• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Newsome pushed back against Democracy to achieve his political goals

We see here again broad claims, but without saying where these things are (certainly I spotted various blatant falsehoods on your linked page, such as its absurd claim that Project 2025 wanted "a ban on in vitro fertilization" despite not mentioning in vitro fertilization once in the document).




Schedule F and the war-on-drugs​

The challenge is sometimes the language in the PDF does not spell out "Schedule F" in each and every instance where it speaks of stacking the ranks with MAGA. EG: Page 62 is about the White House push to continue the so-called 'war on drugs'.

The National Drug Control Program agencies represented a total of $41 billion in fiscal year 2022. Whereas the position for overseeing budget activities is tradi￾tionally held by a career official, it is imperative that a political appointee lead the ONDCP budget office to ensure coordination between the OMB Program Associate Director and the ONDCP budgetary appointee.
... While it makes sense to transfer these programs eventually to the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services, respectively, it is vital that the ONDCP Director ensure in the immediate term that these grant programs are funding the President’s drug control priorities and not woke nonprofits with leftist policy agendas. Thus, the President must insure that the ONDCP is managed by political appointees who are committed to the Administration’s agenda and not acquiesce to management by political​
or career military personnel who oversaw the prior Administration’s ONDCP.​

What they call 'woke nonprofits with leftist policy agendas' is probably the very stuff I studied (many years ago) in my Advanced Diploma Social Sciences. It's harm minimization. It's robbing the cartels of their business model. It's about ending the war on drugs - which limits street supply therefore driving up the street price and increasing the financial reward and incentive to cartels that are now bigger than Walmart - indeed - bigger than many governments!

Instead, do what the Europeans do and offering safe drug injecting rooms, and alternatives like free methadone programs, while having social workers in there that can gently encourage these victims of addiction and help guide them out of drugs and into rehab, safe housing, and work programs. It works.

The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s inmates.
That's 5 times the jails! How much does that cost in extra policing, legal cases, court time - let alone the penal system?
Are Americans really 5 times more criminal than the rest of the world?
No - they are suffering from a failed drug criminalisation scheme.
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries - Wikipedia

With your war on drugs and your for-profit healthcare costing twice as much as OECD nations - no wonder your country is getting into debt and cannot cover everyone's healthcare!
Login to view embedded media

Schedule F and general civil servant protections​


The end of page 80.
Frustrated with these activities by top career executives, the Trump Adminis￾tration issued Executive Order 1395724 to make career professionals in positions that are not normally subject to change as a result of a presidential transition but who discharge significant duties and exercise significant discretion in formulating and implementing executive branch policy and programs an exception to the competitive hiring rules and examinations for career positions under a new Schedule F. It ordered the Director of OPM and agency heads to set procedures to prepare lists of such confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating positions and prepare procedures to create exceptions from civil service rules when careerists hold such positions, from which they can relocate back to the regular civil service after such service. The order was subsequently reversed by President Biden at the demand of the civil service associations and unions. It should be reinstated, but SES responsibility should come first.​


It could be argued that ''policy-advocating" could mean anyone in the civil service! Chatting about sensible harm minimization drug programs over the water cooler could get someone replaced with a 'loyalist'. As the wiki says:

Schedule Policy/Career, commonly known by its former name Schedule F, is a job classification for appointments in the excepted service of the United States federal civil service for permanent policy-related positions. The purpose of the provision is to increase the president's control over the federal career civil service by removing their civil service protections and making them easier to dismiss, which proponents stated would increase flexibility and accountability to elected officials. It was widely criticized as providing a means to retaliate against federal officials for political reasons, impede the effective functioning of government, and creating risk to democracy. It has been estimated that tens or hundreds of thousands of career employees could be reclassified, increasing the number of political appointments by a factor of ten. Schedule F appointment - Wikipedia

It undermines professionalism​

It erodes their freedom of speech in what should be neutral matters of handling bureaucracy - and can create partisan political bias in hiring decisions. As the wiki says:

The creation of Schedule F was controversial. Critics feared a transition from a non-partisan government of subject-matter experts to one where partisan or presidential loyalty tests had a role in the hiring process.[4] At the time, it was estimated that tens or hundreds of thousands of career employees could lose their civil service protections including union representation,[4][41] and that it would increase the number of political appointments by a factor of ten.[42] Conversely, there was concern that political appointees of Trump, whose appointments are supposed to expire at the end of his term, could "burrow in" by being converted to positions that are harder to dismiss.[19][41]
Rebecca Beitsch, writing for The Hill, wrote that unions were criticizing Trump's executive order as "the biggest change to federal workforce protections in a century, converting many federal workers to 'at will' employment."[43] The National Treasury Employees Union sued the administration in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia over the executive order, arguing that the administration did not properly justify it satisfied the legal requirement that the changes are "necessary" and as "conditions of good administration warrant."[17][44]
An official statement from Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) further stated that the executive order was "alarming".[43] The six authors, all infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists, wrote:​
We rely on the judgment of civil service experts to lead responses against the pandemic, inform the public, drive research, update guidance and review data supporting the use and distribution of vaccines and treatments to address the impacts of COVID-19. Replacing our scientists and public health experts with politically motivated staff will reduce our ability to respond, and reduce public confidence in our response, to COVID-19 and other public health crises.[45]
It reduces constraints on stupid political decisions that fly in the face of good science and public policy. It's another shift in the road to Kingship - in having the King's orders followed no matter the cost to the public!

I mean - it's concerning enough that the very top roles have such bizarre picks. An anti-vaxxer gets health, a real-estate buddy gets to play peacemaker with Putin (and goes into the meeting without an interpreter! - that's junior high school behaviour!), and "Big Lie" believers who challenged the legal authority of the democratic institutions that 64 courts validated duly elected Biden - these anti-law, anti-election Tinfoil hat types get placed in charge of law enforcement agencies like the FBI and DOJ!

I guess in that light - strip the civil service of anyone competent. When the leaders are spitting in the face of reality, who cares if the rank and file employees know what's going on? Hire MAGA QANON Anti-vax anti-climate Big Lie tinfoil hat types. I don't care anymore. American leadership of the western project is over. With 75% of American scientists considering fleeing the country, I'm just going to sit back and watch as America kneecaps itself.

Congress passes intentionally vague laws that delegate decision-making over a given issue to a federal agency. That agency’s bureaucrats—not just unelected but seemingly un-fireable—then leap at the chance to fill the vacuum created by Congress’s preening cowardice. The federal government is growing larger and less constitutionally accountable—even to the President—every year.

(Sighs). Maybe - but it depends what we are talking about! Laws should be shaped by a sound knowledge base of the latest scientific studies into medicine, vaccines, climate, and even social sciences such as the European mental health model for drug addicts - rather than the punitive "war on drugs" model of the USA.

Countries run on Federal Laws, State laws, local by-laws - and sometimes the policies and procedures determined by the latest expertise of various departments. Sometimes Federal bodies SHOULD hand over decision making to the experts in these areas! EG: Climate science determines there's a problem, some energy systems modellers determine the cheapest mix of energy sources and create a Federal program to encourage the right energy mix gets deployed across the country, and various social sciences are employed to help consumers make better choices, live in better Ecocities that radically reduce climate impact and increase quality of life, etc! And that's just climate science! In some of these instances the various expert departments would make recommendations that then head back up the chain of command to congress and become new laws.

Which is why having ALL available voices, from the most professionally educated experts, is important in the civil service to ensure most perspectives are heard when developing these reports.

You're just not going to get that when the place is loaded with Antivaxxer RFK MAHA loyalists!

And when it comes to JD Vance and Trump spanking Zalenskyy in the Oval Office, or Trump sending Witkof in to Putin who then reports back that there will be some land swaps and they have a 'deal' when Witkof completely misunderstood the whole meeting because of the lack of an interpreter - the whole Trump regime is a JOKE!

Expertise? Who needs it.
We may as well be in North Korea with the "Great Leader" in the White House. (Which will soon be the "Trump House" given he's adding a gaudy ballroom to it. Gold plated toilet seats included?)

As the NYT said:-
“President Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. ...​
This is not just a Trump problem; America’s whole reputation is shot. I don’t care if Abraham Lincoln himself walked into the White House in 2029, no foreign leader can responsibly trust a nation that is perpetually four years away from electing another authoritarian nihilist...​
NATO is over ... The West is (temporarily) over ...”​
  • Informative
Reactions: DaisyDay
Upvote 0

Trump dispenses with trials, orders military strike on alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boat (Now up to 2, 3, 4...)

What the Navy did mand them no more 'murders than when a soldier killed an isis terrorist in Northern Iraq.
That's not true but murder can occur during war. Even if the boat was full of illegal drugs, that would not mandate a death sentence under US law. Killing a fleeing suspected criminal is not legal unless the Naval personnel were in grave danger.
  • Informative
Reactions: rebornfree
Upvote 0

US students' reading and math scores at historic lows: 'Devastating trend'

My wife and I were just discussing how little high school students are required to know from when we were in school (45 years ago). My wife is a high school Spanish language teacher and she teaches the grammatical part of the Spanish Language so she makes alot of comparisons to the English grammar. Unfortunately, many kids don't learn the Spanish language easily because they don't even know the grammar of English (nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and other stuff). And they are in high school.

Our elementary schools are failing to have the kids master the basics. These kids get to high school being passed along from grade to grade because many teachers don't want to deal with these students. Alot of them don't want to learn and they disrupt the class so others can't learn.

The bad thing of it is is that the school administration keeps asking the teachers to be more flexible so the students won't fail (it makes their school look bad if too many students are failing). So like I said, teachers just pass these kids along and let next year's teachers deal with the problems.

It is trickling down to colleges too. They can't believe the low quality of students they are getting at college. So, what is the solution? My personal feeling is to lighten the load of classes needed per school year and make the kids go longer than 12 grades. These kids need to start mastering the basics: math, english, science, health, economics, history and foreign languages. Everything else can be an elective in high school. And as for sports - don't even get me started on that subject. Bad grades, you stay in the class until you master it.

We are going to have some real problems later in life with these uneducated kids.
  • Agree
Reactions: Vambram

What video games are you currently playing?

Yeah. I also loved Mario Kart Double Dash and the original Animal Crossing.

Did you ever watch the television show X-Play? It was a great TV show that featured videogame reviews. TechTV (later G4) also had other videogames themed shows.

So nostalgic.
No, I never did. Never even heard of it.

I should check out Animal Crossing one of these days.
Upvote 0

ICE Launches Operation Midway Blitz in Honor of Katie Abraham to Target Criminal Illegal Aliens Terrorizing Americans in Sanctuary Illinois

If some one is standing outside a bank there is no particularized suspicion to stop them.

If they are outside a bank holding a gun, carrying a face mask and got out of a car with a driver and the car is running, there is reasonable suspicion to stop him. Maybe the gun is legal to have, maybe hes returning the mask to a store down the street, maybe his buddy just drove him because his car is broke down and this was the only place to park.

But if cops are looking for suspicious activity that may be criminal then this is it and provides reasonable suspicion for a stop.

All those things Kavenaugh gave provide reasonable suspicion for a stop.

He didnt say a brown guy walking down the street is reasonable or no did he say if you hear someone speaking Spanish its reasonable. Its about the totality of circumstances.
Upvote 0

What video games are you currently playing?

Super Marios melee, super Mario party five...good memories! :D

Yeah. I also loved Mario Kart Double Dash and the original Animal Crossing.

Did you ever watch the television show X-Play? It was a great TV show that featured videogame reviews. TechTV (later G4) also had other videogames themed shows.

So nostalgic.
  • Like
Reactions: RileyG
Upvote 0

Sad news *prayer request*

I continue to ask for your deep and fervent prayers, please.

Unfortunately, my brother got back together with his ex-"boyfriend." Even though he habitually cheated on him, among other issues.

Please pray for a final break up, and they will permanently part ways.

Please pray for my brother to return to Christ and the sacraments, lest he lose his salvation.

Thank you

God bless

Chaplet

Does yours have a metal centerpiece of a rose? And If so, what is the image on the back of the rose? Is that Jesus, Mary or St. Dymphna? It’s so small I can’t tell, but I THINK it might be Mary.
No. It has St. Dymphna, and the other side has "pray for us." All the beads are blue, and it came with a prayer card to St. Dymphna.
Upvote 0

what Bible (or 2 or 3 translations to read)?

yeah I'd like to know ur preferences,
If I am sharing with a group that uses a certain Bible, I might use that one so we are communicating with the same one.

But in private and for these forums I use the New King James Version. Because it seems fairly close to the King James Bible and also is more up-to-date in English, like a lot of other Bibles.

And I look up Greek and Hebrew words using the Strong's Concordance dictionaries in the back. Plus, I use interlinear work and Spanish Bibles.
i just watch a pastor who knows Hebrew n Greek that he recommends KJV, NKJV, n ESV
My opinion is that any person will choose a Bible and conclusions, based on how that person is capable of understanding. So, what I mean, then, is one genius in Hebrew and Greek can get conclusions which are the exact opposite of what another genius in Hebrew and Greek is able to get. So, knowing a Bible manuscript language does not automatically guarantee how well anyone can know which Bible is really right and what God's word means.

So-o-o-o > pray and trust God to guide you :)

Each of us has motives which can affect how well we can accept what God's word means. And our character can affect if and how we understand the LORD.

I think of this > the disciples with Jesus could fight among themselves about which one was the greatest. And, they did not understand things Jesus plainly told them. They had access to I would say the "original" language of God's word . . . talking with Jesus Himself in Person! However . . . they did not get it. Why? I note how they seem to have been in a state of pride, so ready to worry about who was the greatest, and what they could use Jesus to get for their own selves; and in that spirit they could not rightly receive and understand things which Jesus was telling them.

And they were self-righteous, I would say . . . so ready to judge and look down on somebody else who was wrong or even not wrong, instead of first evaluating themselves with God guiding the evaluation.

Do we answer to God, first, in our prayer and Bible study????

So, may be we should ask what is the best translator and interpreter of God's word? I might say, a humble heart in God's all-loving family caring and sharing love. And, by the way, in case you are already growing in this love which is how Jesus is . . . then, already, you have the living meaning of God's word, growing in you. Because Jesus is the living love meaning of God's word . . . I would say.

And Jesus in us is our Creator, able to create in us whatever understanding and explanations and beliefs He pleases to share with us. And Jesus in us is able to create with us how to love each and every person, as God rules us in His own peace with His own creativity for loving >

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

Oh yes . . . another item > God's word says a child of God is God's message >

"You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart." (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

So, you want to read people who are growing in Jesus while ministering the word of God to you, so that you (like their example > 1 Peter 5:3) are growing in Jesus and how to love like Jesus who is growing in us as our new inner Person > Galatians 4:19.
  • Winner
Reactions: Vambram
Upvote 0

Does Jesus have the power to raise all dead humans from a decade ago?

The time has been set, for the resurrection and judgment of all the dead and whoever is alive and remain.

Why would he raise a portion call those who have died and reset time?

After the resurrection of the Dead time will no longer exist, the end of days mean the end of time, time equals days, time equals death, there will be no more death when time ends.
And do. you have a verse where TIME ENDS. ?

DAN P
Upvote 0

Anyone up for a chat thread?

That's... not far away. I hope you have good support for recovery!

I know where I'm going next, now. It hasn't been publicly announced yet, so I have to be a bit discreet still, but at least I can start to plan the move and research schools and all of those things.
  • Like
Reactions: Shane R
Upvote 0

WE ARE AT WAR! Trump approves military action against Latin American cartels classified as terrorist organizations.

Paragraph III attests to external trauma, not internal trauma, dear. In an autopsy of a suspicious/untimely death, they remark on injuries that appear readily obvious on the body, both to deconstruct a crime, establish time of death, and contributing causes to death. That part of the report states that he had injuries that were visible, but superficial, and not a cause of his death nor a contributing factor.

The first line tells you cause of death, which is “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression” and the finding of “homicide,” which appears on the papers submitted to both the state and the court and were the basis of charges being brought.

You realize in order to make your theory remotely sound, you’d have to believe three autopsy reports lied, the six-eight doctors who were involved in them lied, the testifying doctors lied in court under oath, the defense who said they agreed that the doctors spoke without coercion based off of their findings from the autopsy (which they attested to three times), and the judge and jury who agreed with the findings also all lied.

It’s ok, you can admit you’re wrong. We all see it.
Nope. Show me in the autopsy that Floyd's death was a result of police intervention. Please! Prove me wrong! Have you even looked at the Toxicology report in paragraph VI?
Upvote 0

Is belief/non-belief a morally culpable state?

I say that your argument does not address the OP because the OP is inquiring into the relation between belief and culpability. Your response is something like, "If someone has a belief, refuses to consider any evidence to the contrary, and artificially and lazily produces supports for their belief, then they believe culpably." Right, so we have a case of a theoretical person who believes culpably, but we haven't done much work to elucidate the relation between belief and culpability.
Belief is a position that you hold on any given proposition which you consider or accept to be true. I'm using consider to imply some thought has gone into it and accept to imply that no investigation has been made.

If you accepted that I was telling the truth when I say that I have a phd in astrophysics, have written a best seller and won 3 Olympic gold medals then I wouldn't class that as you being culpable. Rather that you were being gullible.

But if you said that vaccines are dangerous because the guy in the pub said so and you intentionally ignore evidence to the contrary and try to convince others that you are right then you have moved from being gullible to being culpable.

You can't blame someone for being gullible. But you can blame them if you intentionally promote a belief that any honest investigation would prove false.
Upvote 0

Filter

Forum statistics

Threads
5,876,472
Messages
65,383,608
Members
276,277
Latest member
Baron de Rais