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

 
South Carolina’s College Constitution Course ~
It’s ironic that requiring knowledge of America’s founding documents is considered controversial. (And intersectionality and gender-fluidity studies are perfectly normal ) ~

South Carolina’s Senate recently passed an update to the Reinforcing College Education on America’s Constitutional Heritage Act, the state’s 95-year-old legislation requiring all college students at state schools to take a course on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. The update to the law was brought forward after the president of the University of South Carolina, Harris Pastides, refused to comply with the law back in 2014 because he termed it “archaic.”

 
Girl Scouts Partner with Abortion Industry, ‘Anal Sex’ Promoter Teen Vogue ~ I’ve had my last Thin Mint ~

Ann Saladin, creator of MyGirlScoutCouncil.com, and co-editor Christy Volanski, have spent nearly a decade documenting Girl Scouts USA’s relationships with the abortion industry, Planned Parenthood, and political leaders who support abortion and a left-wing agenda in general.
 
“At the very least, it’s a cozy relationship,” Volanski told Breitbart News as she described the ties between the Girl Scouts, the abortion industry and, specifically, Planned Parenthood.

 
States Increasingly Police Family ‘Thoughtcrimes’ ~ As homeschooling rapidly grows, so too are state-level efforts to “oversee” families. Somehow progressives just can’t control their totalitarian tendencies ~

Oregon, Washington state, and even Iowa are trailblazing another assault on constitutionally protected individual rights. The state legislature in Oregon is currently mulling over a bill that “directs Oregon Health Authority to study home visiting by licensed health care providers.” The bill contends that home visits are “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.”

 
Any wonder more and more families are homeschooling, when this just happened in a public school? ~ Utah teacher forced student to wash off Ash Wednesday cross on forehead, family says ~ Is this still America?

A Utah elementary school teacher apologized to one of her Catholic students Wednesday — and may still face disciplinary action — after she forced him to wash off the Ash Wednesday cross on his forehead, the boy’s family said.
 

“A lot of students asked me what it is. I said, ‘I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent. It’s Ash Wednesday,’” William said.

 
Feds Pay Millions for Lobster Tail, Booze, Toys in Spending Binge ~ But somehow we can’t scrape up $8 million for a border wall?? ~

A new analysis released by OpenTheBooks.com found 66 agencies spent $97 billion last September, the final month of fiscal year 2018. The end of the year taxpayer-funded spending spree included contracts with Coors, millions on iPhones, furniture, and CrossFit equipment.
 
“In the final month of the fiscal year, federal agencies scramble to spend what’s left in their annual budget,” OpenTheBooks.com said. “Agencies worry spending less than their budget allows might prompt Congress to appropriate less money in the next fiscal year. To avoid this, federal agencies choose to embark on an annual shopping spree rather than admit they can operate on less.”

Great stewards of our money aren’t they? If they were fiscally responsible, Congress would consider options like this reasonable offer on wall construction ~ Company offers to build 234 miles of border wall for $1.4 billion
 

Axelrod Calls Out Dems for Investigations Resembling a ‘Witch-Hunt’ ~ Wow. From the Department of When-Pigs-Fly. From Obama’s former senior advisor ~

“Maybe I’m missing something, but the hazard of an omnibus document demand by House judiciary versus discreet, serial ones is that, however legitimate the areas of inquiry, the wide-ranging nature of it is too easily plays into the ‘witch-hunt’ meme,” he tweeted.

 
Bernie Sanders Mocks Trump: My Father Didn’t Give Me Millions to Build Country Clubs ~ Envy is the root of all socialism. Meanwhile, Swedish Ex-Prime Minister Rebukes Bernie: Socialism Only Destroys ~

Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994, Carl Bildt, took to Twitter to warn Sanders that socialism is not the key to creating a great society as he and Ocasio-Cortez seem to think.
 
After old footage showing Sanders and his wife, Jane, praising the Soviet Union for its programs targeting the youth went viral online, Bildt responded by saying “Sanders was lucky to be able to get to the Soviet Union in 1988 and praise all its stunning socialist achievements before the entire system and empire collapsed under the weight of its own spectacular failures.”
 
To the former prime minister, the damage socialism can cause is still fresh in his memory. After all, he was the first prime minister in 60 years to not subscribe to the ideology. And thanks to him, Sweden’s capital gains taxes were cut to 30 percent and corporate taxes to 28 percent.
 
Bildt also privatized several state-owned industries, deregulated multiple sectors of the economy, allowed people to invest portions of their pension, and introduced school choice policies, improving the country’s education system.

 
James O’Keefe: “Heroic” Facebook insider exposes “nefarious” practice of “deboosting” ~ Video from Ezra Levant/Rebel Media. More subversion of our First Amendment ~

The former employee, responsible for content review, discovered that the social media company would secretly “deboost” pages owned by conservatives and was able to confirm this was not happening to individuals or organizations on the political Left.

 
$15 Billion in Orders for US Company Signed During Trump’s Visit to Vietnam ~ In a widely under-reported story, during his visit to Southeast Asia last month, Vietnamese airlines formalized purchase agreements that they’d been negotiating with U.S. manufacturers for several months. More good economic news for us… (Dare I say “MAGA?”) ~

Bamboo Airways and VietJet Aviation signed off on the agreements during President Donald Trump’s visit to Hanoi, Vietnam, for his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
 
Bamboo will buy 10 787-9 Dreamliners, which come to about $3 billion, after announcing in 2018 plans to buy 20 for 2020 or 2021 delivery. VietJet signed an agreement confirming its 2018 plan to buy one hundred 737 Max planes in a deal worth about $12.7 billion, Boeing said Wednesday, according to the Chicago Tribune.
 
General Electric Co. signed a $5.3 billion deal with VietJet that will allow it to service engines for 200 Boeing 737 Max aircraft that are on order.

 
The Continued Resilience of Quiet America ~ Reviewing the turbulence of the sixties – specifically 1969 – Victor Davis Hanson reminds us that the American spirit is still stronger than whatever chaos the Left can throw at us.

Colorado wrestler forfeits matches against girls due to his religion ~ What amazing courage and maturity in the face of today’s gender confusion and craziness ~

The senior at the Classical Academy in Colorado Springs then decided against playing junior at Valley High Angel Rios in his third-round consolation match.
He said the move – which ended his high school wrestling career – was down to his religious and personal beliefs.
 
Brendan, who identifies as Christian, told KDVR: ‘It’s so physical, physically close. I don’t think that’s really appropriate with a young lady. It’s also very aggressive and I’m not really, I guess, comfortable with that.’

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

 
FACT: Late-Term Abortions Are Never Medically Necessary ~ Lila Rose (founder and president of Live Action) teams up with OBGYN Dr. Mary Davenport to counter the pro-abort deception with the truth ~

There are alternatives to late abortion that protect women’s health and preserve the life and dignity of the baby. It is imperative that physicians, lawmakers, and citizens be informed of these alternatives, and understand that even in difficult situations, choosing life is always possible.

 
If Big Tech Can Censor Me, Think What It Can Do to You ~ Donald Trump Jr. on the (one-sided) startling assault on free speech by social media and the tech giants ~

Unfortunately, Silicon Valley is showing us that tech companies, too, can manipulate information for partisan ends. Their censorship is increasing at an alarming rate, just in time for them to try to spoil my father’s re-election bid, but we won’t let them get away with it.
 
Those of us with a big enough public profile to hold the tech giants accountable for their partisan speech-policing have a duty to do so. Ordinary conservatives can’t force multibillion-dollar companies to guarantee their right to free speech, which is exactly what the liberals are counting on.
 
They’ve gone too far, though. They’ve poked the hornet’s nest of conservative activists, and we will continue to vigilantly shame them for their censorship, because so much is at stake.

 
Things are even worse in the UK ~ University suspends student Ukip member, 19, who sparked outrage by saying the NHS should not be free to immigrants and complained about the ‘Islamisation’ of Britain during class discussions ~ George Orwell saw this coming; “Intellectual honesty is a crime in any totalitarian country; but even in England it is not exactly profitable to speak and write the truth.” ~

• Sebastian Walsh, 19, was suspended from the University of Central Lancashire
• Social work student expressed controversial views on halal meat and Islam
• The Ukip member complained the suspension contravenes his human rights
 
He said: ‘All I did was voice my opinions during debates about immigration […]
 
‘I am totally against halal meat because I think it’s cruel – it’s an inhumane and barbaric way of slaughtering animals.
 
‘In another seminar class, we had a discussion about the privatisation of the NHS and I simply said I don’t think free healthcare should be available to immigrants.

Gasp. How offensive can you get?
 
What Moral Relativism Really Says About Reality ~ Cecily Lowe points out the self-refuting worldview of moral relativism ~

If a relativist would say worship of many gods, worship of the earth goddess Gaia, and Christianity are all right because all three religions have practitioners who want to believe them, what the relativist is really saying is that he has no knowledge of which beliefs are correct and which are not.
 
If what’s true for one man is not also true for every other, then truth about Who or What is in charge of the universe is reduced to something mutable, non-existent outside of the human mind. And if something does not exist outside of the mind, what then?

 
Gov. Dunleavy abolishes Alaska climate-change commission, removes roadblock for Knik Arm bridge ~ Excellent. Alaskans clearly elected a common sense conservative last November ~

On his first day in office, Dunleavy said he doubted Alaska’s ability to influence climate change and preferred to focus on economic improvements.
 
“Alaska’s footprint in terms of being a contributor to pollution or however you want to word it is pretty small compared to other states in the U.S. So my focus has been trying to create jobs for our kids and grandkids so they don’t have to leave the state.”

Related: Radical tree huggers indifferent to human needs (2-28-18) ~ Greens trying to prevent improved Aleutian access to the outside world
 
Socialism chokes life out of everything American ~ A truth that Star Parker learned the hard way ~

“The government controls all healthcare already in our urban core; the government controls all daycare in our urban core; it controls all housing in our urban core; it controls all education in our urban core – and what we see is distress.”

 
Male Runners Continue Dominating Girls’ High School Track in Connecticut ~ Dontcha just love this headline? Here’s another one ~ Biological Male Is Top-Ranked NCAA Women’s Track Star.

 
New Mexico family invites President Trump to build border wall on their land ~ On the front lines of the border crisis; this isn’t Nancy Pelosi’s back yard ~

For the Johnsons, the wall is a tangible solution to a decades-old problem. The Johnsons said they desperately want a wall because people can’t drive through it.
 
“We have had this problem for years, decades. And right now, it’s purely a political game that we are paying the price for,” Brandy Johnson said.

 
Aid and Comfort: The Crime of Today’s Cohen Hearing ~ How much did the timing of the Cohen clown show affect the breakdown in Trump/Kim meeting? ~

(O)n a day when the President of the United States needs Americans to have his back, Democrats are sticking a knife in it. Why? These are the only possible days to get Cohen’s testimony? No. Hearing Cohen trash the president today, accuse him of all sorts of wrong doing today, is that important? No
 
Simply trying to overshadow and embarrass the President domestically cannot be their motivation. The timing is too deliberate.
 
There can be only one possible motive: To undercut the President. To sabotage negotiations on behalf of the enemy.

 
South African pastor facing lawsuits over alleged resurrection ~ 😯

A group of funeral directors have said they plan to sue Pastor Alph Lukau for a spectacle he put on in which he appears to convince churchgoers that he brought a man back from the dead. In a now-viral video, he can be heard shouting “rise up” to a man in a coffin. The man then sits upright as onlookers cheer.

 
Cowboys for Trump Ride Through D.C. in Support of Border Wall ~ It wasn’t a huge crowd, but they made up for it with enthusiasm ~

D.C. Police escorted men and women on horses through the streets of the nation’s capital on Friday as Cowboys for Trump and a last-minute Native American rider rode in support of President Donald Trump and his efforts to build a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico […]
 
Most of the Cowboys for Trump came from border communities in New Mexico where they said drug and human trafficking is rampant, and Trump’s national emergency declaration is essential to securing the border and protecting the American people and the lifestyle we enjoy.