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China's War on Christianity

The communist government of China is cracking down on Christian churches with renewed vigor. All churches have to be registered with the government and are closely monitored. Underground churches still flourish but they continue to be shut down and pastors are jailed and persecuted. Ironically, we are helping them do so. Facial recognition software and surveillance technology has been sold to the Chinese government by our High Tech Industries. Google and Facebook are more than happy to sell their products to the Chinese who are eager to use them to tightly control their population. 

Posted by Art Flickinger
in News Articles

Hey, SIRI

As if the U.N. doesn't have enough to do, U.N.E.S.C.O. (United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in conjunction with the German government and the EQUALS Skills Coalition, (a partnership of governments, businesses and nonprofits) issued a 146 page report that will rock your world, please sit down. Most of the leading voice assistants, it tells us," are exclusively female and send a signal to women that they should be obliging, docile, eager-to-please helpers." The report further states: "The assistant holds no power of agency beyond what the commander asks of it." No kidding, it's not a real person. When I first read this article in the W.S.J., I thought it was a spoof on political correctness, realizing it wasn't, even though the tone of the article was a little sarcastic, I knew I had a duty to post it.

 This has to be the cherry on top of the "Crazy Cake", we call political correctness. Wait till the folks in silicon valley read it on their tablets. The U.N. is calling out the biggest purveyors of P.C'ness, how dare they! Not being one to throw stones and pile on, I will offer them a solution to their "Un-Wokeness." I would program a little reality into their smart phones, using my wife Tracey, as the template. It would emancipate women and put men in their proper place. Listen in, as I command my not so docile smart phone.

 

Me: "Tracey, what's the score on the hockey game and what channel is it on?                         

A.I. Tracey: "Who cares? Did you take the garbage out yet?"

Me: "Tracey, we're low on beer and snacks. Text Mary Grace and tell her to make a beer run      and pick up some cheese doodles on the way home from work."  

A.I. Tracey: " What's wrong with you? Get off your but and get it yourself, and while your at it, here's a list of things I need from the store and pick up the dry-cleaning. You know, sitting is the new smoking."

Me: "What good is this stinking phone? I should put it on the "T" tracks and watch it get run over, while eating my cheese doodles!!"

A.I. Tracey: "I heard that!!"

I'll call it the "Woke Phone." I wonder if I might be offered a special envoy position at the U.N., to head up the new office of "Global Woke-ness?" I'm holding my breath, hurry up.

Attachment: Sign of the Sexist Apocalypse - WSJ.pdf
Posted by Art Flickinger
in News Articles

A Memorial Day Story

Memorial Day: What does it mean to us today? The beginning of the summer season, a 3-day weekend of picnics and barbecues, a white sale at Macy’s, mattress sales, car deals, a Memorial Day double header at the ball park, everything but a somber day of reflection on the men and women who gave their lives in the service of their country.

Union General John A. Logan proclaimed the holiday: “The 30th of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

Memorial Day began for me one summer afternoon, on Stanley Drive in Penn Hills, PA, when I witnessed Marines in their dress blues knock on my neighbor’s front door. Martin J. Robinson - we all called him Marty - was like a big brother to me. He always took the time to pitch whiffle ball, or throw a football with the younger kids on the block. He taught me a proper batting stance and how to throw a tight spiral with a football. He always wore his hair in a “flat top.” When my parents sent me to the barber shop, I always asked the barber for a flattop haircut. Marty was my idol. Flat-topped Eagle Scout, hunter and fisherman, college man, he finished a year in school and joined the Marines. Soon he found himself in the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam, much different than the woods, streams and hills of Western Pennsylvania. There, he spilled his life’s blood along with 58,000+ of his brothers and sisters, each with a story, each with family and friends whose lives would never be the same because of their loss. Their bodies now lie in every city, village and hamlet churchyard throughout this land, along with those from every conflict and war we have ever fought in. They cry out, can you hear them? “Please don’t forget me!  I laid down my life for my country and I would do it all over again but, please promise that you won’t forget me!” 

So on this Memorial Day, never forget the fallen. Tell their stories, honor their sacrifices. Pass their stories on to your children and your children’s children so that they, too, will never forget.

Posted by Art Flickinger

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