This guy's office in particular. Get Back To Work!

Douggg said:

Paul does put them in their correct sequence.

First, 1Thessalonians4:16-17 is about the resurrection/rapture.

Then, 1Thessalonians5:1-3 is about the beginning of the day of the Lord.

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Firstly - save us from your charts! You promote a resurrection/rapture, something never Prophesied in the Bible. Errors upon mistakes.

1 Thess 4:16-17 is quite plainly about the Return of Jesus, not unexpected and seen by all.
1 Thess 5:1-3, Paul refers to things before that glorious day and says how the Day of the Lords wrath, when He destroys the attackers of Israel, will come suddenly and unexpectedly. As Zephaniah 1:14-18, +, vividly describes.
Obviously, the world changing Day of the Lords fiery wrath is before Jesus Returns. As Revelation 6:12-17 & 14:17-20 tell us.

durangodawood said:

I want to know how a Muslim family justifies owning a winery.

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You can get a ham and swiss on challah bread at Canter's Deli.

Michie said:

Basically, I don’t disagree. But the political tribalism is a huge problem on both sides as well as the hypocrisy… both sides.

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[Aside: I’ve always heard the phrase “here, here!’ as “hear here!” either way, this gets one!]
Here, here!

Michie said:

Politics has morphed in to a cult where all are too blind to see. Also, finding identity in ideologies is not only a bad idea but a miserable way to live one’s life. Not good company and little else is discussed as if it’s the only option. It is a sad and sorry situation all the way around. What happened to (We the people)?

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Part of this is that we tire at the constant back-and-forth of political rhetoric and strongly desire a “one-way-or-the-other” climax…but politics isn’t so much about “winning” as it is about lurching on, one-day-at-a-time in that “two steps forward, one step back” which we’ve always have had!

Michie said:

We should unite and change the status quo instead of attacking our fellow Americans. We are the ones that are supposed to guide things to inspire those in office. We’ve gotten lazy in that aspect.

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We have been lured away from “love thy neighbor” by “my neighbor is the enemy!”
We don’t even agree on what “the problems” are anymore; the “solutions” then leave many without a voice since their concerns aren’t addressed.

Michie said:

Instead we attack the (others) we see in power and each other. It’s become an American past time so much that even those outside the USA are following suit. It’s time to stop the armchair quarterbacking just because it’s become some sort of sick hobby while doing nothing ourselves. We play right into the hands that hold their higher office. We expect them to fix it while most do nothing but hold down the partisan lines and do nothing but complain and wait for these people to perform a miracle as if we are watching the tail end of a team trying to win the super bowl in the last few minutes of a game. All they do is just drop the seeds and watch them sprout amongst the populace while they play politics as usual.

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Politics is hard. It has always been so.
Some have be seduced into thinking that a strong leader can make politics simple & easy.
This is never so…or to be more precise, this is never so and just.

We will be okay, just keep talking.

sfs said:

Is there a primary source that demonstrates this? I can't find any evidence that he rejected Darwin.

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Maxwell pretty much said the same things Darwin said:

"In the case of living beings, however, the generation of individuals is always going on, each individual differing more or less from its parent. Each individual during its whole life is undergoing modification, and it either survives and propagates its species, or dies early, accordingly as it is more or less adapted to the circumstances of its environment. Hence, it has been found possible to frame a theory of the distribution of organisms into species by means of generation, variation, and discriminative destruction."
James Clerk Maxwell

Apparently, the story that Maxwell opposed Darwin was started a long time ago in a YEC textbook, and YECs have just been copying the story for decades.

ronlion said:

Interesting post Sir Joseph. Some have implied these renowned Christian scientists were dead before Darwin published his theory of evolution in 1859 . Four of them were in fact alive. Einstein's hero, the evangelical physicist James Maxwell, rejected Darwin's evolution theory. William Thompson, also known as Lord Kelvin, vehemently opposed evolution. I don't know what Ernest Walton's view was. But Sir Ambrose Fleming,( student of Maxwell) co-founded the Evolution Protest Movement, so it seems evolution wasn't his cup of tea.

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There was one major problem with Darwin's theory. He couldn't explain how a new trait would spread in the population. If (as people then assumed) blood carried inheritance, a new trait in a population would be erased like a drop of red paint in a barrel of white. Then Mendel's work was rediscovered, and it turned out to be more like sorting beads than like mixing paint. And in a very short time after Morgan's discoveries, practically all scientists accepted evolution.

Darwin was once again shown to be right. BTW, Maxwell did not oppose Darwin's theory.

ronlion said:

(Both believed in the eternal truth that Jesus is God.)

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Darwin wrote that God created the first living things. At the time he wrote his book, he was an orthodox Anglican Christian.

And Kelvin was not merely wrong about biology; he was also shown to be wrong in his own discipline, physics.

Is is destructive to God's intentions for us and to His Church to argue that one cannot believe in God and still accept science. Please don't do that.

Sabertooth said:

Where did you see raw data in that report (to come to that conclusion)?

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I thought you were the one asserting that the conclusions were based on data from California DDS.

The data from DDS shown in the report show that autism has increased over time. Everybody knows this.
But the Department of Disability Services is a government service organization,

"DDS is responsible for overseeing the coordination and delivery of services and supports to more than 400,000 Californians with developmental disabilities including cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, autism, epilepsy and related conditions. The state’s service system is designed to meet the needs and choices of individuals at each stage of their lives, and, to the extent possible, serve them in their home communities, providing choices that are reflective of lifestyle, cultural and linguistic backgrounds."

It is not a research organization devoted to determining the cause of autism, or any other disability. That's just not what they do. So the conclusions about the causes of autism did not come from them.

NxNW said:

When can we expect action from the GOP to prevent school shootings?

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Moments before the DNC does something to prevent them

essentialsaltes said:

Saying he doesn't want nationalized federal troops in his city is not the same as saying he doesn't need help.

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Thanks for your opinion

I want to know how a Muslim family justifies owning a winery.

o_mlly said:

Common descent is not the issue that violates this principle: only devolution is possible, a loss of functionality.

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Well, that's a testable belief. First off, there is no "devolution." There is only change in allele frequencies in a population over time. Evolution. Second, there are many cases of new functions evolving. Would you like to learn about some of them?

And third, loss of function may actually enhance the likelihood of an organism surviving. Would you like some examples of that?

Valletta said:

I want to know how the assets of a winery jumped to an Omar value of between $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 in her last disclosure. In her previous disclosure she estimated the worth of the assets between $15,000 and $50,000. How in the world did they make so much money when wineries are having a difficult time because of the drop in demand?

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It's a relatively new business. It would make sense that its valuation would grow as it got established. If they're actually moving product, then inventory alone could make up a big chunk of that valuation.

If you look at the income column on the financial disclosures, you'll see that she reported none for two years, less than $1000 the next year, and somewhere between $5k-15k on the most recent one with the high valuation. So she's hardly raking in cash.

Valletta said:

I want to know how the assets of a winery jumped to an Omar value of between $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 in her last disclosure. In her previous disclosure she estimated the worth of the assets between $15,000 and $50,000. How in the world did they make so much money when wineries are having a difficult time because of the drop in demand?

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We can always fall back on blaming covid for Omar's fortune.

o_mlly said:

It is commonly believed that if a pathway of functional continuity can be envisioned, a plausible evolutionary pathway has been proposed. For example, the evolution of the eye is often explained by a pathway of gradually increasing curvature of the retina, with each step resulting in slightly increasing visual acuity.

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No, you're way too far in. It starts well before that.
First off, all organisms are somewhat sensitive to light.

1.If you close your eyes and walk out of the shade into bright summer sunlight, your skin will detect the light.

2, If there's a dark p spot on skin, the skin will be more sensitive to the light.

3. If the spot is in a slightly recessed pit, It will be more sensitive to the direction of the light.

4. If the pit has a smaller opening, it will produce a rough image. (Think pinhole camera)

5. If the pit has clear covering, it will enhance the image.

6. If the covering is slightly thicker at the center than at the edges, the image will be even better.

7. If some of the pigment is slightly different, then the structure will be able to distinguish wavelengths of light. (color)

A very plausible evolutionary pathway. But it's more than plausible. That pathway is still demonstrated by different organisms. All of them still live in the phylum mollusca.

o_mlly said:

However, the probability of those 1829 mutations appearing in a given population of fish over a specified number of generations is not calculated.

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See above. The probability is 1.0. We still see the stages in living organisms.

o_mlly said:

Although the numbers used in this calculation, may be disputed, it is apparent that the probability of such a pattern of mutations appearing in a finite population over a limited number of generations can be rounded off to zero. Think about achieving 60% heads with 10,000 coin tosses. With mathematical certainty, random mutations will not deviate from predictable random outcomes to preferentially effect specific genes.

Probability mass (f): 1.43 × 10−1423.
Lower cumulative distribution (P): 1.
Upper cumulative distribution (Q): 1.53 × 10−142
Although the numbers used in this calculation, may be disputed, it is apparent that the probability of such a pattern of mutations appearing in a finite population over a limited number of generations can be rounded off to zero.

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Well, let's look at your assumption for a moment. Take a deck of cards, shuffling it well. Deal out the cards one at a time, noting the order. The likelihood of that order is 1/52! or about...
1/8X10^65, which is so unlikely we can round it off to zero.
And it happens every time. So your argument just "proved" that poker games are impossible.

But there's an even bigger error. You see, Darwin's great discovery was that evolution isn't random. So you need to go back and work on that in your simulation. Let us know what you find. If you're not sure, I can show you a simple way to put natural selection into the process. Fact is, engineers have been simulation Darwinian evolution for some time; these "genetic algorithms" turn out to be more efficient at solving complex engineering problems than design would be. Reality itself disposes of calculations such as the above. God, as usual, knows best.

NxNW said:

When can we expect action from the GOP to prevent school shootings?

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When Trump shows up with the national guard because the DNC has done nothing but contribute to the mental health crisis by confusing children and allowing the government and social media to raise them.

Belk said:

View attachment 369472

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Well...if the left was right, they wouldn't be left.

Pommer said:

[Thing happens]
[Report by right-wing media suggests ANTIFA is behind it all]
[We learn about this via the OP]

Some of us are skeptical about ANTIFA’s involvement, which you’ve taken to mean they we have some sort of theory that we’re working with to dissuade the readers from the OP’s premise.

We’re (all) allowed to be ignorant of the basis for the [thing that happened].
We’re allowed to speculate about what [happened] but without further reporting, we’re not to get anywhere nearer “the truth” whilst we bugtussel and bloviate.

Please enjoy your day.

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Well just tell me why you're skeptical, without just saying "muh right wing!".

RocksInMyHead said:

There's nothing in the data that the report presents to support this statement,...

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Where did you see raw data in that report (to come to that conclusion)?

Valletta said:

How in the world did they make so much money

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Well, they didn't actually make so much money. The income attached to the winery is pretty small.

What led to the re-evaluation of the value of the asset? With crack rightwing pundits on the trail, maybe we'll find out.

Pennsylvania nuns who stood up to claims of election fraud win national award​

Maloney found himself being called out by the nuns, who didn’t appreciate being accused of fraud.

“We do live at Mount Saint Benedict Monastery and a simple web search would alert him to our active presence in a number of ministries in Erie,” Sister Stephanie Schmidt, of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, said in a statement, calling Maloney’s post “blatantly false.”

Now, the sisters are being honored with an award from the National Association of Secretaries of State for their efforts to push back against misinformation.

What lessons do you hope others will take away from your experience?​

To stand up for truth. Not to back down … if you fall victim to this. But the other thing is, read with conscious discernment. Everybody needs to look at something and read something and then do the necessary background work to know whether or not something should be believed. Because it seems to me that as soon as something is out on social media, it’s taken for fact or for truth, and things are very rarely just that black and white. There’s always room for questions, for more information.

9 Ex-CDC Chiefs Sound Alarm on RFK Jr.’s Leadership in Scathing NY Times Op-Ed: ‘Endangering Every American’s Health’​

Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spanning administrations from President Jimmy Carter to President Donald Trump, joined forces to warn Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “endangering every American’s health” in a scathing takedown of his actions.

In a joint New York Times op-ed, the former officials wrote that Kennedy’s actions are “unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced.”

Their alarm follows the abrupt firing of CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez.

“When Secretary Kennedy administered the oath of office to Dr. Monarez on July 31, he called her ‘a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials,’” the officials wrote. “But when she refused weeks later to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demand to fire senior C.D.C. staff members, he decided she was expendable.”

“None of us would have agreed to the secretary’s demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities,” they added.

Chesterton said:

You guys have suggested some kind of conspiracy theory. Why is like pulling teeth to get you to say what the theory is?

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[Thing happens]
[Report by right-wing media suggests ANTIFA is behind it all]
[We learn about this via the OP]

Some of us are skeptical about ANTIFA’s involvement, which you’ve taken to mean they we have some sort of theory that we’re working with to dissuade the readers from the OP’s premise.

We’re (all) allowed to be ignorant of the basis for the [thing that happened].
We’re allowed to speculate about what [happened] but without further reporting, we’re not to get anywhere nearer “the truth” whilst we bugtussel and bloviate.

Please enjoy your day.

essentialsaltes said:

The ‘self-inflicted injury’ to US tourism that’s making some Americans angry and disappointed​

Joe Koenen has not seen a single Toronto Blue Jays baseball hat all summer.

Typically, Canadians will flood the streets of Seattle during the summer, but Koenen, who runs Seattle Free Walking Tours (where people pay what they can), said Canadian tourists are almost gone. Streets look emptier to him.

Canadians calling to cancel their tours “explicitly told me that it was because of the policies and the behavior of our current president,” he said.

As a result of seeing 30% fewer customers this year overall, Koenen has been paying his employees but not himself.

Another Seattle tour operator, John Brink, said “usually you kill it that weekend,” referring to the annual May series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners. But the foot traffic wasn’t there this year. The Blue Jays are Canada’s only Major League Baseball team, so while the team is based in Toronto, many fans from Western Canada passionately sport their Blue Jays gear when they come to Seattle each summer.

After a promising estimate in December by analytics company Tourism Economics that the US would see about 9% growth in overall international visitation in 2025, the company’s updated outlook now estimates an 8.2% decline, led by about one quarter fewer Canadians visiting the US from January to July, compared to the same period in 2024.

The World Travel and Tourism Council, a global tourism advocacy organization, projected in May that the United States will lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025, the only country out of 184 economies the council analyzed that will see a decline this year.

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So much winning, we should start pacing ourselves before we get overwhelmed.