While I consider PEW to usually be a very good source, I think that their having Polled this ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 13, 2020:

Polls like this are used to mold public opinions instead of measure them. They are calulated parts of a public relations campaign.

How ‘Jakarta’ Became the Codeword for US-Backed Mass Killing [nybooks.

timon_phocas comments on Jun 13, 2020:

Howdy @WilyRickWiles, Military juntas used "Jakarta" as a codeword for their coups fifty years ago. It's a meaningless term now.

Do you think Covid-19 and the BLM movement are both Leftist propaganda being used to promote ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 13, 2020:

I think the reaction to COVID by government agencies is a mix of factors. The first is conciousness of the Spanish Flu and its terrible cost. With 28% of the population infected and about 1% of the population killed. About a million out a population of 105 million. President Ford's administration saw the swine flu as a possible Spanish Flu-like pandemic. They rushed a vaccine program that flopped because of inadequate testing. That left quarantine as the only public health response, just like 1918. But a quarantine that allows food, transportation, retail, broadcast and public utility industries to continue is a contradiction in terms. Mix that with an adversarial 24-7 news cycle with a constant demand for dramatic government solutions. And of course everything has to be a crisis with an evil villan to blame. That's what drives the new clickbait model of advertising.

The HighWire with Del Bigtree: COVID NURSE EXPOSES TRUTH WITH HIDDEN CAMERA! Registered nurse, ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 12, 2020:

This is deeply disconcerting. Now all the statistics about the epidemic are called into question. New York hospitals are, in effect, acting like Typhoid Mary. They are disease vectors, not bastions of public health. And they have arranged it so they not only get paid regardless of outcome, but they have no criminal or civil liabilities. New York's terrible toll from this epidemic is from incompetent care? All the pious posturing was to hide malfeasance? How despicable

This Video was Posted here before .

timon_phocas comments on Jun 12, 2020:

I love that the truth is being told, not the squalid facts of present day Cuba. Just sayin'

Shit floats to the top, why the Washington A-holes kiss Israels ass.........[youtu.be]

timon_phocas comments on Jun 11, 2020:

An alternate explanation for America's support of Israel is broad grassroots support by swaths of the American public. Harry Truman is an example. He grew up in a church that believed in the Jewish return to their Promised Land. Hitler's program of genocide only increased that support. Truman recognized Israel against the united opposition of his diplomatic and military advisors. But he was not alone in his support for Israel.

Politicians spend 75% of our time raising money and campaigning and all that $ goes to media, which ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 10, 2020:

When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near... Luke 22:28

Georgia Democratic Rep To Introduce Bill Classifying Attacks On Trump Supporters As A Hate Crime | ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 10, 2020:

Hate crimes are an irrational category of law. What criminals assault someone because because they love the victim? How do you establish what thoughts were in criminals' minds? If someone was assaulted because they were Trump supporters, charge the criminal with assault.

Do you feel guilt and shame due to the color of your skin?

timon_phocas comments on Jun 10, 2020:

Guilty about being white? This is something I have no control over. It's like feeling guilty about being a biped, or guilty about being an omnivore. I remember something that happened when I was in the Corps. I pulled a weekend night watch as NCO over a barracks building. There was an incident that emptied the barracks, I traced it down to a black guy who pulled the barracks fire alarm to get revenge on a white guy and a Hispanic guy who exchanged ethnic slurs in a drunken fight. He wasn't part of the fight and he didn't even witness it. I asked him why he pulled the alarm. "It was racial," he said,"what would you do if someone called you a honkey?" I told him I'd laugh, and he looked at me with incomprehension. It was almost forty years ago and we probably still don't understand each other.

Does it feel as if the US is experiencing some sort of political coup?

timon_phocas comments on Jun 9, 2020:

We've been in a rolling coup attempt for the last four years. This is just the latest phase.

The Lincoln Memorial now. It’s a sad day. Part of his skull is missing. This is just evil.

timon_phocas comments on Jun 6, 2020:

I have not been able to find any other images of this damage. I believe if the Lincoln Memorial had been damaged this severely the web would be flooded with these images. It would be impossible to entirely censor. I will continue to search.

Heather Mac Donald On How The Delusion of Diversity Destroys Our Common Humanity [youtube.com]

timon_phocas comments on Jun 6, 2020:

I would post one demurral to this discussion. Harvard, Yale, Princeton. They were all founded as collegiate-level training for Christian pastors and preachers. Therefore they had philosophical anchors to the concept of absolute truth. As each became more secularly prestigious and less anchored to truth, new colleges were founded to maintain theological standards and their anchors to truth. Hillsdale and Grove City are not the only colleges anchored to truth. There are many colleges that do so. I agree with MS MacDonald that they aren't as prestigious, but they do have chachet to those want real educations.

Heather Mac Donald On How The Delusion of Diversity Destroys Our Common Humanity [youtube.com]

timon_phocas comments on Jun 6, 2020:

Great interview. Worth a second listen. Thanks for posting this.

Do you see the tragic killing of Floyd George more an act of pure evil or pure incompetence?

timon_phocas comments on Jun 4, 2020:

There are so many threads to George Floyd's story. I read at stories he was a gentle man, that he helped out at his church, that he urged young men to avoid violence. I've also read he had a long, violent police record and that he was arrested after passing counterfeit money. Maybe the positives are like the myths about Michael Brown (the "Gentle Giant" of Ferguson, Missouri) who was at least a part time teenage thug. Maybe the truth about George Floyd is a blend of the good and bad stories. If there is truth to the bad stories, the police would believe themselves to be responding to a violent criminal who had to be dominated. This is not an excuse for ignoring regulations, but it is a possible explantation of their behavior.

Would you report your neighbor to the federal government for terrorism if you knew they were ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 3, 2020:

I already know they were illegal immigrants and have spent the time and money to become citizens. They're good neighbors and friendly. If they were all those things plus antifa I would have no reason to report them to anyone.

What advice would you give to people who are stressed out over the recent protests and riots?

timon_phocas comments on Jun 3, 2020:

We've been through this before and then moved on. 1968 was a terrible year; political upheavals, military defeats, assassinations, the National Guard was repeatedly called in to control riots, communist student oganizations morphed into terrorists. And it wasn't just the US. In the spring French students raised barricades in the streets and revolted. In Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubcek's popular movement for "socialism with a human face" was crushed by Soviet tanks. The whole world seemed to totter. We took those losses and learned from them. We reformed and renewed. We grew. In 1969 we landed on the Moon. Today private companies are doing what only superpowers could do in 1969. People are walking around with more computing power in their pockets than the president of the US could command in 1969. Lifespans have increased. Extreme poverty has been reduced by over eighty percent worldwide. 1968 was not the end of the US. It was another beginning. And so is 2020.

I Cannot Remain Silent Our fellow citizens are not the enemy, and must never become so.

timon_phocas comments on Jun 2, 2020:

This has happened before. In 1969 a hundred thousand antiwar protestors demonstrated on the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. Troops from the 82nd Airborne were staged in the basement complex of the White House. I think they were stationed at the Pentagon and other sites as well. Late that night, President Nixon went to the Lincoln Memorial and conversed with the the demonstrators there. It was an impulsive, even quixotic move and it went surprisingly well. Not remembered by many.

Biden Faces Backlash For Telling Police: 'shoot 'em in the leg instead of the heart' - Sara A.

timon_phocas comments on Jun 2, 2020:

I thought this inane statement came from when Slo Joe was in the National Guard (I think they still used muskets back then). But then I found out he never served at all. So I guess his inane (yet vacuous) statements about firearms spring directly from his own sputtering brain.

America's return to space proves the success of privatization- [thefederalist.com]

timon_phocas comments on Jun 1, 2020:

British colonies on the East Coast were settled by government encouraged private joint stock companies. It looks like it may work that way in space exploration as well. Government bureaus can achieve miracles. Werner von Braun made it happen at the Redstone Arsenal and NASA. He gave them a sense of mission. Large corporations can achieve miracles. Kelly Johnson made it happen with his Skunk Works at Lockheed. The space program has lost its sense of mission. It's a culture of postponements and price hikes. It's changed from an adventure to a welfare program for aerospace giants. It takes a leader and Elon Musk is that kind of leader. He's recruited a lot of talent from aerospace giants. People who want to get back in the adventure business. People who want to make miracles happen. It was deeply satisfying to see the launch go so smoothly. It made all our dreams seem a bit more tangible.

Do you really choose what you eat – or do your gut microbes decide for you?

timon_phocas comments on Jun 1, 2020:

It's a conspiracy of little alien creatures inside us. Warrant Officer Ridley was right!

If ANTIFA is designated a terrorist group, there are alot of possible charges coming- ...

timon_phocas comments on Jun 1, 2020:

Law enforcement and intel agencies have been granted frightening powers since the Patriot Act passed. It would be satisfying to see them used against legitimate targets instead of political opponents.

Anyone else have the impression that Derek Chauvin was a department bully with a king-size chip on ...

timon_phocas comments on May 31, 2020:

A few years back the police chief in Greeley reviewed all the records of officers with repeated instances of violent encounters with civilians. Those who didn't pass the sniff test were invited to seek other employment. If Greeley (population 120,000) can do that, why can't larger police departments?

SpaceX makes history, launches NASA astronauts into space from US soil for the first time since ...

timon_phocas comments on May 30, 2020:

People ask why me it is important to send a few men into space. I ask why was it important to send Columbus and a hundred-odd sailors to find a new way to China? It changed the world. Not immediately. The precolumbian world was fixated on a trickle of luxury goods from the Indies and Orient. The postcolumbian world found new resources, new sources of wealth, and room to grow. Columbus and his three rickety ships transformed the world. The new space race may do so as well.

I was wondering what your opinions on the whole george floyd case is.

timon_phocas comments on May 29, 2020:

The standard of training is that physical coercion ends when the suspect is cuffed and subdued. Once the the suspects are prone and cuffed, they are rolled to their side or pulled to a sitting position. What the policeman did to George Floyd was against his training and against his department standards.

Style of presentation sounds to me more in line with 'Outsourcing at it's finest' then not, but ...

timon_phocas comments on May 28, 2020:

As a longtime fan of SpaceX I already knew what the documentary said. But it's like a "golden oldies" hits collection. Entertaining. Thanks.

CHINA .

timon_phocas comments on May 28, 2020:

It could also be, as Rahm Emmanuel famously said, a case of never letting an emergency go to waste.

It’s not easy being Karen.

timon_phocas comments on May 27, 2020:

Another 'Bonfire of the Vanities' episode brought to you by the hit series, "When Karma Met Karen."

VDH [nationalreview.com] shines a spotlight on Obama that is not very flattering.

timon_phocas comments on May 27, 2020:

The shallow transience of progressive "saints" always intrigued me. John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Barrak Hussein Obama, they were elegant but ephemeral.

A few days ago, a member posted the following graphic which contains anti-Semitic and other ...

timon_phocas comments on May 26, 2020:

I don't know. I saw it but just paged past. I should have looked up the posting member, but I generally ignore offensive posts.

So, I was wondering.

timon_phocas comments on May 24, 2020:

Howdy @Naomi You can view this as a purely libertarian matter, with all transactions being between consenting adults. But this only works theoretically. In actual experience, polygamy is quite ugly. Old, powerful men choose young, powerless girls to be their wives. And I deliberately use the term "girls." Middle school aged children. This is revealed in criminal polygamy trials in the US and autobiographies of women who escaped Islamic countries. In the US, polygamy sects are associated with welfare scams. The husband might have a job. His "wives" collect welfare as single mothers. All while bemoaning their persecution by a bigoted society.

Could Homeschooling Really Grow by 500 Percent?

timon_phocas comments on May 23, 2020:

From the author's pen to God's ears...

New York Is DYING, People Fleeing, Most Rent Is going UNPAID, The City Is On The Verge Of Collapse -...

timon_phocas comments on May 23, 2020:

Reports like this are popping up all over. Tax base devastation in the heart of Democratic strongholds.

CHINA .

timon_phocas comments on May 23, 2020:

And over a Memorial Day weekend so we're distracted (Hitler liked springing surprises over weekends, he liked spoiling English country weekends).

There really is no better time to create a new WHO like org that truly looks after the interest of ...

timon_phocas comments on May 21, 2020:

Get together with other Anglosphere countries and create a parallel health organization that actually accomplishes things.

Anyone know where I can buy a second hand U-Boat?

timon_phocas comments on May 20, 2020:

Yeah, but getting rid of them raft by raft would take a whole lot if torpedoes and those cost a lot too.

I already posted about Bambi... And I ask...When is hunting dear season starting ?

timon_phocas comments on May 20, 2020:

And we all know wooly mammoths were exterminated by white male persecution of transgender pachyderms. To say nothing of unicorns...

Declassified Susan Rice email confirms Michael Flynn was personally targeted in oval office ...

timon_phocas comments on May 19, 2020:

I always asserted this happened. The evidence pointed to this having happened. More and more evidence accumulated. And now their own words lay bare their treachery. for this kind of treachery, Shakespeare is apt: What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel, Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature? Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, That knew’st the very bottom of my soul, That almost mightst have coined me into gold, Wouldst thou have practiced on me for thy use— May it be possible that foreign hire Could out of thee extract one spark of evil That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange...

Declassified Susan Rice email confirms Michael Flynn was personally targeted in oval office ...

timon_phocas comments on May 19, 2020:

I always asserted this happened. The evidence pointed to this having happened. More and more evidence accumulated. And now their own words lay bare their treachery. for this kind of treachery, Shakespeare is apt: What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel, Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature? Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, That knew’st the very bottom of my soul, That almost mightst have coined me into gold, Wouldst thou have practiced on me for thy use— May it be possible that foreign hire Could out of thee extract one spark of evil That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange...

Another disappointed university student. [youtube.com]

timon_phocas comments on May 19, 2020:

Imagine my sadness. I love history. I "think" history. I even learn science better from histories than from exposition of principles. One of my watch phrases comes from Harry Truman, "The only thing new in the world is the history you haven't read." The custodians of my favorite discipline have become propagandists, twisting and distorting everything into spite. Yet the truth remains and it will ensure

Brazil, where, "Where hearts were entertaining June", is now recorded as a COVID-19 death.

timon_phocas comments on May 19, 2020:

This is the same kind of 'stampede to panic' coverage I've seen here in the US. Same song, different country. Aristotle used the concept of a 'first unmoved mover' to argue for divine creation. The media use a varient to blame Trump as prime mover for all evil. In Brazil it's Bolsonaro. Same song, different country.

When is someone expressing anti-Semitism?

timon_phocas comments on May 19, 2020:

My son and daughter-in-law are Jewish. Here in Colorado there's not much overt anti-Semitism. There's a concern about it, but they blame it on Trump.

KurtSchlichter: Forget About Justice For Obamagate. [townhall.com]

timon_phocas comments on May 18, 2020:

I beg to differ with Mr. Schlichter. If the Deep Swamp Protective Association finds there are no consequences when they kneecap a president, they will do it again.

Coronavirus football: FC Seoul apologises for 'sex dolls' in stands [bbc.com]

timon_phocas comments on May 18, 2020:

"premium mannequins" 😝

If that's the way they want it, then Soviet! [dailymail.co.uk]

timon_phocas comments on May 16, 2020:

"No evidence that right wing pages are being censored" "Community standards" is such a benign sounding phrase. And NewSpeak is a benign reformation of language. Winston Smith, your Ministry of Truth is calling.

Did Rick Grenell really need that big satchel to carry a list of 39 names to the DOJ?

timon_phocas comments on May 16, 2020:

There's a vignette in 'The Replacements' that is illuminating. A cop and a criminal are glaring at each other over a table. A third character realizes he's in the middle of something about to get really unpleasant. He suddenly interjects, "Look! Is that buntcake?", and scuttles away. I expected the MSM news to make its 'buntcake' move last summer. But no. Too many careers are invested. And now that Biden (and even the sainted Barry O's chief of staff) has been revealed as an unmasker, they have to defend the premise.

Israel eyes closing down evangelical channel

timon_phocas comments on May 15, 2020:

1. There's a dynamic tension between secular and Orthodox Jewishness. One point of agreement is that neither like Evangelical Christianity. 2. I have seen any number of secular Jews, a fair number of Orthodox Jews, even a few Buddhist Jews. But the one thing you cannot be is a Christian Jew (at least openly). 3. Orthodox Jews have an outsized voice in the Israeli government. Because of the proportional representation for the Knesset, every government needs a coalition, and Orthodox parties strike strategic bargains to join these coalitions. So if they complain about a Christian cable program, those complaints will be taken very seriously.

By 'occupation', do you mean, ground your weak asses lost during the 6 day war? [youtu.be]

timon_phocas comments on May 15, 2020:

Jordan didn't have lose the West Bank in 1967. Israel sent assurances to Jordan that if they didn't attack, neither would Israel. But Jordan hitched their wagon to Nasser and his jihad, so it attacked Israel and lost.

Is Samantha Powers’ brain as pumped full of holes as Joe Biden’s?

timon_phocas comments on May 15, 2020:

After all these years dragging the river, bodies are popping to to the surface. And just like that metaphor, there is both a sense of success and an awful stench. Someone tried to bring down the Republic. People who worked for the Republic, who swore the same oath to the Constitution I did, tried to bring down the Republic.

Amazing! Mysteriously Complex Geometric Architecture Discovered in Neolithic Temple – Built 6,000 ...

timon_phocas comments on May 14, 2020:

Neanderthals were considered barely sentient when I was a child. Stonehenge was just a mysterious circle of rocks when I was a child. Now we've discovered stone age works of amazing subtlety and insight. This is another confirmation.

AOC has been appointed to Joe Biden’s climate advisory committee.

timon_phocas comments on May 13, 2020:

OK, clearly a case of the blind leading the blond 😘

Gosh. Where do we begin?

timon_phocas comments on May 11, 2020:

We can't humiliate the first African-American president, the sainted Barrak Hussein Obama. You're right, somebody else will have to take the fall.

Mexico's President wants answers on Operation Fast and Furious- [bearingarms.com]

timon_phocas comments on May 9, 2020:

Whoa, another flaming bag of poo landed on Barrak Hussein's porch, and Barry O may have to stamp it out. Sounds interesting.

FBI's memo exonerating Flynn proves it's time to investigate Comey's corrupt 'confidential human ...

timon_phocas comments on May 7, 2020:

This is a horrifying portent of an emerging police state. When French battalions mutinied, refusing to attack across no-mans-land, the French high command ordered the battalions decimated. One tenth of the men were chosen by lot to be executed. Pour Encourager les Autres, "to encourage the others." I'm not advocating decimation of the FBI, intelligence agencies and the DOJ. But something dramatic needs to be done Pour Encourager les Autres. If this is not punished, we will see it again.

This is California??? 😱😱😱

timon_phocas comments on May 5, 2020:

San Francisco has been run by Democratic machine politics for as long as I've been alive. BTW, I was born there. I think it represents an evolution politicians' view of society. They believe squalor is emblematic of capitalist societies. They get political contributions from supposedly non-profit corporations contracting to ameliorate homeless problems. Homeless people inflate population in census counts, and that means more governmental clout and money. The people running this mess don't have to deal with it. They live in gated neighborhoods with private security. Or they live in fenced estates in Napa county.

SpaceShipTwo makes first flight from Spaceport America [spacenews.com]

timon_phocas comments on May 5, 2020:

It's impressive technology, I hope they advance it to orbital capabity in subsequent iterations.

Many communist revolutions happened, successfully and unsuccessfully, in the last century.

timon_phocas comments on May 4, 2020:

Howdy Naomi, We already have elements of a comprehensive surveillance state in our social media giants. These corporations already cooperate in censoring political speach. Google and FB worked hand in glove with the Obama administration, now they work with Trump's opposition. So no, I'm not worried about Communists taking over. But Fascists, Syndicalists, Corporatists can all run nasty police states.

Nostradamus predicted pandemic.

timon_phocas comments on May 3, 2020:

New Amsterdam (AKA New York) was founded in 1624, 38 years after Nostradamus' death. Poor guy's cryptic prose has been accused of foretelling everything from JFK's assassination to my collie's first litter.

'Five Eyes' intel dossier detailing China's duplicity during the pandemic- [redstate.

timon_phocas comments on May 2, 2020:

Thanks, @SpkeTalon, . This has become a really important article with a lot of impact. I read articles saying COVID-19 was artificially created. I read articles sourced "from US intelligence" saying it was not. Now this article says it was both artificially created and then deliberately spread by the PRC when they decided they shouldn't be the only ones suffering an epidemic. Xi Jingping does have a way of living down to my expectations.

So, when Joe Biden is denied the presidential nomination (which will nullify the entire Ukraine ...

timon_phocas comments on May 2, 2020:

Heck no. The same faceless power brokers who maneuvered Slo Joe into first place will choose one of their own to face Trump. And Bernie is not one of their own. That's my guess, anyway...

I like to remind people that partisan politics are what is tearing our country apart by causing ...

timon_phocas comments on May 2, 2020:

We already have term limits. They're called elections. Term limits haven't made California less corrupt. They haven't made Colorado less corrupt. They've made appointed bureaucracies and political machines more powerful.

British American Tobacco threatens Dlamini-Zuma with court action over tobacco sales ban during ...

timon_phocas comments on May 2, 2020:

So now the drug gangs will sell cigarettes? What an opportunity...

American Greatness. "Overcoming the Compelling Logic Of Nihilism." [twitter.com]

timon_phocas comments on May 2, 2020:

"Moreover, this pandemic illustrates that in the event of biological warfare, fascist police states will wield a decisive advantage, with their capacity to monitor the biological health and control the physical movements of every individual." This statement is contradicted by events. China is the most intrusively comprehensive surveillance state in the world. It would make Orwell's Big Brother green with envy. Human informant networks tie into secret police. Surveillance cameras (paired with facial recognition programs) are on many streets, and venues. Virtually every interaction with government (schools to hospitals to traffic stops) is tied into central databases on each citizen. GPS tracking is available for everyone with a cell phones. They have more or less complete internet monitoring. All of this is mated to a police system that knows its primary job is to keep the regime in power. Yet, with all these tools at their disposal, China did not detect the Wuhan flu outbreak, and did not try to control it until after it had become an epidemic. Sure, they have the power to weld people into their apartments. But it is a classic case of shutting the barn door after the horses are out. And it is because that vast, intrusive police state's purpose is regime protection, not the welfare of the people.

So who out there has firsthand experienced this deadly virus?

timon_phocas comments on May 1, 2020:

My wife works in a university with a large number of Chinese students. Her partner came down with a particularly nasty flu around Thanksgiving. My wife had that same flu Christmas through New Years. Fever, dry cough, fatigue, some body aches (exacerbated by severe coughing). Her doctor had the same nasty flu and he gave Patty what he had to take: steroid inhalers, antibiotics, zantac, codeine cough syrup. I had a much light version of it around Christmas.

According to worldometers, the worst death rates due to the virus (death per million) by country are...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 30, 2020:

Homeless people stay in subway cars all day long. The least healthy population in the city congregate in the closed, cramped subway cars essential to the rest of the city. If this is not a disease vector, I don't know what is. If one central HVAC system is a disease vector in a cruise ship, it is also a disease vector in an apartment building. Mr. De Blasio was was encouraging people to congregate in bars, restaurants and entertainment venues long after most authorities were urging social distancing. His subsequent actions have been equally incompetent.

If we're all so outraged at the censorship of FB, Twitter, and YouTube, why hasn't the right made ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 30, 2020:

FB, Google, etc. make their money by monitoring and monetizing user behavior. That's what pays for their vast server farms. Alternate sites exist, but they they don't have the cash flow to field competing server farms.

[newspunch.com]

timon_phocas comments on Apr 29, 2020:

A whole administration chick full of traitors and grifters

Compilation of Falcon-9 landing failures. [facebook.com]

timon_phocas comments on Apr 29, 2020:

Kind of puts Starship development problems into perspective.

Is this some kind of contradiction in the Bible, or misleading aspect??

timon_phocas comments on Apr 27, 2020:

Howdy @Tati, If the Scriptures were completed at Deuteronomy, then why would anyone consider Isaiah scriptural? Since everybody, except Samaritans, considers Isaiah scriptural the argument from Deuteronomy poses some questions. John Mark, the writer of the Gospel of Mark, was the personal assistant and amanuensis of the Apostle Peter. In a real sense it can be said that it should be titled the Gospel of Peter. As amanuensis, Mark wrote out Peter's account in Peter's "voice" and then added the ending in his own voice. At any rate, that's one explanation I've heard. Another explanation deals with the incomplete nature of Codex Sinaiticus (questions about missing pages). The King James and other older translations used a body of manuscripts called Textus Receptus (collated and translated by Erasmus of Rotterdam in the 1500s). Newer translations use Codex Alexandria and Codex Sinaiticus as base sources. In my newer translations (NASB, NIV and NKJ) they have notes appended saying the oldest texts don't include verses 9 through 20. Most people don't worry about it because the verses don't contain anything of doctrinal importance. I'll just have to wait to ask John Mark when I see him.

"Some African governments already bilaterally petitioning China for relief"...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 27, 2020:

This reminds me of an African story from the middle 1960s. A small, west African country wanted a steel mill. Steel mills were prestige examplars of industrial advancement. It didn't have iron ore, so it would have to operate off of scrap iron. The country's diplomats made the rounds of the usual donors, who turned them down because it did not make economic sense. The Soviet Union stepped up, however, and said they would send a steel mill. The mill was built and opened with great fanfare. After the fanfare, of course, it was an economic millstone around their neck. There was not enough scrap iron in the country or its neighbors to feed the mill. So they tore down one half of the mill and fed it into the other half in order to say it was producing steel.

Sky News Australia.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 27, 2020:

The public utilities love green power. Their construction subsidiaries love it even more. Wind farms last half as long as coal or gas fired plants. So they have to build them twice as often. Twice the profits! Plus you have to build a parallel coal or gas fired plant because wind farms aren't dependable. Fossil plants don't just sit there when the wind is blowing. They have to be halfway fired up so they'll be ready to take over when the wind stops. They're consuming fossil fuels even while the wind turbines are busy making electricity and chopping up birds. There's an old joke about Africans and the foreign mine owners. Foreign owners provided expertise and tools while Africans provided labor. Owners got the gold and Africans got the shaft. And that's what utilites are doing to rate payers in this green new world.

In what circumstances is it fair for those who feel marginalized to blame those who succeed?

timon_phocas comments on Apr 26, 2020:

This is more a question of human character than relative success. In turn, this is a question of moral attributes of character, and here we stray into standards of morality. I believe pain is the common denominator of human life. You can spend life complaining about the pain. Complaining about someone else's success is just another aspect of complaining about your own pain. You can, however, accept pain as a part of a life that also includes beauty and joy.

Federalist. "Virginia Health Commissioner: Schools Could Be Closed 2 Years." [twitter.com]

timon_phocas comments on Apr 26, 2020:

Governor 'Blackface' Northam also tried to slip in an order to cancel elections and prorouge current office holders. You've got to admit, ol' Blackface does have ambition. Democracy sure is wonderful when you don't have worry about all those pesky elections. BTW, my daughter teaches French in a Georgia high school. She has to conduct 6 hours of online class instruction a day, plus meetings, plus oversee her oldest son's online school work, plus chase after her kindergarten and preschool children. It's an exhausting day.

God and Jesus reject earthly authority But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 25, 2020:

Howdy @DeJake, The Bible attitude towards authority is kind of complicated. The Children of Israel were organized into tribes in the books of Exodus through Judges. It was a diffuse system in which the Aaronic priesthood was supposed to have a veto power. And the recurring phrase was, "there was no king and everyone did what seemed right in their own eyes." In Deuteronomy (chapter 17), however, Moses speaks of a future in which they would have kings. So kingship was forseen. The New Testament attitude is to obey authorities wherever they do not directly contradict God's commandments. Titus 3:1 CSB — Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, Acts 4:19¶Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; So I would agree with you that obedience is a personal choice, but also say the Bible strongly supports secular authorities and urges believers to obey them.

North Korea.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 25, 2020:

To use Plato's metaphor, we're still seeing flickering shadows on a wall. There are puzzling auguries, but few hard facts. China does not want a united, democratic Korea on its border. It also doesn't want spend serious money fixing North Korea. I don't know how this will play out.

NY Post. "Harvard Prof. Wants To Ban Homeschooling, Because It s Authoritarian." [twitter.com]

timon_phocas comments on Apr 24, 2020:

A shining example of scary ingnorance. That she is a Harvard professor is no surprise. Every intellectual luminary in western civilization, from Homer to Einstein, was home schooled.

As today is the 50th year of "Earth Day" activities, I put together a little animation of the pace ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 23, 2020:

I don't know of a single major power whose population is not shrinking (other than through immigration). The whole of Europe is shrinking demographicly. The US population only grows through immigration. Fundementalist Islamic countries' populations are growing. Iran seems be the exception to this. The neo-malthusians haven't been right yet. But there's always another generation to prophesy to.

Trump instructs military to 'destroy' any Iranian gunboat that attacks Navy | Just The News

timon_phocas comments on Apr 22, 2020:

Sailors and Marines are probably stomping and hollering their war cries in response to this. When Iranian militants took the embassy hostage, Marines aboard amphib ships pounded the decks and chanted "War! War! War!" for twenty minutes.

OMG! 73% Of Inmates At An Ohio Prison Test Positive For Coronavirus : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

timon_phocas comments on Apr 21, 2020:

Something similar to what happened in nursing care facilities. It depends on the age and condition of the prisoners.

Archaeologist Simcha Jacobovici - The Jesus Wife Papyrus (Part 1) [youtu.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 20, 2020:

The MSM put out stories like this every Easter. The stories get a little bubble and fizz and then go away. There was a Gospel of Thomas a few years ago. A little bubble and fizz and then nothing. There was a theory a few years ago, promoted by a couple of professors, about Jesus swooning on the cross and then reviving in the cool of the tomb. There was some bubble and fizz, and then nothing. Dan Brown flogged the 'Mary Magdalene as wife' theory. Since the Da Vinci code was a best seller, there was a bit more bubble and fizz. And then nothing. The problem with all these theories is that they don't stand up to historical examination.We have extra-scriptural letters by Church Fathers down to the 1st century CE. Some of them being personal assistants to the apostles. None of them say anything about the Messiah marrying anything but the Church.

(Wasn't sure where to post this.) Why do you post what you post?

timon_phocas comments on Apr 19, 2020:

This is a forum for ideas and discussion. It is also a source of alternate information. I try to post things that interest me (and hopefully others), that are ignored in the 24/7 news streams, or that are humorous.

When the State tells you it's safe to go to Home Depot to buy a sponge but dangerous to go and buy a...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 18, 2020:

When the state state says you can't play tee-ball with your child in a playground, but vigorously defends the right of hundreds of "homeless" to camp cheek by jowl with each other, it's not about your health.

It appears Trump's newly establish Space Command has something to keep it busy with as Russia on ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 17, 2020:

Howdy @kresica, The US Space Force is taking a page from SpaceX and switching communications sats from a handful to constellations. The first official USSF launch was for the first batch of its constellation. I think it will also switch recon and electronic listening sats to constellations. It's one thing to take out a KH-11, it will be an entirely different task to eliminate twenty smaller sats doing the same task.

John Batchelor Show.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 16, 2020:

China realizes you don't have to provide the majority of the funding. You just have to provide the majority of the bribes.

Too late nowhttps://youtu.be/h2od5g52fN8

timon_phocas comments on Apr 14, 2020:

Oh bulls**t. This is post Brexit Britain. Decide your own standard, make preparations and execute the plan.

The FACTS don't lie!

timon_phocas comments on Apr 13, 2020:

And what about the Swine flu epidemic of 2009-10, that caused between 8,800 and 18,000 US deaths (CDC estimates). That was during Obama's administration. But perish the thought that Saint Obama should be subject to the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Coverage...

Liberals want fair results.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 12, 2020:

Only if human are involved...

One good thing.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 12, 2020:

Congress finally 'fessed up?

Steve Turley.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 11, 2020:

Grants encouraging married couples is an interesting wrinkle. German and, I think, Sweden just rewarded having children. These programs have been flops. Perhaps the Czechs and Poles will follow suit.

Czech nudists told to wear face masks by police [cnn.com]

timon_phocas comments on Apr 11, 2020:

Talk about your awkward suntan lines!

Its really come to something when Brietbart has to preach scripture to its readers to stay the fuck ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 11, 2020:

Hebrews 10:25-31 King James Version (KJV). 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Rhonda Rousey does not have the authority of the Apostle Paul in these matters.

This turned out better than the title suggested -🧐.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 10, 2020:

Does anybody remember, "Bush lied, people died"? Or pictures of Nixon with the caption, "would you buy a used car from this man"? Or LBJ's "credibility gap"? Or Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman... Miss Lewinsky"? Did anybody believe him? As a matter of fact, I remember every president since LBJ being called a liar. Republicans were called a liar en masse by the news media. Democrats were attacked as such by conservatives. In "Plain Speaking" Truman called Eisenhower a liar. The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Coverage come with the job.

California "Declares Independence" Referring To CA As "Nation State," Its BS But We Can Dream Right?

timon_phocas comments on Apr 10, 2020:

Tim Pool is ignorant about California. Legislative districts have been more or less continuously jerrymandered for fifty-odd years. When Reagan was Governor, the legislature was controlled by Democrats. Jessie Unruh headed the Senate and Willie Brown was Assembly Speaker. Before the Supreme Court overruled California's Constitution, state senators came from counties while assembly representatives were apportioned by population. This generally meant Republicans held the state Senate while Democrats held the Assembly. It also meant that rural California had to be taken into account. After the Supreme Court decision both houses were apportioned by population. Democrats took control of the entire legislature and have never lost control. Legislative districts were continuously jerrymandered and remaining Republican seats shrank to a miniscule remainder. All of its decisions have been made by and for urban California ever since. Water for the San Joaquin Valley farmers? They were Republicans. San Francisco gets its water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The LA Basin gets its water from the Owens Valley and Northern California water projects. When those no longer provided enough water, they took the farmers' water. And they could say they were doing it in the name of the environment. Hairspray Newsom may style California as a nation-state, but he can't even supply California with electricity.

We are seeing the most draconian measures enforced at all levels of government that we've ever seen ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 10, 2020:

Oh, I am complaining. People are being ticketed and arrested for perfectly harmless and innocuous behaviors. My daughter and son-in-law live in a tiny community in the southeast corner of Montana. The county public health nurse put police tape on all the churches and shut down the only grocery store in a forty mile radius. People there are threatening to vandalize her house. Deputies (there are only two) are going to those people to talk them out of it. Those people in that tiny town epitomize a growing reaction across America.

Princeton professor Stephen Kotkin talks about Trump, China, and the Geopolitics of crisis ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 10, 2020:

Stalin was a recent memory when I was a child, so his biographies were considered to be important. He has receeded in public memory as time has passed. It's good to see important work being done on such a seminal figure in the 20th century.

Why is it so difficult to distribute wealth in a manner that ensures a basic minimum standard of ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 8, 2020:

I would submit that modern capitalism had done just that. We don't have private jets and private islands, but we are fabulously wealthy judged by historical standards. We live lives that are better than Roman emperors'. Better water, better food, better shelter, real medicine (to name just a few). The Roman world had one library with more than 100,000 volumes. I live in commuting distance of four with over two million volumes apiece. That doesn't count digital volumes or internet access. Hadrian spent at least half of his reign touring his empire; at a walking pace. Virtually everybody has access to airliners and cars in 1st world economies. This is an age of unprecedented affluence for the widest breadth of population that has ever existed.

One might not think so after reading this article but the writer, published in the Atlantic, is left...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 8, 2020:

Nation states are important for another reason. Eventually, their governments are subject to their peoples' will. As the old saying goes, comes the moment, comes the man. Our moment came as people were fed up with "government by experts." Trump was the man who channeled the ferment.

The new intellectuals of the American right

timon_phocas comments on Apr 8, 2020:

Well, it's nice to know Britain's left is applying political Taxanomy to American conservatism. It beats invective. I would say, however, there's a broad streak of libertarianism in America. It's actually being reinforced as nanny state functionaries impose mindless restrictions in this emergency. This libertarian streak straddles both liberals and conservatives.

SpaceIntelligence: Trump signs executive order to support mining on the Moon and asteroids.

timon_phocas comments on Apr 7, 2020:

It's kind of interesting that we now have a legal framework to mine where we cannot go to or return from.

Aircraft Carrier Captain Fired For ‘Poor Judgement’ In Sending Coronavirus Letter - Defense One

timon_phocas comments on Apr 7, 2020:

The US has only ten carrier task forces. At any one time, a third of the carriers are undergoing maintainence. Another third are preparing for deployment. The final third are deployed. Captain Crozier announced to the world that a third of America's deployed carriers, the centerpiece of an entire fleet, was unfit for service. I'm sure he didn't intend to. He sent out an email blast on an unsecure network, however, and that's what he accomplished. Bad judgement.

In an age where we have massive scientific abilities, the main question isn't "can we do this", but ...

timon_phocas comments on Apr 7, 2020:

Howdy @NathanPumphrey, Tricky question. There is no proof text on chromasonal abnormalities in the Bible. We will have to depend on our consciences, and inform our consciences with the Biblical wisdom. This is no different than a host of other issues we face every day. There were no speed limits in Biblical times. It was impossible to go faster than a horse after all. As a result, there is no, "thou shalt not break speed limits" in the Bible. But it is implied in Biblical admonitions to obey the laws of the government. Birth control pills were developed by a devout Catholic. He was actually researching ways to cure infertility in women. "The Pill" was the consequence, and society was suddenly offered the false possibility of sex without consequence. Even good intentions and informed consciences can generate evil results. We'd best tread cautiously.