Trustdaily

"   For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places ." Ephesians 6:12 All kinds of people have made themselves judge and jury over Mr. Donald Trump's Christian faith. For the most part, I suspect this comes from the tendency in recent decades for America's denominations to steal sheep from each other instead of seeking to attract the unchurched.  The rise of  evangelicalism, with novel, poorly defined pronouncements about the requirements for salvation, has overshadowed "that old-time religion" of our grandparents and forefathers.   Bill Quick  is not religious, and in fact calls himself an atheist. But he finally got enough of the gossip and set out a history lesson that matters to every American, of whatever faith: " I recognize Trump�s religious sensibilities because I think they are a lot like the ones I grew up with...

Is all of the Zika Virus hysteria just a marketing campaign to sell millions of new vaccines? It is looking more like a false alarm as every week goes by. As weeks pass,  excess microcephaly cases have not appeared in other countries with Zika Virus outbreaks. If the hypothesis were correct, Columbia  should be seeing hundreds of cases  by now - but so far they are still within the usual range, according to PAHO WHO's  latest update on July 7th . In Brazil itself, the original thousands of cases turn out not to be associated with Zika after all. So far, only 255 cases have been confirmed with laboratory data. An additional 1401 cases are cited as associated (but without any lab testing to confirm). A whopping 7,000 microcephaly cases in Brazil are confirmed to be due to other causes - in many cases unknown. There is no commercial test for Zika, and Zika looks like its close relative Dengue in blood antibody tests, Only a few government labs can review blood samples, ...

What an amazing leader our governor is. His determination to place Texans and other people above himself is so powerful an example of selfless service. May God bless and heal him. Governor Abbott  issued multiple press releases, an Open Letter to Texans, and held a press conference in Dallas on Friday - all without ever making public that he himself had been badly burned on Thursday, with severe injury to both legs and his feet. He learned about the shootings in Dallas before he left the hospital where he was being treated, so he kept the news of his own injuries quiet. Governor Abbott returned to Texas and held a press conference in Dallas on Friday without letting anyone know about his condition. Via Drudge :   AP's Will Weissert on ABC13 : " Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Abbott was with his family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday when he was scalded in an accident involving hot water. He declined to provide further details. "The governor was treated for several hours...

In 2012, welder Vic Stacy used his weapon to save the life of police Sgt Steven Means , by shooting a murderer who had Means pinned down in his sights.  Governor Perry gave him an AR-15 as a token of appreciation. Guns in the hands - or openly on the backs - of private citizens are not a danger to the police, but an asset.  The same people who are dangerous to cops are also dangerous to other citizens.  The Dallas Shootings were horrific, as terrible as Orlando,  San Bernadino , the  Luby's Cafeteria Massacre , and the Ft Hood Terror Attack. All of these attacks showed the terrible carnage that can occur when Americans of all walks of life are not armed to defend themselves.  It is dangerous to be an American these days - but  it is more dangerous not to be . And it is especially dangerous for unarmed or disarmed people . The truth is that increasing prevalence of armed citizens - even minors - are an important arm of law enforcement in the United Sta...

" The Civil Rights Project says persistent segregation is worst in northern and western states, and that the 17 states with a history of explicit segregation laws have not led the list since 1970 ." The racial issues of today,especially those faced by Black Americans, do not reach back to slavery so much as they emerged in the last century during apartheid in the Northern, Midwestern, and West Coast states:  California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin , Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio... Southerners like me (I'm nearly sixty), who have lived our entire lives with fully-integrated towns, schools, churches, social events and workplaces, have long wondered why the media gets it so wrong. I always assumed the rest of the country was as diverse in daily life as my small Oklahoma hometown. After all, Brown vs Board of Education desegregated schools in Yankee Kansas before I was even born. We had playmates of many colors and nationalities, and friends wh...

On this Independence Day, a little history lesson. "The Press" did not mean "journalists" when our nation was founded. It did not mean television, radio, or the internet. It did not mean respectable owners of newspapers or members of the White House Press Corps or people with Journalism Degrees or writers who make their living as full time reporters or only respectable bloggers or official licensed anything. It meant "The Printing Press" of the type seen above, which is what Benjamin Franklin, Printer, used to print newspapers, broadsides, editorials, and -  to make a living - various advertising and other works for hire.  It meant anyone who owned a press or who could pay for something to be printed. Franklin had a LOT to say about "freedom of the Press" and the right to freely publish things that offended some people.   Most of the concepts we still apply to "Freedom of the Press" came from Franklin's own experience. His older bro...

Bringing everything together shows the shameful over-caution of SWAT leadership.  The first officers on the scene engaged the shooter immediately and cornered him. They were prepared to go in, finish him off and save lives but were ordered, no one knows why, to stay put and wait. Twenty minutes later, they were ordered to abandon their mission and leave the building, despite having the upper hand. When heroes Gruler, Cornwell, Smith, and Backhaus left the building, SWAT was supposed to take over. But SWAT did not act. The injured and hostages were left to fend for themselves.  One hundred armed police officers of various stripes sat outside that building for nearly three hours before they did anything more than the average grandmother would do. And the average grandmother would not need to confer and plan and assess and wait for officials for hours before doing what she was equipped to do at the beginning, either. Police and SWAT leaders' claims of concern about bombs do not s...