The good
A few owners of finer restaurants in New York City have taken a bold step aimed at disrespectful and irritating cell-phone talkers and texters. They have banned such devices from being used in their eateries, according to WLNY in the Big Apple. And get this: The trend reportedly is spreading. Many restaurant owners maintain that few “emergency call” situations can’t be handled by getting up from the table and going outdoors to handle your call.
President Trump says the FBI and the Justice Department should act decisively to investigate and potentially prosecute former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for her use of her private computer to conduct federal business. The president’s call came in response to a London Daily Caller report that a state-owned company fronting for China’s intelligence community hacked into Clinton’s unofficial and unsecured e-mail server. The bums planted a code that subsequently forwarded to the Chinese every e-mail Clinton sent or received. The Chinese government responded with typically questionable aplomb: “China is a staunch defender of cybersecurity. We firmly oppose and crack down on any forms of internet attacks and the stealing of secrets.” Un-huh. On yeah. (Not.)
I-News online out of Great Britain reports that there’s a new way for doctors to reliably predict well in advance when a heart attack will take you down. The new method being tested involves analyzing coronary angiograms (routine CT heart scans).
Waymo — a company in Chandler, Arizona – is developing self-driving vehicles. CNBC is reporting that Waymo’s neighbors are annoyed by the test-driving of the robotic vehicles because the balking, computerized machinery on four wheels makes them (the humans) struggle to cross a T-intersection near Waymo’s offices. Of course, it’s only a beginning. But you gotta start someplace if you’re gonna join the movement to stop the tech geeks from putting ordinary humans out of the joy of driving.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minnesota, has rejected a cease-and-desist claim by more than two-dozen avowed atheists offended by “In God We Trust” inscribed on some U.S. paper currency and coins. The plaintiffs said the national motto violates their First Amendment free speech and religious rights, according to Yahoo News online. Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender, writing for the majority, in essence said horse-hockey. The four words in question, Gruender said, do not amount to an establishment of religion, and the motto “comports with early understandings of the Establishment Clause” without compelling religious observance. “In God We Trust” began appearing on U.S. coins in 1864 toward the end of the Civil War.
The Irish News reports about a new study confirming that goats – the farm critter kind – recognize and are attracted to happy humans. I suspect that the same reaction would apply to kids who are trapped in abusive home situations.
The bad
The Media Research Center — a watchdog group in Reston, Virginia — reports that Twitter leads the pack in censoring conservative viewpoints (using so-called “shadow banning”). What’s worse, the blockage kicks in when words such as “America” and “God” are present in the text of messages. Similar activity has been identified on the part of Facebook, the Google search engine, and YouTube. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is in the bull’s-eye, folks. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Before Florida’s voters rush right out in November to pick the next governor of the Sunshine State, they might want to do their homework. The campaign pits “progressive” Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum against respected Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis. A key point or two: Gillum says that as governor, he would work for both Democrats and Republicans. Really? This from a guy who has the financial backing of liberal Democratic billionaires Tom “Win at Any Cost” Steyer and George “One World” Soros? A guy who has the endorsement of failed spendthrift presidential candidate Bernie Sanders? A guy who wants to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of the federal Department of Homeland Security? The guy who wants Floridians to pony up a billion dollars more in tax increases? The guy who won props from liberal upstart and USA-dumb congressional wannabe Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist from New York City? On the other hand, DeSantis keeps looking better and better.
ISIS might be down, but the blood-thirsty jihadists are not out. The Daily Mail in London reports that the radical group under the thumb of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has shelved a strategy of battlefield expansion and now wants to conquer the world by spreading fear and terror through shock-and-awe attacks in key pinpoint locations. Can’t you imagine U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim “Chaos” Mattis offering an assessment of such a strategy? He’d say something like, “Well, good luck with that.”
The ugly
Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro says the Vatican, and ultimately Pope Francis, knew about a cover-up of and lies surrounding child sex-abuse accusations against as many as 300 Catholic priests in the Keystone State over a 70-year period, victimizing more than 1,000 children, according to Yahoo online. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke responded, saying the incidents reflected “betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith. … The church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur.” Moreover, a groundswell of public opinion calling for the pope’s resignation is growing, even though Francis in May accepted the resignations of all 34 of Chile’s Catholic bishops for dropping the ball on clerical sex-abuse scandals involving children.