Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
Meet the Rio Olympians Who Put God Before Gold ~ Christianity Today offers a glimpse of inspiration and testimony from 23 of Team USA’s Christian athletes.
 
Speaking of “gold…”
Gold Star mom says Obama ran casket PHOTO OP after families told him NOT to ~ The president’s righteous indignation is highly selective. Don’t believe for a minute he actually cares about any Gold Star Families.
 
Trump Just Promised To Double Down On Obama’s Failed Stimulus ~ As the national debt closes in on 20 trillion (which incidentally, no one is even talking about!) ~

Donald Trump made an eye-opening promise on Tuesday, saying that he’d spend twice as much as Hillary Clinton on fixing roads and bridges. It’s an outlandish proposal for any politician to make. But it’s almost inconceivable that the Republican nominee for president would be trudging down this dreary big-government path.

 
Men Behind Terror Attacks in Paris, Brussels Lived on Welfare While Planning Attacks ~ So essentially, governments are aiding and abetting jihad against their own people.
 
But the media propaganda machine does their best to pretend otherwise ~
Media Fails To Report Gang Firebombing Paris Bus While Yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ [VIDEO]

American media has been noticeably silent about the Molotov cocktail firebombing of a bus in Paris last week by a large gang which yelled ‘Allah Akbar.’
 
The attack happened just after midnight on July 28 in the Paris neighborhood of Saint-Denis. Video shows a roadblock stopping the bus in the street and then a group of young males proceeding to throw Molotov cocktails into the city bus. The bus bursts into flames and burns down into a metal hull.

While thankfully no one was killed, that fact made it easier to bury the story.

 
Now here’s an issue that never makes it onto the network news, can’t discuss anything that reflects poorly on the Religion-of-Peace dontcha know ~ Huge Increase in Girls Victimized by Genital Mutilation in U.S.

An estimated 513,000 women and girls are at risk or have already been subjected to female genital mutilation in the United States (a three-fold jump since 1990), with the number skyrocketing due to increased immigration from countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where the practice is common. […]
 
The State Department considers female genital mutilation—the partial or total removal of female genitalia for no medical reason—to be a form of gender-based violence. The practice is illegal in the United States.[…]

 
UN Backs Secret Obama Takeover of Police ~ Takeover? What takeover? Oh, the one the network news is totally ignoring? ~

Here’s how it works: the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice files a lawsuit in federal court against a city, county, or state, alleging constitutional and civil rights violations by the police or at a corrections facility. It is done under 42 U.S.C. § 14141, a section of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, granting the attorney general the power to prosecute law enforcement misconduct. The municipality then simply agrees to the judicial finding — without contest — and the result is a wide-reaching federal court order that imposes onerous regulations on local police.

 
The federal court orders are designed to undo Rudy Giuliani-style policing tactics that were effective at reducing crime in big cities in the 1990s and 2000s.

Anyone recall voting for this?

 
DePaul University Bans Shapiro ~ No thought diversity allowed on campus ~

Mr. Shapiro’s strong defense of the Constitution and conservative values is apparently too much for the University and its students to handle.[…]
 
The question here is, what kind of campus is DePaul to be? Is DePaul to be a campus where, as Shapiro puts it, free speech goes to die? Is DePaul to be a campus that submits to the whims of the intolerant Left if just one conservative viewpoint is expressed? Is DePaul to be a campus that enforces an echo-chamber of statist ideals? Is DePaul to be a campus that actually promotes and upholds freedom of speech and expression, or one that just pretends to?

 
‘Boomerang Dad’ Better Than None ~ Tying in with my “Dad’s aren’t dispensable” post, a new study finds that children’s depression and anxiety are lower even when a father is around only sporadically ~

“We’re finding a new way that families might support their children. Even though the family has gone through some really bad times, having the dad come back has proven to be positive,” Cassandra Dorius, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at Iowa State University

 
I don’t think “male mothers” count ~

The Latest in Transanity: More Male Mothers and the End of the Male Body ~ In what would have come a shock to any human being since the dawn of time…

“There is plainly no one type of body that we could accurately label a ‘male body.’” 😯 […]
 
• Dozens of transgender “men” are having their eggs frozen at NHS [National Health Service] clinics
• Eggs are frozen before surgery or hormone therapy to switch sex
• Treatment means that a British trans “man” could soon become a parent
• In rare circumstances a “man” could become pregnant and give birth
~~~~~~~~~
The reality is that there is no such thing as a pregnant man while there is such a thing as a male body, and the sooner we abandon today’s trans-social madness, the better.

 
Chinese Education Is Being Transformed by Biblical Truths ~ While western cultures are rejecting God – with predictable results – the Holy Spirit is stirring hearts and minds in a more receptive corner of the world ~

Sean Elgut (headmaster of Veritas Christian Academy of Virginia) says although many Chinese are atheist, or Buddhist, most parents are open to Christianity. Some even encourage their kids to learn all they can about Christ.
 
“Chinese parents start to realize Christian education is beyond text books. The parents want their kids to live with faith. They are begging us to teach them about Jesus.” Sean said.