Denial in Graffiti; Boy Dolls; Garfield's Male???; Eno the Binary Chatbot; Religious Liberty in South Dakota; Calls for Even More Abortion; Muddied god; and 3D Printed Grenade Launcher

I know it has been a couple weeks since my last post! I had the opportunity to attend Shepherds Conference a couple weeks ago, which took all my time (and energy!). Last week I played catch up to make up for being off the previous week, and decided to give myself an extra week off from this blog for some breathing room.

But don't worry: In my absence it appears the world has continued to spin...along with the media, politicians, and even tech gurus :) I'm glad to be back, and look forward to getting back in the swings of things.

BTW: There were several great speakers at Shepherds! I hope to post links to a few of them here once they make the media available.

Antisemitism

Seattle synagogue vandalized with Holocaust denial graffiti cnn

Temple De Hirsch Sinai was spray-painted with graffiti calling the Holocaust "fake history," Rabbi Daniel Weiner said.

The Baptist Mosque; More Lutheran's Embrace Sin; The Other Holocaust Denial; Practical Reality War; Cops Replace Drugs; Cities Against States; and Dreaming of Flying Cars

Apostasy

Southern Baptist Mission Trustee Resigns Rather Than 'Support False Religion' christiantoday

He told Tennessee's Baptist and Reflector baptistandreflector.org: "If we defend the rights of people to construct places of false worship are we not helping them speed down the highway to hell? I want no part in supporting a false religion even if it is in the name of religious freedom."

In a statement to Baptist Press apparently conceding one of Haun's points, IMB president David Platt said: "As a result of discussions among IMB trustees and staff over recent months, we have revised our processes for our legal department filing any future amicus briefs. IMB leaders are committed in the days ahead to speak only into situations that are directly tied to our mission."

Also see SBC Loses Funding Over Mosque-Building Support pulpitandpen.org

Trump's Missing Jew; Three Gender California; Bathroom Bowl Pressure; Scientific Sounding Rant; Pro-Life, Ambivalent-Trump; Sovereign California; and Singled Out in Turkey

Holocaust

Trump fails to mention Jews in Holocaust remembrance statement usatoday

In a departure from predecessors on both sides of the political aisle, President Trump’s statement Friday marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day ushmm.org did not mention the deaths of six million Jews — a lapse the head of the Anti-Defamation League adl.org called “puzzling and troubling.”

Also see Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day whitehouse.gov

Holocaust Denial Result; Tunnel Tales; Declaring War on New Zealand; NK Sees Nuclear Opportunity; Secret Deals No Longer; China's Moon-Mars Hop; Position by the Centimeter; Mech Wars; Murder on Echo's Watch; Gene Drive Made EZ; Diamond Wires; Push, Pull, Power; AI Job Loss...or Not; The 3-Day Wait Free Speech; and Andy Stanely Opens His Mouth Again

Google

Holocaust Denial Article No Longer in Google’s Top Search Results forward

Now, when users search “Did the Holocaust happen?” they must first scroll through articles about the search controversy, two articles by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ushmm.org, and a wikipedia page on Holocaust denial before they arrive at the Stormfront article.

What's interesting about this is the potential ramifications if, say, people started complaining that the top results were "anti-homosexual" or promoted only one Way (John 14:16) or the like. I'm all for Holocaust denial (AKA anti-semetic) sites being treated as the "fake news" they are, but to intervene to control how specific results get sorted up (or down) seems to be a slipperly slope.

Embracing the Sting; Death by Insurance; Sermons on their Mind; Balfour Repentance; and Seeing Again (One Day)

Suicide

The right to die on one’s own terms: At 94, sick, tired and living alone, ‘Dad got the death he wanted’ news.nationalpost

Richard Brown wanted to die. An elderly widower who lived by himself in the same Vancouver house that he’d owned for decades, he wasn’t terminally ill. He wasn’t immobile. He had coronary heart disease and he’d endured painful episodes of gout. He’d been in hospital frequently.

Drug Addict Slaughter; Cold Shake; Kashmir Concerns; Golf Missile; Ironclad Flaky Relationship; Bank In Deutsche; Science Isn't Subjective Enough; Judge Judged a Hater; EU Fast Track to Save the World; Teaming with Creepy Critters; World Watches Rosetta Die; SpaceX's Entry into the Impossible Dream; Yuan in the Basket; Dark Lights; and NASA's Gecko

Philippines

Rodrigo Duterte Condemned After Comparing Philippine War on Drugs With Holocaust wsj

“Hitler massacred three million Jews,” Mr. Duterte told reporters in Davao upon his return from a visit to Vietnam Friday. “Now, there are three million drug addicts [in the Philippines]…. I’d be happy to slaughter them.” In fact, historians estimate that the Nazis murdered six million Jews across Europe in the Holocaust during World War II.

Also see Duterte, Citing Hitler, Says He Wants to Kill 3 Million Addicts in Philippines nytimes

Wells Fargo the First; Sanctioning Businesses; Duterte Goes Off the Defensive; Turkey Extension; Babi Yar; Hyper-elastic Bone; Only as Well as Your Tool; Working Bored; and Team AI

Banking

Wells Fargo’s Scandal Is a Harbinger of Doom time v

In the financial sector, scandal is the gift that keeps on giving. Publicly shamed by Senator Elizabeth Warren senate.gov after his bank opened as many as 2 million unauthorized accounts to goose profits, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who had been reluctant to part with any of his own compensation following revelations of the scandal, has finally agreed to give up unvested equity worth about $41 million, and forgo his $2.8 million salary while the bank is being investigated. Warren called the act “a small step in the right direction, but nowhere near real accountability,” and said he should return every dime he’s made during the period where fraud was happening.

Also see California's Sanctions Against Wells Fargo theatlantic and Wells Fargo may not be the end: Clawbacks expected to become a bigger issue usatoday

5 Years Prior; Iranian-US Secrets; EU Draft; Bomb Riddled Vacation; Great Barrier to Reef; and Holocaust Depravity

Israel

UN test ban head: Israel should ratify [nuclear test ban] treaty within 5 years washingtontimes

“I’m putting five years as the longest it should take now based on the positive sign that I’m seeing from Israel,” said Zerbo, who met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time during a visit there in June.

Iran-US

U.S., others agreed 'secret' exemptions for Iran after nuclear deal - think tank in.reuters

The report pdf, which was released by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations. The group's president David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and co-author of the report, declined to identify the officials, and Reuters could not independently verify the report's assertions.

EU

Some E.U. countries got rid of the draft years ago. Now, they’re thinking about bringing it back. washingtonpost

In Europe, public opinion long appeared to develop similarly, as conscription was abandoned in France in 1996, followed by Italy, Sweden and Germany.

But more recently, many Europeans — especially those who are now too old to be drafted — have changed their minds on the issue. Following terrorist attacks last year, 80 percent of all French and 70 percent of Swedes said they would support a return of conscription.

Syria

The Syrian Ministry of Tourism Invites You to Enjoy a Lovely Vacation in Its War Zones foreignpolicy v

Mysteriously missing from the one-minute, 43-second video released by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism promoting vacation spots in the coastal town of Tartus [is d]amage from Islamic State suicide bombings that killed dozens in that very town this summer.

Environmental

A Huge Reef Hiding Right Behind the Great Barrier Reef atlasobscura

The existence of this reef has been known about for decades, but, up until recently, its exact scope and scale has never been truly known. But with the use of new laser mapping technology, the natural formations have become much more clear, and appear to be much grander than previously imagined.

Depravity of Man

Gruesome discovery in Germany raises questions about Holocaust-era experiments jpost

According to the report, the mostly brain and brain parts found in the building were remains from those murdered in Nazi human experiments, which were inhumanely conducted on prisoners including children, the mentally ill and people with disabilities during the Holocaust.

Ponar Tunnel; Egypt Talks Palestinian State; Turkey's Bonds Lossened; Pinched Supply Route; (Questionably) Smart Billboards; Emotional, Robotic Bonding; Rise of Virtual Humans; Grandma's Driverless Car; Parent's Cross; Christians Unwelcome; Oh Person!; and Methodists Keep Pushing Down

Isreal

Famous Holocaust escape tunnel located in Lithuania using hi-tech jpost

For the first time since the end of World War II, the famous tunnel dug by Jewish prisoners of Ponar, near Vilnius in Lithuania, to escape from the Nazis, has been located using new state-of-the-art technology for underground predictive scanning.