Hollywood’s One-Sided Narrative on ‘Conversion Therapy’

Such counseling bans completely dismiss the needs of individuals who
genuinely desire to pursue counseling, sometimes because of inner
conflicts. It also limits the speech of counselors or ministries that support individuals in their personal choice not to act on these desires.

This bill, and others like it, would have granted state government
the power to punish counselors or religious leaders acting as licensed
counselors who counsel patients who do not wish to act upon their
same-sex attraction for legitimate personal reasons—for example, someone
who wants to live by their religion’s teachings on sexuality or to
remain faithful to their spouse and children.

Hollywood’s One-Sided Narrative on ‘Conversion Therapy’

Russia’s Pinprick War in Ukraine Has Global Implications

For the first time since WWII, military aggression in Europe by a
major power (Russia) led to territorial expansion. In Europe, the legacy
of major power aggression and annexation is mass slaughter and, in the
20th century, global war.

This is why people on this planet who
are seriously interested in securing peace cannot ignore Russia’s
21st-century pinprick war in the Donbass.

In the last few months,
the Kremlin has closed the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov
to the Black Sea. As a result, the Ukrainian seaports of Berdyansk and
Mariupol are blockaded.

Denying commercial shipping access to
these ports is an economic attack on Ukraine. Like the pinprick attacks
in the Donbass, the blockade drains Ukraine.

Russia’s Pinprick War in Ukraine Has Global Implications

The ‘Soft’ but Real UN World Government Plan

The
power to tax member-state nations would inherently imply the power to
destroy those nation-states if there were resistance to that
taxation.  Thus, we have a formula for a double-whammy of oppression of
the nations: the linked threat of military oppression and financial
oppression of the peoples of the world.  Like Hobbes, they are driven by
an image of humankind with no appeal to a holy God and to God-given
moral principles, but as a “war of all against all,” that can be
ameliorated only by a vast increase in worldwide centralized power, both
militarily and financially.

However,
I suggest that this is the “soft” first stage of government being
enacted.  Although its focus is on needs rather than “natural rights”
and “upholding the moral law within a Christian context,” nonetheless,
its loose character reminds one of the government of the U.S. under the
Articles of Confederation.  The states – formerly the 13 colonies – did
not have a standing army or navy and did not have federal taxation.  The
Executive Branch was purposely weak, and the Articles could be amended
only by a unanimous vote, and a two-thirds vote of the states – not a
simple majority – was required to pass a national law.  The states
remained the epicenters of authority in the new nation.

The ‘Soft’ but Real UN World Government Plan

Why Nitpicking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will End Poorly

Populists may often be of dubious credentials, but smug nitpicking
from partisans does more to confirm their narratives than undermine
them. When voters see themselves in politicians, they see themselves in
the attacks against them. That’s not to say bad ideas shouldn’t be
attacked. They can and they must. But sometimes that work has to be done
with tact in order to avoid creating martyrs and anti-establishment
champions, or insulting people who are understandably attracted to a
bartender-turned-congresswoman or freewheeling billionaire.

Not every politician can be Mitt Romney. There’s an impulse on the
left and the right to enforce the standards of politics-as-usual on
likable outsiders (see: the 2016 Republican primary). In Trump’s rise,
conservatives witnessed firsthand the failures of that approach. They
should heed the lesson.

Why Nitpicking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will End Poorly

How China Is Rewriting Its Own Script

It is difficult to tell whether China’s push to
soften its image through movies, media and cultural projects has been
successful.

“Chinese soft power has not been that successful
outside of the developing world,” said Stanley Rosen, a professor at
the University of Southern California who studies Chinese society and
cinema. “If China does have any soft power, it’s probably because of the
success of their economy and the Chinese model that they’re pushing
very hard now.”

The Hundred-Year Marathon

China’s secret strategy to replace America as the global superpower.

How China Is Rewriting Its Own Script