These traits aptly describe what comes out of the Lord-of-the-Flies Left in all of its manifestations – Democrats, Progressives, Democratic Socialists of America, ANTIF, BLM, NGOs, NGO paid protestors, MSM, and Globalists. These characteristics also describe a good many Islamists. The most recent examples of what comes out of the Left has been exhibited by Democratic governance in Minnesota, by ICE protestors, and by Somalis.
What Comes Out of Them is Deliberate Deception:
Don’t buy what comes out of the MSM (CNN, MSNOW, NYT, WaPo, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) about the ICE protestors and the Somali fraudsters. The so-called journalists on these ‘news’ sites are wanna-be script writers who push the content of their character onto everyone with their narrative. And like street gang members, they have a no-snitch code for their comrades in arms who go about breaking the law at every turn. It seems that the MSM’s purpose these days is to make the world bleed so it can lead with the story.
The media will deceive by framing both the law and the good guys as bad. Instead of taking in what comes out of MSM, see what you see.
And, don’t go by what comes out of the mouth of Democratic pols (Waltz, Frey, Ellison). With the aid of mother media, they cover their asses just like anyone under investigation on the real-life crime shows.
To wit: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, on ABC’s “This Week” characterized the violent confrontations – the riots, assaults, and lawlessness – targeting federal immigration agents in his city as an expression of “love.”
Minneapolis. January 7. Renee Nicole Good, as an expression of “love” and encouraged by what came out of the mouth of her lesbian lover, directed her vehicle into an ICE agent. She was shot as the agent defended himself against being crushed. (MADD would certainly agree that a vehicle is a deadly weapon.) Sponsored activist mob mayhem followed as an expression of “love.”
Minneapolis. Sunday, January 18th. More organized mayhem. A mob, led by Black Lives Matter organizers and encouraged by a video posted on social media, stormed into an area church during a service. Inside the sanctuary of Cities Church, agitators loudly chanted “Justice for Renee Good.”
BREAKING – Anti ICE agitators, led by failed CNN host Don Lemon, stormed a Minneapolis church this morning, halting services and holding members hostage because they believed the pastor was ICE affiliated.
On Sunday, Don Lemon and a group of radical, anti-ICE left-wing extremists stormed a Minneapolis church. They barreled into a house of worship while families with young children were praying and proceeded to harass and intimidate congregants based on supposed “intel” that someone connected to the church had ties to ICE.
With displays of ersatz moral sanctimony, the Machine politics of Left destroys people and their place in the world and their past and their sacred space, their house of prayer. What comes out of the Left is not “love”. What comes out of the wild boar Left is grunting, posturing, and bristling followed by picking fights to see who is the stronger.
What Comes Out of Them is Stupid
When the Pharisees confronted Jesus about his disciples eating with unwashed hands, he responded to their desire to harass him and his disciples about the performative ritual purity they were so concerned with. He got under their skin when he said . . .
“What makes someone unclean,” Jesus went on, “is what comes out. Evil intentions come from inside, out of people’s hearts – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, stupidity. These evil things all come from inside. They are what make someone unclean.” Mark 7:20-23
Note that stupidity is on the list of evil intentions. The stupid act without sense. In the matter at hand, the stupid ramp up their violence-instigating rhetoric because they simply are not able to discuss or persuade – they lack sense. Force is all they have left, and they will use it. And so it is that the NGO paid army of activists, agitators and provocateurs – useful idiots all – descend into savagery that a mayor describes as acts of brotherly “love.”
Rory Miller, “a corrections officer and sergeant working booking, maximum security, and mental health units” and “trained corrections and enforcement officers, primarily in force-related skills… and force policy” wrote in his book Force Decisions: A Citizen’s Guide that . . .
“If you have to be defiant, don’t be stupid about it. Argue, if you absolutely have to, but show the officer your hands. If the officer says, “Show me your hands!” and you say, “No,” you have given the officer no choice but to assume that you have a weapon ready to deploy. This is so stupid—right up there with checking for gas leaks with matches—it shouldn’t even need to be said, but it happens. Being defiant about something stupid can escalate a verbal situation to deadly force for childish, immature ego.”
“If the officer ever uses the magic phrase, ‘For your safety and mine, I need you to…’ do it. That is a solid signal that the officer perceives this as an issue of safety, and the officer will absolutely use force if you do not comply.” (Emphasis mine.)
Federal law makes it a crime to “encourage” illegal immigration, which is exactly what Tim Walz and Jacob Frey are doing.
The Supreme Court recently clarified that federal law is violated when a person provides “assistance to a wrongdoer with the intent to further an offense’s commission.” It is also unlawful to knowingly act in support of illegal aliens residing in the U.S., or even to conspire to help them remain here.
“Agitators aren’t just targeting our officers. Now they’re targeting churches, too,” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency stated. “They’re going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans. (Emphasis mine.)
The ordained reverend “Nekima Levy Armstrong, who participated in the protest and leads the local grassroots civil rights organization Racial Justice Network, dismissed the potential DOJ investigation as a sham.
“When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents, is almost unfathomable to me,” said Armstrong.
ICE should not back down one iota no matter the threats or moral posturing against them. All illegal invaders must go home. President Trump will be justified to invoke the Insurrection Act.
The Trump administration is working to clean up the horrible mess the four years of the illegitimate Biden regime created. That mess includes the 20-30 million illegal invaders that are taking jobs and taxpayer money and bringing in the content of their character.
Understand, the invasion was done on purpose to destroy the U.S. There is much more going on here than meets the fixated eye. You won’t get this understanding from the talking heads of MSM. They are in on it. The immigrants were sent here to destroy the U.S.
No Christian should be swayed by MSM or by Progressive Christianity’s “Welcome the stranger” social justice tactics. No Christian should be muddled in their thinking about legal mass deportations.
~~~
In the world you will have . . . the content of their character – fraudulent Islamists enabled by Democrats.
The amount of fraudulent billing in Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could be as high as $9 billion, Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson said Dec. 18.
The ADL’d – the Machine combine of America and Democracy Last – don’t seem to care that the Minnesota Somali fraudsters stole billions of taxpayer dollars to spend on themselves and to send to Somalia. The Somalis were enabled by Democratic governance with its (purposeful?) lack of oversight in Minnesota and other Blues states.
What struck me most about the Minnesota case was not only the scale of the theft but the silence surrounding it. The fraud appears to have operated in plain sight within tightly knit circles, yet few people spoke out. . .
According to federal indictments, the stolen money flowed through networks bound by kinship and loyalty. The theft was large, coordinated, and sustained. What stood out was not only who took the money, but who stayed silent. In societies with strong civic norms, whistleblowing is often praised, or at least protected. In tightly bound clan systems, speaking out can mean punishment.
High-trust societies solve this dilemma by extending cooperation beyond family and tribe. Laws, institutions, and norms reinforce the idea that cheating ultimately harms everyone, including oneself. Low-trust societies work differently. Trust is reserved for kin. Outsiders are assumed to cheat. In that environment, cheating is not necessarily immoral. It is often rational, expected, and even applauded.
Out of them comes taxes, more taxes and more oppression:
🚨 HOLY CRAP. Many Virginia voters are developing buyer's remorse after Democrats are pushing a TIDAL WAVE of tax surges on citizens following the most recent election
Concerned about the content of his older brother’s character, Russian playwright, short-story writer, and doctor Anton Chekhov (26), wrote a letter of advice to Nikolai (28), a talented painter, writer, and alcoholic. In 1886, Chekhov writes:
“To my mind, civilized people ought to satisfy the following conditions:
1. They respect the individual and are therefore always indulgent, gentle, polite and compliant. They do not throw a tantrum over a hammer or a lost eraser. When they move in with somebody, they do not act as if they were doing him a favor, and when they move out, they do not say, “How can anyone live with you!” …
2. Their compassion extends beyond beggars and cats. They are hurt even by things the naked eye can’t see. If for instance, Pyotr knows that his father and mother are turning gray and losing sleep over seeing their Pyotr so rarely (and seeing him drunk when he does turn up), then he rushes home to them and sends his vodka to the devil….
3. They respect the property of others and therefore pay their debts.
4. They are candid and fear lies like the plague. They do not lie even about the most trivial matters. A lie insults the listener and debases him in the liar’s eyes. They don’t put on airs, they behave in the street as they do at home, and they do not try to dazzle their inferiors. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they do not force uninvited confidences on people. Out of respect for the ears of others they are more often silent than not.
5. They do not belittle themselves merely to arouse sympathy. They do not play on people’s heartstrings to get them to sigh and fuss over them. They do not say, “No one understands me!” or “I’ve squandered my talent on trifles!” because this smacks of a cheap effect and is vulgar, false and out-of-date.
6. They are not preoccupied with vain things. They are not taken in by such false jewels as friendships with celebrities, handshakes with drunken Plevako, ecstasy over the first person they happen to meet at the Salon de Varietes, popularity among the tavern crowd….
7. If they have talent, they respect it. They sacrifice comfort, women, wine and vanity to it….
8. They cultivate their aesthetic sensibilities. They cannot stand to fall asleep fully dressed, see a slit in the wall teeming with bedbugs, breathe rotten air, walk on a spittle-laden floor or eat off a kerosene stove. They try their best to tame and ennoble their sexual instinct…
And so on. That’s how civilized people act. If you want to be civilized and not fall below the level of the milieu you belong to, it is not enough to read The Pickwick Papers and memorize a soliloquy from Faust. It is not enough to hail a cab and drive off to Yakimanka Street if all you’re going to do is bolt out again a week later.
You must work at it constantly, day and night. You must never stop reading, studying in depth, exercising your will. Every hour is precious.”
Why are poets and storytellers being drawn towards Christ? In this bonus episode Justin Brierley speaks to two adult converts to Christianity whose stories overlap in remarkable ways.
Celebrated poet and author Paul Kingsnorth, and mythologist and storyteller Martin Shaw, both had unexpected conversions that have led them into the Orthodox church.
Paul Kingsnorth & Martin Shaw: A poet and mythologist convert
In past articles I have tried to plead with conservatives to recognize that these activists are NOT sincere fellow citizens engaging in legitimate protest. They are a mercenary army paid to go to war. I’ll say it once again: WE ARE AT WAR. We need to start acting like it.
When there are no consequences for bad behavior, bad behavior will escalate into violence and chaos. It’s important to understand that the political left is made up largely of people who are emotionally stunted. They are toddlers trapped in adult bodies. And, like spoiled children, they act the way they do because they have never been spanked.
Approximately 3,000 federal agents are currently deployed in Minnesota, as part of an immigration operation dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that the operation has resulted in the arrests of 3,000 criminal illegal aliens, “including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals.” (Emphasis mine.)
So, what was already disturbing now looks downright corrupt. It turns out that one of the men caught on video inside the church, pumping his fist while terrified children cried, isn’t some random left-wing extremist. He actually works for the local (Soros-backed) prosecutor’s office.
"We are trying to arrest a child s*x offender" ICE agents say as activists honk to alert to their presence in St Paul Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/TmL3DlZZ8F
🚨 Tucker Carlson reveals the Offer the Trump Administration made to Minnesota Officials that hasn’t been made public yet — MN Officials said no
1. Local Police have to answer 911 calls from federal agents —— as of now, if an agent is in danger and requests assistance, they… pic.twitter.com/4wmcAo1Dli
I heard about him. A man who healed a man with a horrible skin disease. The healed man went and told everyone. So much so that the healer had to go out to the open country because of the crowds. But now people are saying that the healer has returned to Capernaum.
I’m in a bad way, you see. A bad way. I am a stiff ruin of a man. I constantly need the help of others. I move when others move me. I live only as others take care of me. I dress, eat, go to the bathroom, seek alms – all with the help of others. I am paralyzed.
I heard that my neighbors are being healed. I needed help, transport, to get to the healer. Four friends are carrying me to him.
But the crowd! Oh, the crowd outside the door where he is! We can’t get through to him! I plead with my friends and they improvise. They carry my stretcher to the roof over where the healer is. They’re digging a hole right over him.
As they dig, pieces of the roof and clay dust fall down into the room below, landing on heads and beards.
A group of us, legal experts in the Law of Moses and in Jewish traditions and practices, came here today to hear what this Jesus guy is saying. He’s gotten a lot of attention lately. We’ve heard all kinds of rumors about this carpenter that some are calling a prophet. We must keep an eye him. We don’t want false prophets and would-be messiahs running around stirring up the people. And, we sure don’t want a Roman Legion coming down on us.
There is a large crowd standing outside. Inside, the room is full. Dust is flying everywhere making it hard to breathe. People are coughing. While we are sitting here, some crazy people are up on the roof breaking through it to gain access to this guy. Why destroy a roof? What is this all about? Hush, we tell people, so we can hear.
Now a stretcher is being lowered through the roof. On the stretcher is man who looks almost dead. He must have sinned or his parents must have. Isn’t that how these things happen?
Jesus looks up at the four people looking down through the hole in the roof and then he looks down at the paralyzed man and says “Child, your sins are forgiven!”
The nerve! How dare that guy talk like that! “It’s blasphemy!” we mutter to ourselves. “Who can forgive sins except God?”
The carpenter must have sensed that we were protesting him going too far. He turned to us and asked “Why do your hearts tell you to think that?” Well, we knew why. Then he says . . .
“Answer me this. Is it easier to say to this cripple ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘’Get up, pick up your stretcher, and walk’?
Perplexed, the legal experts stroked their dusty beards and remained silent.
You won’t believe what happened next. But you should. The healer asked the experts “You want to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins?” He looked down at me and said “I tell you, get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” And just like that I was able to get up, pick up my stretcher in a flash and go out before them all.
When everyone saw me bounce off the stretcher, grab it and run out, they were utterly astounded. They began praising God saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”
~~~
Astounding things occur in (this amplified retelling of) Mark’s gospel account (2:1-12). No doubt, the newly-called-to-follow Simon (Peter) was in the room when these things occurred and that he later related them to Mark for the gospel account. And that is how we have the inside story about a man imprisoned in body and soul paralysis being released by forgiveness and healing.
Forgiveness, as used by Mark in this account – (αφεωνται)- recognizes that a debt exists. Forgiveness here is not a demand for rightful retribution. It is not an expunging of a fault. It is a reaction to a fault, not for payback, but to cause growth away from that which generated the fault. I understand this forgiveness as a response to one’s metanoia (turning around) from that which created the debt and wanting to operate differently. In other words: “We both see where things went wrong and I forgive you. Now go forward in a new direction.”
This was the case for the cripple. Transformed, the forgiven and healed paralytic can walk back to family and community restored in body and soul. Knowing forgiveness and healing, he can now impart the same to others and seek reconciliation with those he wronged.
Before these astounding things occur in the account above, Mark writes at the beginning of his gospel of a foretold messenger who will clear the way for the arrival of Good News – of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God.
John the Baptizer appeared in the desert announcing a baptism of repentance, of metanoia, for the forgiveness of sins. The voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’ drew a lot of attention. All of Judea and everyone living in Jerusalem came out to him.
Those baptized by John decided to metanoia (turn around). They decided to confess their sins, to be plunged beneath the water of the river Jordan as a sign of repentance and forgiveness, and to be lifted back up.
I wonder. Did the paralytic hear about John the Baptizer? Did he want to go out to him and be baptized but couldn’t? Did he hear what John said about Jesus: “See! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!?
Did the paralytic hear about Jesus saying “The time is fulfilled! God’s kingdom is arriving! Turn back and believe the good news!”? (Mk. 1:14)
What we do know is that the cripple is brought to Jesus, lowered down into a room into the presence of Jesus and is then raised up forgiven and healed.
Forgiveness spoken by John and by Jesus is a present-tense action of something that has been completed and has effect now as opposed to a situation that might be or is wished for, or is commanded to be. That should encourage everyone to come to Jesus.
~~~
The way of the Lord is the way of forgiveness. It is the way of lifting off a burden, the way of lifting up from a state of stagnation and morbidity.
One of the primary Hebrew terms translated as “forgive” is ‘nasaʾ which means “to carry, lift up, or to bear away.” That is what occurs in the above account, first in the actions of four determined people showing what it means to bear another’s burden and then with the proclamation of forgiveness.
The four, bearing the weight of the paralytic across town, lift him up to a roof top and then down through a hole to a place of healing. With utter resolve they bring the paralytic to Jesus. Jesus recognizes the sureness of their trust in him to lift the man’s burdens and proclaims “Child, your sins are forgiven.” The burden you carry, the burden others carried on your behalf, has been lifted away. Get up and walk a new way.
~~~
Another utterly astonishing thing occurs but its context is not immediately apparent. Remember the Tower of Babel, the ziggurat built for someone to be able to climb up to the heavens and access God? In the above account, people climb up to a roof top to lower a stretcher into a room where God is on ground level.
The Victorian style houses on Rosy Hill Street, adorned earlier in the year with roses, hydrangeas, and ornamental grasses, were now festooned with glowing Christmas light bulbs. Passers-by would also behold Santas, reindeer, snowmen, candy canes, nutcrackers, candles, and festive garlands and wreaths. Looking inside, they could catch a glimpse of the stir of Christmas morning. Except at the Arts and Crafts Victorian house near the top of Rosy Hill Street. The Healey family – Tom, Cheri and their two young children, Alan and Angeline – was five hundred miles away at the bedside of Donna, Tom’s sister.
Two days before Christmas Tom received a call from Haven Hospice Care in Brent telling him that his sister was near death. This was a shock to Tom. He didn’t know that his sister had been ill. He knew her to be an independent sort. She lived alone and said little about herself when asked.
The day before Christmas, the Healey family arrived at the hospice. Tom’s sister was unresponsive to his voice and the presence of anyone in the room. Tom asked the attending nurse about his sister and was told that her condition had been decreasing rapidly. The doctor had ordered tests. He would be there in the morning and would have the details.
That night, at the motel, Tom called Roger to ask about Foster. Before making the trip, Tom asked his neighbor Roger Graybill if he would take their dog Foster out for walk and feed him while they were away. Roger agreed. Tom said he didn’t know how long he would be gone. He would call.
“Hi neighbor. How did it go today with Foster?” Roger said he and Foster went for a couple of walks and Foster was fed. Roger asked about Donna.
“It looks like she has rapidly progressive dementia. They’re telling me she doesn’t have much time left. I’ll talk to the doctor tomorrow.”
Christmas morning Tom drove over to Haven Hospice. Cheri stayed at the motel with the kids. They wanted to go swimming and have hot chocolate in their room and some vending machine candy.
Tom met with the doctor who told him how it happened that Donna was brought to the hospice.
“A neighbor had seen Donna walking down the sidewalk in her nightgown and cursing. The neighbor walked Donna back to her house, found her robe and purse, and then brought her to the hospital. Donna’s ID bracelet had your phone number. That’s how we knew to call you.”
“When I met her, her muscles were twitching and she was having trouble with coordination. Her health and her nervous system were swiftly deteriorating. We had no medical history on her but we did run seDonnal tests. EEG, MRI, a spinal tap to check the level of proteins in the spinal fluid, and a new test that detects abnormal proteins, known as prions, that damage the brain, that cause CJD.”
“CJD?” Tom asked.
“Donna has a rare neurodegenerative disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD. That’s why we brought her to hospice care.” The doctor then asked Tom if he had noticed any memory loss, confusion, personality shifts and coordination issues with Donna.
“I live five-hundred miles away. She never mentioned anything in her occasional emails. I didn’t receive a reply to my last email.”
“It is likely,” the doctor replied, “that she wasn’t able to respond.”
Tom was stunned by the report. Donna lay before him as if asleep. She occasionally moaned and when she opened her eyes for a few moments she stared at the ceiling and didn’t notice Tom in the room.
He stayed seDonnal hours at his sister’s bedside holding her hand and hoping for a response. He later returned to motel and told Cheri all that he had learned as they sat on the edge of bed together.
“The hospice will call if anything changes.”
“What do we do?” Cheri asked. “Do we wait there?”
“We wait for now. Tomorrow, I’ll go over to her house and see what’s what.”
~~~
The next day Tom went over to Donna’s house. A neighbor woman came out and called to Tom when she saw him at the door. After Tom explained who he was, she explained that she was the one who found Allsion walking down the street.
“I walked Donna back home, grabbed her purse and the house keys and a robe, locked the door and took her to the hospital.” She handed Tom the house keys.
“These things happen you know,” Janice began. “My father has the same thing going on. He’s at a memory care center with dementia.”
Tom said that he had no idea that his sister was living like this. “She never said anything and I live so far away from her. How could I know?”
“I checked on her a couple of times,” Janice said. “I could see mail piling up. I’d knock and she’d come to the door and I’d ask how she was and if she needed help and she’d look at me as if I was from another planet like my father does. She never said anything when I handed her the mail and that was that until a couple of days ago.”
Tom thanked Janice for helping Donna. He gave her a hug and she returned home.
Before going in, Tom grabbed all of the mail in the box and on the step. Many were past due notices.
Inside, he found disorder and a need to clean but nothing terrible. Books were the only that thing Donna hoarded.
He threw out old food, cleaned, did laundry and put the house in order. He went to work sorting out all of the financials his sister hadn’t been able to handle. He called the mortgage company and all her creditors, told them situation, and said that he will settle what she owes. He asked each for more time. That night he returned to the motel to be with his family.
After spending three nights at the motel – staying there so the kids could go swimming as a Christmas gift – Tom moved the family to Donna’s house. From there he would go see Donna during the day.
The first night in the new place, Alan and Angeline were tucked into their new sleeping bags. Tom read from Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. He found the book on the over stacked bookshelf.
After reading The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tom thought the kids were asleep. But four-year-old Alan sat up in his sleeping bag, rubbed his eyes, looked all around and asked his father if they were in a story like the Tin Soldier. His father thought for a moment and said “We are in a story, alright. In a story where curious things can happen. We must be like the Steadfast Tin Soldier no matter what.”
Tom continued to sit with Donna each day. He would take her hand and squeeze it. She would gasp and then return to her dormant state. The nurse continued to monitor her vitals. There was no sign of what was next, of what to do.
Tom called Roger. Roger said that all was well with Foster. “He’ll stay with us until you return.” And, “to not worry about things here. I’ll collect the mail and give it to you when you return.” Tom thanked Roger. He had forgotten about the mail. And he told him that Donna’s condition hadn’t changed.
~~~
New Years Eve, Roger and his wife went out for brunch with some friends. Jack, their sixteen-year-old son, was asked to feed and walk Foster while they were gone.
After his parents left, Jack finagled the lock on the liquor cabinet and was able to get in. He poured some Vodka into a plastic cup, grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the carton and a lighter, and closed the cabinet. He wanted to sneak a smoke before walking the dog. So, he grabbed the key to Healy’s garage.
Outside, the wind was stiff and icy cold. He turned up his jacket collar and walked over to the one car garage holding the cup of Vodka. He unlocked the door and stood inside, out of the wind, to smoke a cigarette. He didn’t want anyone, especially his parents, to see him.
He downed the Vodka and it burned his throat. He tossed the cup into a can by the garage door, lit the cigarette, and grumbled to himself about having to deal with the little beast. After one last long drag on the cigarette, he flicked the butt into the can, locked the garage door, and headed back to his house. He leashed Foster and went out for a long walk down the block looking at Christmas lights.
Twenty minutes into his walk, Jack came up to a man with his dog. Jack said hello and the man pointed behind Jack and said “Look! There’s a smoke over there. I don’t think it’s fireplace smoke. It is black.” Jack turned around and saw smoke billowing above the Healy garage. He hurried back up the street and froze when he saw flames shooting up around the garage door.
He didn’t know what to do and he knew what he had to do. He didn’t want anyone to find out that he was the one that caused the fire and he didn’t want the Healy’s garage and house to burn down. He knew about the wooden trellis connecting the detached garage with the house. He passed through it earlier.
Neighbors were gathering on the sidewalk and cars began to stop. A man was knocking on the Healy front door. Someone must have called 911. He heard sirens off in the distance. He wouldn’t dare go near the house now.
He wondered what the neighbors were thinking when they saw him with Foster. Would it look like he wasn’t around when the fire started. He wondered what his father would think. Would he believe that the fire could have started on its own? Don’t things just happen to catch fire because of some spark? These things happen, don’t they? Standing in his driveway, he rehearsed his cover story.
The fire was now engulfing half of the old garage and half of the trellis. And he had a terrible thought. What if the fire came was blown over to his house. Fire trucks pulled up.
He ran behind his house, took the cigarettes and lighter out of his pocket, and buried them in the trash can by the back door.
~~~
Roger and his wife came home and saw fire trucks in front of their neighbor’s house. Roger parked down the street and he and his wife rushed up as close as they could to see. They saw that the garage, Tom’s reupholster and furniture repair workshop, was burning to the ground. Firemen were shooting water across what was left of it and spraying the side of the house. The wind had swept the fire across to the house.
The painted facade of sage green and reddish-brown, the decorative gables, the wide, welcoming front porch on the east side of the house was being eaten away by the fire. In the front yard, the small nativity scene that Tom set out before Christmas – the manger, the straw, baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and angels – had been knocked over. Hosed down, the figures began to ice over.
People were wondering if anyone was at home. Roger told a fireman that the family was out of town dealing with something else that happened. He was going to find out about the dog.
He went inside. Foster was waiting for him at the door. “Jack! Jack! are you here!”
Jack came out of the kitchen. “Isn’t horrible what happened next door. Something must have set off that fire. Maybe some Christmas lights. Things like that happen all the time.”
“Jack, tell me you didn’t start that fire.”
“How could I dad?”
“You were over there, weren’t you?”
“I walked Foster. Down the street.”
“You didn’t start the fire somehow?”
Jack looked away and shook his head.
“You are lying. I can tell.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know you are lying, so fess up.”
“Something in the garage must’ve sparked.”
Roger called Tom and told him the awful news. Tom received the call as he was sitting at Donna’s bedside.
Hearing that his garage workshop and half the house was burning down, Tom tried to gather his thoughts for a response. But they raced everywhere. After a minute of looking out the window, he said that he would fly back home. He didn’t know when he would be there. He then asked about Foster. Roger assured Tom that Foster was with them and OK.
When the call ended Tom looked over at Donna and wished for her numb state of mind. He clutched her hand, squeezed it, kissed her forehead, and then got up and began pacing the hospice hallway. He called his wife and told her the bad news. She was crushed.
They talked about what to do next. Tom said that he would fly home to assess the damage and speak to the fire marshal and the insurance adjuster. He would pick up Foster. The family would stay at Donna’s house for now. The kids were home schooled so they didn’t need to register at a new school. But all their school materials were likely lost in the fire. Tom would talk to his boss and tell him what had happened.
The next morning Tom flew home and drove to Rosy Hill Street. He parked in front of his house and gasped when he saw the charred remains. Roger saw him and came out. Jack came out behind him with Foster.
Roger didn’t know what to do and he knew what he had to do. But before he said anything, he waited for Tom to say something.
When Tom got out of the car, Foster ran up to him wagging his tail wildly. Tom bent down, picked up Foster and gave him some loving. Tom’s expression of joy changed to one of reluctant acceptance. He took in a long deep breath and sighed “Apparently, these things happen. . .” Jack began nodding “Yes.”
Tom looked over at Jack. “These things happen. . . somehow.” Jack bit his lip and turned to look down the block as if the cause of the fire was somewhere out there.
“Let me know, Tom,” Roger looked over at Jack, “what the fire inspector and the insurance adjuster say. We need to know for certain what caused the fire . . . especially with all the old Victorian houses on this street.”
The fire marshal pulled up in front of the Healy house. As Tom walked over to meet him, he whispered to Foster “One thing is certain, Foster. It’s not easy being steadfast in the curious story we’ve been cast into.”
“The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Hans Christian Andersen was published in 1838 and is in the public domain, meaning it is no longer under copyright protection.
“We have entered, as I see it, a spiritual limbo. Our educational institutions are no longer the bearers of high culture, and public life has been deliberately moronised. But here and there, sheltered from the noise and glare of the media, the old spiritual forces are at work” Roger Scruton
*****
“When a common culture declines, the ethical life can be sustained and renewed only by a work of the imagination.”-Roger Scruton
*****
“Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance— a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.” Oswald Chambers
*****
“No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.” Oswald Chambers
*****
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.” The Shadow of an Agony,Oswald Chambers
*****
“If we wish to erect new structures, we must have a definite knowledge of the old foundations.” John Calvin Coolidge
*****
Atheism is a post-Christian phenomenon.
*****
If social justice looks like your hand in someone else’s pocket then you are stealing.
*****
“In Sweden, giving to charity, absurdly, came to be considered a lack of solidarity, since it undermined the need for the welfare state.” – Roland Martinsson
*****
“…to love democracy well, it is necessary to love it moderately.” Alexis de Tocqueville
*****
Capitalism seeks to help others through a servce or product it provides. Free Market Capitalism is the most moral and fair economic system available to man. Capitalism augments personal growth, responsibility and ownership. Charity flourishes under capitalism. Charity dies under subjective “fair share” government confiscatory policies. Socialism redistributes ambivalence and greed.
*****
“We are to regard existence as a raid or great adventure; it is to be judged, therefore, not by what calamities it encounters, but by what flag it follows and what high town it assaults. The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one’s life. But anyone who shrinks from that is a traitor to the great scheme and experiment of being.” G.K. Chesterton
*****
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein
*****
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Flannery O’Connor
*****
“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
*****
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
*****
God’s grace is not about the allowance for sin. God’s grace is about the conversation God allows regarding sin.
*****
From the book of Proverbs: We are not to favor the rich or the poor. We are to pursue justice.
*****
“Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally.” Oswald Chambers
*****
One goldfish says to another, “If there is no God who keeps changing the water?”
*****
“The truth is always there in the morning.”
From Cat On A Hot Tin Roof script – playwright Tennessee Williams
*****
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
*****
“America’s greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive.” John W. Gardner
**
“Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.” John W. Gardner
*****
“In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.” Dorothy L. Sayers
*****
“Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.”
G. K. Chesterton
*****
“The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn
*****
This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
-The prophet Jeremiah, 6:16
*****
“…our common task is not so much discovering a truth hiding among contrary viewpoints as it is coming to possess a selfhood that no longer evades and eludes the truth with which it is importunately confronted.” James McClendon, Ethics: Systematic Theology, Vol. 1
*****
Cindy Wity 
The Inside Out Story
January 26, 2026 Leave a comment
“Evil intentions come from inside, out of people’s hearts.”-Jesus
In the world you will have . . . the content of their character, coming out as . . .
Cruel, intolerant, intimidating, subversive, disruptive, antagonistic, rude, lazy, overindulged, abusive, deceitful, corrupt, amoral, unlawful, power hungry, confederate, self-deceiving, addled, mentally and emotionally stunted, neurotic, narcissistic, manipulative, antisocial, psychotic, borderline psychotic, unruly, destructive, evasive, duplicitous . . . as persecution.
These traits aptly describe what comes out of the Lord-of-the-Flies Left in all of its manifestations – Democrats, Progressives, Democratic Socialists of America, ANTIF, BLM, NGOs, NGO paid protestors, MSM, and Globalists. These characteristics also describe a good many Islamists. The most recent examples of what comes out of the Left has been exhibited by Democratic governance in Minnesota, by ICE protestors, and by Somalis.
What Comes Out of Them is Deliberate Deception:
Don’t buy what comes out of the MSM (CNN, MSNOW, NYT, WaPo, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) about the ICE protestors and the Somali fraudsters. The so-called journalists on these ‘news’ sites are wanna-be script writers who push the content of their character onto everyone with their narrative. And like street gang members, they have a no-snitch code for their comrades in arms who go about breaking the law at every turn. It seems that the MSM’s purpose these days is to make the world bleed so it can lead with the story.
The media will deceive by framing both the law and the good guys as bad. Instead of taking in what comes out of MSM, see what you see.
And, don’t go by what comes out of the mouth of Democratic pols (Waltz, Frey, Ellison). With the aid of mother media, they cover their asses just like anyone under investigation on the real-life crime shows.
To wit: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, on ABC’s “This Week” characterized the violent confrontations – the riots, assaults, and lawlessness – targeting federal immigration agents in his city as an expression of “love.”
Minneapolis. January 7. Renee Nicole Good, as an expression of “love” and encouraged by what came out of the mouth of her lesbian lover, directed her vehicle into an ICE agent. She was shot as the agent defended himself against being crushed. (MADD would certainly agree that a vehicle is a deadly weapon.) Sponsored activist mob mayhem followed as an expression of “love.”
Minneapolis. Sunday, January 18th. More organized mayhem. A mob, led by Black Lives Matter organizers and encouraged by a video posted on social media, stormed into an area church during a service. Inside the sanctuary of Cities Church, agitators loudly chanted “Justice for Renee Good.”
See what you see when Don Lemon and ‘Sanctuary City’ Radicals Invade Minneapolis Church.
On Sunday, Don Lemon and a group of radical, anti-ICE left-wing extremists stormed a Minneapolis church. They barreled into a house of worship while families with young children were praying and proceeded to harass and intimidate congregants based on supposed “intel” that someone connected to the church had ties to ICE.
WHOOPS: Don Lemon’s live stream is a goldmine of evidence against him… – Revolver News
With displays of ersatz moral sanctimony, the Machine politics of Left destroys people and their place in the world and their past and their sacred space, their house of prayer. What comes out of the Left is not “love”. What comes out of the wild boar Left is grunting, posturing, and bristling followed by picking fights to see who is the stronger.
What Comes Out of Them is Stupid
When the Pharisees confronted Jesus about his disciples eating with unwashed hands, he responded to their desire to harass him and his disciples about the performative ritual purity they were so concerned with. He got under their skin when he said . . .
“What makes someone unclean,” Jesus went on, “is what comes out. Evil intentions come from inside, out of people’s hearts – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, stupidity. These evil things all come from inside. They are what make someone unclean.” Mark 7:20-23
Note that stupidity is on the list of evil intentions. The stupid act without sense. In the matter at hand, the stupid ramp up their violence-instigating rhetoric because they simply are not able to discuss or persuade – they lack sense. Force is all they have left, and they will use it. And so it is that the NGO paid army of activists, agitators and provocateurs – useful idiots all – descend into savagery that a mayor describes as acts of brotherly “love.”
Rory Miller, “a corrections officer and sergeant working booking, maximum security, and mental health units” and “trained corrections and enforcement officers, primarily in force-related skills… and force policy” wrote in his book Force Decisions: A Citizen’s Guide that . . .
“If you have to be defiant, don’t be stupid about it. Argue, if you absolutely have to, but show the officer your hands. If the officer says, “Show me your hands!” and you say, “No,” you have given the officer no choice but to assume that you have a weapon ready to deploy. This is so stupid—right up there with checking for gas leaks with matches—it shouldn’t even need to be said, but it happens. Being defiant about something stupid can escalate a verbal situation to deadly force for childish, immature ego.”
“If the officer ever uses the magic phrase, ‘For your safety and mine, I need you to…’ do it. That is a solid signal that the officer perceives this as an issue of safety, and the officer will absolutely use force if you do not comply.” (Emphasis mine.)
A Citizen’s Guide to Violence in Minneapolis › American Greatness
What Comes Out of Them is Lawlessness
Richard Lawson at The Free Press writes Sanctuary Cities are Built on Shaky Law:
Federal law makes it a crime to “encourage” illegal immigration, which is exactly what Tim Walz and Jacob Frey are doing.
The Supreme Court recently clarified that federal law is violated when a person provides “assistance to a wrongdoer with the intent to further an offense’s commission.” It is also unlawful to knowingly act in support of illegal aliens residing in the U.S., or even to conspire to help them remain here.
(Emphasis mine.)
Democratic governors and mayors in Minnesota, Oregon and Illinois have gone so far as to actively enable the chaos by withdrawing police protection. And, Dem Leaders Move to Block Funding for ICE, DHS.
Fools escalate violent rhetoric:
Dem AG Suggests People Can Shoot Masked ICE Agents Under Stand-Your-Ground Laws.
April 17, 2025, Columnist David Brooks of the NYT wrote an opinion column openly and explicitly called for a mass uprising alluding to a Communist revolution.
Headline USA writes:
“Agitators aren’t just targeting our officers. Now they’re targeting churches, too,” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency stated. “They’re going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans. (Emphasis mine.)
The ordained reverend “Nekima Levy Armstrong, who participated in the protest and leads the local grassroots civil rights organization Racial Justice Network, dismissed the potential DOJ investigation as a sham.
“When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents, is almost unfathomable to me,” said Armstrong.
ICE should not back down one iota no matter the threats or moral posturing against them. All illegal invaders must go home. President Trump will be justified to invoke the Insurrection Act.
The Trump administration is working to clean up the horrible mess the four years of the illegitimate Biden regime created. That mess includes the 20-30 million illegal invaders that are taking jobs and taxpayer money and bringing in the content of their character.
Understand, the invasion was done on purpose to destroy the U.S. There is much more going on here than meets the fixated eye. You won’t get this understanding from the talking heads of MSM. They are in on it. The immigrants were sent here to destroy the U.S.
Read the newly published The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon by Peter Schweizer.
No Christian should be swayed by MSM or by Progressive Christianity’s “Welcome the stranger” social justice tactics. No Christian should be muddled in their thinking about legal mass deportations.
~~~
In the world you will have . . . the content of their character – fraudulent Islamists enabled by Democrats.
The amount of fraudulent billing in Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could be as high as $9 billion, Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson said Dec. 18.
The ADL’d – the Machine combine of America and Democracy Last – don’t seem to care that the Minnesota Somali fraudsters stole billions of taxpayer dollars to spend on themselves and to send to Somalia. The Somalis were enabled by Democratic governance with its (purposeful?) lack of oversight in Minnesota and other Blues states.
What struck me most about the Minnesota case was not only the scale of the theft but the silence surrounding it. The fraud appears to have operated in plain sight within tightly knit circles, yet few people spoke out. . .
According to federal indictments, the stolen money flowed through networks bound by kinship and loyalty. The theft was large, coordinated, and sustained. What stood out was not only who took the money, but who stayed silent. In societies with strong civic norms, whistleblowing is often praised, or at least protected. In tightly bound clan systems, speaking out can mean punishment.
High-trust societies solve this dilemma by extending cooperation beyond family and tribe. Laws, institutions, and norms reinforce the idea that cheating ultimately harms everyone, including oneself. Low-trust societies work differently. Trust is reserved for kin. Outsiders are assumed to cheat. In that environment, cheating is not necessarily immoral. It is often rational, expected, and even applauded.
Somalia And The High Cost Of Low Trust | ZeroHedge
Senseless people vote for senseless people. That’s how Minnesota has tanked under Waltz, Frey, and Ellison.
Senseless people voted in NYC for a Democratic Socialist Jihadi Shia Muslim deeply critical of Israel who wants to “globalize the intifada.”
And citizens of Virgina will now suffer because the senseless elected Abigail Spanberger as its governor and reps who encourage lawlessness and impose tyranny. This New Virginia Law Helps Illegals Vote for Democrats
Out of them comes taxes, more taxes and more oppression:
~~~~~
Concerned about the content of his older brother’s character, Russian playwright, short-story writer, and doctor Anton Chekhov (26), wrote a letter of advice to Nikolai (28), a talented painter, writer, and alcoholic. In 1886, Chekhov writes:
“To my mind, civilized people ought to satisfy the following conditions:
1. They respect the individual and are therefore always indulgent, gentle, polite and compliant. They do not throw a tantrum over a hammer or a lost eraser. When they move in with somebody, they do not act as if they were doing him a favor, and when they move out, they do not say, “How can anyone live with you!” …
2. Their compassion extends beyond beggars and cats. They are hurt even by things the naked eye can’t see. If for instance, Pyotr knows that his father and mother are turning gray and losing sleep over seeing their Pyotr so rarely (and seeing him drunk when he does turn up), then he rushes home to them and sends his vodka to the devil….
3. They respect the property of others and therefore pay their debts.
4. They are candid and fear lies like the plague. They do not lie even about the most trivial matters. A lie insults the listener and debases him in the liar’s eyes. They don’t put on airs, they behave in the street as they do at home, and they do not try to dazzle their inferiors. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they do not force uninvited confidences on people. Out of respect for the ears of others they are more often silent than not.
5. They do not belittle themselves merely to arouse sympathy. They do not play on people’s heartstrings to get them to sigh and fuss over them. They do not say, “No one understands me!” or “I’ve squandered my talent on trifles!” because this smacks of a cheap effect and is vulgar, false and out-of-date.
6. They are not preoccupied with vain things. They are not taken in by such false jewels as friendships with celebrities, handshakes with drunken Plevako, ecstasy over the first person they happen to meet at the Salon de Varietes, popularity among the tavern crowd….
7. If they have talent, they respect it. They sacrifice comfort, women, wine and vanity to it….
8. They cultivate their aesthetic sensibilities. They cannot stand to fall asleep fully dressed, see a slit in the wall teeming with bedbugs, breathe rotten air, walk on a spittle-laden floor or eat off a kerosene stove. They try their best to tame and ennoble their sexual instinct…
And so on. That’s how civilized people act. If you want to be civilized and not fall below the level of the milieu you belong to, it is not enough to read The Pickwick Papers and memorize a soliloquy from Faust. It is not enough to hail a cab and drive off to Yakimanka Street if all you’re going to do is bolt out again a week later.
You must work at it constantly, day and night. You must never stop reading, studying in depth, exercising your will. Every hour is precious.”
Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends (public domain | public library)
~~~~~
Why are poets and storytellers being drawn towards Christ? In this bonus episode Justin Brierley speaks to two adult converts to Christianity whose stories overlap in remarkable ways.
Celebrated poet and author Paul Kingsnorth, and mythologist and storyteller Martin Shaw, both had unexpected conversions that have led them into the Orthodox church.
Episode 9 – Paul Kingsnorth & Martin Shaw: A poet and mythologist convert – Justin Brierley ⬩ Think Faith
Royce White, a Voice from the Belly of the Beast Minnesota:
https://americasvoice.news/video/1L3WPrlAlN0ouni/
https://americasvoice.news/playlists/show/the-royce-white-show/
https://www.youtube.com/@pleasecallmecrazypodcast
~~~~~
Marginalia:
See what you see here: Arrested: Worst of the Worst | Homeland Security
In past articles I have tried to plead with conservatives to recognize that these activists are NOT sincere fellow citizens engaging in legitimate protest. They are a mercenary army paid to go to war. I’ll say it once again: WE ARE AT WAR. We need to start acting like it.
When there are no consequences for bad behavior, bad behavior will escalate into violence and chaos. It’s important to understand that the political left is made up largely of people who are emotionally stunted. They are toddlers trapped in adult bodies. And, like spoiled children, they act the way they do because they have never been spanked.
Maybe It’s Time For Conservative Patriots To Rally In Minneapolis | ZeroHedge
Approximately 3,000 federal agents are currently deployed in Minnesota, as part of an immigration operation dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that the operation has resulted in the arrests of 3,000 criminal illegal aliens, “including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals.” (Emphasis mine.)
Walz, Ellison, Frey’s Offices Served Grand Jury Subpoenas › American Greatness
~~~~~
Amelia:
So, what was already disturbing now looks downright corrupt. It turns out that one of the men caught on video inside the church, pumping his fist while terrified children cried, isn’t some random left-wing extremist. He actually works for the local (Soros-backed) prosecutor’s office.
Shocking new evidence shows just how deep and dark the MN church Ambush goes… – Revolver News
The insurrection, the color revolution is upon us
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Filed under 2026 Current Events, Culture, Immigration, Insurrection, media, Political Commentary, Politics, Progressivism Tagged with character, culture, democrats, deportations, Globalism, ICE, Immigration, Jacob Frey, Keith Ellison, minneapolis, news, politics, progressivism, The Left, Tim Waltz, Trump