Protecting religious freedom for America’s veterans…

Like you, we’re always thankful to those currently serving in the active duty military, as well as the millions of veterans who’ve served our country in the past. Many of them had to fight in some of the most difficult and gruesome battles in history, and some even had to endure being captured or tortured at the hands of the enemy.

One of those courageous veterans is U.S. Army Air Corps Technical Sergeant (TSgt) Herman “Herk” Streitburger, who spent a year in captivity at a German prison camp during World War II.

And because he sacrificed so greatly for us, we are now fighting for him.

Herk is a living example of American prisoners of war who’ve relied on their faith as a source of comfort and courage during their captivity – which is why he graciously donated his family Bible to be displayed as part of a POW/MIA Remembrance Table at a VA hospital in Manchester, NH.

Currently, we are defending the display after an outside group more than 2,000 miles away demanded the Bible be removed, even so far as to call it “repugnant.”

But they picked a fight with the wrong veteran, a beloved American hero who has the unwavering support of our firm, as well as our growing army of supporters like you.

Here’s what you and other patriots had to say in support of Herk and our nation’s veterans:

 

NORM ‘n’ AL Note: When simply displaying a Bible in the United States of America, at any event and for any reason, becomes “repugnant,” then it is time for all of us to stand up and take action against the ignorance and “repugnant” bias of some of our citizens.   If living in this country is so  “repugnant, ” why don’t you just leave?  Surely you can find somewhere in this world that will welcome your bias, ingratitude, and intolerance.  Try Iran first, why don’t you?

 

[Reprinted from an article published by FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE]

 

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As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970

 

American public schools after 35 years? Worse than ever. Here’s the proof.

As a semi-retired business writer who taught in Detroit 35 years ago, I returned to the classroom because a local high school was unable to replace a Latin teacher who had resigned.  I hold an advanced degree in medieval studies and renewed my certification to teach Latin, history, and social studies.  Once in class, I witnessed firsthand the politicized atmosphere of today’s factory-style government-monopoly schools.

My first exposure to school politics came when I renewed my certification.  The 1982 certificate only listed the courses I could teach.  In contrast, the 2018 version had a 300-word “Code of Ethics” that amounted to a profession of faith in collectivism, egalitarianism, state schools, and diversity (typically limited to superficial things like skin color and gender, not ideas).  Nonetheless, I proceeded, thinking that I couldn’t possibly make matters worse.  That much was correct.

Grosse Pointe South High School is architecturally interesting, sits in a higher-income community, and is considered a good school by locals.

After an interview and teaching a few “test” classes to first- and second-year students, I was hired.  Within a few days, however, it was clear that many students did not understand English grammar, much less Latin fundamentals.  In response, I taught remedial grammar and outlined how students could pass my course with a “C” or “D.”  There were some excellent students, but test scores were not distributed in a bell-shaped curve.  It was an “inverted” bell, or bimodal distribution – with scores clumped at the two extremes.

Poor preparation, however, was only the tip of the iceberg.  Students did not bring books to class, relentlessly complained about homework, and expected high grades regardless of proficiency.  And when I asked questions, I uncovered some alarming facts:

• Latin was a dumping ground for students who already had failed another language; “picking up a few phrases” was the goal.
• Many teachers expected little but awarded high grades.
• Students were subjected to parental pressure to obtain good grades regardless of performance.
• A department head had been demoted for teaching at a pre-college level and refusing to lower his standards.
• Senior teachers were dropping out in disgust; younger teachers had no choice but to accept the situation.
• Under parental pressure, the principal was establishing a process to prevent students from having to take more than one test on the same day.  College prep?

In short, the school embraced grade inflation, propelled by the following dynamic:

• Parents of high-performing students are “satisfied customers.”  Their kids study and bring home good grades, so they think they are getting their money’s worth from high taxes.  But they don’t know that there is no correlation between per-pupil spending and student performance.  And they never complain.
• Parents of low-performing students also want good “results.”  They hear their children’s tales of woe and complain constantly.

Subjected to this one-sided feedback, administrators tacitly urge teachers to lower standards, despite proclaiming the opposite in public.  Like the Dodo in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “…everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”  Austrian economists, however, have explained this behavior.  Ludwig von Mises, for example, noted the human tendency to place a high value on receiving something sooner rather than later.  He called it time-preference theory.  The desire for immediate gratification with little effort explains the phenomenon of grade inflation.  At Grosse Pointe South High School, however, this practice goes undetected because it hides behind a much broader trend toward low achievement – most recently documented by Bryan Kaplan in his devastating book, The Case Against Education.  This trend is even more pronounced in Michigan, enabling Grosse Pointe students to slip under the radar.

The illusion of competence also explains why – despite falling student enrollment, which should reduce costs – Grosse Pointe and similar school districts succeed in raising school taxes.  Instead of being outraged at paying dearly for abysmal academic results, those who favor school taxes double-down on their support! It’s a combination of psychological denial and fiscal Stockholm syndrome.  In denial, “the faithful” desperately cling to the notion that their elite high-tax district is exceptional despite the data.  They cannot admit they have been duped.  And since they cannot escape the fiscal dragnet of this tax-fed monopoly, in a classic display of Stockholm syndrome, they adopt the stance of their captors and cheer all the louder! But to an outsider, they are playing the part of the fawning mob in Hans Christian Anderson’s fable, The Emperor’s New Clothes: they pretend that the emperor is wearing splendid garments despite his nakedness.

Today’s students are never free of the school district’s watchful eye, which seems to take its cues from the CIA and TSA.  But with so many parents accepting after-school surveillance (and paying for it), children never learn the sense of outrage that healthy individuals feel in the presence of Peeping Toms.  Instead, they learn to love Big Brother.  Likewise, a big-government political bias shapes their views on current and past events:

• During a presentation about Gutenberg’s moveable-type printing press, a student became upset upon learning that literacy skyrocketed as a result of this invention – not because of public schools.  His mother is a teacher.

• Trump Derangement Syndrome was widespread among teachers, who frequently vent their political views.
• When asked about my politics at an otherwise friendly private holiday party, a school counselor revealed a comic-book grasp of and hostility to free markets when I replied, “libertarian-voluntaryist.”
• In the final minutes of my last day teaching, I finally permitted a political discussion.  Some students were attracted to socialism and Antifa’s violence, but they were shocked into disbelief when I mentioned that Benito Mussolini, who introduced fascismo to modern politics, was firmly rooted in socialism and communism.  They were further outraged to discover that the Nazi party was steeped in collectivism and even included the term socialist in the party name, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparte (NSDAP). 
• Ignorance about slavery prevailed.  Many believed it was isolated to the United States instead of practiced worldwide for ages.  They were more surprised – even resistant – to discover that the word slave is etymologically linked to the word Slav and white slavery.  Moreover, they somehow “learned” that Westerners were the most enthusiastic practitioners of slavery instead of being among the first to abandon it.
• In March, 2018, Grosse Pointe students walked out of classes to protest the shootings in Parkland, Florida.  This occurred before revelations that the FBI failed to act on tips about the shooter, that school “security” failed to act, that Broward County Public School’s disciplinary practices played a key role in the shootings, and that the school district tried to cover up its deeds by suing the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper for publishing documents that revealed these facts.  Fortunately the Sun-Sentinel prevailed in the lawsuit.  The upshot? This school-approved Children’s Crusade was based on superstitions about guns and hostility to Constitutional rights.
• Gender dysphoria is the new frontier in virtue-signaling, but we know that young people experiment with new identities – adopting and discarding career choices, hobbies, and friends as they “try them on for size.”  But the gender dysphoria fad requires adherence to a stereotyped view – namely that certain behaviors are appropriate only for boys and others for girls.  Some children, however, have a powerful need for attention and jump on the latest bandwagon to obtain it.  Others want to please “important” adults.  Shortly after I was hired, a counselor asked me to address one student with plural pronouns to acknowledge her/his gender dysphoria.  This request would not have been an issue for me if the student were an adult.  I treat people respectfully as a matter of habit.  But this student was too young to make this choice.  He/she may have been responding to the issue’s trendiness and had demonstrated more than once an interest in fringe politics and behaviors – typical teenage stuff.  I believed he/she was attempting to manipulate adults into playing along – another teenage pastime.  Moreover, he/she was bright but did not do her homework or study; he/she didn’t even know what a pronoun was! Since Latin is a highly inflected language, this request would derail the learning process.  Finally, it was completely unnecessary since I always called on students by name.  No pronouns were needed.  My explanation did not please the counselor, but I continued to treat the student respectfully.

Group identity and outrage culture dominate public schools.  Children learn to pose as victims despite enjoying a standard of living unmatched in human history and by 95% of the world’s current population.  Instead of learning to function as unique beings with free choice and that the smallest minority is an individual facing a mob, they are swapping a legacy of individual rights for group identities that – unlike individuals – don’t bleed and are manipulated by special interests to undercut genuine rights.

If you wonder why students at schools like the University of Michigan cannot tolerate free speech and need trigger warnings and safe spaces, look no further than public schools.  They are a political Trojan horse – a “free” government “gift” with plenty of strings attached.

 

(This article was published by AMERICAN THINKER.  Its author, Lawrence M. Ludlow, provides international location analyses, technical writing, and marketing services to corporate clients.  He holds an M.A. in medieval studies from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies and has lectured on manuscripts, early printing, and art history at the Newberry Library in Chicago and the San Diego Public Library.  He has taught in Detroit and in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.)

 

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As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970

 

“They have stepped on me, taxed me more, lied to me, called me names, and demand I give up my rights”

I was brought up a military brat.  My father did 22 years in the United States Air Force.  In 1954 when he joined, they promised if he made a career of it, he and his wife, my mother, would be taken care of for life.  He got out in 1976 after extending his service a couple of extra years so I would not have to switch high schools in Florida.

We moved out west after my father retired and I finished high school.  In 1978, I got a job in the wood products industry at a particleboard factory and began work a schedule that just became normal to me. seven days on, two days off, working nights, weekends, and most holidays.  I wore “save the whales” t-shirts at work.

The industry came under attack because of environmental concerns for the spotted owl.  The lumber and wood products industry in the West was decimated over the next 15-20 years.  We tried to muster support from our government, but our efforts fell on deaf ears.  Eventually after 22 years, the facility I worked at closed.  The ability to do what we did, which was to recycle sawdust and discarded wood into a usable product, became too expensive as we had to go further and further away for our raw materials.  The logging industry was gone because of environmentalism and government policies to put animal concerns ahead of humans.

The spotted owl (the Mexican spotted owl in the southwest) was noted later on to be mating with other ‘species’ of owls.

It occurred to me if they can call an owl of a different color another species, then this should be applied to humans.  By a definition of species, we are all our own species based on external color, size and shape, etc..  Why were we not being looked after by our government in our lives?  We paid taxes and worked our butts off, only to be told we were killing the planet.  Where was the Human Protective Agency?  Why was I paying taxes to have the government pay bureaucrats to work against me?

In the 90s, I watched the Clintons. Bill at that time seemed to be a pragmatist but Hillary, the unelected first lady, tried to take over the healthcare system.  I saw it as a blatant power grab by an overly ambitious person in government.  By this time, we were well into the spotted owl era, and my distaste for the government sticking its nose into our lives was huge.  My save the whales t-shirts were history long before this.

Now, my parents were Roosevelt Democrats who fed on the nightly news: Huntley-Brinkley, Walter Cronkite.  That was the source for news.  In their minds, Republicans were the evil ones trying to take away their VA benefits promised to them in the 50’s.  They believed the nightly news.  There was no internet, no counterpoint.  When I reached adulthood, we argued over politics a lot more than we should have.  My Mother actually believed the SPLC was a conservative organization.  We believed the same things really as she espoused conservative positions, but she thought the Democrats had her back on it all.  I swore to my mother I would never vote for a party that would put a damn bird above a human.

It has only gotten worse.

After securing a job at a hospital, I watched ObamaCare tear through healthcare and then almost immediately watched as our pension benefits were frozen as a result of having to comply with new rules and regulations.  My wife and I lost 3000 dollars a month in future retirement income as a result of her company having to reorganize, and my pension is a private plan. Not a single Republican voted for the ObamaCare scam. But hey, 70 million dollars later the hospital has EPIC.  My Chart anyone?  I understand the CEO of that company has a lot of ties to Obama.

Hospitals now have departments of people working just to make sure all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed and the punctuation is correct just so we get paid for taking care of those on Medicare and Medicaid.  I can imagine on the other end that the government bureaucracy has people just looking for mistakes and ways not to pay out.  It is really mindboggling.

I watched my father get piss-poor treatment at the VA hospital, waiting months to get appointments and then just handed more drugs.  He struggled with issues from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.  He had back surgery there without any physical therapy follow-up.  He could not straighten out his back to lie down or stand up straight after the surgery.   He died in 2011 after having to live and sleep in his easy chair for years due to the pain. I want to say he was taken care of for life as promised years before without sounding sarcastic.  But I can’t.

I watched as my mother walked away from the Democrats.  She quoted Reagan…. they left her.  She voted for President Trump.

I never went to college, I am totally self-taught.  I am a doer of many trades and master of none.  I have had a great life in the greatest country on earth.  All along the way, the Democrats have stepped on me, taxed me more, lied to me, called me names, and demand I give up my rights.  Democrats were the ones pushing environmental causes at the expense of humans and government takeover of healthcare.  They have mismanaged everything they get their hands on, and then blame others for their own deeds.  I watch them lie and cheat and twist words.  Democrats have alienated their own base to the point they have to argue for foreigners to come into this country illegally in order to vote for Democrats, mainly by calling those of us opposed to this “racist.”

In all fairness, the weak Republicans in our government have hardly stood in their way.  But that is another day, another rant.

I am now called racist, homophobic, misogynist, and Islamaphobic.  A gun-toting, Bible-believing bitter clinger.  A deplorable.  A white nationalist.  Nazi. I can’t remember all of my Democrat party subtitles.

But I am middle class. I have been given nothing by our government and have given too much to it.  And it always wants more, telling me I have to pay my fair share.  It is a sad state when you get to a point in life of maximum dollars earned that it is taken away by higher tax brackets and the loss of deductions.

I will never vote for anyone advocating for more government control.  Or for anyone who is trying to denigrate me by name-calling or label-making.  The reason is my life.

 

[Reprinted as written by Anthony Keith and published by AMERICAN THINKER]

 

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As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970

 

Obama, Clinton, and Kerry bought the Iranian lie about Islam prohibiting nuclear weapons…and Iran still tries to deceive the West with its current “nuclear fatwa”

Iran tells the West that Islamic law does not permit production or use of nuclear weapons.  What Islamic law DOES permit is lying when lies will further Islamic goals.  Obama, Clinton, and Kerry all bought the Iranian lies and promoted them as truth.

• If history is anything to go by, the Supreme Leader’s statement is barely worth a pinch of salt. It is notable that that the first time Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons took place right after his government was caught red-handed pursuing secret nuclear activities and enriching uranium in two clandestine nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in 2002 in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
• Having been found out for their deception, the Iranian authorities subsequently adopted deception as a national policy by promoting the narrative of aversion to nuclear weapons to the world while embracing and furthering their nuclear activities privately.
• First of all, no one, it seems, has ever laid eyes on this proclaimed fatwa.
• Khamenei’s nuclear fatwa is nothing but a phony decree aimed at deflecting attention from Iran’s nuclear ambitions and activities. It is designed solely to serve the interests of his umma (Islamic community) and the Islamic Republic.

In the world we live in where many things are certain, one of them is the Iranian regime’s recent efforts to invoke a fatwa in an attempt to deceive the West. The declaration of a fatwa by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to serve as “proof” that Tehran is not pursuing nuclear weapons is a move both mischievous and clever.

Recently, the junior Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, met with Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif, who in his deliberations with Senator Paul told him about Iran’s unwillingness to seek nuclear weapons because of Khamenei’s fatwa.

Iran’s Supreme Leaders had been previously quoted as saying:

“We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [religiously forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster”.

Going even further, the Supreme Leader claimed that the production or use of nuclear weapons are governed by Islamic laws which ban them. On his official website, he adds that “Both sharia [Islamic laws] and aqli [related to logic and reason] fatwas dictate that we do not pursue them.”

If history is anything to go by, the Supreme Leader’s statement is barely worth a pinch of salt. It is notable that that the first time Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons took place right after his government was caught red-handed pursuing secret nuclear activities and enriching uranium in two clandestine nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in 2002 in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Having had their deception found out, the Iranian authorities subsequently adopted deception as a national policy by promoting the narrative of aversion to nuclear weapons to the world while embracing and furthering their nuclear activities privately.

In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for instance, Iran deployed Khamenei’s declaration of a fatwa to dodge further discussion about its nuclear program. Iran claimed that “the production, stock-piling, and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam and that the Islamic Republic of Iran shall never acquire these weapons.”

Unsurprisingly, some world leaders bought Iran’s lie and began pressing others to follow suit. Former President Barack Obama, for example, in an attempt to appease Tehran and curry the favor of the Iranian mullahs, naively declared in his address to the U.N. General Assembly (September 24, 2013), that “The Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.”

As if to echo Obama’s statement, former US Secretary of State John Kerry also said:

“The supreme leader… says he has issued a fatwa, the highest form of Islamic prohibition against some activity, and he said that is to prohibit Iran from ever seeking a nuclear weapon.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also lent her support to the farce by further pushing the narrative of Iran’s innocence to the word. According to her:

“The other interesting development which you may have followed was the repetition by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei that they would – that he had issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons, against weapons of mass destruction. Prime Minister Erdogan and I discussed this at some length, and I’ve discussed with a number of experts and religious scholars.”

First of all, no one, it seems, has ever laid eyes on this proclaimed fatwa.

Second, if only Clinton, Obama, Kerry or other politicians were smart enough to study the fundamentals of Islam, they would be cognizant of the fact that taqiyya can be a reason to issue fatwas under Shia Islam. Taqiyya, which is particularly emphasized in Shia Islam, is an Islamic juridical term which dictates that lying is allowed when one’s interests or the interests of Islamic government or community is under threat. In other words, taqiyya is a type of jihad, the battle to win the fight against the supposed enemies.

For those still willing to grasp at straws by believing the Ayatollah issued a nuclear fatwa, and who know anything about Islam, they would realize that fatwas are not carved in stone; they can be changed at any moment at the discretion of the Muslim leader.

In summary, the quick reference to Ayatollah Khamenei’s nuclear fatwa declaration as evidence of Iran’s innocence in the nuclear arms race amounts to self-deception. Khamenei’s nuclear fatwa is nothing but a phony decree aimed at deflecting attention from Iran’s nuclear ambitions and activities. It is designed solely to serve the interests of his umma (Islamic community) and the Islamic Republic.

 

NORM ‘n’ AL Note:  In other words, can we trust Iran to tell us the truth when the Islamic law it so reveres encourages Muslims to lie whenever it suits them?  (Rhetorical question.)

 

[From an article by Dr. Majid Rafizadeh which was published by the Gatestone Institute.  Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy.]

 

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As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970

 

If Mueller Didn’t Write His Report, Someone from His Team of Former Clinton Lawyer FBI Agents Did (And Now Everything Makes Sense)

The biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s Congressional hearing with Special Counselor Robert Mueller was how unfamiliar he was with his own report. He had no clue who Glenn Simpson or Fusion GPS was. He literally told one Congressman who questioned him he “wasn’t familiar with that part of the report.”

Even the Trump hating mainstream media ran headlines calling Mueller frail… confused… lost… doddering. What happened?  Out of all of the predictions about the outcome of the Mueller investigation, the one thing that surprised us was that Mueller turned out to be a senile old man.

Grandpa Mueller spent hours in front of a House committee being grilled, but the most common words coming out of his mouth were, “Could you repeat the question?”  The rest of the time, he stared around the room in confused fashion. At one point, he whipped his head around for 15 seconds, trying to figure where the disembodied voice of a congressman was coming from.

It appears that Grandpa Mueller spent the entirety of the “Mueller investigation” looking for his slippers, eating soft food and trying to guess the puzzle before Vanna White turns all the letters around.

Meanwhile, Clinton attack dog Andrew Weissmann and Clinton Foundation attorney Jeannie Rhee ran the actual anti-Trump investigation.

Once again, Democrats suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome have derailed a carefully orchestrated Deep State con on the American people. They really should tell each other what they are doing so they don’t screw up the “narrative” they are trying to convince the American people of.

“Lifelong Republican” Robert Mueller was selected by Obama’s Harvard buddy Rod Rosenstein to be the face of the Russian collusion investigation. Mueller’s presence, because he is a “Republican” (sort of like Jeb is a “Republican”), was supposed to mitigate the fact that the investigative team was entirely made up of Clinton donors and in the case of Jeannie Rhee, Hillary’s personal attorney. Mueller’s presence was supposed to make the probe legit.

When Mueller issued the report written by Weissmann and Rhee, he was then supposed to ride off into the sunset. His work was done and now it was up to Congress to impeach Trump. He announced that the report was his testimony. He had nothing further to say.

But the Democrats, led by Pencil Neck Adam Schiff, weren’t in on the big plan from the Deep State. They absolutely insisted that Mueller had to come testify. The Deep State stalled, but Mueller was finally dragged in to spill the beans… and look at the result. It was a complete and total disaster for the hapless Democrats. They went off script again and ruined the whole thing!

It’s now clearly evident that Mueller was a figurehead for the fake Russian collusion coup attempt, and the American public was never meant to know that Mueller is actually a frail old man who doesn’t have all his faculties.

Think about it: If you were Adam Schiff, would you have demanded that Mueller come in and testify if you knew he was in such rough shape? Not a chance!

In the realm of actual real news as it relates to Russian collusion, John Solomon of The Hill has broken a big story that has Washington panicking today. Mystery man Joseph Mifsud has flipped. He’s cooperating with Attorney General Bill Barr’s probe into the origins of the Russian collusion hoax, the unlawful campaign spying, the FISA warrant abuse and the attempted coup.

For those who need a reminder on the timeline:

George Papadopoulos joins the Trump campaign in July of 2016. Joseph Mifsud comes out of nowhere and tells Papadopoulos, “Hey, the Russians have dirt on Hillary, and they’d like to help the Trump campaign.”

Papadopoulos then mentions to the Australian ambassador, “Hey, I heard something about some Russians having some dirt on Hillary.” The ambassador then called the FBI and told them Papadopoulos was colluding with the Russians.

If the mysterious Joseph Mifsud, who lives across the street from the Vatican in Rome, turns out to be a Russian intelligence agent, then part of the Russian collusion story would have been true. But Mifsud wasn’t Russian intelligence. He was and is a Western intelligence agent – meaning the entire “Russian collusion” coup attempt really was hatched by Clinton loyalists in the Deep State.

If John Solomon’s reporting is true – and he’s been pretty accurate all along – then Joseph Mifsud is spilling the beans about Hilary Clinton, John Brennan, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama and the rest of the co-conspirators. We might finally see some Russian collusion arrests happening in the near future.

 

[From an article published by the American Liberty Report]

 

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As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970

 

 

 

Undeniable proof that Google is rigging its search results, meaning its search results are not HONEST results

Google has now proven it (1) censors businesses and organizations it doesn’t like, and (2) tweaks its search algorithms so that many businesses and organizations are either buried in the back pages of search results or do not show up at all no matter what you type in for a search term.  On top of all that, Google tries to bury YOU, the user, with ADS when you search for ANYTHING.

The company which told you years ago that it would do no evil is trying now to “do evil with both hands.”

Here are three things you may not know.  First, you do not need Google advertising to succeed online.  There are many other great ways to advertise on the Internet.  Second, there are other search engines that are MUCH BETTER than Google.  Why?  They give you only honest search results, with no attempt to twist or deliberately bias those results.  Third, the honest search engines do not keep your search results so they can bury you with ads for the rest of your online life.  (Because they do not keep the details of your searches, they have nothing to sell to advertisers who want to track you all over the ‘net.)  So, if you have been operating all this time with the belief that only Google really knows how to search, please allow us to correct that fallacious notion.

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This was sent to us recently by WND.com.

Here is an objective fact: Google not only censors businesses and organizations, it goes further to filter them out of their search results so no one can find them unless they specifically search using the precise name of that business.

WND.com is one example of this.  Go to Google and search some of these topics:

• “Christian news media” – even though WND is the oldest online journalism organization in America and still one of the most popular, and at the same time is the largest Christian website on the internet, WND isn’t mentioned once in the top 100 results.
• “Conservative news media” – no results for WND, but plenty for liberal news sites like Politico. . . The Washington Post. . . The Huffington Post. . . and the ultra-radical left Daily Kos.
• “Idiot” – President Donald Trump appears as the third result in the search and appears dozens of times in page after page of search results.
• “Racist” – All Trump All Day Every Day!

And if you specifically search for “WND” or WorldNetDaily, the results return not only links to our website, Twitter feed, Facebook page, etc., but they also include lots of links from WND-hating anti-Christian publications like the Washington Post, Media Matters for America, Salon, and The Huffington Post…organizations that smear WND in their stories and take pleasure in knowing that we along with lots of other honest and ethical organizations are struggling to stay alive now that Google and Facebook have dried up virtually all of our advertising revenue.

Something happened recently that really brought this home in a dramatic and sort of shocking way. I needed to pull up a story I had written several years ago and did a Google search for it. I typed in the exact headline, word for word, and then pressed enter. I got back a total of eight pages of search results, but my story was not anywhere on the first page. Nor was it on the second, or the third, fourth, fifth, or ANY of the eight pages of Google search results!

Incredible, I thought. Then I copied and pasted the exact same headline into the Yahoo search engine, hit enter, and bingo — my WND article was the VERY FIRST search result returned. Of course it was; it was the most perfect match for my search terms!

This showed me in a chilling and undeniable way that Google really has rigged its search algorithms to exclude the pioneering news organization I’ve worked at and helped lead for the past 20 years.  (NORM ‘n’ AL Note:  WND is eminently worthy of your support, if you are able to help maintain honesty on the Internet.  In an age when journalistic truth is increasingly rare, WND is dedicated to making sense out of the chaotic and dangerous era we are living through.  Many important stories never see the light of day — until WND breaks the story.)

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Please allow us to suggest to you a search engine we (NORM ‘n’ AL) have been using for years.  Great search results, honest searching, and no ads.  Try it…you’ll like it!

As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to love your neighbors…even those who are nothing like you…they’re so unlike you they’re an “opposite you”

Max Lucado

You drive a hybrid; he chugs around in a gas-guzzling, air-polluting truck.

You vote red and she likes the donkeys.

You love your husband and she lives with her wife.

You and your “opposite you.”

“Opposite yous” can drain your joy tank. There is a tension, an awkwardness. Anger, low-grade, or high flame, can flare. Inability to manage the relationship can lead to isolation, prejudice, and bigotry.

What if your “opposite you” is your boss? Your next-door neighbor? Your coworker? What if your “opposite you” is your parent or child? How do we respond? Ignore them? Share a meal with them? Leave the room when they enter? Ask them to leave so we can stay? Discuss our differences? Dismiss our differences? Argue?

I wonder if the best answer might be found in this short admonition from the Bible: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Rom.15:7). This verb for “accept” means more than tolerate or coexist. It means to welcome into one’s fellowship and heart. The word implies the warmth and kindness of genuine love.

Could we not use some of that? Tackiness and vitriol seem to be the order of the day. Perhaps a few of us could strike a different tone?

Reserve judgment. Let every person you meet be a new person in your mind. None of this labeling or preconceived notions. Pigeonholes work for pigeons, not for people.

Raleigh Washington is an African-American minister who has dedicated much of his life to racial reconciliation. He says that the most important phrase in bridge-building is this: Help me understand what it’s like to be you. 

Help me understand what it’s like to be a teenager in this day and age.

Help me understand what it is like to be born into affluence.

Help me understand the challenges you face as an immigrant.

Help me understand what it’s like to be a female in a gray-flannelled corporation.

Then sit back and listen. Really listen. Listening is a healing balm for a raw relationship. (A friend admitted to me, “I often appear to be listening, when actually what I’m really doing is reloading.”)

“Be in agreement, understanding each other, loving each other as family, being kind and humble” (1 Pet. 4:8).

Resist the urge to shout. We did a lot of shouting on our elementary school playground. All the boys in Mrs. Amburgy’s first-grade class bonded together to express our male superiority. We met daily at recess and, with arms interlocked, marched around the playground shouting, “Boys are better than girls! Boys are better than girls!” Frankly, I didn’t agree, but I enjoyed the fraternity.

The girls, in response, formed their own club. They paraded around the school announcing their disdain for boys. “Girls are better than boys.” We were a happy campus.

Shouting at someone else might feel good. But does it do any good?

It seems to me that there is a lot of shouting going on.

Shouting on the airwaves.

Shouting on bumper stickers.

Shouting on the news broadcasts.

Shouting on social media.

All sides, shouting. “We are better than you. We are smarter than you. We are holier than you.” Is it possible to have different opinions without having a fit or a fight? When you sense the volume increasing and the heat rising, close your mouth. It’s better to keep quiet and keep a friend than to be loud and lose one.

Let’s reason together. Let’s work together. And if discussion fails, let’s allow love to succeed. “Above all things have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8). If love covers a multitude of sins, surely it can also cover a multitude of opinions.

Besides, if you are kind to your opposite you and I am the same with mine and others are the same with theirs, won’t we eventually be kinder to each other?

Who knows, a KINDNESS REVOLUTION might break out!

 

(From an article published by Fox News. Max Lucado is a San Antonio pastor and best-selling author. Visit his website at www.MaxLucado.com.)

 

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As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis
normal@usa1usa.com
612.239.0970