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"China is best placed to win a space race, given its well-coordinated, disciplined, technocratic system, able to set and maintain long-term goals," gloomily predicted a recent Washington Post editorial.  Yet current Chinese practice and American history show that precisely America's ability to harness private enterprise for national interests will be the decisive element that will enable the United States to dominate space. China's January 2 historic first of landing a rover on the Moon's dark side occasioned the editorial, which noted that "China aims to be the leading space power by 2045."  Indeed, others have observed that China "today...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (New Testament) Philippians Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.[d] 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in...

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Thursday that Latinos have a right to migrate into the United States because they descend from Native Americans. “We have to have respect for children, respect for families, respect for human rights and respect for the right to human mobility because it is a right,” Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd while speaking out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). “It is a right because we are standing on native land, and Latino people are descendants of native people,” she continued. “And we cannot be told and criminalized...

Full TITLE: VA Evicts Groups that Help Vets; Dog Park, Baseball Stadium, Prep School Athletic Fields, Upscale Store Parking Stay ================================================================== The Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) facility that illegally rents its sprawling grounds to institutions that don’t serve veterans just evicted several groups dedicated to veterans, including a nonprofit that for decades has comforted dying vets and another that helps those who are disabled. While the VA gave the volunteer organizations the boot without offering an explanation, it continues housing a parking lot for nearby upscale shops, a university baseball stadium, a dog park for the professional dog walkers...

The popular Iranian chant of “Death to America” is directed at President Donald Trump and U.S. political leaders, not the American people, Iran’s supreme leader said Friday. “As long as America continues its wickedness, the Iranian nation will not abandon ‘Death to America’,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian Air Force officers marking the 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, according to his official website. “‘Death to America’ means death to Trump, (National Security Adviser) John Bolton, and (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo. It means death to American rulers,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. The cry of “Death to America” has long featured...

After years of escalating violence among rival drug and human smuggling cartels, a new analysis of conditions in Mexico says the country’s government is in a “fragile” state and is on the verge of failing, which would have major security implications for the United States. “Mexico is a fragile state, and without action, faces the risk of becoming a failing, or worse, a failed state,” writes Alexander Grinberg, a U.S. Army officer and expert in defense policy and strategy. Noting that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines a fragile state as one that is “unable or unwilling to...

If Democrats believe in something other than sheer raw power you’d be hard pressed to figure out what it is. Their vacillation on most everything is more indicative of pragmatism than ideology. I remember when their battle cry for abortion was “safe, legal and rare” – now they’re on board with “late-term abortion” and infanticide. Should you ever need a quintessential definition of “slippery slope” this is it.Democrats seem to fervently believe in whatever appears to be expedient for the purpose of retaining power at the moment. Think of them as the party of “whatever” -the political equivalent of vocal...

English actor Albert Finney has died, family members told several news outlets Friday. He was 82. Albert Finney, aged 82, passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side,” a family spokesman said in a statement to The Telegraph. “The family request privacy at this sad time. Finney earned his first of five Oscar nominations with "Tom Jones." Others followed for "Murder on the Orient Express," ''The Dresser," ''Under the Volcano" and "Erin Brockovich," The Associated Press reported.

Virginia’s ongoing scandals of racist yearbook photos and resignation demands are starting to have repercussions on the state’s taxes and spending. The 2017 federal tax cut signed into law by President Trump capped the amount of state and local taxes that could be deducted, which could add up to a higher tax bill to some Virginians. This year, Virginia Republicans wanted to cut taxes to offset that by raising the standard deduction on state income taxes. This morning Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and Republicans in the state legislature announced they had worked out a deal on tax cuts. In addition...

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, aka “Occasional Cortex“, revealed an energy and social justice plan today called “The Green New Deal“, promising a massive transformation of American society. However, the substance (full pdf below) is so ridiculous, there are many people now wondering if she and her allies were set-up by political opponents to make themselves look like fools. The goal is to have all Americans eating sustainable algae cakes and sitting around campfires, barefoot, picking parasites off each other…. or something.

The 6-year-old has Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer in children. “The chemo and radiation hasn’t worked and basically the family is now leaving it in God’s hands and praying for a miracle,” Freeport Police Chief Raymond Garivey Jr. told CNN. “They basically said it’s time to enjoy some life,” her mother, Ilene Arias, told CNN affiliate KTRK. Garivey met Abigail back in December at the police department’s “Pancakes with Santa” event. During the meeting, the girl expressed her desire to become a police officer when she grows up. … So the police chief immediately put things in motion...

Live: Matt Whitaker testifies before Congress

Six people have been arrested after federal agents seized more than 1.7 tons of drugs stashed inside audio speakers that were being shipped from Long Beach to Australia. The shipment included 3,810 pounds of methamphetamine, along with 56 pounds of cocaine and 11.5 pounds of heroin, federal authorities said. Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized three shipping containers containing the drugs on Jan. 11 at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport.

+Schneider for Rorate - The Christian Faith: The only valid and the only God-willed religion Rorate note: Earlier this week, Pope Bergoglio signed the heretical “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” If you haven't read the full document, please do, then read the piece below which actually doesn't contradict the Church's teachings or mock the countless Christians martyred over the last 1,400 years.  Once again, we are honored to post this guest op-ed, submitted to us by His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider. We not only allow but encourage all media and blogs to reprint this...

RICHMOND, Va.—A top Republican Virginia lawmaker was forced to defend his role editing a college yearbook with photographs of students in blackface, as the state’s political crisis spread to both parties Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment served as managing editor of the 1968 yearbook at Virginia Military Institute that included the blackface photos and racial slurs. Gov. Ralph Northam, Democrat, faces calls to step down following the emergence last week of a photo from his medical-school yearbook that showed a person in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb. Mr. Northam said he wasn’t in the picture, after...

Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday introduced matching bills that would throw out per-country limits on employment-based green cards.

A Houston police officer has been relieved of duty in light of "ongoing questions" stemming from a botched drug raid that left a couple dead and five officers wounded, police said Thursday. It's not clear what role the officer played in the Jan. 28 bust at 7815 Harding, but law enforcement sources said his suspension comes amid a probe into questions over whether the sworn affidavit used to justify the no-knock warrant may have contained false information.

Billionaire hedge fund investor Eddie Lampert got his wish and Sears Opens a New Window. is getting a second shot a life. On Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain approved a $5.2 billion bid by Lampert's hedge fund, ESL Investment, to acquire the bankrupt retailer Opens a New Window. after four days of testimony. In reading his decision, Drain rejected arguments from a committee of creditors, who were urging the court to liquidate the assets as it was the best way to return the more than $3 billion owed to them. The creditors also argued the sale process was unfair....

War is horrific and sometimes you have to take the life of your fellow man in the most brutal and extravagant ways…and you just don’t have a good enough weapon to do it as hard as you want. That's when you start strapping every weapon you have to every other weapon you have, and hope that physics is in a good enough mood today to let you fire knives out of your machine gun. Like these guys: Anti-Tank Sniper Rifle When the Nazi war machine rolled into Stalingrad, they had no idea what was in store for them: Crazy ass...

One of President Trump's sharpest congressional critics on Thursday vowed to force a House vote to impeach the president, citing the race-related scandals facing top Virginia lawmakers to argue Congress's responsibility to fight bigotry — “starting at the top.” Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) said the refusal of both Virginia's governor, Ralph Northam (D), and the state's attorney general, Mark Herring (D), to resign after admissions of wearing blackface in the past "is but a symptom of a greater syndrome that currently plagues our country as a result of not acting on President Trump’s bigotry." Green argued that the pair has...