Some tidbits from the outvoted 5th Circuit judge

When a judge warns readers to “Fasten your seatbelts!” before a 104-page legal diatribe — best to buckle up.

[Judge Jerry] Smith, on the losing end of that 2-1 ruling, attacked the plaintiffs as tools of left-wing donors George and Alex Soros, who featured at least 17 times in the ruling.

While dissenting judges typically refer obliquely to the “majority” opinion, Smith’s relentlessly personal and withering opinion [used opinion author Judge] Brown’s name more than 360 times, often accompanied by colorful insults.

Smith lit into Brown as an “unskilled magician” who “prefers living in fantasyland.” Smith said Brown committed “pernicious judicial misbehavior” by racing to issue his opinion. Brown emphasized [this] was intended to allow Texas leaders to return to the state’s earlier congressional boundaries before a Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to declare their bids for Congress.

“Whether Judge Brown likes it, gravity exists,” Smith wrote.

Although judges typically couch their deliberations in a veil of secrecy, Smith revealed them in great detail, even quoting from the text of email exchanges with Brown as the ruling was being prepared.

I'm not all that concerned about "the Islam" factor of Mamdani.

If he was actually devout, then that may be some cause for concern, but given his political stances (both social and economic) he's clearly not a devout adherent to Islam.

In that debate between him, Cuomo, and that "Guardian Angel" wanna-be, he openly admitted to patronizing legal pot dispensaries, and his position on LGBTQ issues are pretty well-known, so clearly he's not that "strict".

Two people celebrating the Sabbath together in the Holy land. Then one travels west, the other travels east.

The one traveling west will celebrate about an hour later for each thousand miles they travel. The one traveling east, about an hour earlier.

When they meet up on the opposite side of the earth, they will be celebrating the Sabbath a day apart.

I love you all!

keras said:

No. we will know soon enough.

As set out in Revelation 6:12-17, then many events, leading up to the glorious Return. in Rev 19:11.

A knee jerk reply totally lacking in scriptural or scientific support.

God does that, He commands the sun to send out a consuming fire to judge the peoples. Psalms 50:1-6

Your unintelligible comments and failure to prove what I point out from the Prophets- wrong, is your bad.

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What you write is your very own bad interpretation of scripture. You read into it your own ideas Keras. And then, you dislike it when that is pointed out.

All that power and wealth that comes with being a member of Congress seems like it was not enough.

We're praying in Church, for it not to become law, and I've written to my MP twice, urging him to vote against it. I know others have written too. There are some of us in England and Wales who see the dangers of it going ahead, including many medical personnel and disability groups.

Nancy Mace moves to force vote on censuring Cory Mills​

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution to censure fellow Republican Rep. Cory Mills (Fla.) and remove him from committees Wednesday, listing allegations of harassment, assault, stolen valor and improper contracts by his arms sales company.

Mills has been at the center of numerous personal controversies this year. [stuff in posts #1 and #3]

Mace’s censure resolution references reporting in The Daytona Beach News-Journal questioning how and why he was awarded a Bronze Star, with two service members “disputing that Mills was involved in their rescue or provided live-saving care.”

And finally, Mace’s resolution notes Mills is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after the Office of Congressional Conduct found that his companies “may have entered into, held, or enjoyed contracts with federal agencies while he was a Member of Congress in violation of House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.”

Dick Cheney funeral: Biden to attend, Bush to deliver tribute​

The service is being held Thursday at the National Cathedral.

Former President George W. Bush, who Cheney served for two terms, will offer a tribute at the service. According to the cathedral's program, Cheney's daughter, former congresswoman Liz Cheney, and his grandchildren will also give remarks.

Akita Suggagaki said:

If you have a point to make please do so.

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Ok I’ll give you some clues. Byzantine Emperor. His name means man. As in, See the man. Or, See, the man. Also, by mere happenstance and completely unrelated, a king of Jerusalem died at the same time.

DragonFox91 said:

Is that bad?
Do you donate plasma often?

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Usually, I'm in the donation bed for over an hour. I knew it was going like crazy, and the nurse told me it was done in forty-eight minutes flat today. It was a new nurse poking my arm that I had never seen or dealt with before. Whatever she did, it really worked. I donate as often as my left arm will cooperate. My right arm isn't usable at all, which sucks for being left-handed, haha. If the donation doesn't go through to completion, a full two-month wait is required, and I have more of those than I care for. I am trying to do it every two weeks now or so, more than the required seven-day interval.

University of Wisconsin Police investigating stickers promoting violence against ICE​

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police are investigating stickers that appeared on campus encouraging violence against federal immigration agents.

Republicans are pointing to the imagery as another example of the hostile climate conservatives face on college campuses.

durangodawood said:

What we need is an economy that works for most Americans, and not gimmicks like one time $2000 "rebates" and 50 year mortgages.

And by most Americans I mean everyone whos willing to work. We are nowhere near that. Loads of hardworking people are right on the edge or going backward economically.

Just my opinion. I know its not popular.

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I don't there's anything "unpopular" about what you've expressed.

But as the saying goes, the Devil's in the details.


...but step 1 has to be an honest, no-nonsense discussion about entitlement reforms, and being honest about which ones work, and which ones don't. The pushback from the right has always been "there are people getting it that shouldn't, and that's coming out of my tax dollars" (along with other tropes about "welfare queens"), and the pushback from the left has been the form of refusing to entertain any reforms at all. (as evidenced by pushback anytime there's been the idea floated of removing coca cola and junk food from the eligible purchase list)

...and in a close 2nd, an honest discussion about the institution of higher ed in the US, and the utility (or lack thereof) it provides with regards to attaining comfortable gainful employment.


There was a time (and it wasn't all that long ago, because it was my time just about 20 years ago) when a $35k college degree was the thing that opened the door to a job that started at $50k/year and went up from there. (which was an acceptable trade off)

Fast forward to now, a $100k college degree can maybe land you a gig making $70k out of college, and that's if you're lucky, many remain unemployed or underemployed for quite some time while the interest piles up.

We've tried the "rinse & repeat" approaches to "making college more attainable" and it's just created upward pricing pressure.

So the "honest assessment", in my estimation, is that we (as a whole), need to just flat out say "College degrees are vastly overpriced, and for 90% of jobs, aren't needed...and for the 10% of jobs where it is warranted, those jobs tend to pay well enough that a person can't get a decent ROI on their upfront costs"

"Higher Ed is special and makes you smart -- and that's why you need a degree to be a leasing agent at a Hertz rent-a-car" is a cultural zeitgeist that will obviously take some time to dismantle at scale, but how I envision that being facilitated would be for legislators at the state and federal levels to authorize tax incentives to companies who are willing to hire people with vocational training or certs in place of college degree requirements.

( )

Dan Perez said:

And how will you explain how anyone can be saved by the NEW COVENANT TODAY ??

And explain Heb 9:18. !!

And when. do you believe the BLOOD of Christ BEGAN. to saved anyone ??

dan p

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Jesus brought grace when he came in the flesh, but example of grace was in the days of Noah. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:8), And Noah and his family was saved. Not save from eternal life, but saved from the flood. This is why Jesus had to come. Paul says in Hebrews 9: 24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 26 for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Now Paul said in (Rom. 3:23-25) (v.23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (v.24) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

(v.25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

So the bible tells you to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2 :36-38). And by doing so you come up under his precious blood and then you are saved from your sins that are past, not present or future sins but for sins that are past. We were all locked under death by Adam’s sin, even the second death, which is the lake of fire. But when Jesus became (he was God in the beginning) man and died for the sins of the world, he gave us access back to the tree of life (himself) which Adam had caused us to lose. That’s what grace is, our free gift our access back to the tree of life but that’s another lesson for another time.

So by coming under the blood of Jesus being baptize, you are saved from your past sins. And if you are saved now, it is on a day to day basis. Because for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 23:3), and if you continue to live you will sin again.

When the bible speaks of laws we no longer have to keep, it is speaking of the sacrificial laws and Priesthood laws. These animal sacrificial laws were a school master pointing us to the fact that Jesus would be sacrificed for our sins. Since Jesus died we are no longer under a school master, (required to offer up bulls and goats for our sins). Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. This animal sacrificial law was only a schoolmaster.(Gal 3:24)

Now we must believe (have faith) Jesus died for us (Hebrews 10:4,9-10) 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 9 then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

This doesn't mean we don't have to obey God's moral laws of conduct. That would be like a man getting paroled from prison and then ignoring the same laws that sent him to prison in the first place. Jesus only died once, so if we willingly break God's law, after accepting Jesus, our reward will be eternal damnation

It is the willful sinning that you need to put in check. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. (Hebrew 10: 26, 27)

Silly China.

It's MORTON salt!



Okay, just kidding.

Maybe he'd benefit from learning about "prelest" ("spiritual pride", but there's more to it than the name suggests).

Orthodox Christians can be good on this subject.

SarahsKnight said:

Far as I am concerned, it is worldly, carnal, pagan, and most of all, lacking in Scriptural evidence.

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So make your argument. Opinions do not count.

pasifika said:

Yes the answer is Jesus and the choice is also His to make us His slaves to spread the fragrance of the Gospel...

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And without that slavery to righteousness, that good fruit, we won't be seeing Him.

In reply to journalists’ questions last night as he left Castel Gandolfo, which he now regularly visits, Pope Leo XIV described what his typical Tuesday day off is like.

The pontiff shared that he does “a little reading, a little work. Every day there is correspondence, phone calls; there are some matters that are perhaps more important, more recent. A little tennis, a little swimming.”

A passionate tennis fan since childhood, the Holy Father in May received at the Vatican Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, currently ranked second in the world (behind Carlos Alcaraz) and at that time was ranked first.

When asked why he needs these moments of rest, Leo XIV emphasized on Nov. 19 that “to take good care of yourself, human beings… everyone, should do some activity for the body, the soul, all together.”

Continued below.

“The Shroud of Turin: An Immersive Experience,” a $5 million, 10,000-square-foot museum on the chancery campus of the Diocese of Orange in Southern California, opened to visitors Wednesday.

The museum is presented by Papaian Studios in partnership with the Diocese of Orange and Othonia Inc., an international team of specialists dedicated to exploring and sharing the mystery of the Shroud of Turin.

The 90-minute experience introduces visitors to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, with a special focus on the Shroud of Turin, which many believe to be the burial cloth of Christ.

Inspired by the advanced technology incorporated in “Van Gogh Exhibition: The Immersive Experience” and the “Immersive King Tut,” the museum features 360-degree projection-room theaters as well as shroud replicas, interactive kiosks, a life-sized corpus, and a variety of artwork.

Continued below.

Scare quotes on 'War' and 'By Any Means Necessary' are there for a reason. They are not actual quotes.

Some HVAC guys came and installed my new furnace today. The fired it up and it was LOUD. I asked, "Is it supposed to be that loud?" The main guy was like, "No. I think I messed something up when I wired it. Let me check the manual."

Looking at the manual. What a novel idea.

What does this look like in our world today? And what does it look like in the USA where I live? I don’t have enough knowledge to answer the first question as well as I would like, but I do know that Christians are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ and for their testimonies for him in nations all over the globe. But the persecution of Christians can take on many different forms depending on where people are located throughout the earth. For not all persecution is physical. Much of it is intimidation.

In the USA where I live, physical persecution is not common, although I cannot say that it does not exist. The persecution here is primarily via intimidation, i.e. via shaming, mocking, rejecting, opposing, and casting aside as unnecessary and as unwanted all who stand on the truth of the gospel message, who will not compromise with the world, and who expose the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are. For we don’t fit in with the modern notion of what it looks like to be a believer in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing here in the USA can include many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ and those who promote Jesus as Lord and Savior, and who push the need to believe in Jesus and to become a Christian. And there seems to be a huge push in today’s culture to believe in Jesus and to become a Christian. But there is a catch to it all. From what I have seen, most of them are not teaching the gospel of Christ but a gospel of man made to look good.

For the devil is very clever. So he created a Jesus and a gospel and a Christianity made to appear genuine, but altered to be more acceptable to human flesh and to the ungodly of the world. Therefore, he led many people who are professing faith in Jesus Christ to take many Scriptures out of context and to twist them and to make them say what they do not say if taught in the correct context, to make the lies he is spreading appear to be biblical truth, but they are not truth, but a mixture of lies and truth.

So, outwardly, we have the impression that this country, and other countries, too, are on fire for Jesus Christ, and that people by the thousands, and perhaps millions, are now believing in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God, and who are being publicly baptized with water in profession of their faith. And we are being given the impression that a great revival is breaking out because thousands upon thousands of people are gathering and they are singing songs of worship of our Lord.

Could some of this be genuine? Yes! But from all outward appearance, and from what gospel is being popularly taught these days, especially in these large gatherings, I would speculate that a lot of what is being made to look like biblical Christianity and genuine salvations and genuine worship of God is far from what the Scriptures teach if taught in their correct biblical context. For faith in Jesus must come from God, and it must be persuaded of God as to his holiness and of our sinfulness and of our need to die with Christ to sin and to now walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands.

We cannot just make a verbal confession of Christ as Savior and now we are saved and on our way to heaven. For if our faith in Jesus Christ is of God, and not of human flesh, it will result in us dying to sin and now walking (in conduct) in obedience to our Lord’s commands, in practice. And worship of God is not just singing songs of worship, but it is giving our lives to God as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to him, in death to sin and walks of obedience, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of the Lord.

But by the devil convincing the masses that all they have to do is to make a profession of faith in Jesus, in who he was/is, and in what he did in dying for our sin and rising from the dead, and that now all their sins are forgiven, and they are on their way to heaven, this is how the people are devising a vain thing, and many are taking their stand against the Lord by teaching lies as truth and truth as lies, and by turning many people to a false hope of salvation and eternal life with God, while hell and not heaven awaits them.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907
Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

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The Peoples Devising a Vain Thing
An Original Work / November 19, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

'Irretrievably destroyed': Trump admin says 13 days' worth of video footage inside ICE facility at center of class action lawsuit 'cannot be produced' in line with court's discovery order​

oops!

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that when detainees requested "basic necessities" from ICE, officers responded "with threats, abuse, or contempt." The filing goes on to allege many detainees report "being belittled or ignored by officers when they asked for food and water."

Zceptre said:

I used to believe they were nagging people

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I have been told I am "yelling" and was seen screaming in people's faces that they need to get right with God. But there could be another man who was being obnoxious. And you need to do what God has you doing, and yes some counterfeit might be out there to give you a bad name. However, God guarantees He will produce His results of His ministry.

While ones might say I am bothering people by yelling near them, there have been ones who would walk right up by my face while I was speaking and maneuvering to keep clear of people's up-close ears. Even while I would maneuver, ones would still come right up to me and pass me. One time, a guy stood right behind me; I asked if he wanted anything, and he said he was listening; so I kept on.

Zceptre said:

always worth it even if it is annoying people.

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People can object and others might stop to talk with me. Always, talking personally can take priority. Once, I was preaching in a deluge of rain, and a woman stood there with an umbrella until I was done.

Zceptre said:

Some people do better evangelizing and "preaching" in one on one conversations.

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Yes, personally. Do what God has you doing.