The iPhone may have played a role in the falling birth rates in the United States by changing how young people socialize, form relationships and spend their time, new research suggests.

Researchers Caitlin Myers and Ezekiel Hooper of Middlebury College in Vermont analyzed the connection between the smartphone’s 2007 release and the overall decrease in fertility since then in a paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research has not yet been independently reviewed.

“The U.S. general fertility rate has fallen by 22% since 2007, a sustained decline not readily explained by economic conditions, contraceptive use, housing or childcare costs, or other commonly cited factors,” Myers and Hooper wrote. “We assess the potential role of a different shock: the diffusion of the smartphone.”

The first iPhone was rolled out in 2007, and the researchers noted that their study uses that timeframe as “a natural experiment,” drawing on data from 2007 through 2011, when iPhones were sold only on AT&T.

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The percentage of Americans who believe that sex outside of marriage and birth control are morally acceptable has declined, as a new survey shows the public embracing more conservative attitudes on hot-button social issues.

Gallup released the most recent installment of its annual Values and Beliefs Poll Tuesday, finding that attitudes on a range of moral issues have shifted in a more conservative direction compared with the previous year.

The survey, which is based on responses collected from 1,001 United States adults from May 1-17, found declines in the share of Americans who view many behaviors as morally acceptable, including sex between unmarried adults, gambling, pornography, euthanasia and gender transition. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Among the most notable changes was a sharp drop in support for having children outside of marriage.

While 67% of Americans said having children outside of wedlock was morally acceptable in the previous survey, that figure fell to 58% this year — one of the largest year-over-year shifts recorded in the poll.

Support for birth control also declined. Although a large majority of Americans continue to view contraception as morally acceptable, the percentage dropped from 90% to 83%, marking the lowest level recorded since Gallup began asking the question.

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Trump says ‘I love the inflation’ after consumer price index hits 3-year high​

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said, “I love the inflation” after being asked if he was concerned about new consumer price index data that showed the annual inflation rate at 4.2%, a three-year high.

Trump, speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, also predicted that inflation is “going to come down like a rock” after the United States’ war against Iran is over.

The Word does many things, conviction is one of them, which can often feel like a nail. But what is the purpose of a nail? To be hammered or to join & secure? It’s important to remember that the Word can do many things. It is used to heal, encourage, support, provide wisdom, guide, sanctify, strengthen, & even rebuke just to name a few. Not every message needs to feel like a spike through the heart. Also, fools despise wisdom & instruction, it would be unwise to believe that every word will provide conviction. Simply proclaiming the truth with the authority that God has given you is enough.

essentialsaltes said:

On the agenda that day: the future of nuclear energy in the Trump era. The meeting was convened by 31-year-old lawyer Seth Cohen. Just five years out of law school, Cohen brought no significant experience in nuclear law or policy; he had just entered government through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team.

As Cohen led the group through a technical conversation about licensing nuclear reactor designs, he repeatedly downplayed health and safety concerns. When staff brought up the topic of radiation exposure from nuclear test sites, Cohen broke in.

“They are testing in Utah. … I don’t know, like 70 people live there,” he said.

“But … there’s lots of babies,” one staffer pushed back. Babies, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups are thought to be potentially more susceptible to cancers brought on by low-level radiation exposure, and they are usually afforded greater protections.

“They’ve been downwind before,” another staffer joked.

“This is why we don’t use AI transcription in meetings,” another added.

ProPublica reviewed records of that meeting, providing a rare look at a dramatic shift underway in one of the most sensitive domains of public policy. The Trump administration is upending the way nuclear energy is regulated, driven by a desire to dramatically increase the amount of energy available to power artificial intelligence.

Career experts have been forced out and thousands of pages of regulations are being rewritten at a sprint. A new generation of nuclear energy companies — flush with Silicon Valley cash and boasting strong political connections — wield increasing influence over policy. Figures like Cohen are forcing a “move fast and break things” Silicon Valley ethos on one of the country’s most important regulators.

During that Idaho meeting, Cohen shot down any notion of NRC independence in the new era.

“Assume the NRC is going to do whatever we tell the NRC to do,” he said, records reviewed by ProPublica show. In November, Cohen was made chief counsel for nuclear policy at the Department of Energy, where he oversees a broad nuclear portfolio.

The administration is routing the new rules through an office overseen by Trump’s cost-cutting guru Russell Vought, a move that was previously unheard of for an independent regulator like the NRC. The White House spokesperson noted that, under a recent executive order, this process is now required for all agencies.

Political operatives have been “inserted into the senior leadership team to the point where they could significantly influence decision-making,” said Scott Morris, who worked at the NRC for more than 32 years, most recently as the No. 2 career operations official. “I just think that would be a dangerous proposition.”

Morris voted for Trump twice and broadly supports the goals of deregulating and expanding nuclear energy, but he has begun speaking out against the administration’s interference at the NRC. He retired in May 2025 as part of a wave of retirements and firings.

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lol, this whole administration is people fixing to be those garbage VP's who steamroll into a new company, break a bunch of things, and then leave with a golden parachute.

Just looking at the El Niño regions...

Valletta said:

We don't want to overlook the fact that it was the United States fought a war to end slavery, where roughly 700,000 people died. But we have much more to stop, over a million die by abortion each year in the United States.

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Yes, fought a war with itself with a lot of sore losers.

I see the analogy with abortion. There also some refuse to see the humanity and want to treat life in the womb as property rather than person.

In a recent New York Times guest essay, Catholic writer David Gibson praised Pope Leo for moving his church away from “pelvic theology.” For those unfamiliar with the term, it is a way of dismissing those concerned with all matters related to sex—from abortion to LGBTQ rights to traditional notions of chastity—as morbidly obsessed and (presumably) laboring under some psychological disorder. Given the attractiveness in our lazy soundbite world of any term that delegitimizes critics and thereby makes serious engagement with ideas unnecessary, the phrase will no doubt migrate into Protestant quarters too, if it has not done so already.

Despite Gibson’s assumptions and assertions to the contrary, there are obvious, perennial reasons why Christianity should focus on these “pelvic” issues. The Old Testament surrounds sexual activity both with taboos and with rituals of purification even for acts deemed legitimate. This carries into the New Testament. St. Paul argues that the man who sleeps with a prostitute has committed a particularly heinous sin—not only because he has sexually exploited a woman, but because he has sinned against his own body. The point is that the sexed nature of the human body is central to who we are as human beings. As for the post-apostolic world, the Didache, one of the earliest extant post-canonical writings, makes the rejection of abortion a central identity marker for the Christian community. This was key to the early church’s growth, as sociologist and historian Rodney Stark argued.

This all makes theological sense: The sexual act is biblically (and historically) both a key social bond (Gen. 2:24) and part of the mandate given to human beings (Gen. 1:28). Indeed, sexual intercourse, with its creative potential, is the human act that makes us most godlike. In short, attitudes to sex lie at the heart of what it means to be human. Of course, secular thinkers are free to reject this. A professing Catholic such as Gibson should pay more attention both to the teaching of his church and to the book his church considers to be divine revelation.
And, of course, underlying the notion of “pelvic theology” is the assumption that this sexual obsession is the fault of certain elements within the Church. Strange to tell, when I was a pastor, I had to spend a lot of time talking to young men about their internet pornography habits—but not because I was myself obsessed with such. It was because the culture was saturated with it. Some of them had become addicted to porn before the age of ten, long before I had even met them. I suspect the same applies to those now dealing with congregants wrestling with matters such as abortion, homosexuality, and the like. These are not the creations of the Church but rather the emphases of our age. I write this at the start of a month devoted to those who not only wish to indulge privately in the sexual deviations of their choice but who also demand that everybody else acknowledge the legitimacy of their acts through commercials, marches, and flags more ubiquitous in town centers than the Stars and Stripes. The Church hasn’t caused that; celebrating queerness is part of the liturgical calendar of this present age, not of the Church. The Church does have a God-given calling to respond to moral chaos, but the specific details of the moral chaos are determined by the evils of the age, not by pastors and presbyters.

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Asking for prayers today, I am not doing good this morning, same symptoms, going through, headaches, nausea, intestinal pain, and my mom (76) is doing poorly this morning also, in much pain, her L1,2,3,4,5 spinal fractures are causing her a lot of distress, and my dad (80) had to go to his part time job, and it is just us two sick people, in misery at the house. Please, asking for prayer.

Michie said:

Nobody said there was anything wrong with being single.

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Paul agreed.

Dan Perez said:

# 1 VERILY. //. AMEN. is in. HEBREW and is Indeclinable

# 2 VERILY. //. THE SAME AS # 1

# 3. I SAY // LEGO. in. the PRESENT TENSE. in. the ACTIVE VOICE in the INDICATIVE MOOD in the SIGNULAR

# 4. UNTO YOU. // HYMIN. is a PERSONAL POSESSIVE PRONOUN in. the DATIVE CASE , in the PLUIRAL

# 5. HE THAT //. HO. is a DEFINITE ARTICLE. in. then NOMINATIVE CASE in the SIGNULAR

# 6. BELIEVETH. //. PISEUO. in. the PRESENT TENSE. in then ACTIVE VOICE. an. a PARICIPLE CASE ,

# 7. ON //. EIS. is a PREPOSTION.

# 8. ME. // EME is. a P[ERSONAL POSSESSISEIVE PRONOUN. in. the ACCUISATIVE CASE in. the SINGULAR

# 9 HATH // ECHO in. the PRESENT TENSE in. the ACTIVE VOICE in. the INDICATIVE MOOD in. the SINGULAR

# 10 EVER LASTING // AIONIOS. in. the ACCUSATIVE CASE. in the SINGULAR

# 11. LIFE. // ZOE. is an. ACCUSATIVE C ASE in. the SINGULAR.


# A Does this mean you have everlasting life TODAY ??

#. B Or Rom 10:9 That if you should CONFESS. with the MOUTH. he Lord Jesus and should believe in. your. HEART

that God raised Him. from the DEAD. , YOU WILL BE SAVED !!

# C. And is 1 Cor 12:3 NO ONE CALLS JUSUS LORD EXCEPT BY HOLY SPIRIT , PERIOD as Saul // PAUL

DID in Acts 9:5. , PEREIOD. .

# D AND IS JOHN 11:25 speaking to JEWS , YES IT IS !!

dan p

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A person can choose to stop obeying God's commandments at any time during his lifetime. If he chooses to remain faithful—obedient—to God's commandments until he dies, he will then be approved to enter eternal life. Revelation 2:10

God's gift of "free will choice," which is given to each person, is his gift to us.
God does not want slaves who grudgingly obey him for fear of punishment; he wants adopted children who love him. They show their love for him by obeying his commandments, which are given to them for a righteous purpose—to save their souls; therefore, after they die, God will invite them to live with him forever. John 14:21, James 1:21

"Eternal Security" is an erroneous self-made doctrine, yet many people believe it, deceiving themselves. James 1:22

Jesus Christ teaches that to inherit eternal life, a person must obey his commandments until he dies, just as he obeyed his father's commandments until he died. Philippians 2:8, Romans 6:16

I'm glad Vance is taking a more circumspect view of life after having written a blurb for a book that labels liberals as "Unhumans".

If applying negative labels to groups spawns political violence, maybe Rep Roy ought to interview some of the myriad vitriolic groups on the right.

Or is it only bad with people on the left do it?

Ephesians 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her."

I ask God daily to empower and enable me through the unction of the Holy Spirit, to love my wife as I am commanded to do by God's word.

essentialsaltes said:

I haven't seen anyone here suggest it.

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Good to know.

I like what Professor John Lennox said in an interview with Peter Atkins a staunch atheist. Peter was explaining how math itself can explain the universe coming from nothing.

John says that math and the null set does not come tumbling out of nothing. It takes a mind to come up with the concept of math. It implies a mind behind the universe. Atkins was using a mind idea to explain how nothing can create something.

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In the mean time the Trump war is pushing the EU more and more toward renewable energy sources.
A € 25 billion project is being approved.

A rumor used to travel slowly. Someone would mention something after Mass, at work, or over dinner, and maybe it reached a few people by the end of the week if it was juicy enough. Now it takes one post. One clip. One caption written confidently enough to sound true. Suddenly, thousands of people are talking about someone they’ve never met as though they know every detail of their life.

Social media has done a lot of good, no doubt about that. It connects people instantly, gives ordinary voices a platform, and can expose genuine injustice faster than traditional media ever could. But in today’s deeply polarized online culture, people often accuse first and verify later — if they verify at all. Reputations rise or collapse through screenshots, rumors, half-context, and emotionally charged posts shared by strangers chasing outrage, attention, or approval from their side of the internet.

We don’t just share information anymore. We pass judgment — quickly, publicly, and often without the full picture.

And somewhere in all that noise, tearing people apart has started to feel disturbingly normal.

When Opinions Become Weapons​

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A North Carolina software engineer already secured an accommodation allowing her to avoid using AI at work based on her religious beliefs.

Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on AI could set off a wave of workers seeking religious exemptions from using the tech at work.

One software engineer in North Carolina already secured one last month, Business Insider reports.

Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist, first sought the accommodation in April at the large tech-entertainment company where she works, which she described as progressive. She argued that using AI did not align with her religious beliefs because of environmental and ethical concerns.

Maus was granted the exemption in May, before the pope’s AI remarks.

“I’m writing my code and reviewing my code by hand, which seems crazy to say,” Maus told Business Insider. “Just two years ago, how else would you do it?”

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A former leader with the Chicago Church of Christ in Illinois is now facing charges of wire fraud and filing false tax statements after federal prosecutors say he convinced several members of the church to invest approximately $2 million into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center that never existed.

Pastor Winston Batino, who served as an evangelist at the North Ministry Center of the multisite church, pleaded not guilty to the charges in a court appearance on Monday and was released on bail, according to Fox 32.

If convicted, Batino could spend up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge alone. Court documents cited by the news outlet say the former Chicago Church of Christ leader collected the $2 million from about 40 church members.

Similar charges are leveled against Batino in another civil lawsuit from a plaintiff who said he wired $144,000 to the former church leader to invest in the project.

Chicago Church of Christ did not immediately respond to questions from The Christian Post on Tuesday.

In a statement to Fox 32, the church said they commissioned an independent internal investigation into the claims against Batino after he was fired, and they were corroborated.

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In related VA housing news...

VA promise of 800 new homes on West L.A. campus this year shrinks to 260​

Five months after promising up to 800 units of new temporary housing on its West Los Angeles campus by this fall, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is calling for bids to build fewer than a third of that number with a delivery date seven months later.

The project is the first concrete step in President Trump’s May 2025 executive order to create a National Center for Warrior Independence in West Los Angeles, but still leaves in doubt how accommodations for 6,000 veterans can be completed by Jan. 1, 2028, as required by the order.

AV1611VET said:

But that's the point though.

Life on earth couldn't have come about as cosmic evolution says it did, since the sun is a key ingredient in shaping the earth's biosphere.

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If you studied a bit you could learn and not have to post stuff like this.

Education and knowledge is a strength and not to be feared.

A bill that critics warn would eliminate key religious protections from criminal bans on acts of “hatred” has passed the Canadian House of Commons, prompting concerns from religious freedom advocates.

Canada’s House of Commons passed the measure, called the “Combatting Hate Act,” Wednesday. The House of Commons approved the legislation in a 186-137 vote that fell along party lines. All opposition to the bill came from the Conservative, New Democratic and Green parties, while all support for the legislation came from the Liberal and Bloc Québécois parties.

The “Combatting Hate Act,” also known as Bill C-09, declares that “Everyone who commits an offence — referred to in this section as the ‘included offence’ — under this Act or any other Act of Parliament, if the commission of the included offence is motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression” is either “guilty of an indictable offence” or “guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.”