Happy Easter

"If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christianity would be a false religion, we would have no hope, our loved ones would be gone for good, and we would still be in our sins. I appreciate Philip Schaff’s summary on the importance of the Resurrection based on Paul’s words:

"The Christian church rests on the resurrection of its Founder. Without this fact the church could never have been born, or if born, it would soon have died a natural death. The miracle of the resurrection and the existence of Christianity are so closely connected that they must stand or fall together. If Christ was raised from the dead, then all his other miracles are sure, and our faith is impregnable; if he was not raised, he died in vain and our faith is vain. It was only his resurrection that made his death available for our atonement, justification and salvation; without the resurrection, his death would be the grave of our hopes; we should be still unredeemed and under the power of our sins. A gospel of a dead Saviour would be a contradiction and wretched delusion. This is the reasoning of St. Paul, and its force is irresistible.
"The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records." . . . "The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records." . . .

Text above from Answers in Genesis

Feckless Obama. bullied by third-world dictators.

A reminder from the archives from Nice Deb

What you can expect when our nation's president dislikes and is embarrassed by America. But the left acts as if this never happened.America under Democrats has become a third-world country, run by a third-world administration. TD

"Congressman: Iran’s Treatment of U.S. Sailors Much Worse Than Reported"

. . . "Obama at least was disciplined. He went on to deliver his SOTU speech without mentioning the unwelcome distraction from his message.

"The Obama administration went on to frame the entire situation as an example of their deftness at international diplomacy.

Essentially, the White House said, two American boats simultaneously broke down and floated into Iranian waters, at which point the IRG generously towed them to Farsi Island, provided the crew shelter, and then returned them. “Ten US Navy Sailors safely returned to US custody today, after departing Iran,” reported the US Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs Office. “There are no indications that the Sailors were harmed during their brief detention…The Navy will investigate the circumstances that led to the Sailors’ presence in Iran.”

. . . 

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter : 

I am pleased that ten US Navy sailors have departed Iran and are now back in US hands. I want to personally thank Secretary of State John Kerry for his diplomatic engagement with Iran to secure our sailors’ swift return. . . . 

Vice President Joe Biden was even more glowing:

No, there was no apology, there was [nothing] to apologize for. When you have a problem with a boat, do you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice…The Iranians picked up both boats, as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued [and then] released them like, you know, ordinary nations would do. That’s the way nations should deal with one another. That’s why it’s important to have channels open.

"Now, of course, news is leaking out that these scoundrels were lying their asses off as usual. Rep. Forbes suggests that Iran’s treatment of the U.S. sailors “may have been much worse than what has been publicly reported.' ”

Hogg Thinks It’s “Great” He’s Destroying Laura Ingraham’s Livelihood

"Yes I Am Picking On A Little Kid"  "Because that’s the whole point. David Hogg is ignorant and illiterate, both common enough with youngsters, but he is also arrogant, vindictive, profane and openly political. He’s not out purely to ‘save children’, he’s just the lead singer in the Left’s newest boy band. He’s not a good person, that’s clear enough to me."  ... "Besides, he started it." Earl of Taint.

Earl of Taint

Sara Noble: Hogg’s Working with Media Matters to Get Laura Ingraham Off the Air

Media Matters Is Working in Tandem with the HoggsThe kid can’t silence Laura Ingraham on his own, so, he is working hand-in-hand with David Brock’s Media Matters. They have successfully destroyed a number of Fox News hosts and are working on getting rid of Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, and Tucker Carlson.
We won’t link to Media Matters but you can google their article — These are Laura Ingraham’s advertisers.  All of her advertisers are listed.
The far-left David Hogg has trashed peoples’ reputations for believing in the Second Amendment. But if you dare to criticize him or his comrades, he knows his leftist allies are on the ready.

Contact info for anti-Ingraham sponsors below

Independent Sentinel  “ 'I think it’s great that corporate America is standing with me, They cannot push us around, especially when all we’re trying to do here is save lives”, says Hogg. Hogg is destroying Ms. Ingraham’s livelihood over a snarky tweet and he thinks it’s “great”.

"Nine sponsors have now pulled their ads from her show!

"That isn’t accurate in any case. What he is trying to do is hurt Republicans and get out the vote for the Democrats. Meanwhile, he is trying to destroy Ms. Ingraham’s livelihood and he might succeed.

"If you don’t agree with Hogg or upset his little feelings, he will destroy your livelihood.

"Laura Ingraham mocked Hogg, misunderstanding his college rejections. Hogg, who hates the 2nd Amendment, apparently doesn’t like the 1st Amendment either. His reaction was to launch a boycott, just like a fascist would.

"Hogg has power because he is working with extremely far-left organizations. Among them, is Media Matters which launched a war on Fox years ago. It’s run by David Brock and funded by George Soros. The communist group has been able to destroy several Fox personalities and are trying to do the same to Tucker, Hannity, Watters and of course Ingraham." . . .

. . . 

Hogg slanders people like a vicious adult and then lets them know he’s a child victim and they can’t say anything back.
He is the bully although he is accusing Ms. Ingraham of being one. This is the fool who hung up on the President who wanted to know what he thought.
First, Hogg slandered Dana Loesch on television without challenge. He accused her of terrible things.
Then he blamed the governor for not stopping all the truly guilty people, with the shooter number one. Hogg doesn’t even mention him.
Here is Hogg blaming the governor, not the coward sheriffs, the FBI, the school, social service, just the Republicans and the NRA.

Hat tip to Expose Liberal Media Bias

Contact these cowards:

Sara Noble@indiesentinel

@Nutrish , @TripAdvisor , @Wayfair , @Expedia , @Nestle , @JosABankk, @JNJCares - Johnson&Johnson, @hulu , and @stitchfix have announced they are pulling their ads from Ms. Ingraham-boycott them for standing against the First Amendment.

Saudi Prince’s US Trip Shows Deep Changes Afoot At Home

Why didn't this happen during Obama's regime?

Hot Air

"Don’t break out the trumpets quite yet.

"But Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is, not by accident, displaying some refreshingly different and open attitudes during his ongoing three-week trip through the United States. Last week he met in the White House with President Trump, who touted a billion-dollars worth of military purchases by Riyadh.

"This week in New York the 32-year-old heir to the throne of the ultra-conservative Sunni monarchy held an inter-faith meeting for the first time with Jewish rabbis, as well as Roman Catholics. That’s a big deal.

"The Saudi Embassy said the meeting included Rabbi Richard Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Steven Wernick of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and and Allen Fagin, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

"The prince has said he wants to move his country toward “moderate Islam, open to the world and all religions.”

"Less than a year after being dubbed heir to the Saudi throne, this prince is driving an anti-corruption effort and has begun to gently push a broad range of reforms to open society and ultimately to diversify the oil-rich kingdom’s dependence on the vast reserves of black gooey stuff beneath the sands." . . .

Respected professor blasts ´once-proud´ CNN in scathing op-ed: ´CNN lost its way´

Dark Angel Politics

CNN lost its way in struggle to find an audience  . . . "CNN wants to be “the most trusted name in news,” and likes to suggest it is on the objective, high road compared to more partisan competitors at MSNBC and Fox News Channel. News consumers who are political moderates or right-leaning, however, have a hard time buying that promotional line. CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta is working hard to be the Trump administration’s harshest antagonist. CNN provided massive airtime and follow-up analysis to former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg in early March. Almost three-fourths of CNN’s time over an eight hour period focused on Nunberg, who has since drifted into insignificance.

"CNN President Jeff Zucker blasted Fox News recently at a journalism conference in New York, calling his cable nemesis “a pure propaganda machine.” Fox News’s prime-time programming is no doubt opinion driven and broadly defends the White House, but Zucker’s ratings envy rant overlooks solid journalism being done at Fox by anchor/reporters such as Bret Baier, Shannon Bream, Shepherd Smith and others. Zucker would make better use of his time focusing on the content of his own channel." . . .

By Brian Flood, Fox News  "Respected DePauw University professor Jeffrey McCall accused CNN of doubling down on sexual escapades in a piece that will surely draw the ire of the network’s president, Jeff Zucker.

"McCall penned an op-ed for The Hill Friday headlined, “CNN lost its way in struggle to find an audience,” and blasted the increasingly liberal network for its recent programming decisions, such as promoting the anti-Trump Chris Cuomo.

"McCall mocked CNN’s Anderson Cooper as seeking “to corner the market on interviewing shapely women who have been friendly with Trump” after the “AC 360” host sat down with both Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels.

“ 'CNN’s warped obsession with reporting about supposed adultery demonstrates a larger problem at the once-proud and groundbreaking channel,” McCall wrote.

"With a primetime lineup of Cuomo and Cooper, “CNN will have back-to-back evening anchors representing elite, east coast, powerful families,” McCall said." . . .

Katie Hopkins calls CNN the Clinton News Network  Watch the CNN anchor do her best to stick up for CNN instead of drawing out the opinions of their guest.

If we give immunity from criticism to children — such as David Hogg, et al. — then adults will rely on children to do what adults want done.

Althouse

Ann Althouse  "I don't know how much the post-Parkland protesters are acting directly from their own hearts — it's politically expedient to see them as saints! — but if they are protected from criticism, it creates a dangerous incentive to adults who want immunity from criticism.

"There are so many children around, and it is the way of the world for millennia to seize upon these handy little creatures — they're everywhere! — and use them to do the work adults want done. I'm not saying that's what's already happened with the post-Parkland protesters, just that the kid-gloves treatment of these vocal participants in the public dialogue sends a message to conniving adults that there's a special benefit to using children.

"There are consequences." . . .

Her legal career: . . . Since 1984, Althouse has taught federal jurisdiction, civil procedure, and constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she has been tenured since 1989.[1] She was a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School for the 2007–08 academic year. A "leading light" in federal courts scholarship,^[2] she has written extensively on federalism (her central thesis being the normative value of federalism in protecting individual rights), sovereign immunity and other legal issues. She is currently the Robert W. & Irma M. Arthur-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School." . . .

Marjory Stoneman Douglas Teacher Says Many Students Feel They Are Misrepresented By Famous Classmates

Daily Caller  "America knows Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students through mainly a handful of pro-gun control activist students, but according to a faculty member of the school where the deadly shooting took place, many other students say the most visible activists do not represent them.

Hogg

“ 'I’ve had some students approach me privately to talk to me about it, but I should note that those student activists none of them were ever in any danger during this whole thing…none of them except for the one girl Samantha Fuentes,” the faculty member said, on the condition of anonymity, during an interview with NRATV that aired Friday on Dana Loesch’s “Relentless” program.

"The Stoneman Douglas staffer continued, “But I have students in my class that were shot, but you don’t see them. They have the most personal experience of anyone except for that one girl.”

"Stoneman Douglas students David Hogg, Emma Gonzales, and Cameron Kasky have been notable media representatives of their school and spoke at the “March for Our Lives” protest in Washington D.C. last Saturday, advocating for gun control policies." . . .  Photos added by TD

Also this:  Bataclan Survivor Accuses Protesting Parkland Students Of Treason

“As the survivor of a mass shooting I can tell you from first-hand experience that all of you protesting and taking days off from school insult the memory of those who were killed and abuse and insult me and every other lover of liberty by your every action,” Hughes said. . . .

I think the student-celebrities' shabby treatment of Sen. Rubio and Dana Loesch while CNN held their coats and enjoyed the thrill up their collective legs was repulsive. Add to that the power given them by propagandist media to ruin the careers of those who have courage enough to speak against the actions of these media-spoiled teenagers. TD

Via Instapundit

Update from Happy Hayride

What's more likely, that the Pope said there is no hell or that — regardless of what the Pope said — that there is a hell?

Ann Althouse  "I'm reading "Does Hell Exist? And Did the Pope Give an Answer?" (NYT). I've been writing about the reported news that the Pope said Hell does not exist, and I keep hearing that the Vatican has attempted to squelch the news, but I continue to believe the Pope said it. One reason I believe it is that Hell is such an implausible notion that I think an intelligent person, such as Pope Francis, is unlikely to believe it, though he might choose to keep quiet on the subject and not rock the boat the Vatican seems not to want rocked. Upon this not rocking of the boat, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, because there is no hell, but let's tell them there is, because it will scare the wits out of them.

"I don't give a damn (not that there's any such thing) what "The Vatican" thinks, but I do care what Pope Francis said in his conversation with his friend, the 93-year-old Eugenio Scalfari. Scalfari is — as the NYT puts it — "an atheist, left-wing and anticlerical giant of Italian journalism." Scalfari has no audio recording or even jotted-down notes to back up his statement that Francis said, "A hell doesn’t exist."

“These are not interviews, these are meetings, I don’t take notes. It’s a chat[," said Scalfari]. While Mr. Scalfari said he remembered the pope saying hell did not exist, he allowed that “I can also make mistakes.”....

These cartoons about demons in Hell are funny as...well, you know. But the entire point of them is that the place is run by Satan and his demons when actually Scriptures speak of Hades as a place of torment for Satan and all his hordes who war against Heaven and the redemption Christ bought at the cross. TD

The Resurrection of Jesus: An Inconvenient Fact

Mike Konrad  "This Sunday, Christians around the world will celebrate Easter.  Some prefer to call it Resurrection Day.  Now most Christians – whether nominal or serious – just accept the holiday without much thought. But if they would examine the claims, most Christians would be shocked.

"The basic premise behind Christianity is that humanity, and also by extension the universe, is flawed – the theological term is fallen – so flawed that there is no way any human could set himself right with a just, perfect, and holy Creator.  If humanity is to be reconciled to the Creator, it must be the effort of the Creator Himself, since only the Creator is capable of effecting  such as massive work.

"Christianity's claim is that the Creator did come down to Earth, with the purpose of reconciling God to man, in the person of Jesus Christ, who is both man and God.  His human nature would be the Son of God through a virgin; his divine nature would be God incarnate.

"Jesus would absorb all the wrongs of mankind in Himself to clear out the account.  The classic wording for this is that He (Jesus) paid the penalty for our sins.  If one is more modern, and eschews the concept of retributive justice, then one could say Jesus absorbed within Himself all the consequences of man's wrongs, with the idea of setting it right.

"Now, the idea of suffering on someone else's behalf is not new, but Christianity takes the concept a large step forward and makes this claim: death would not be able to hold Jesus, and He would come out of the grave.  And this resurrection would be the signature that Christ indeed set things right between God and man.  Indeed, He would more than pay the price for man's transgressions." . . .

Read more...

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish better in high school, lo those many decades ago.  He runs a website about the Arab community in South America at http://latinarabia.com.

Parkland Student Calls For Boycott Of MSNBC Advertisers After Former Contributor Attacks Him

Karma? 

Tony Branco

Daily Caller  "Parkland student David Hogg has led a boycott of advertisers on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show after she criticized him for complaining about being rejected by certain colleges.
"Now, MSNBC may get the same treatment over a tweet from former contributor Kurt Eichenwald.
"Eichenwald attacked and insulted Parkland student Kyle Kashuv in a tweet: “You continue to disappoint.Trafficking in fantasies, fine. Your followers are infantile, your only form of debate is insult. And you wonder why I have no respect for you.”
"The attack came after Eichenwald called for civility in the gun control conversation and to keep the harassment of the kids out of it.

Advertiser Pulls Ads From MSNBC Over Eichenwald Tweet; NBC Says They Parted Ways Recently
. .  . "A boycott was quickly called for on MSNBC's advertisers, to which one company, Proactiv, announced they were pulling their advertisements from the network." . . .

Kyle Kashuv: Here's(sic) the sponsors for @MSNBC that we should now boycott.

Smile Direct Club $640K
Jeep $540K
Proactiv $379K
Otezla $318K
Office Depot $288K
Cadillac $287K
Trivago $269K
Sleep Number $263K
Humira $261K
Omaha Steaks $244K

Heaven Or Hell: Take Your Choice

Mike Adams

"Last week, I was driving south from Hattiesburg to Biloxi on my way to spend a couple of days on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I decided to take a different route than my usual trek south on US Highway 49. Instead, I took Interstate 59 to MS Highway 53. About a mile or two after taking the exit, I came upon Juniper Grove Road. It led me to Juniper Grove Baptist Church, which sits in front of a graveyard where my cousin Theodore Gilmore Bilbo is buried. I decided to pull over and visit his gravesite, given that I had never been and that Bilbo is my most infamous relative. As I approached the church, I saw a sign that read, “Life has many choices. Eternity has 2. What is yours? Heaven or hell?' ” . . .
. . . 
"His tomb does not say it, but the full title of Bilbo’s 1946 book was, “Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization.” In the book, Bilbo argued that the survival of our nation hinged upon whether we would be able to prevent the large scale mixing of the races. He feared that a breakdown of racial barriers would result in racial intermarrying, which, in turn, would produce a nation that was no longer black and white – but instead a nation of “mongrels.” He considered this to be a threat to the integrity of the white race. He also argued that it was a threat to the integrity of the black race. 

"You’ve probably heard such calls for racial purity before. Muhammad Ali would echo them years later – and would be given a pass by a fawning media willing to forgive anything he said after he refused service in the Vietnam War. But coming from Bilbo it was more dangerous. " . . .

Does the Pope Believe in Hell?

Pat Buchanan  "Pope Declares No Hell?" So ran the riveting headline on the Drudge Report of Holy Thursday.

"Drudge quoted this exchange, published in La Repubblica, between Pope Francis and his atheist friend, journalist Eugenio Scalfari.

"Scalfari: "What about bad souls? Where are they punished?"

"Bad souls "are not punished," Pope Francis is quoted, "those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls."

"On the first Holy Thursday, Judas betrayed Christ. And of Judas the Lord said, "Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed; it were better for him if that man had never been born."

"Did the soul of Judas, and those of the monstrous evildoers of history, "just fade away," as General MacArthur said of old soldiers? If there is no hell, is not the greatest deterrent to the worst of sins removed?

"What did Christ die on the cross to save us from?*

"If Francis made such a statement, it would be rank heresy. " . . .Full article

*Emphasis added by TD. The Pope's position on Hell approaches that of Jehovah's Witnesses.  
What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Teach About Hell?