Americans Often Hear About ‘Religious Extremism,’ But Rarely About ‘Extreme Secularism <

"Americans often hear about “religious extremism,” but rarely hear about “extreme secularism" commentator and radio host Dennis Prager said Monday night at an event launching his latest book.

Prager spoke about the themes of the book, “The Rational Bible: Deuteronomy,” in an interview format while seated on a stage at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

The book, officially available Oct. 11 and part of Prager’s “Rational Bible” commentary series, serves as a defense of the fifth book of the Torah as remaining profoundly relevant to modern society.   

The combination of secularism and affluence lead to boredom, Prager told his audience during the event, which also was broadcast live as part of “The Dennis Prager Show.” This, he contended, has let to leftism.

Those who are poor and secular find meaning in the bare necessities of life—food, water, shelter, Prager argued. Those who have religion—whether poor or wealthy—find a more lasting meaning.

Rich secularists are those who are pushing the environmental movement, he said, and the wealthy say the world is doomed because this gives them meaning.  

According to Prager, society is seeing in modern culture what 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche captured in his infamous statement, “God is dead.”   

Secularism is devoid of religion, said Prager, who is Jewish and often writes about modern society as viewed through the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Human beings worship more false gods today than they did in the time of Moses, he argued.  

Prager, whose syndicated column appears in The Daily Signal, noted that the secular god of “science” is one such example, remarking: “What the hell does science tell you, if you believe in it?”  

If your god doesn’t reveal a moral code, he said, that god is worthless.  

Prager also commented on the psychological advantages of religion.

Most people who were afraid of COVID-19 are secular, Prager argued, adding that many houses of worship caved to secularism during the pandemic.

“If you don’t fear God, you’ll fear everything else,” he said. “We’ve raised wimps in secular society.”

The advantage of religion, he said, is that “I fear God and only God.”

Moreover, Prager argued, fear of God gives believers a moral advantage over secularists.  

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew midwives fear God more than they fear Egypt’s pharaoh. English translators of the Bible, he said, translated a word meaning “fear” as “revere,” which gave the original meaning less weight.

Other than God, parents are the only creatures we are commanded to fear in the Torah and the Bible, Prager said. Honoring one’s father and mother, he explained, is a vehicle to divine authority.  

The breakdown of respect for parents is another aspect of secularism that pervades our culture, he said.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/10/04/dennis-prager-decries-false-gods-of-secularism/

***************************************************

Doctor Groups Push DOJ to Probe ‘Disinformation’ on Meds, Surgeries for Trans-Identifying Youths

Three influential American medical groups are urging the U.S. Department of Justice to “investigate and prosecute all organizations, individuals, and entities” that share information deemed to be false about transgender medical treatments for minors.

The Oct. 3 letter, sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, represents the latest salvo in a fierce national debate.

In the letter, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association are insisting that “disinformation” must be blocked and people who spread it should be prosecuted, adding that their words foment threats, intimidation, and violence against medical professionals.

Detractors interpret the letter as an attempt to squelch opposition to the lucrative medical procedures and to shift the focus away from rising concerns over the safety, effectiveness, and ethics of such interventions. They note the letter comes just days in advance of the AAP’s convention in Anaheim, California, where critics of the treatments plan a “First Do No Harm” unity rally on Oct. 8.

Won’t Be Silenced

In response to the letter, Scott Newgent, a biological woman who deeply regrets medically transitioning to appear male at age 42 after giving birth to two children, said in a text to The Epoch Times: “This was made to silence me and others like me.”

Newgent refuses to stop his advocacy, saying that he, too, has been subjected to threats for vociferously opposing medical gender transition for minors. Newgent’s medical transition inflicted lifelong complications and he is passionate about “saving kids” from similar consequences. Newgent’s advocacy group, TreVoices.org, declares: “Medical transition is no place for a child!”

Newgent plans to participate in the Anaheim protest this weekend and in “The Rally to End Child Mutilation,” set for Oct. 21 at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. There, lawmakers have been expressing dismay over a Vanderbilt University Medical Center video that surfaced in which a doctor described transgender surgery as a “big moneymaker.” Conservative commentator Matt Walsh was first to draw attention to the video.

Feud Over ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

People on both sides of the debate agree on one thing: Increasing numbers of young people are being diagnosed with “gender dysphoria,” a strong, persistent conflict between a person’s biological sex and self-perception of gender. The trend’s origins and the best ways to help young sufferers are hotly contested, along with virtually every other facet of this topic.

Opponents accuse “gender-affirming” proponents of fast-tracking minors along a course of puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and body-altering surgery, denouncing the process as “child abuse.” Supporters call the procedures “medically necessary” for the patients’ overall wellbeing.

Some supporters of the “gender-affirming” model opine that questioning minors’ uncertainty about their gender smacks of “conversion therapy,” a process that aims to switch someone’s same-sex attraction to that of the opposite sex.

People like Newgent counter that many youths who “transition” are actually same-sex-attracted, rather than transgender. A number of gay-rights advocacy groups oppose the “gender-affirming” treatments.

Lawmakers nationwide are responding to public outcry over the procedures in various ways. Last week, California became a “sanctuary state,” welcoming people to travel there from states that have banned or restricted the treatments for minors. On Oct. 17, a battle over the nation’s first law banning the procedures for minors goes to trial in an Arkansas federal court.

Medical Groups Allege ‘Campaign of Disinformation’
Proponents of the “gender-affirming care” model include the trio of groups that wrote to Garland urging “swift action” against a rising tide of “coordinated attacks” against medical professionals who provide the controversial medical interventions.

Some medical professionals and patients involved with other types of medical care have been caught in the crossfire, the groups say. “In one hospital, a new mother was prevented from being with her preterm infant,” the groups’ letter said, because the neonatal intensive care unit allowed no one in or out due to a bomb threat.

In addition, people who work at medical centers have been subjected to harassing social media messages, telephone calls, and protests, the letter said, alleging that “the attacks are rooted in an intentional campaign of disinformation, where a few high-profile users on social media share false and misleading information,” fomenting threats and violence.

Besides seeking intervention from the Department of Justice, the medical groups are also marshaling “Twitter, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram … to take bolder action when false information is shared about specific institutions and physicians,” an AAP news release said.

Because of the threats, medical professionals now are fearful of providing “evidence-based, gender-affirming health care” for children, the letters state.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/doctor-groups-push-feds-to-probe-disinformation-on-meds-surgeries-for-trans-identifying-youths_4774094.html

******************************************************

Biden to pardon everyone convicted on federal marijuana possession charges

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he will pardon all individuals convicted on federal marijuana possession charges, a move that the White House estimated would affect more than 6,500 people.

The move, which many Democratic activists have been calling for, comes roughly a month before the midterm election that will decide whether the president’s party can hold onto control of Congress.

“As I said when I ran for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said.

“It’s legal in many states, and criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities,” he continued. “And that’s before you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences. While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”

Biden called on all governors to follow his example and said that he would ask the attorney general and Department of Health and Human Services to review marijuana’s classification in federal law as a Schedule 1 drug, the same classification as heroin and LSD.

The White House released the news while Biden was in upstate New York touting IBM’s investment in a plant that will make semiconductors.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/oct/6/biden-pardon-all-federal-convictions-marijuana-pos/

*********************************************************

Time For the Left To Admit Men Are in a Crisis

Isaiah McCall

It is shocking that simply talking about men struggling immediately pisses so many people off.

Today, two-thirds of high school students in the top 10 percent are girls, while roughly two-thirds of the lowest are boys. Moreover, one-third of young males are not having sex despite living in an unprecedented time of sexual liberation.

Men are also struggling in the workplace.

In 1970, women made up 37 percent of the American workforce. Today, they make up 47 percent. In that same period, the proportion of employed working-age men has fallen from 83 percent to 69 percent and unemployment is now most prevalent among young men.

Yes, the upper echelons of society are still male-dominated. Of Fortune 500 companies, only 44 of them are led by women; not to mention, in Congress, only 144 out of 539 members are women.

This desperately needs to change!

However, the majority of men are not in the upper echelon of society; in fact, they’re bottom-feeding like never before.

They have no message, no guidance, and no hope.

The rise in popularity of voices like Andrew Tate should not be a surprise:

Men, especially young men, need help.

It’s time to stop using blanket terms like “Toxic Masculinity” or “Patriarchy” like they’re ketchup bottles that we can mindlessly shake and watch the redness pour out. We need to start having real conversations about why men are struggling and what we can do to help them.

The Problem: Jordan Peterson?

Onan episode of Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored,” Jordan Peterson was asked if he was the “pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community” — a title given to him by actress and director Olivia Wilde.

I was shocked by his answer: “Sure, why not?”

He added: “People have been after me for a long time because I’ve been speaking to disaffected young men, what a terrible thing to do that is,” he said. “I thought the marginalized were supposed to have a voice.”

There is no better way to describe the meaning crisis in men than this!

Men are slowly turning into Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin: They are accounting for three out of four “deaths of despair” — from alcohol, suicide, or drug overdose; meanwhile, 40% of women outearn them (another interesting source); and about 15 percent of men say they have no close friends, up from 3 percent in 1990. As Henry David Thoreau once famously said, “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.”

If you live in elite circles, you aren’t seeing these types of men, but I implore you, look down. Look down at the bottom, or even at the middle, there are real men with real problems who feel like they have no voice.

And to them, Jordan Peterson is a hero because he’s speaking to them.  He might not have all the answers, but at least he’s trying.So, what are these solutions?

I’ll tell you what they aren’t: They aren’t what the Left is preaching by telling men to become self-flagellating “male feminists” or talking about “toxic masculinity.” But they also aren’t what the Right is saying by bringing back good ol’ fashioned breadwinning and a “return to archaic traditional values.”

Men need to create a new narrative, but we don’t need to erase the progress that feminism has made and is making. The answer, as always, lies in the middle.

The Solution: New Narratives For Men

Women had an old narrative: take care of the house and children, and be a good wife. They have a new narrative: you can do anything you want, be anything you want, and compete with men, because historically speaking, your ancestors were not given that chance.

Men had an old narrative: be a breadwinner and provider, go compete mostly with men (having both men and women in a workplace certainly changed social dynamics), and be a good husband. And now their new narrative is… well, they don’t really have one.

So, what we need to do is create new narratives for men.  And that’s going to take a lot of hard work, but it’s something we need to do.

I’ve been reading Richard V. Reeves’s new book “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It” for solutions to this crisis.

I think he has some good answers:

Start Boys Later in School: Boys develop their pre-frontal cortex — the part of the brain that handles executive functioning like planning, organization, and self-regulation — later than girls. This is why boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD or push off homework for playing outside. So, Reeves argues, we should start boys in school later (at age six or seven instead of five or six) to better match their development.

More Male Teachers: The meteoric rise in Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson shouldn’t be surprising. When men are absent in boys’ lives, they naturally seek out male mentors and role models.

Reeves argues that we need more male teachers in schools, especially in the early grades. Fewer than 3 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers are men, and those numbers don’t improve much in later grades.

Higher Importance of Family: Dostoevsky once said, “The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.” Reeves argues that we need to put more emphasis on family life in the early years to set boys up for success later in life. This means more parental involvement, especially from fathers, who, as of last year, fatherhood fell to its lowest point in 42 years.
None of these solutions are easy.

Some are even controversial. But if we want to save our boys and men from a life of mediocrity and possibly complete despair, we need to start somewhere.

Don’t Neglect the Young Man in Your Life

As a Black man, I have two younger male cousins who don’t have their father in their life. Their mother has done a stellar job raising them and our family has tried to be there for them as much as possible, but nothing replaces a good father.

This is all to say that this topic is controversial, it’s taboo, like talking about death at the dinner table. But we have to talk about it. We have to do something about this.

And as some writers fail to mention when broaching this topic, we can have the prognosis without succumbing to misogyny.

We can have healthy masculinity that isn’t domineering, abusive, or neglectful. We can have all the benefits that feminism has accommodated for women without losing our identity as men!

Or can we? This is the question that must be answered

https://medium.com/yardcouch-com/time-for-the-left-to-admit-men-are-in-a-crisis-4fc121ea85a2

****************************************

My other blogs.  Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)  

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*****************************************