Gut wrenchingly sad... 😥

Corporations with loads of money will ensure that this domain will simply get reclassified.

"In his last days, he chose to stay near the main hospital in Nabatieh to help the elderly, disabled, injured, and those who simply couldn't financially afford to flee," Jawad's family said. "He served as their guardian, provided them with food, mattresses, and other comforts, and anonymously paid off their debts."

😥

One American citizen identified as Karam toldAl Jazeera that she "called the U.S. embassy in Beirut for help fleeing the violence," but "was told to find a way out of the country by herself," the outlet reported.

"Karam, who chose to be identified by her nickname out of fear of retaliation, drew a contrast with how the US State Department swiftly chartered special flights and a ship to evacuate American citizens in Israel after Hamas' October 7 attack last year," Al Jazeera noted.

"Americans of Lebanese descent have been treated as lesser U.S. citizens than Israeli U.S. citizens," she said. "It is as if we don't exist."

😖

Where's the strength in a strike if a court can just order people back to work...?

Christianity is quite broad and this question will yield a different answer depending on the variant.

The example tract you shared looks like a Chick tract (or similar). That's a specific breed of American Evangelicalism. Unfortunately, the number of followers in this brand of theology is quite numerous in the United States.

Evangelicals are definitely proponents of education, but very specifically things that align with their theology. So education in dogma, apologetics, and their brand of theology is heavily pushed.

Unfortunately, education in the sciences (particularly biology) is actively fought against because their theology and the sciences conflict on a number of matters. So long as the science agrees with their theology, they're okay with people being educated in it. That which disagrees with their interpretation of scripture, is interpreted as lies from Satan polluting people's minds and turning humanity from God.

These Christians will always speak of how important education is, but it takes the form of indoctrination. The more they can solidify people in their beliefs, the better and more "truly" educated they are as a result. If you believe in the sciences of evolutionary biology, then you've been deceived and misled.

With that said though... it's important to remember that there are quite a number of Christians that are not adherents of this form of evangelicalism and who are strong proponents of the sciences.

Religion is about control. The more fundamental the religion is, the stronger that control needs to be. This isn't a Christian problem or even an evangelical problem. It's common with numerous religions and why so many devastating wars I've been rooted in religion. This problem is a religious problem.

This is good. Other western nations should now follow.

So my "prepper" neighbor is on to something...

The Russian disinformation campaign favors Trump? Say it isn't so!

I'll never understand sentencing.

A 21-year-old Florida man was sentenced Monday to three and a half years in prison for firebombing a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic in 2022, federal prosecutors said.

A co-defendant, 24-year-old Chance Brannon, was sentenced last month to nine years in prison. Brannon, of San Juan Capistrano, California, was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the bombing.

Another co-defendant, Tibet Ergul, has pleaded guilty to the charges against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 30.

Psychologically speaking, perhaps deterrence being a goal of punishment isn't all that effective. I don't know what it would take to persuade a person from such an act, but whatever that is... that's what the prison term needs to be.

I presume these people have radical thinking, so perhaps no amount of prison time, whatever it might, is enough. Especially if they believe they were serving their god in the process. Religion is a powerful driving force. Ugh.

These are the kinds of things that make me less inclined to show compassion to my fellow humans. And I don't like that.

Why can't we have that Gene Roddenberry Star Trek future now? 😭

I've been using LibreOffice for a number of years without issue. Literally takes care of all my word processing and spreadsheet needs. I don't miss MS Office at all, which I use daily at work.

I also just saw this. What a travesty.

Putin addressed the warnings a couple weeks later, criticizing the warning three days ago as "provocative."

Per TASS, the Russian president said on March 19 the aim of "the recent provocative statements of a number of official Western structures about the possibility of terrorist attacks in Russia" was harming Russian society.

"All this resembles outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society," Putin said, according to state media reporting on his remarks.

Future humanity, if you even exist, please have mercy on us when you look back at this age. 😮‍💨

This is exactly what I was wondering. I was hoping I would be wrong, but damn...

A White House official shared more information Friday evening in a statement reported by multiple outlets.

"Earlier this month, the US government had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow — potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts — which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory to Americans in Russia," said Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.

"The US government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding 'duty to warn' policy," Watson said, referring to the US policy in the intelligence community to notify potential victims, regardless of whether or not they are US citizens, of certain credible impending threats

...

Putin addressed the warnings a couple weeks later, criticizing the warning three days ago as "provocative."

Per TASS, the Russian president said on March 19 the aim of "the recent provocative statements of a number of official Western structures about the possibility of terrorist attacks in Russia" was harming Russian society.

"All this resembles outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society," Putin said, according to state media reporting on his remarks.

Future humanity, if you even exist, please have mercy on us when you look back at this age. 😮‍💨