Society's Child
California suffered from two horrible fire seasons in the last three years, one of which burned down an entire town. Australia has been battling fires for months. More than 135 fires are still burning currently. So far, the fires have scorched 12 million acres, killed 25 people, caused 240,000 Australians to evacuate their homes, burned alive an estimated half a billion animals, and caused $3.4 billion worth of damage.
The big question isn't necessarily how these wildfires started. In both cases, most of the fires were likely man-made, whether through downed electrical lines in California or arsonists in Australia. The real question, however, is what factors have contributed to making these fires into "mega catastrophes," or fires that cause over a billion dollars of damage?
Many on the left will name climate change as the bogeyman. For example, a recent opinion article in The New York Times reads, "Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide." Yet more evidence points to failed environmental policies.
Why is Western media not questioning the mysterious death of Australian youth activist Wilson Gavin?
If ever there was a story that epitomizes exactly how low Western media has sunk, the story involving the events leading up to the tragic death of Wilson Gavin would have to rank very high.
On Sunday, Gavin and about fifteen members of the University of Queensland's Liberal National Club (UQLNC) walked into the Brisbane Square Library where a 'Drag Queen Story Hour' event for children was in full swing. Gavin went face-to-face with the star of the show, drag queen Johnny Valkyrie, aka Queenie, as the group began to chant "drag queens are not for kids." No violence, no broken chairs, just a group of university students expressing their displeasure with a controversial event that is sponsored by the local government, i.e. the taxpayers.
On-duty traffic patrol officers in southwestern Moscow hardly expected they would be approached by a desperate husband pleading with them to take his heavily pregnant wife to a hospital when they came to work on Friday - but that was exactly what happened, as evening rush hour approached on Friday afternoon.
At that time, a visibly agitated man was spotted running towards a patrol vehicle, telling the officers his wife was about to go into labor in a taxi and there was no way they could reach the hospital in time considering the situation on the road.
Officers took the couple in and dashed away in the patrol vehicle, but could not make it to the hospital in time. It might have been an unusual call of duty, but the patrolmen did not hesitate, taking matters in their own hands while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

Paramedics carry an unidentified man injured in the explosion in Afgoye in Somalia
At least four people have been killed and 15 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack claimed by the al-Shabab group near the capital of Somalia, according to authorities.
Both Turkish and Somali officials said those injured in Saturday's attack near the town of Afgoye, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, included Turkish engineers as well as Somali nationals working on a road in the area.
Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said six Turkish nationals and nine Somali citizens were wounded in the bombing, with two in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
The AFP news agency said at least four people were killed, citing local police officer Abdirahman Adan.
Comment: A cause of resentment?
Turkey opens its largest overseas military base in Somalia
Al-Shabab (or occasionaly Al-Shabaab) has been active in the region for years. Yet, as with all 'terrorist' organizations, one must wonder who is actually behind them.
The MI6 - Al-Shabaab Connection
Despite our self-image, we have been conditioned for war all of our lives. Through a combination of cultural forces, some overt and others subtle, Americans are taught from a young age to accept their country's militarism without question. This conditioning has numerous ingredients. Themes of nationalism and militarism are frequently injected into public life through the media and other institutions, for example, as is a sense of righteousness, a rarely challenged belief that the country is almost always a force for good.
Fear is also a major element in conditioning minds for war. Americans of all ages are often reminded, by their government and the media, that perceived enemies pose a constant danger. The Soviet threat was used to justify military spending and adventurism around the globe for much of the latter twentieth century, validating the warning given by President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell speech of the growing influence of the "military-industrial complex." More recently, through constant reminders of the "war on terror," Americans are effectively conditioned to see evildoers as always looming.
"I want to tell you, dear Pope Francis, we now have the data that Venezuelans have been leaving Catholicism. Nearly 40 percent are declaring themselves Evangelicals. That number used to be 3 percent."Maduro stressed that people are getting "tired" of bishops who "use pulpits to express their political obsessions." Some clergymen "act like militants, not like pastors," he added.
The president had previously called on the local Catholic Church to stop being "involved into politics," and harshly criticized religious figures for holding events with Western-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who was declared interim president by anti-Maduro politicians in January last year. Some bishops have openly urged Maduro to step down during his standoff with Guaido.
"Bishops must learn to respect the people who don't want to see pulpits politicized," the president said during his state-of-the-nation address earlier this week.
Like previous secretaries of education, the present occupant of this post, Gavin Williamson, has vowed to put an end to the 'continuous drift' of grade inflation.
Unfortunately, the devaluation of a university degree cannot be stopped as long as universities continue to operate as businesses that treat students as customers. When higher education establishments have to keep their customers satisfied, grade inflation will continue. For what better way of ensuring that students are satisfied and happy than by offering them high grades?
Comment: 'Buying a degree' does not support 'incentive to learn'. Those who legitimately study, work to gain knowledge and refine their discernment capabilities will note the current trajectory of a crashing society. A few may even contemplate why.
In recent years playgrounds have seen the game of conkers banned, lunchtime tag replaced by "gentle hands," and now football [soccer] might be joining the list too. The concern with the popular ball game grew due to research from Glasgow Brain Injury Research Group. They found that professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to develop neurological diseases than the general public. Because of that the Scottish FA is considering a ban on children's heads coming into contact with footballs.
Comment: The act of ball heading doesn't explain the mental states of deluded politicians, over-active activists and those dingbats who make up social justice rules...now does it? Perhaps learning 'how to head a ball and do it properly' might be a 'real' heads up and smack some sense into them!

A striking French worker holds a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron as King Louis XVI at a demonstration against pensions reform plans, Paris, 9 January 2020.
French police have fired tear gas at protesters hurling projectiles and arrested dozens of people as thousands of "yellow vest" anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Paris.
Demonstrators on Saturday shouted slogans denouncing the police, President Emmanuel Macron and his pension reforms that have triggered the longest French transport strike in decades, which has snarled public transportation for millions of commuters in the French capital for 45 days.
With sirens wailing, dozens of vans carrying riot police fanned out the route along which thousands of protesters marched.
Young people wearing masks shouted "revolution" as tear gas drifted by the Bastille, the square where the French revolution erupted in 1789.
Comment: Paris Opera employees also took to the streets... and did this!
U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe said in a news release Friday that ex-Milton mayor Guyland Thompson pleaded guilty in May to 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of tax evasion stemming from his embezzlement of funds from United Way of Santa Rosa County.













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