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Ruth King

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Beyond belief More evidence of Britain’s inspiring stand for rationality and decency Melanie Phillips

By on March 25th, 2025

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/

Here are three stories from the Telegraph illustrating Britain’s imaginative use of the language of “diversity” and “inclusivity”.

(Readers in Jerusalem can find below these reports a promised respite from the loss of reason.)

Damon Joshua, a sewage maintenance engineer employed by Severn Trent Water, felt so strongly about the October 7 Hamas massacre that he posted on his company’s intranet site, along with an Israeli flag:

One year ago our valued partners and friends, Israel, were horrifically attacked by a group of violent and disgusting terrorists. I can say with confidence today that the vast majority of STW’s employees stand in solidarity with our Jewish, Israeli and Zionist colleagues against the evil of Islamist terror.

He was promptly suspended and then sacked after a disciplinary hearing. The Telegraph reports:

At his disciplinary hearing he was told that the post had caused “significant offence” to three members of staff who complained about it. Managers concluded that “this offence is in relation to a protected characteristic, specifically religious belief” and dismissed him for gross misconduct. He was told that “the language used in the post caused offence to employees with different perspectives, particularly those with Muslim or Palestinian backgrounds”…

Mr Joshua claimed that in the disciplinary hearing that one of his managers asked “How do you think a Palestinian employee would feel reading this?” They also raised concerns that “the wording in the post explicitly suggests support of a particular geopolitical stance”. They told Mr Joshua his claim that the majority of STW staff supported Israel “creates exclusion and assumptions of solidarity”.

So to the managers of Severn Trent Water, opposing the barbaric savages of Hamas offends Muslims or “Palestinians” and is a form of prejudice against Islam.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Medal of Honor Recipient’s Family Ties to Black Patriot of the American Revolution Corporal Fred B. McGee posthumously received the Medal of Honor, highlighting Black Patriots’ long history of military heroism from the Revolution to today. By Patrick S. Poole

By on March 25th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/25/medal-of-honor-recipients-family-ties-to-black-patriot-of-the-american-revolution/

In a White House ceremony on January 3rd, the daughter of Corporal Fred B. McGee received his posthumously awarded Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in the Korean War. His was one of several from the Korean and Vietnam Wars during the ceremony. While McGee survived the war, he died in 2020 while his family continued to campaign for his award to be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

His actions on Hill 528 near Tang-Wan-Ni, Korea, on June 16, 1952, occurred while serving with the 17th Infantry Regiment, one of the few American military units that had been racially integrated at that time. According to his Medal of Honor citation, McGee was a light machine gunner when his platoon assaulted a fortified enemy position. Braving machine gun and mortar fire, he laid down covering fire for the assaulting troops. When his squad leader was wounded, McGee took command and exposed himself in order to lead the squad forward to a position to neutralize an enemy machine gun.

When the machine gunner was mortally wounded, he ordered his squad to withdraw and volunteered to cover their retreat and to help recover the dead and wounded. He aided a wounded man to safety despite being subjected to considerable mortar and artillery fire. He was initially awarded the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts for his action on Hill 528.

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ANTI-SEMITISM, BOOKS Comments turned off

Antisemitism: History & Myth An important new masterpiece from Robert Spencer. by Mark Tapson

By on March 25th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/antisemitism-history-myth/

One would have thought that, in the wake of the barbaric massacre of over 1200 Israelis on October 7, 2023 by Hamas savages, not to mention the ongoing hostage crisis, that there would have been a worldwide outpouring of sympathy for the victims and condemnation of the terror organization’s war crimes. If so, one would be horribly wrong. Instead, the world has witnessed a tsunami of support for Hamas and a virulent hatred for the kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered Jews.

What explains this surge of Jew-hatred, manifested in violent demonstrations on the campuses of prestigious universities and in the streets of major Western cities worldwide? What are the roots of this murderous bigotry and how has it been sustained over the course of millennia? Why do demonstrably false blood libels and conspiracy theories – such as fiendish Jews kidnapping Christian children for macabre rituals, or a secret network of Jews running the world – continue to thrive? What is the truth about Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

To answer these questions and more, one cannot do better than to pick up a copy of the latest book from Freedom Center Shillman Fellow and Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer – Antisemitism: History & Myth. Of this book, no less an authority on the subject than Dennis Prager has said, “I do not believe a more important book on anti-Semitism has ever been written.” Considering what we have seen since the October 7 attacks, Prager could have added that a timelier book on antisemitism has never been written, as well.

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FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Trump, the Mullahs and Skin in the Game Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next? by Kenneth R. Timmerman

By on March 25th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/trump-the-mullahs-and-skin-in-the-game/

Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next?

You could call it the Donald Trump theory of international relations: getting skin in the game without sending US troops.

That’s what you saw when President Trump offered Zelenskyy the deal to exploit Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. The Z-man was obsessed with getting US “security guaranties” – a promise to send US troops should Russia attack again in the future.

Trump rightly said, no. Instead, he offered to put US companies on the front lines, essentially making those civilians a tripwire should Russia dare attack.

Similarly, last week Trump convinced both Putin and Zelenskyy to engage in a limited ceasefire by ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure, and then floated the idea that Ukraine should sell its power plants to U.S. companies as a deterrent to Russian attacks.

Now as a shareholder, I’m not sure I would want my company owning such a high risk asset. But still. The intent was clear: skin in the game.

Without skin in the game, we see what happens. On Friday, Russia launched waves of armed drones against the Black Sea port city of Odessa, sparking power outages, and the Ukes responded by allegedly blowing up a gas metering station near Kursk, Russia.

Both seemed to be pretty clear ceasefire violations. But with no skin in the game, neither attack has led to consequences, yet.

With NATO, President Trump is using a similar strategy.

Last week, he floated the idea of allowing a French (or other non-American) general to become the Supreme Allied Commander, the first time ever a non-American would command NATO. Some Republicans on the Hill were unhappy with that, but that’s because they don’t understand the notion of skin in the game.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mia Love: My Last Wish for the America I Know In the last piece she wrote before her death, the late former Utah congresswoman took up her pen—not to say goodbye but to say thank you.

By on March 25th, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/p/mia-love-last-wish-for-america-utah
Mia Love never had it easy. Yet in an age where cynicism about the United States and its founding had become the norm, she never lost sight of the great opportunities America had given her.

In 2022, Love was diagnosed with brain cancer. Two weeks ago, she announced in a moving Deseret News essay that she would soon die, and used this final opportunity to write a love letter to America. We wanted to have her on “Honestly,” but this past weekend, her family announced that she had passed away at age 49.

You can read all about her life in this beautiful obituary published by Deseret News, a Utah publication we admire. We are grateful to them for allowing us to reprint this lightly edited piece and help it find the widest possible audience. — BW

My dear friends, fellow Americans, and Utahns, I am taking up my pen, not to say goodbye but to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know.

My battle with brain cancer is coming to an end. The disease is no longer responding to treatment, and my family and I have shifted our focus from treatments to enjoying every moment and making memories with the time we have.

My life has been extended by exceptional medical care, science, and extraordinary professionals who have become dear friends. My extra season of life has also been the result of the faith and prayers of countless friends, known and unknown. The result of such humble faith and pleading prayers have been felt by me and my family in ways too numerous to count. I have always believed that faith and science are inextricably interconnected.

As a mayor, member of congress, and media commentator, I have seen the worst of petty politics, divisive rhetoric, and disappointing lapses of moral character by some. These same roles also provided me a front-row seat and backstage pass to be blessed and inspired by the courage, vision, and hope of America’s finest daughters, sons, and citizens.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Joe Lonsdale Jews and Christians Must Fight Anti-Semitic Conspiracies Ancient lies about Jews are gaining traction again in Western discourse.

By on March 25th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/jews-christians-anti-semitic-conspiracies

Last month, for the first time in my life, many of my successful Jewish friends—names you likely know—called me, worried. They asked what they need to do to protect their families, and who will have our back if attacks on Jews keep spreading.

Ancient libels, banished from polite society after the horrors of World War II, are reentering the mainstream, shared to millions on social media and podcasts. In recent months, Tucker Carlson has suggested that the Jewish State and American “neocons” are actively targeting Christians in the Middle East and manipulating American foreign policy to start a war with Iran. They “invariably destroy ancient Christian communities, from Iraq to Gaza and in many places in between,” Carlson said. “Can this be an accident? You wonder.”

Podcaster Candace Owens, whom Carlson calls a friend, has repeatedly attacked Jews and Israel, blaming “Zionists” for the chaos in Syria and downplaying the persecution of Christians by Islamist forces. “Israel is implicated in Syria,” she said. “Remember when Zionists were applauding the fall of Assad? Well, us Christians knew then that Israel-funded Islamists in the territory would start mass-murdering Christians.”

I do not know the motivations or intentions of these influencers. What I do know is that they are repeating claims that historically have led to deep suspicion and persecution of Jewish communities. And they are trying to drive Christians and Jews apart—damaging a vital relationship that must be preserved.

When I first posted about this trend, I received a flurry of disturbing replies:

“Tldr: jew crying over nothing because people are exposing them for being genocidal psychopaths”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Kennedy Assassination And The Persistence Of Conspiracy Theories — Part II Francis Menton

By on March 25th, 2025

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-3-23-the-kennedy-assassination-and-the-persistence-of-conspiracy-theories-part-ii

“Conspiracy theory” — the label evokes connotations of something so preposterous that it couldn’t possibly be true. With an obvious simple explanation for some incident easily at hand, generally involving a single perpetrator or a natural cause, the alternative “conspiracy theory” posits that a large group of people plotted to bring the incident about. The very size of the posited group alone makes the conspiracy theory seem unlikely, because such a large group could never hope to keep the secret. And then, in the classic conspiracy theory, the large group of conspirators consists mostly or entirely of agents of the government, who have allegedly acted in nefarious and illegal ways against the interests of the people they are sworn to serve, and have then also covered up their illegal conduct. Our government employees and officials may not be perfect, but surely they would not carry out, and then cover up, massive illegal conspiracies against the interests of the people.

Put these factors together, and you can see why sticking the label “conspiracy theory” on a hypothesis has long been an effective way to dismiss that hypothesis out of hand. It’s a “conspiracy theory” — and therefore it is so preposterous that there is no need to deal with its specifics. And, generally speaking, far more often than not, the obvious simple explanation of the incident is likely to be correct.

But not always. And indeed over the last several years we have seen one after another hypothesis initially branded as a “conspiracy theory” later established to be true, at least within the limits that truth can be known in our imperfect world. In multiple cases the conspiracy theories have been vindicated after years of having been vociferously denounced and belittled and censored by the media. To list just a few of the most notorious:

The theory that members of the FBI conspired to obtain illegal warrants and then to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign for President.

The theory that members of the Hillary Clinton campaign, together with friendly law firms and campaign consultants and researchers, conspired to produce and pay for and spread to the media fake opposition research painting Donald Trump as having “colluded” with Russia during the 2016 campaign.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Shed No Tears For Fired Federal Workers

By on March 25th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/03/25/shed-no-tears-for-fired-federal-workers/

When the Trump administration announces the next round of government layoffs, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the sob stories will be deafening. For what? A bunch of overpaid, underworked bureaucrats?

Estimates about how many jobs have been cut so far differ. The press claims DOGE has eliminated around 100,000 federal jobs. Challenger, Gray & Christmas says 62,530 were let go in January and February. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a net loss of only 6,700 federal jobs in February.

Whatever the case, Donald Trump wants big numbers. The Department of Education already said it will chop its workforce in half. Veterans Affairs says it is targeting 80,000 workers.

The White House is currently reviewing plans for a second wave of layoffs after getting recommendations from Cabinet officials.

Terrible, right?

Wrong. Consider the context missing from every one of these sky-is-falling stories:

This is just a haircut.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Global Warming Scare Hits Rock Bottom

By on March 25th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/03/24/the-global-warming-scare-hits-rock-bottom/

Our friend Steven Hayward, late of the great Power Line blog, university professor and incisive thinker, wrote a compelling essay last week about “The Nadir of the Climate Change Movement.” If anyone should know about the state of global warming hysteria, it would be Hayward. Here’s how he begins his argument:

The prevailing winds are blowing not toward more windmills but toward common sense on energy.

It is possible that the Trump administration is going to deal the death blows to the long-running climate change hysteria and government hostility to fossil fuels, not just in the United States but around the globe.

The Trump administration has moved well beyond merely supporting increased oil and natural gas production. It has also launched steps to dismantle the foundations of anti-energy climate policy, in particular, a proposed reversal of the so-called ‘endangerment finding’ that gave the EPA jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gases, which were never explicitly included in any of the various Clean Air Acts passed over the last 50 years. Trump’s EPA is also proposing to revise the EPA’s flawed ‘social cost of carbon’ analysis, which is used to justify costly green energy schemes.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Tim Walz, Minnesota’s manic Marxist governor, has the reverse Midas touch By Eric Utter

By on March 24th, 2025

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/03/tim_walz_minnesota_s_manic_marxist_governor_has_the_reverse_midas_touch.html

Contrast the competence of an Elon Musk with the staggering incompetence of Minnesota’s manic Marxist governor, known as Tampon Timmy Walz, here in Minnesota.

Walz did nothing as his largest city burned, helping to foster the nationwide George Floyd riots.

His wife said she enjoyed the smell of burning tires coming through their windows.

Walz somehow managed to turn a $16 billion surplus into a $6 billion deficit in no time flat.

The self-described knucklehead managed to tank Minnesota’s pension fund for public servants based on his public gloatings over Tesla’s leftist terrorism-induced stock plunge, before he was forced into a pathetic backtrack.

He presided during the horrendous Feeding Our Future scandal yet somehow has been untouched and untainted by it.

He has overseen the collapse of Minnesota’s education system, the state’s test scores plummeting like the temperature on a cold January night in Bemidji.

“Minnesota Nice” is a thing of the past, which I can attest to personally. Many of the state’s drivers are angry, impatient, rude, or downright dangerous, passing people on ramps and flipping the bird to others, whom they deem guilty of some made-up indiscretion. (This is particularly true in the Twin Cities metro area.)

Liberals, progressives, and LGBTQ activists own big city governments and incessantly push their causes, everyone else be damned. Have a “Trump” yard sign? If so, in many Minneapolis neighborhoods it’s just a matter of time before it is vandalized or removed.

Some areas of the Twin Cities are trending toward Muslim majority, and Students for Palestine run rampant on the University of Minnesota campus, while Muslims’ call to prayers echoes from loudspeakers in Ilhan Omar’s old district.

And yet, even this ‘diversity’ is not enough for governor Walz. He has vowed to make Minnesota a sanctuary state for abortion, a sanctuary state for children’s transgender procedures (including genital mutilation), and now a sanctuary state for criminal illegal aliens.

The land of 10,000 lakes is certainly not a sanctuary state for traditional Americans, or those whose politics are to the right of Chairman Mao. This is evidenced by the many who have fled Minnesota for states such as Texas and Florida, where sane governors preside.

If Chairman Walz has his way, the North Star State could eventually be left devoid of anyone but leftist members of the LGBTQ community and practicing Islamist Muslims, most of whom tend not to venture too far from the Twin Cities, which would leave Minnesota’s 10,000-plus lakes relatively uncrowded.

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