Daily Headlines | Thursday February 3, 2022

Focus on the Family President Jim Daly writes: 

 Results of the autopsy of intrusive and overreaching government policies related to the COVID -19 global pandemic are beginning to emerge – and they paint a disturbing and disastrous picture. 

A just released John Hopkins study concluded lockdowns weren’t effective in reducing mortality rates – and in fact did great damage to the economy along with children’s mental, emotional and academic health. For far too many adults, forced isolation exacerbated loneliness, increased anxiety and drastically diminished quality of life. 

These tragic findings are just the tip of the iceberg, I believe. In fact, I think it’s almost impossible to overstate just how detrimental the heavy-hand of Big Government will prove to be. I talk with lots of moms and dads, and they regularly lament how closed churches, schools and other shuttered programs fundamentally changed the way their sons and daughters worshiped, learned and socialized. Sadly, some of the changes could be permanent. 

Surveys suggest there was a 70% increase in internet and screen time usage for kids – children who were already buried in their digital devices prior to the beginning of the pandemic. It only got worse – and many of the shifts have stuck. Instead of interacting in a classroom, kids were put in little boxes on a screen. Many tuned out altogether, playing Minecraft or watching another mindless YouTube video. 

The great lesson, though, isn’t just that lockdowns don’t work – it’s that our freedoms are fragile, and they must be preserved and protected at great cost. 

History demonstrates that freedoms are often lost little by little – and then all at once. Ironically, though, history also shows that human nature sometimes invites enslavement in the interest of “safety” and “security.” 

In the book of Samuel, an account of ancient Israel, we read about the people asking for – even demanding – a king. They rejected their Heavenly King but wanted someone to tell them what to do, thinking such an arrangement would be easier and safer. 

In reality, there is no true security or safety this side of eternal life. I’m not suggesting we act recklessly. Of course, we’re to take reasonable precautions – but fundamentally changing the way you live out of fear is almost always the wrong approach. More importantly, we should be turning to God, not government for counsel and direction. 

Trading freedom for security is a fool’s wager. You never get what you pay for – and you’ll always regret what you get. 

Let’s hope we’ve learned our lesson, especially since it has come at such a steep cost. Our hearts break for those who have lost loved ones to this wicked virus, and we remain heavily burdened for those who continue to pay a price for man-made decisions that have made a bad situation much, much worse. 

Responsible freedom is the pathway out of this quagmire. But to all elected and appointed officials, allow me to be perfectly clear: As Americans, we don’t want a King. We already have one and His name is Jesus Christ. 

RELATED: 

Maskless Students Suspended For Minimum Of 10 Days, Could Face Trespassing Charges (Daily Caller) 

2.Female Collegiate Swimmer’s Mom Speaks Out against Male Participation: ‘Deeply Misogynistic’ 

From National Review: 

The mother of a collegiate female swimmer who competed against UPenn transgender athlete Lia Thomas gave an emotional testimony detailing the discrimination and disempowerment her daughter and her teammates are enduring due to the latest inclusivity push in sports. 

Going under the pseudonym “Margaret” to shield her daughter, the mother participated in a press call, hosted by the Independent Women’s Forum, with Republican senators in honor of National Women and Girls in Sports Day.

She urged listeners to consider the degrading logic behind allowing transgender women to compete on the same playing field as biological women. 

“When trans women compete against women, the idea is that a male body can be artificially limited by hormones,” she said. 

Sports policy makers are asking a question that is offensive to women at its heart, she suggested. 

“‘Just how much do we need to impair male performance to be equated to that of women?’ This argument, this experience is NOT empowering for women. It is damaging, it is deeply misogynistic. It is demeaning. We are NOT encumbered male bodies. We are female and we should not have to fight for representation or reward physically against biology that does not compare to our own,” she declared. 

3. BLM at School Week – Indoctrinating and Training Radical Activist Children 

From The Daily Citizen: 

We’re smack in the middle of “Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action,” which runs Monday, January 31 to Friday, February 4. The week of action is promoted by BLM at School, which provides lesson plans and resources for schools across the country. 

So what are the kids learning? The curriculum is based on the “13 Black Lives Matter Guiding Principles.” Some of these sound good, such as teaching children about empathy or loving engagement with people, but other principles are deeply troubling. 

The goal is to transform children into radical activists who will disrupt “Western nuclear family dynamics”; build “women-centered spaces free from sexism, misogyny, and male-centeredness”; pursue globalism and diversity; and “create a space that is family friendly and free from patriarchal practices.” 
BLM at School works hard to sexualize children, teaching kindergarten through twelfth grade students to become “Transgender Affirming” and “Queer Affirming.” 

“Transgender Affirming is the commitment to continue to make space for our trans siblings by encouraging leadership and recognizing trans-antagonistic violence, while doing the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk,” says BLM at School in its “Starter Kit” for educators. 

Dismantling “cisgender privilege” might be a bit much for five-year-old children, so teachers will want to give students the “kid-friendly” version, “Everybody has the right to choose their own gender by listening to their own heart and mind. Everyone gets to choose if they are a girl or a boy or both or neither or something else, and no one else gets to choose for them.” 

4. Judge blocks Ohio law requiring proper disposal of aborted babies 

From The Christian Post: 

A judge has issued a second preliminary injunction against an Ohio law that, among other things, requires that aborted babies be given proper disposal through burial or cremation. 

Judge Alison Hatheway of the Court of Common Pleas in Hamilton County entered a preliminary injunction on Monday against Ohio Senate Bill 27, also known as the Unborn Child Dignity Act. 

While the first preliminary injunction against the law was a temporary measure issued last year, this second injunction will remain in effect until a judgment in the case is reached. 

“Given the breadth of the Ohio Constitution’s guarantees of bodily autonomy, privacy, and freedom of choice in health care, strict scrutiny must apply to a law that infringes on this protection,” ruled Hatheway. 

“SB27 is not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest … the State does not require health care facilities to dispose of identical tissue after miscarriage and infertility treatments by cremation or interment, thus casting strong doubt on the State’s claimed purposes.” 

5. 28 Years Later, Mother Teresa’s Plea to President Clinton Takes on Renewed Significance 

From The Daily Citizen: 

The 70th National Prayer Breakfast, scheduled for Thursday inside the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium, will look different this year. Unlike in the past, only members of Congress and their spouses, along with President and Mrs. Biden and the Vice President and Second Gentleman will attend. 

But it will be precisely twenty-eight years to the day since then 83-year-old Mother Teresa, all 4’10” and 101 pounds of her, stood before the President of the United States at the annual event and spoke truth to power and specifically addressed the evils of abortion. 

As the nation anticipates the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Mississippi 15-week heartbeat case, the Macedonian-born Catholic nun’s words take on renewed meaning and significance. 

Barely visible behind the lectern that cold February morning, her diminutive figure emerging just above the double microphones, Mother Teresa delivered what many consider the boldest and most consequential speech in the history of the breakfast. 

“It is really a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself,” she said quietly. “And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?  How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion?  As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts.” 

6.Biden’s past filibuster of black female judicial nominee raised in Supreme Court fight 

From The Washington Examiner: 

Conservative lawmakers and political commentators have resurfaced President Joe Biden’s previous filibusters against a black female nominee for a U.S. appeals court amid his administration’s pledge to nominate the first black woman to the Supreme Court. 

During former President George W. Bush’s administration, then-Sen. Joe Biden twice opposed and filibustered the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2003 and 2005 despite her confirmation that year. Recalling the president’s previous move, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted Monday Biden should “make amends” and nominate 72-year-old Brown, who retired from the D.C. Circuit in August 2017. 

“If he wants to unite the country, Biden should nominate Janice Rogers Brown. Committed constitutionalist who is also an African-American woman,” the Missouri senator wrote. “Sadly, Biden personally filibustered her historic nomination to DC Circuit twice when he was in Senate. Now is the time to make amends.” 

7.Universal Pre-K: Another Progressive Bad Idea 

From The Daily Signal: 

With Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better initiative hitting a wall in the U.S. Senate, President Joe Biden has suggested that components of the bill be advanced separately. 

One of these components is a plan for government funded universal pre-K schooling. 

It would fund school for some 6 million children ages 3 and 4. 

Federal funds would be provided for six years, the first three funded 100% by the federal government, with the share provided by states increasing up to 40% by year six. 

Total cost estimate generated by the bill’s sponsors is $200 billion. 

But like the entire Build Back Better Plan, the cost estimate is far below reality. 

Who will believe that the plan will die after six years? 

American Enterprise Institute analysts suggest a more realistic price tag should be around $500 billion. 

We’re talking here about adding hundreds of billions of dollars of new pre-K education infrastructure, requiring, by some estimates, around 50,000 new teachers, plus classrooms, etc. 

It is an indication of either the quality or the honesty of thought going on that Democrats want to spend hundreds of billions at a time when the nation is already deeply in debt for a massive new, basically untested concept, to which, on paper, the federal government is only committed for six years. 

8.Younger Evangelicals have a more ‘global mindset,’ broader interests in charitable giving: study 

From The Christian Post:

When it comes to charitable giving, Evangelicals over 40 tend to focus more on domestic efforts and have formed preferences for what they want to support. For their younger counterparts, however, a new study shows donors have a more “global mindset” and a broader range of causes they want to support with their dollars. 

Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts, a brand communication agency that “inspires people of faith to action through consulting, branding, fundraising, public relations, creative, traditional media and digital media,” partnered to conduct the recently released study titled “The Generation Gap: Evangelical Giving Preferences.” 

The study is based on input from more than 1,000 American Evangelical Protestants. 

In the study, the respondents in the national sample of Evangelical Protestants were presented with eight pairs of descriptions about giving. They were asked which choice in each pair best describes them. 

Researchers used a seven-point scale, allowing respondents to say whether a description fits them very much, moderately, just a little, in the middle or not at all. 

The responses of younger Evangelical donors under 40 yielded several substantial differences from those of older Evangelicals. 

9.NASA plans to retire International Space Station in 2031 by crashing it into ocean 

From The Washington Examiner: 

The International Space Station already has its grave picked out for it. 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced its plans for the ISS on Monday, stating that it intends to keep the station in flight until 2030. The space agency will then send the station crashing into a segment of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo. 

“The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,” said Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station, in a press statement. “This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.” 

“We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow,” Gatens added. 

The station had been previously authorized to fly until 2028, reported Space.com. 

The ISS will be replaced by commercially operated space platforms designed by companies such as Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, NASA said. NASA has also partnered with Houston-based Axiom Space to launch several modules to the ISS starting in 2024, which will later detach and form a separate lab. These separate modules will ideally be set up before the decommissioning of the ISS in 2030 so that NASA can continue research in low-gravity environments. 

10.Woman gives birth to baby aboard 11-hour flight from Ghana to US