School: Praying for a Colleague is Unacceptable

Todd Starnes  "A school worker in Augusta, Maine was ordered to stop using religious phrases like “I will pray for you” and “You were in my prayers” because such language is not allowed inside a public school building – even in private conversations with coworkers.

    "The Augusta School Department launched an investigation of Toni Richardson after they alleged she “imposed some strong religious/spiritual belief system” towards a coworker.

    "Now, imposing your religion on someone is a serious allegation. Was Ms. Richardson forcing her coworker to convert to Christianity? Did she attempt to baptize him against his will?

    "It turned out to be nothing of the sort.

    "According to an official memorandum from the school district, Ms. Richardson had told a colleague that she was going to pray for him. It just so happens that Ms. Richardson and the colleague attended the same church.

Back in 2016, the colleague had been having a difficult time adjusting to his new job and Ms. Richardson did what most Christians would do – she told him that she would be praying for him.

    "Months later, the colleague and Ms. Richardson had a falling out – leading to the complaint about the prayers.

    "The district sent Ms. Richardson a “coaching memorandum” – warning her that such language is not acceptable – “even if that other person attends the same church as you.”

    "She was not even allowed to use the word “blessing.”

 “In the context of the ‘separation of church and state,’ this case prohibits public school-sponsored religious expression,” the memo read. “Therefore, in the future, it is imperative that you do not use phrases that integrate public and private belief systems when in the public schools.”

    "She was also specifically ordered not to make any “reference to your spiritual or religious beliefs.”

    "The district warned her that any additional infractions could lead to disciplinary action or dismissal.

    “ 'I was shocked that my employer punished me for privately telling a coworker, ‘I will pray for you,’” Ms. Richardson said. “I’m afraid I will lose my job if someone hears me privately discussing my faith with a coworker.”

"Sweet Lord Almighty, America!" . . .

This Professor Resigned Rather Than Go to Diversity Training

"It's hard to figure out what's more appalling about this episode: the ease with which powerful faculty members can strip their colleagues of their ability to do their jobs just because those colleagues exercise free speech and don't sign on to their ideological priorities—or the increasing power of bloated university bureaucracies, especially "diversity" bureaucracies over every facet of existence at a university that is supposed to be devoted to the life of the mind."

Weekly Standard

Paul Griffiths was an esteemed professor at Duke before facing disciplinary action.

You're in your early 60s, and you hold an endowed-chair professorship at Duke University's prestigious divinity school, where your specialty is Catholic theology, and where the subjects of the courses you teach include a range of religious and secular philosophers from Augustine of Hippo to Wittgenstein. You've also written 10 scholarly books as sole author and seven more as co-author or editor. Your endowed chair is the capstone of a distinguished academic career that includes teaching stints at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

"And then you get a mass email—in early February of this year—from one of your younger professor-colleagues. It says:

On behalf of the Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Standing Committee, I strongly urge you to participate in the Racial Equity Institute Phase I Training planned for March 4 and 5. We have secured funding from the Provost to provide this training free to our community and we hope that this will be a first step in a longer process of working to ensure that DDS is an institution that is both equitable and anti-racist in its practices and culture. … We recognize that it is a significant commitment of time; we also believe it will have great dividends for our community. … Duke Divinity School will host a Racial Equity Institute Phase I Training on March 4 and 5, 2017, 8:30—5 pm both days. Participants should plan to attend both full days of training.

On behalf of the Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Standing Committee, I strongly urge you to participate in the Racial Equity Institute Phase I Training planned for March 4 and 5. We have secured funding from the Provost to provide this training free to our community and we hope that this will be a first step in a longer process of working to ensure that DDS is an institution that is both equitable and anti-racist in its practices and culture. … We recognize that it is a significant commitment of time; we also believe it will have great dividends for our community. … Duke Divinity School will host a Racial Equity Institute Phase I Training on March 4 and 5, 2017, 8:30—5 pm both days. Participants should plan to attend both full days of training.

"Uh-oh, a "training" session. Anyone who's ever worked for an entity with a human resources department knows what that's going to be like: two very, very long days of "workshops" in which overpaid "training" hucksters—sorry, I meant consultants—haul out the PowerPoint slides and waste your time with yada-yada about multiculturalism, structural racism, microagressions, and whatever else is in the social-justice-warrior weapons cache these days. The email continued:" . . .

Cartoon added by TD

The Obamas: The Kardashians 2.0

"The Obamas telegraphed their Kardashian tendencies over the years by inviting criminal rappers, who had to wear ankle monitors so law enforcement could keep track of them, to perform at the White House.  They embraced the Black Lives Matter thugs while, for eight years, they dissed the police.  We will thankfully not see any of that in the Trump administration.  The Kardashian administration is over, and the Obamas are free to fulfill their full Kardashian dreams of all that the Kardashians represent."

via: cartoonsmix.com

nowtheendbegins.

Patricia McCarthy  "One need not to have watched the long-running reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians to know what it sells, what it represents, or what it says about American culture.   Since its debut in 2007, the show is a sort of flashing neon light warning about the failure of our educational system and our intellectual and critical decline.  In short, the Kardashian family is an exercise in greed, materialism, shallowness, amorality,  superficiality, and the self-absorption that characterizes much of the millennial generation.  The family, in all its soap-operatic nonsense, is a sad commentary on the entertainment industry and its willingness to capitulate to the lowest common denominator of our selfie-obsessed society.  The characters are, as the saying goes, only "famous for being famous."

"Over the eight years that the Obamas were in the White House, they spent one hundred million taxpayer dollars taking luxury vacations all over the world.  Often Mrs. Obama traveled with her mother, her daughters, and a bevy of pals to the finest, most expensive destinations in the world on our dime.  The presidential family was never one for a small footprint.  No.  They lived like royalty while lecturing the rest of us on how we should live, how our hard-earned money should be redistributed to those who earned nothing." . . .

Case in point:
Obama to Honor Controversial Rapper Known for Cop-Killing, Misogynistic Lyrics  "Are you kidding me? What is this “artist” doing performing at the White House? Is there no shame, is there no decency left in America? Where is the liberal outage at someone who advocates killing cops performing at the White House? Under Obama, America has not just gone Socialist, we’ve gone ghetto.

“ 'First Lady Michelle Obama has scheduled a poetry evening for Wednesday, and  she’s invited several poets, including a successful Chicago poet and rapper,  Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., AKA “Common.” However, Lynn is quite controversial, in  part because his poetry includes threats to shoot police and at least one  passage calling for the “burn[ing]” of then-President George W. Bush." . . .

Welcome to CSU-S&M

thefederalistpapers.

Mike Adams  . . . "Under the current system, the only speakers members of Students for Life at CSU­SM hear are those they are required to subsidize, which are hired by administrators in the Gender Equity Center and the LGBTQA Pride Center. It should go without saying that members of the group disagree with the speaker viewpoints, which include advocating for abortion and sexually promiscuous behavior. Yet they are banned from bringing in their own speakers to present a contrary view.

 "I first learned about all of this last semester when Students for Life at CSU­SM applied for funding and invited me to speak on their campus about the issue of abortion. Unsurprisingly, ASI denied the funding request.

" That is when I put the students in touch with my old friends (and my former lawyers) at ADF.

"As of this writing, ASI continues to provide funding through mandatory fees to the Gender Equity Center and the LGBTQA Pride Center, allowing them to pay to bring numerous speakers to campus, giving voice to their own views on a variety of topics that conflict with those of Students for Life, including abortion and human sexuality.

"However, their chokehold on the marketplace of ideas will soon be broken and students at CSU­SM will be granted the right to bring in their own speakers with opposing viewpoints. In other words, CSU­SM has absolutely no chance of winning this lawsuit. " . . .

FEC boss who tried to muzzle Drudge now on Soros payroll

Paul Bedard  "The former chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, who famously eyed regulating the politics of conservative outlets like the Drudge Report, has joined an advocacy group funded by George Soros and run by his son.

"Ann Ravel is the first fellow listed with the California advocacy group New America.

"Her fellowship began in March and pays a $30,000 stipend.

" 'We want to help amplify the work of each of our fellows, both to help them better articulate and reach their target audience, and to raise their profiles as change-makers," according to the group.

"Since leaving the FEC, Ravel has continued to speak out for more election regulation, especially on the internet where she sees political advertising shifting to in the next presidential contest." . . .More.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com

The Obama Cult

No wonder the man's speeches were, and are are cluttered with  personal pronouns  such as "I", "Me", "Mine" as he referred to "my military", "my Secretary of State" and, of course, his use of Greek columns along with that loooong walk out into the crowd for his 2008 inauguration speech. TD

Richard Terrell   . . . "Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Obama cult was revealed early on, during the first campaign, in which a worship song, "Sanctuary," was adapted to the promotion of the One.  In this song, the worshiper pledges to make himself a sanctuary, pure and holy, for the Lord.  In the video adaptation, Obama is substituted for Christ as the object of honor and worship.  
"The words of the song are regularly interrupted with images of people exhorting viewers to "say the word – Obama!" and similar invitations.  The song itself says: "Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true.  With thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you."

"That people, even longstanding church members, were more than willing to accede to this idolatry became apparent to me as I sought to alert friends to this emerging cultish devotion.  It made no difference, and my "look at this" exhortation was met with dismissal or blind eyes.  In one instance, a rock-solid, decades-long leader in my church, after receiving a message from me about these expressions, simply replied, "I believe in him."

"The Obama cult does, in fact, insert itself into the problematic arenas where religion and politics meet.  There has never been, in the U.S., a clearer flash point providing Christians with an opportunity to embrace or turn from lurid idolatry.  It constitutes, as it were, a test of allegiance, and Mr. Obama and his wife seem to have wanted it that way.  For many people, even among the "churched," the substitute Great One seems to have won the day." . . .

Newt Gingrich Drops Seth Rich Bombshell: DNC Operative Was Behind Wikileaks DNC Email Release

"It is amazing that the media was more interested in 2 scoops of ice cream President Trump was served after dinner rather than the 2 shots in the back that silenced Seth Rich."  deebyoda tweeted.

Jim Hoft

"On July 8, 2016, 27 year-old Democratic staffer Seth Conrad Rich was murdered in Washington DC. The killer or killers took nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone.

"Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a “lead” saying that Rich was en route to the FBI the morning of his murder, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an “ongoing court case” possibly involving the Clinton family.

"Seth Rich’s father Joel told reporters, “If it was a robbery — it failed because he still has his watch, he still has his money — he still has his credit cards, still had his phone so it was a wasted effort except we lost a life.' ” . . .

"This morning Newt Gingrich dropped a bomb on FOX and Friends on the Seth Rich story."

Melania Trump gets rave reviews in Saudi press

CNN!  "Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (CNN) First lady Melania Trump's fashion choices got rave reviews in local Saudi Arabian press Sunday, despite forgoing the customary headscarf. 

"Both the first lady and first daughter Ivanka Trump have been closely watched in Saudi Arabia for both style and substance."

Arab News noted the resemblance as well, quoting a boutique-owner in Jeddah, Nahed Andijani: "When I saw her arrival pictures wearing a modest outfit respecting our culture, I was like, 'This looks so much like my abaya!' " . . .

"Trump wore the jumpsuit for a day of bilateral meetings before changing in the evening into a sweeping magenta gown, complete with flowing cape sleeves, for dinner at the Saudi palace. American press noted that the first lady and Ivanka Trump were the only women present at the opulent welcoming ceremony, which featured the Saudi king and Cabinet secretaries dancing with swords.

"Grisham said of the decision to opt out of the scarf that Trump has been working closely with the State Department protocol and received briefings before the first foreign foray.

" 'It was not required for her to wear a headscarf and nobody asked her to, and based on that she chose not to," Grisham said, adding that the first lady has been "studying hard" for the trip." . . .

Bob Schieffer: Trump ‘Sounded Like a President’ in Saudi Arabia Speech

Mediaite

. . .  "He took note of how Trump delivered this “dignified speech” and hasn’t tweeted out anything needlessly provocative recently.

"Schieffer added, “He didn’t sound like the guy at the end of the bar popping off. He sounded like someone who had actually thought he was going to say before he said it.”

"Reliable Sources guest host John Berman brought up the likely backlash he would get for giving Trump marks for passing that “low bar.” Schieffer said he’s not “normalizing” Trump and made it clear he has questions about Trump’s overall policy, but also felt Trump’s “different presentation” was noteworthy." . . .

Emphasis mine, to show the pressure the press is under to undermine this President.

At California Dem convention, chairman leads crowd in chant, ‘F#*@k Trump,’ with extended middle fingers

If there are any any Democrats who have a modicum of class and dignity, why do they not condemn and leave this vile party? Does this once noble nation that threw off - at last! - Jim Crow laws and stood off the devouring colossus of Soviet Communism now deserve to become what we see in this post?  TD

Thomas Lifson   "Trump Derangement Syndrome strikes again, as California Democrats brought a level of mass vulgarity to their state convention.  Jonathan J. Cooper of the Associated Press used rather delicate language to describe the unprecedented loss of basic decorum by a major political party in the United States in the sixth paragraph of his report:" . . .

thegatewaypundit.com/

. . . "Such boorishness was the order of the day, as Dems driven mad by their electoral failures last November regress to levels of childishness unworthy of the oldest political party in the world. If anyone thinks that party elders will intervene to check the madness, they should think again. Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House and third in line for the presidency in the event of death or incapacity, thought it was just fine to engage in mass potty mouth behavior, that would not be tolerated in second grade. Just look at her yucking it up among the middle fingers and F U chants."

Obama dead-enders still infest Trump White House - and hide Hillary emails

Monica Showalter  "In an interview with Judicial Watch's president, Tom Fitton, the Daily Caller is reporting that Obama holdovers still populate the White House, and these minions are doing their darndest to hide and conceal Hillary Clinton's emails from Judicial Watch inquiries. That's obstruction of justice, made opaque through the pretense of incompetence.

Citizens, [Fitton] declared, “don’t have to take it from the politicians. They work for you. You don’t work for them.”

"The whole point is relevant because President Trump did say he would pursue justice in the case of Hillary Clinton's illegal private server case. But it's also relevant because of the hysteria coming from Democrats on the claims of Russian spying. The Hillary emails could go a long to providing perspective on who was really in bed with the Russians given Clinton's uranium sales to the Russians as well as other concessions offered.

"Right now, as the Daily Caller dryly notes, the only spying that has been provably going on in this ongoing political crisis is that of the Obama administration officials on Trump campaign staff. It was illegal of course and Clinton's emails may shed great light on the story.

"What are the Obama holdouts still in the White House really hiding?"

Judicial Watch’s President Tom Fitton is astounded: The Trump officials he finds working on Freedom of Information cases he files are still, typically, Obama holdovers.

No, President Trump did not bow to the Saudi Arabian King as Obama did

Legal Insurrection

"Unless everyone who is over four feet tall “bows” when receiving a medal"

"President Trump was awarded a medal and dipped his head to receive it because he is considerably taller than King Salman of Saudi Arabia.

"So of course, the left is coming unglued with screeching accusations of “hypocrisy” over Trump chastising then-president Obama for bowing to the Saudi Arabian king."

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igorvolsky 

✔@igorvolsky

Might be a good time to re-up this Trump tweet about Obama, "The Amateur." https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/215528582670331906 …

Obama: 

President Trump: