University of Tennessee: University's interests outweigh First Amendment rights of assistant professor who derided Charlie Kirk​

KNOXVILLE, Tenn — An assistant professor's social media post deriding conservative Charlie Kirk undermined the University of Tennessee's "mission" and put campus safety at risk, UTK lawyers contend in a court response to her federal lawsuit.

Shirinian, an assistant professor in cultural anthropology, is asking the federal court in Knoxville for emergency intervention so she can come back to work. UTK opposes that as indicated in its filing this week.

She's on leave with pay [as the school moves to terminate her]

wing2000 said:

...and restricts entry from other countries.

The ban, which goes into effect on Monday, bars travel to the United States by citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

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Haiti qualified for the World Cup. But the Trump administration says its fans aren’t welcome.​

The Caribbean nation joins Iran as World Cup competitors covered by travel ban.

Haiti, which this week qualified to compete in the men’s World Cup for the first time since 1974, is covered by a travel ban President Donald Trump signed in June. The presidential proclamation restricts people from 19 countries from entering the United States, while including exemptions for players and their families, coaches and support personnel to participate in major sporting events. But the State Department confirmed to POLITICO on Friday that this exception will not apply to Haitian fans or spectators hoping to attend.

‘We want to trust what we’ve heard’: Farmers remain unsettled on trade, even after China’s biggest U.S. soybean purchase in two years​

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the sale of 792,000 metric tons of soybeans to China. The move follows a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the end of last month to ease trade tensions, with China committing to resume orders of U.S. soybeans and purchase 12 million tons of of the crop by the end of the year, as well as at least 25 million tons in each of the next three years.

Earlier this month, China bought 332,000 tons of U.S. soybeans, bringing the total so far in November to more than 1 million tons.

So as long as China buys 11 million tons in December, we'll be just fine!

“We are concerned about the volatility in the trade relationships,” Main continued. “It’s hard for people to make plans—whether that’s farmers planning for next year’s crop, or buyers that are planning to make big investments in equipment or facilities or what have you—where there’s lots of instability.”

In 2024, soybeans made up about 20% of U.S. “cash crop receipts,” worth about $46.8 billion, according to USDA data. While about a quarter of those soybeans went to China, retaliatory tariffs as a result of trade disputes with Beijing hobbled the U.S. soybean industry while South American countries gobbled up market share. Brazil and Argentina are replacing U.S. farmers, with Brazil making up about 71% of China’s soybean imports, according to the American Soybean Association. Three decades ago, Brazil accounted for just 2% of those imports.

StoneX chief commodities economist Arlan Suderman said in a note earlier this month that ... China’s soybean processors have “zero financial incentive” to buy more U.S. supply because of the more affordable options from South America.

RDKirk said:

But, you know, that's never been the general circumstance in the US.

Parents in the US, in general, have never been able to help their children or provide a "positive and productive environment" for learning. That's a fairy tale, gaslighting that the education industry has spun for decades...it's never been the general case in the US. Parents have been poor, parents have had to work, parents have always been strung out in the US. The best they did was to send their children to school and insist that their kids do what their teachers told them.

It is true that since about the 80s there has been a disconnect between parents and the education system. For sure, to "insist that their kids do what their teachers told them" has been a ball that parents have dropped.

As a black man who made the transition in the 60s from segregated Southern schools with deeply caring black faculties to integrated schools with sometimes uncaring (sometimes malicious) white faculties, I can see that as a factor. But the phenomenon wasn't happening only as a result of integration. Something larger was happening across the board so that today there is very little trust between parents and teachers regardless of race.

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My memory as I was growing up in the sixties and seventies is one we’re my parents and the parents of my friends were quite involved in our educations but I grew up middle class so not indicative of how it was for the poor. As a parent I spent time with my kids helping them with their homework and reading to them every night. This in turn showed my kids the importance to be part of their kids education and they are involved just as we were. Consequently I started reading at around 4 years old, my kids started reading at about the same age, and so have my grandchildren.

My neighbor, whom I’ve known for about 20 years, taught 6th grade math in public school for 30 years. His school was in a mixed income area ranging from poor to high middle class. His major complain was that those of lower income would not prioritize their children’s education and complain the loudest that the teachers were not doing their jobs. Also their behavior would be much worse because of the lack of attention. It’s sad really.

These are just my observations and are in no way representative. I did find an interesting reading how children’s reading literacy has changed in the last 50 years and there has been advances but no where near enough. In my opinion, if the schools would spend time educating the parents on the importance of being part of their children’s education the outcomes might be better.

RDKirk said:

No, we don't always know what what is contrary to the laws of the United States, and certainly not the Constitution.

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Ignorance of the law is not an excuse in our courts. I agree that it is different with the Constitution and said that.

RDKirk said:

That's why these situations end up in court. And especially when they go to the Supreme Court.

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Most cases that end up in court are people that knowingly broke a the law. SCOTUS is a bit different. A lot of that is people testing the Constitutionality of laws.

RDKirk said:

The president and his lawyers make their own decision of what is legal and Constitutional (or how to make it sound so in the necessary legalese) and give orders to the military. The Constitution gives the president that power, contradictable only by the Courts.

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Sadly, Congress has given the President more authority than the Constitution gave him. The Constitution gives the President more authority in "emergencies" and Trump is testing just how far SCOTUS will let him go.

Sadly, we are having many career officers deciding to retire instead of obeying, what they believe, are illegal orders.

RDKirk said:

If Congress has passed explicit legislation on military matters, the Supreme Court will rule whether the president has stayed within the boundaries of an explicit law, but the Supreme Court largely stays out disputes with the Executive Branch on the basic Constitutionality of military actions. Not just with Trump...the Supreme Court has always been skittish about making rulings on the Constitutionality of Executive Branch military actions. They've even said as much in the past, essentially: "That area is not in our wheelhouse."

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Agreed

RDKirk said:

The White House has construed a legal justification for those attacks.

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Yes, but there are no laws which allow the killing of individuals without trying to ascertain intentions.

Even in wartime Iraq, troops tried to stop speeding vehicles, that could be suicide bombers, because they may be civilians. These speed boats, may or may not be drug runners, but blowing them up without attempting to stop them by other, is illegal. If not, please give me a law which allows it.

After WWII, war crime trials executed guards and soldiers which were following orders.

RDKirk said:

Congress, as a body, has not objected to Trump's justifications.

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Sadly.

RDKirk said:

Nothing in our laws prohibits it, given the presidential justifications. As I just said, Congress has not objected and the Supreme Court will either back away from a decision (which they normally do) or agree with Trump's lawyers.

That's how we invaded Panama.

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Sadly

Brother Del said:

I think it would be very helpful if we defined our terms before beginning these threads and entering into debate.
By Israel, is one speaking of the tiny nation in the middle east?
The blood descendants of Jacob?
The Israel of God?
By Jew, do we mean those who are from the tribe of Judah?
Those who practice the Jewish faith?
And which one, Talmudic, Orthodox?
Can someone be a Jew who is also an atheist, how so?
If someone is an ethnic Jew, are they Sephardic, Ethiopian, Khazharian?
Are Khazarians even ethnically Jews?

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Were the ten northern tribes Jewish? In what way.
Are they really lost?
Are all Israel Jews.

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The ten northern tribes were not lost in the exile, for they are found in the rest of the Bible:

1) prophecies relating to the return from exile:
Jer 3:18, 31:27, 31 (where "Israel" is the northern kingdom of the ten tribes)
Eze 37:15-22 (where Ephraim is the northern kingdom of ten tribes, Isa 7:17);

2) return from exile (Exra 6:17);

3) NT (Ac 2:5, 26:7, Jas 1:1).

ChubbyCherub said:

Scary times

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Yes but one step closer to being reconciled to God. He will forever destroy sin/sinners and make everything back to His original plan.

Spiritual Jew said:

You are trying to say that works are necessary for salvation and that contradicts many scriptures.

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No, that is not what @Guojing was saying. He was saying that works "validate" the faith of a Christian's salvation in Christ. Salvation is by God's Love, Grace and Mercy, and not something we earn by our works.

It is by faith we are saved and not of works.

Ephesians2:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

d taylor said:

-

​

Well if a person is going into this with the mindset of street preaching then they will encounter problems. Because who wants to be preached at!

But if a believer goes out into the world and asking people if they would like God's free gift of Eternal Life. They may find many open ears. So the key then is when an open ear is found, the person must correctly tell people how to receive God's free gift of Eternal Life. Which is only received by belief in Jesus for Eternal Life

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Yes this is true, its about something that rings true or sparks their interest. The early church called the Gentiles God fearers as they did not necessarily believe in God but were open and interested enough to see there was something different and attractive to this new gospel that was spreading.

The church was speaking about salvation, finding peace like no other, true life. A new Kingdom of peace. This is what got their attention. But it was also because they seen it actually happening among the Christian community. Helping the poor and widows when everyone else didn't.

Israeli settlers are filmed slashing the tires of vehicles and hurling stones through shop windows in the Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh in the central West Bank late Wednesday night.

Previous attacks on Taybeh have caught the attention of US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, himself an ordained pastor, who visited in July and called for those targeting the town to be prosecuted. No indictments were filed, as they rarely are against those taking part in the near-daily settler attacks in the West Bank.

The latest attack in Taybeh was caught on security camera, while a separate incident involving the theft of construction equipment in the nearby village of Turmus Ayya was reported by the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news site.

Continued below.

Reminds me of when I was 7 years old and got lost walking to school the first time it snowed.

SoCal residents receive anonymous threatening Christmas cards: ‘You are warned’​

Reed said he thought it might have been an isolated prank — his next-door neighbors didn’t receive any such messages — until his sister showed him a neighborhood Facebook page.

Reed, it turned out, was just one of what he said were about a dozen neighbors who received threatening Christmas cards and notes on their doorstep. The messages on the notes ranged from, “Merry Christmas and [expletive] you Nazi,” to the ominous message, “8:46 December 3, you are warned.”

One neighbor shared a video on the Yucaipa neighborhood Facebook page of footage from his Ring camera. In the clip, two masked men can be seen running onto his doorstep to place the note.

In the Facebook group, some residents alleged that the use of “Nazi” could have been associated with the area’s Republican reputation, though notes were left in front of houses without politically affiliated flags or signage, like Reed’s.

tampasteve said:

Done, you are now "das grosse schwein"

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Thank You for changing my name.

essentialsaltes said:

‘She’s Trying to Take Down Trump’: Laura Loomer Slams ‘Despicable Traitor’ MTG for Joining Epstein Files Push​

Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer is going scorched earth on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), accusing the congresswoman of betraying Donald Trump by joining a bipartisan push to unseal the long-buried files of Jeffrey Epstein

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will resign from Congress in January​

"Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for," she said.

Greene, who has served in the House since 2021, came under attack from Trump last week, when the president announced that he was removing his endorsement of Greene's reelection campaign after she broke party rank and signed onto a discharge petition forcing a vote to order the Department of Justice to release its full Epstein files -- another issue that Greene has come to champion from the campaign trail to Capitol Hill in recent years.

A Devil's Advocate said:

Why are we to focus our efforts, any at all really, on confronting our sinful passions?

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Because Christ our True God literally exerted us to do so.

Note I am not advocating for Pelagianism or sinless perfectionism.

First thing first. I considered ignoring the post, but as a young zygote I didn't want to come into this world with my honor impugned by a personal attack left undefended.

gzt said:

Well, it's very "Tristram Shandy" so far, so your consultants are at least cribbing from a tried-and-true model.

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In the spirit of Proverbs 25:21-22 and Romans 12:20, I will thank my friend gzt for the literature lesson, and not even mention what a cheap shot it was to accuse me while knowing that I might not ever be able to defend myself, or at least not for three months.

I'd heard the name Tristam Shandy earlier in life, but have never read it, and had no idea of its content. I briefly skimmed the first thirteen chapters and found no mention of the character speaking from the womb, although AI tells me that he briefly does somewhere.

So, I didn't crib from that book. But even if I had, even if I had...are you aware that the novel Fight Club has so many cribs in it that it could fill a maternity ward? Direct lifts of exact scenes from G. K. Chesterton's ManAlive! and Dostoevsky's The Idiot, from Sartre, and many others. Almost the entire book and film are a patchwork of other people's ideas.

Do you know that the famous music from the film Jaws was cribbed from Dvorak? Do you know that Apocalypse Now is Heart of Darkness? That West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet? That Simba in The Lion King is Hamlet? That the Broadway play Hamilton is cribbed from Hamilton? Do you know Mighty Joe Young's real name is King Kong? Do you know...anything?

To be continued...

Michie said:

A trans-identified TSA officer has filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of discrimination over its policy prohibiting men from patting down women at security checkpoints.

A man who goes by the name Danielle Mittereder, and works as a TSA officer at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, filed a lawsuit on Nov. 7 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is named as a defendant in the suit that alleges TSA’s policy discriminates against Mittereder “on the basis of sex,” in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Continued below.

Trans-identified TSA officer sues DHS over female pat down ban

A trans-identified TSA officer has filed a lawsuit accusing the U S Department of Homeland Security of discrimination over its policy prohibiting men from patting down women at security checkpoints

www.christianpost.com

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We live in a very confused world. Hopefully this gets thrown out and not even waste tax payers money.

Many women in England and Wales who have abortions in their 20s may end up childless in their 40s, according to key research by a pro-life activist and former employee of Marie Stopes International.

A report issued by Catholic independent public health consultant Kevin Duffy titled “Abortion and Childlessness” shows that many women who have abortions in their 20s may be faced with the real risk of remaining childless at 45. However, Duffy states that this risk is rarely, if ever, highlighted by abortion providers to those considering abortion.

Duffy’s projections in the report suggest that, by 2045, as many as 1 in 4 women may reach the age of 45 having not given birth to any children, with abortion given as a major factor in about half of these cases.

While Duffy does not suggest abortion causes infertility, his data shows that if an abortion leaves a woman childless at 30, she may find herself in a situation where timing pressures and a natural decline in fertility become major factors, leading to a 50/50 chance she will still be childless at 45.

Continued below.

22 November 2025 – Sri Lanka

Pray for Christian teachers in Sri Lanka who are supported by our partners. They are uniquely placed to help young believers to remain steadfast in the context of significant hostility.

21 November 2025 – Laos

Pray for our partner in Laos, who organises regular Bible training seminars for pastors, many of whom are experiencing persecution. They provide teaching on a range of subjects as well as the much-needed skills opportunity for fellowship.

20 November 2025 – Laos

Pray for ‘Nyok’ and all the workers involved in the distribution of Bibles, Christian literature and worship materials. Pray that these consignments will not be intercepted or confiscated by the authorities (see Voice, April-June).

19 November 2025 – Laos

Give thanks that the church in Laos is growing despite determined opposition in several regions. Pray that the minority people groups, in the country will have the opportunity to hear the gospel.

18 November 2025 – Laos

Pray for Pastor ‘Somsak’, who was removed from his position as a village leader because of his faith and has been threatened with eviction. He said, ‘If God wants me to stay in the village and be salt and light, then God will make a way’ (see Voice, April-June).

17 November 2025 – Laos

Pray for Pastor ‘Vong’, a former witch doctor, who leads a village church. He has been threatened with eviction because of his preaching (see Voice, April-June).

16 November 2025 – Laos

Pray for Pastor ‘Phouang’, who has been harassed and threatened by the authorities because of his Christian work. Pray that he and his family will experience the Lord’s special protection (see Voice, April-June).

Sign up for email prayer alerts:

info@releaseinternational.org

bob121 said:

So, worldwide friends, hit reply with one sentence: what can you see outside your window right now

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My dog taking a poop, but I shall not share a photo.

bob121 said:

—and does it make you smile, sigh, or pray?

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None of the above.

SAAN said:

Isaiah 56, isnt referring to the 7th day Sabbath, it is referring to the Day of Atonement, which is a Sabbath itself, as you will find no where in the Torah where it forbids you of doing anything of the pleasure of the Sabbath, BUT the Day of Atonement is the ONLY day in which your are told to afflict your soul and turn from all things of your own pleasure. So it is very clear Isaiah 56 is taking about that day and not the 7th Day Sabbath.

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There are no passages in Isaiah 56 showing Sabbath being mentioned that are referring to just the Day of Atonement, that it is from Sabbath to Sabbath is indication that it is Sabbaths a seven day week apart. "My righteousness will be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold of it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hands from doing any evil." This is any Sabbath, not at all just the Day of Atonement, and it is for any foreigners who join, as shown in the passages in this context, Isaiah 56; any gentiles are included, when they do join in doing this.

I pray for God to direct me to the passages, scriptures, books and/or chapters that He wants me to read. I have a study bible. I have a daily devotional. I think, sometimes, we just need discipline and we need to remember that we read to get closer to God.

We don't read to tick a box off a chore list or to feel that we did something which is 'better than nothing'.

Could you wake a little earlier or go to bed a little later and spare some time with God?

I lock myself into a private room at night and pray and then read some of the bible. There are study guides out there that might assist, too? I'm sure lots of people can recommend some but in the meantime, I find this site useful: Our Daily Bread Ministries

I think reading verses are okay but sometimes verses are just snapshots of a broader context and I'm not sure how you can obtain understanding with small snapshots each day. Personally, I'd probably forget what I read by the next day but maybe you're better at this than me..ha.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, scripture and comments. They mean a lot to me and I have bookmarked this thread for future reference. I hope you all have a blessed weekend and thank you for helping a stranger with your kind words. God bless you, CC