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Archangel Michael statue may yet win the battle against the ACLU after an army of warriors rallies to its cause

The Blaze
3 weeks 5 days ago


A Massachusetts city in the Greater Boston area commissioned a pair of 10-foot-tall bronze statues heavy with cultural and historical significance to honor police and firefighters outside their new public safety headquarters.

Upon learning that the city of Quincy's new statues — one depicting Florian, a third-century firefighting Roman Christian, and the other depicting the winged archangel Michael stepping on the head of a demon — also carried religious significance, the American Civil Liberties Union and a handful of secularizing activist groups joined a few locals in suing last May to block the installation.

'The ACLU has pitted itself against the very heroes who keep our communities safe.'

The city, which will make its case before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court with the help of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty on May 6, has received an outpouring of support from first responders' groups and unions, religious groups, and others keen to defend free speech found intolerable by thin-skinned critics.

The International Association of Fire Fighters and its Bay State affiliate, among the groups that submitted court filings in support of the city, noted that "for the firefighting community, there is perhaps no better image for this project than St. Florian."

Norfolk Superior Court Judge William Sullivan, the Democratic appointee who blocked the planned installation in October, previously argued that the statues "serve no discernable secular purpose."

The IAFF flatly rejected that argument.

RELATED: Whose past predicts your future?

Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

"Florian, to be sure, is venerated as a Catholic saint. But that isn't why the City of Quincy is putting him on its public safety building," the IAFF's court filing reads. "Rather, that choice reflects a centuries-old tradition that honors Florian — entirely apart from his significance in the Catholic Church — as a symbol of the courage, selflessness, and sacrifice of firefighters around the world."

Moreover, the association underscored that Florian's legend is now "part of the cultural fabric of firefighting."

The National Association of Police Organizations similarly said of the St. Michael statue, "Although Michael's origins are religious, his significance extends far beyond that context. He is the archetype of core law-enforcement virtues: justice, courage, leadership, and defense of the innocent."

The National Fraternal Order of Police echoed this understanding and drove the point home:

The erection of these statues shows no semblance of religious subordination or favoritism. For this Court to prohibit these statues would not only run contrary to the text and purpose of the Religion Clauses of the Massachusetts Constitution but would also rob the people of Quincy of a special opportunity to honor their firefighters and police officers.

While the Knights of Columbus highlighted America's and Massachusetts' rich histories of acknowledging religion in public art, the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team and the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty discussed the likely fallout of the ACLU prevailing in this case and how that result might disproportionately impact minority faiths.

They noted, for example, that a ruling against Quincy might set a precedent for denying practicing Jews the ability to build an eruv in public — a demarcated area, created by placing nearly invisible wires on existing utility poles, that permits Jews to carry essential items on the Sabbath.

The American Legion said in its filing that giving the secularists a win here "would put the Massachusetts Constitution on a collision court with the federal one." The Legion noted further that while a state may not favor a religion, it "also may not favor nonreligion by adopting a posture of hostility towards faith."

Joseph Davis, senior counsel at Becket and attorney for Quincy, stated, "By picking this fight, the ACLU has pitted itself against the very heroes who keep our communities safe."

"This broad coalition of firefighters and police — along with diverse faith communities, public policy experts, and legal scholars — proves just how out of touch the ACLU has become," Davis continued. "We’re hopeful the court will see through this attack and side with Quincy."

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Joseph MacKinnon

Rufo report confirms: Yes, illegal aliens are receiving FREE sex-change procedures in Newsom’s California

The Blaze
3 weeks 5 days ago


On April 16, BlazeTV host and independent journalist Christopher Rufo published a shocking report titled “California Provides Sex-Change Procedures to Homeless Illegal Aliens.”

“It feels like one of those stories that is like right-wing Mad Libs, where you take all of the most intense right-wing trigger words, you smash them into a sentence. But in this case, it's not imaginary. It's all real,” he says.

On this episode of “Rufo & Lomez,” Rufo and co-host Jonathan Keeperman break down the shocking details of the report, react to the on-the-ground footage, and discuss how California voters have become so morally submissive that they now tolerate — and fund — even the most absurd and humiliating policies.

Rufo begins by playing a video clip of his co-author and City Journal colleague Jonathan Choe interviewing a homeless illegal immigrant from Mexico who identifies as a transgender woman and calls himself Jacqueline.

The man confirms that he received both hormones and breast implants for free in California via Medi-Cal.

“Even though you're undocumented, you can get it,” he said, adding that he’s “waiting” for bottom surgery.

According to Rufo’s reporting, Jacqueline is one of many homeless illegal aliens living in San Francisco’s publicly funded shelters who have received such procedures at the expense of the California taxpayer. On-the-ground interviews and video also confirmed that word is spreading south of the border, encouraging trans-identifying migrants to come for these free procedures.

“[Choe] actually went to a number of homeless shelters in San Francisco, and at each homeless shelter, he found transgender illegal migrants who told him very directly, ‘We're here to get hormones, breast implants,’ and, as Jacqueline says, ‘bottom surgery,”’ says Rufo.

He then plays a second video featuring another transgender-identifying illegal alien named Lyca — a biological male from Honduras who says he came to the United States explicitly to take advantage of the taxpayer-funded benefits that will pay for his transition. He candidly admitted that Medi-Cal is currently paying for his hormone therapy.

Both Rufo and Keeperman agree that California voters have become so afraid of moral backlash that they’re now greenlighting policies that are abjectly insane.

“The California taxpayer is in a findom relationship with the state,” says Keeperman.

A financial domination relationship is a BDSM kink in which a submissive person gives money or gifts to a dominant person without expecting sexual favors in return. Like other related kinks, the submissive party seeks gratification through humiliation.

Keeperman argues that this same twisted dynamic is at play between the California government and its constituents.

“If you live in California and you're, like, a good secular cosmopolitan lib … the moral decision-making is incredibly difficult. … Every decision, every behavior, every utterance is freighted with meaning and the potential for sort of catastrophic loss, or you'll be accused of being immoral,” he explains.

“They’ve reached total fatigue, and the state just makes these demands of them — like you have to support on tax day the surgeries for transgender illegals — and they're comforted by this because it's like this relief,” Keeperman adds.

Rufo agrees. “The California voter is in a completely submissive moral position. It will accept any moral demand, any moral imposition, any moral cost.”

“California voters have essentially given a blanket yes, and then the layer of activists, administrators, and fanatics within the California state government processes the paperwork, so that in the end, trans illegals are getting free castration surgeries in San Francisco,” he continues.

Keeperman counters, “But the thing is, it's not just that it's yes to anything; it's yes to things that are the most humiliating and the most extractive and the least practically or pragmatically productive.”

“So it's not like they're pining for, you know, efficient infrastructure and public transportation. I mean, I'm sure they say they want that, but that's not what gets done,” he continues. “What gets done instead is this kind of stuff, which is just facially absurd.”

Rufo says the reason genuinely beneficial initiatives, like improved public transportation, never actually happen is because “building train tracks is hard,” while “cutting the penises off of illegal migrants” isn’t.

“As I discovered in a previous story in Oregon — I imagine the same is happening now in San Francisco — they've actually developed surgical castration robots, and they can castrate,” he says, "and in a single operating room, they can do two of these castrations per day now using these castration robots.”

To learn more, watch the episode above.

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BlazeTV Staff

'Code Red' Author Wynton Hall: Anthropic's AI Threatened to Blackmail It's Boss

Breitbart
3 weeks 5 days ago

During an appearance on One America News Network's "Fine Point," Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall, author of Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, said Anthropic's artificial intelligence "threatened to blackmail, its metaphorical boss."

The post ‘Code Red’ Author Wynton Hall: Anthropic’s AI Threatened to Blackmail It’s Boss appeared first on Breitbart.

Pam Key

Trump says Iran has CAVED to his demands on nuclear enrichment — and on the Strait of Hormuz

The Blaze
3 weeks 5 days ago


Iran appears to have capitulated on two of the most important demands of the U.S., according to the president.

After seven weeks of joint strikes against Iran from the U.S. and Israel, President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would no longer be threatened by Iran and that the Iranians agreed to stop seeking nuclear enrichment.

The stock market surged on the news, and oil futures dropped significantly.

"Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World!" the president said on social media Friday.

In a phone call with a NewsNation reporter, the president was asked directly about Iran's nuclear enrichment plans.

"They agreed to everything," said the president, according to a post from reporter Kellie Meyer on Friday morning. "Yes, are you surprised?"

The stock market surged on the news, and oil futures dropped significantly.

Iran's foreign minister confirmed the agreement and cited the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

"In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon," said Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a post on social media, "the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran."

Israel agreed to the ceasefire of its military operation targeting Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, Trump announced Thursday. The Israeli-Lebanese conflict had become a sticking point between Iran and the U.S. in seeking a peace deal.

RELATED: Trump announces ceasefire agreement with Lebanon — and meeting at the White House

- YouTube

Axios reported that the U.S. was considering releasing $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in exchange for Iran giving up its enriched uranium stockpile.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said more than 10,000 sailors, Marines, and airmen; dozens of aircraft; and over a dozen ships were involved in the U.S. operation to shut down the Strait of Hormuz via blockade to pressure Iran.

"Since commencement of the blockade, 19 ships have complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and return to Iran," said U.S. Central Command on Friday.

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Carlos Garcia

Displaced Lebanese Christians Wait Nervously to Return Home as Trump Declares Ceasefire

Breitbart
3 weeks 5 days ago

The Christian population of southern Lebanon could be able to return to their homes following the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel that took effect on Friday, but it remains to be seen how many will do so given the scale of destruction from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The post Displaced Lebanese Christians Wait Nervously to Return Home as Trump Declares Ceasefire appeared first on Breitbart.

John Hayward