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Fear, pain and hunger: The dire impact of shutting down USAID in Africa, leaving a vacuum for China and Russia

Essentialsaltes, this is what happen when conservative churches call empathy a "sin."




What would Jesus say? Here's what Pope Leo has said about nominally "Christian" churches preaching callous disregard for human suffering:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-10's
/pope-leo-faith-cannot-be-separated-from-love-for-the-poor.html

Through God's grace, we have been given an American leader of the global Catholic Church to counteract the bad judgment of American voters, who have endangered not only our country but the entire world with their misguided presidential choice. May he stay strong. May true Christians recognize that empathy and conpassion are the ways of Jesus, and cruelty and callousness are inspired by the Prince of Darkness.
Does this mean Jesus lacked empathy when he told the woman to go and sin no more?
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Is 'once saved always saved' a biblical teaching?

Judas lost his salvation, Esau lost his birthright/salvation, satan lost his place in heaven, etc.

Betrayal is not just renouncing, it is a turning from the truth to willfully oppose GOD. There is no salvation available for such a person, as Hebrews states.
They all made a decision, you don’t just backslide and lose your salvation, it’s a conscious decision to turn away. and reject Christ
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Charlie Kirk Didn’t Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn’t, Either

In an article about this specific entry, Kirk engages in a nicely disingenuous bit of wordsmithing when he pushes back by saying, "We never... threaten [professors] with phrases like “you’re on our list

No, Charlie, you didn't say "you're on a list." You just put them on a list and let your followers do the rest.

Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats

Some students involved in the Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA, the political group founded by Charlie Kirk, began circulating an online petition that claimed Bray was an “outspoken, well-known antifa member” and referred to him as “Dr. Antifa” while calling for his dismissal.

I suppose people who can be relied upon to confuse "teaching Christianity" with "teaching about Christianity" are pretty much guaranteed to confuse "teaching about anti-fascism" and "teaching anti-fascism".
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No One Is Above The Law

Yes, let's look at Jack Smith accused of being above the law who utilized the FBI for investigative work, including executing search warrants and analyzing evidence like phone records.
This sounds like a sanitized version of what actually happened. If Jack Smith operated within the law he has nothing to worry about.
The FBI cannot legally be above the law because it is a government entity bound by the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
That is what should be the case but it is not what happened under the Biden administration.
Concerns about the FBI "operating above the law" are unwarranted because the senators who disclosed the information stated that the investigative step was authorized by a grand jury subpoena.
We shall see if you are right.
Now what is Kash Patel threatening to do? He wants to fire those who followed the law to appease the need for retribution by the current President.
False!
Now who is really acting above the law here? Let us reason. Please.
We shall see who thought they were untouchable when these many cases are concluded. Everyone deserves their day in court .
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"Under Title X of the US Code, the President has plenary authority..."

Title 10 of the U.S. Code grants the President authority over the National Guard and provides specific powers for their deployment, particularly within the United States during domestic emergencies established by the Constitution.
Yes - but protestors are not the scale of emergency that this bill talks about - or that Trump is pretending they are.

Portland and Chicago do NOT look like cities from WW2 - Trump's betraying his ignorance and capacity to just lie through his teeth.

They're normal modern cities with a few protestors.

He just doesn't like it when people disagree with him being King - and just kicking people out of the country without due process.
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There’s a Giant Flaw in Human History

To further illustrate that @stevevw doesn't know what he is talking about, here is the method used by Artifacts Foundation and Maximus.energy for determining circularity.

Comparison.png

They are both using the method of least squares which is a curve fitting exercise.

By comparison circularity known as roundness in ISO 1101 uses MCZ (minimum circle zone) which is defined as all points fitting inside two concentric circles (Figure 81).

Roundness.png


Artifacts Foundation and Maximus.energy use a curve fitting method which focuses on average error minimization, not maximum deviation where measured points may be excluded for being too far or too close relative to the fitted circle.
In the ISO 1100 method all points are included even statistical outliers which are excluded in the least square method, furthermore the more circular the cross section the less the radii difference between the concentric circles.

The least square method makes makes cross sections look more circular compared to MCZ which is used by all professional metrology software conforming to ISO 1101.
Given the near perfect symmetry and circularity nonsense spouted by @stevevw it's not surprising this is the case when amateur software is used.
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Letita Jamews indicted for fraud

Frivolous, like 99% of the charges brought by the Trump DOJ. I look at an indictment by this DOJ as an indication of sterling character and honesty.
Had it been the other way around and Trump was being indicted,democrats wouldn't think it would be frivolous then.
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Average consumer now carries $6,329 in credit card debt. 'People are stretched,' expert says

As of July 1, 2025, gold will officially be classified as a Tier 1, high-quality liquid asset (HQLA) under the Basel III banking regulations. That means U.S. banks can count physical gold, at 100% of its market value, toward their core capital reserves. No longer will it be marked down by 50% as a “Tier 3” asset, as it was under the old rules.
Then let me spell it out: Anyone who takes out a loan to finance speculative investment had better hope that the rate of return is greater than the interest he's paying on his loan. If he's looking for a profit. that difference in interests, less handling fees, is going to be all the money he sees. If the rate of return is less, then he's under water on his investment. If he's invested so much that he had to take out a loan, he better hope he doesn't run into cash-flow problems before it's paid off. He better hope that it's not a bubble that goes pop. And he better hope no one comes along and does to his investment what the Hunt brothers tried to do with silver. Keep in mind that the banks that went under when the real estate bubble popped were absolutely convinced they would make a profit until all of a sudden they didn't.

You mentioned having physical possession of the gold. This is good. If someone doesn't have it in their hands, he better hopes the company that says he has that gold in a vault really does, or doesn't go under, or society doesn't break down to the point where he can't sell those certificates. But if someone has that gold in their hands, that raises other issues. One is disposing of it. You have to hope where you want to spend it will take gold, then you have to hope it doesn't get out that you have gold. I know of a man who was literally knocked in the head over a century ago because it got out he had a stash of gold. Once anyone learns you have gold, security will be an issue, particularly if things are so bad that society is breaking down.
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Why we Christians still have to struggle with sins?

Some interpreters of Romans 3:20 suggest that Paul must be speaking of two different laws—perhaps distinguishing between the ceremonial law and the moral law. But a closer look at the text shows that this is not the case.

First, the Greek text itself does not support such a division. Paul uses the singular nomos (“law”) throughout the passage. Both the phrases “works of the law” and “through the law” are singular. There is no grammatical shift to suggest that he has two different laws in view. Paul is treating the law as one unified whole.

Second, the immediate context confirms this unity. In Romans 3:9–19, Paul has just demonstrated from a series of Old Testament quotations that all people—Jew and Gentile alike—are under sin. Then in verse 19 he concludes, “whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped.” Here, “the law” plainly refers to the Torah as a whole, functioning as God’s covenant standard. Verse 20 follows directly from this point: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified.” Paul is drawing one conclusion from one law, not from two.

Third, Paul’s real contrast in this passage is not between ceremonial and moral law, but between law and faith. He makes this explicit in verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…through faith in Jesus Christ.” The issue is not which kind of law could justify, but rather that no form of law-keeping justifies at all. Justification comes by faith in Christ alone.

Paul makes the same point in Galatians 2:16, almost word for word: “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” There too, Paul refers to Torah as a whole—circumcision, dietary regulations, and moral commands alike. He never divides it into two separate laws to explain justification.

Finally, we should note that Jewish thought at the time did not separate the law into “moral” and “ceremonial” categories. Torah was seen as a unified covenant given at Sinai, binding in all its parts. When Paul says “the law,” his Jewish and Gentile audience would have understood it to mean that covenantal law in its entirety, not two different systems.

In light of these considerations, Romans 3:20 does not refer to two different laws. Paul consistently uses “the law” to mean the Torah in its entirety. His argument is that no form of law-keeping—whether ritual observance or moral obedience—can justify a sinner before God. The law reveals sin, but it cannot remove it. Justification comes only through faith in Christ.
Paul says in Romans 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. In other words if there is no law there is no sin. Sin is not imputed or no blame can be accredited to any person when there is no law. Now, let’s see what Sin is according to the Bible in I John 3:4 it states, "whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." So if the law was nailed to the cross that would mean its okay to use the Lords name in vain, put other gods before HIM, make graven images and bow before them, pollute the Sabbath day, steal, commit murder, commit adultery and bear false witness. If all these things are okay to commit, then we might as well throw the Bible out the back door and do what ever feels good to us.

We will see that Paul was in fact a law keeper and how he preached out of the Law and the Prophets.

Now let's begin by taking a look at both of the laws and how they worked together. We will see there were two laws given to Moses, they were the commandments and the sacrificial law. Watch how they worked together.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: (Leviticus 4:1-2) The law in the scriptures above is the commandments.

Notice something else very important in these two scriptures. It states, "if a soul shall sin through ignorance." Notice that the scripture did not says on purpose. Why? There is no sacrifice for a sin that is committed willfully. Let's find out what was to be done if a person committed a sin against the Lord unintentionally. Let's skip down to the 27th verse and take a look at the second law (which is the sacrificial law).

And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. (Leviticus 4:27-30)

When the common people sinned through ignorance and it came to their knowledge, what did they have to do? They brought an offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for their sin which they had committed, then the priest would offer the animal to the Lord. Think about this for a moment. If an animal was killed for a person that committed sin, what will happen to us today if we a trespass against the Lord?

Now we see how the sacrificial law was used when a person broke a commandment unintentionally.

Let's go into Paul's writings and take another look at both of these laws. We will go into the Book of Galatians chapter 3. This is one of the chapters that the majority of Christian preachers use to do away with the Lord's commandments. Now, let's read carefully!

Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)

Take heed to what Paul's says above, "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions." What is transgression? Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (I John 3:4) Transgression is braking of the commandments. What law was added because of the braking of the law? The sacrificial law! Paul is simply asking these Gentiles, "why perform the sacrificial law? It was added because of sin until the seed should come. Who is the seed?

Let's back up in this chapter and find out.

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16) Who is the SEED? CHRIST! So, this law was added (which is the sacrificial law) until Christ came. What was the sacrificial law used for until Christ came? Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

The sacrificial law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Before we continue, we must clear one thing up. Are we justified by faith alone? Let's see. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31) What law is established? Certainly not the sacrificial law, we have seen above that it was added because of transgression until the Seed came (which was Christ). The Royal law to be established forever which are the Ten Lords commandments!
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Does reality pass the Turing test?

Harking back to a previous a post, when the time comes, which seems to be rapidly approaching, that AI can pass the Turing test, or any test that we can devise, will you accept that it's conscious under the same premise... that its consciousness is as real as it needs to be? Will you grant it the right to vote.
Firstly, the movie clip I posted did not indicate that consciousness is as real as it needs to be. It indicated that external reality, as perceived by consciousness, is as real as it needs to be. Consciousness is separate. It's the judge and jury doing the perceiving.

Anyway, whenever I say I have free will, atheist types respond with "no, you only experience the appearance of free will". If I say "the universe and life certainly look like they were designed", they say "no, they only have the appearance of design". So I say, yes, AI may come to have the appearance of consciousness.

Would I let it vote? Only if Elon Musk selects the team who designs it.
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Angels in heaven

Matthew 18:10 KJV
Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

.....

What does this mean? Do the little children have angel in heaven that is connected to them? Do we all have an angel in heaven that corresponds to us?
Do some of our angels do something other than behold God? Is my angel less innocent/good than a child's angel?

Or does it mean that when a child dies it becomes a particularly devoted angel?
Do we become angels if we go to heaven?

Or is the soul actually an angel and we are in heaven at the same time as being on earth without knowing it? We are our own angel, so to speak?

Or... what does it mean?

Cheers
This is one of those verses where folks will spent a lot of mental energy debating the meaning of “little ones”, “angels”, and their relationship between those in heaven and those on Earth. Some even will interpret these verses to justify the belief that all believers have a guardian angel. However, I believe that is a bit simpler than that.

Let’s start looking at the setting of this verse. Jesus is gathered with His disciples and they are asking Him who the greatest is. They want to know who the top dog is. So He brings a child into the group and tells them that unless they become like this child there will be serious consequences. They need to learn to humble themselves just like this child to become the greatest in His kingdom (Verses 3-4). So Jesus here is saying that this is how His followers should be, like little ones. They should not walk around proud and puffed up but instead they need to humble themselves.

In verses 5 and 6, Jesus tells the disciples that when they welcome those who are humble and weak, they also welcome Him. He then warns not to let anyone lead these little ones to sin. In verses 7 and 9, Jesus goes even further and warns then to not be guilty of tempting these little ones or they will be judged. He reminds them of how vulnerable these little one are.

In verse 10, I believe that His little ones are all of the believers. In addition, the parable about the sheep that follows also uses images to refer to believers, in this case sheep. Secondly, the verse is probably translated correctly as angels is the correct translation for the Greek word used. The angels in this verse are in heaven with access to God so they are not on earth guarding believers or little children but they give testimony to God about the little ones. God has an army of Angels that testify to God about believers. The language is similar to that of the courts of kings where requests and reports are given to the king by people that represent others. Hebrews 1:14 states “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to provide service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” which also describes spirits ministering for the believers so the concept is already in scripture.

So to me, verse 10 is merely saying to not look down on these little ones (believers). Take care of them and don’t lead them to sin because God has an army and they are assigned to them. The army reports to Him. Hope this helps.
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Letita Jamews indicted for fraud

Frivolous, like 99% of the charges brought by the Trump DOJ. I look at an indictment by this DOJ as an indication of sterling character and honesty.
The charges were brought by the DOJ. A Grand Jury of her peers brought the indictment.

People with ‘sterling character’ don’t lie on mortgage applications.
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Is 'once saved always saved' a biblical teaching?

Correct.

Judas was a chosen of Jesus like the other 11 were. He was stated as being "amongst' them and sharing in their ministry from Jesus. His example is not an outlier, there are others since the time of Jesus who turned from Him.

It's called betrayal.
But it’s not “losing your salvation “ it’s renouncing it
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Does reality pass the Turing test?

Not really a good case study, because the characters in most video games are not connected to sophisticated LLM AIs, but rather tend to have only special-purpose AIs and scripted behavior. Now I don’t want to bash video game AI development - during the AI Winter that lasted from 1987 to 2000, much of the AI development that happened was for video games and computer games - pathing AIs, AIs to control opponents, AIs to control the behavior of complex simulations in open ended educational simulation games (my favorite) like Sim City 2000, the Sims, SimFarm, SimIsle and so on (and other Sim games, many of which had fairly sophisticated logic, which resulted in one ridiculously dry attempt at a game simulating the healthcare sector, SimHealth), Rollercoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, and other games of the city building type, and the related genre of turn based and real time strategy games like Civilization, Starcraft and so on. So that by the year 2000, when the need for improvements in search engines and various business applications sparked a renewal of interest, the video game community had been carrying the torch.

I think the AI for Battlefield 2 (2005) (AIX 2 mod) is fairly good at mass control of bots.

I modified one map for single player use (me with AI team vs all-AI enemy team) that seemingly heavily favors the enemy team. The win conditions are unchanged (default) where you need to capture and hold more bases than the enemy and if possible, capture them all.

There's a winning strategy that's very illogical (contradicts logic) for both friendly and enemy AI teams. There's no way for AI to figure this out because they're all unscripted. All bots are using stock/default pathing and unmodified. The strategy is all in my head yet for some unexplained reason, the AI seems to have figured out my devious plan. Ironically, the AI's winning strategy is delay capturing our base and this contradicts AI logic but does it anyway and wins 10x in a row!

Perhaps, it all random but have surprisingly caught me off guard so many times. I think individual bots react off each other resulting in fairly organic and unpredictable collective behavior.
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Is 'once saved always saved' a biblical teaching?

Original: παραπίπτω
- Transliteration: Parapipto
- Phonetic: par-ap-ip'-to
- Definition:
1. to fall beside a person or thing
2. to slip aside
a. to deviate from the right path, turn aside, wander
b. to error
c. to fall away (from the true faith): from worship of Jehovah

- Origin: from G3844 and G4098
- TDNT entry: 08:50,8
- Part(s) of speech: Verb

- Strong's: From G3844 and G4098; to fall aside that is (figuratively) to apostatize: - fall away.

I think you may have an incorrect idea of what falling away actually means. It's not just to backslide in our walk, but a
conscientious decision on the part of a person/Christian to turn away from The Lord Jesus.

The prime example of this would be Judas.
Exactly. You don’t just backslide and lose your salvation, it has to be a decision to reject Christ, like leaving Christianity and returning to Judaism.
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Fear, pain and hunger: The dire impact of shutting down USAID in Africa, leaving a vacuum for China and Russia

Essentialsaltes, this is what happen when conservative churches call empathy a "sin."

While true, ordinarily that would mean as much as conservative churches calling premarital sex or tattoos a 'sin'. It has no effect on people's lives.

But rich conservative political figures (in and out of the church) have anathematized taxes to the extent that some of these churches have been co-opted in this way. And now the rich anti-tax people and the newly anti-empathy churches are largely unified in a political party that holds the reins of government.

We may laugh at the soybean farmers who have voted against their own financial interest, but people dying for lack of a tiny fraction of government spending isn't funny.
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Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked DHS/DoD Memo Shows: LA "hasn't been perfect" but indicates what's coming "for years to come"

Trump and MAGA need to realise that in a democracy, people have a right to disagree.

Trump is not some grand king who can just lay down the law whenever he gets shampoo in his eyes in the morning shower, and decides he needs to invade this country, or expel that group of people for saying nasty things about him or his 'policies' - just because he's in a bad mood.

Instead, democracy involves the rule of the law and the courts.
It involves the will of the people as expressed in voting for members of the House and the Senate.
It involves having a sense of not just doing the right thing - but being open and accountable in the methods of enacting the right thing.

So when Trump talks about "The enemy within" - he's talking about his political opponents!
He's talking about abolishing democracy!
He's talking about Trump wanting to unleash his NPD - and do whatever he wants, whenever he wants!

He wants to be king.
It's revolting, unconstitutional, unChristian, and unsupportable.

So I'm with the Mayor of Chicago on this.
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Go away Trump - run back to your nasty little golf course with your nasty little caddie helping you cheat in your nasty little self-congratulatory golf-tournaments for your nasty little ego.
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