MikeSTL

Critical thinking, mere Christian, PhD

[Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf]

Islamic imam in Germany:

“As soon as you enter Paradise, 72 virgins will be waiting for you.

When you’re done with one virgin, the next one will be ready for you. The virgins won’t be jealous of each other.”

How do you even fix this mentality?

[Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf]

A Muslim woman explains what Muslims get in heaven:

“Allah will reward men with 72 virgins. But women will be forever young and beautiful.

We’ll live in gold palaces. Allah will give us silk clothes, diamonds, and slaves to serve us for eternity.”

I’ve never seen a more materialistic and carnal religion.

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@SneakyVertical That is such a stupid claim from Alexander

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@BillboardChris https://t.co/PhltwW1KA1

[Frank Turek @DrFrankTurek]

The Christian worldview is the only worldview that can justify and will maintain the human rights and freedoms upon which our nation was founded 250 years ago today. Islam won’t (sharia law), Hinduism won’t (caste system), Atheism won’t (no one is higher than the dictator, which led to 100 million murdered by atheistic regimes in the 20th Century).

Those other worldviews do not believe,“that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Our founders knew that rights can only come from God—not governments—but that good governments are supposed to secure those rights. That’s what Christianity teaches.

Reflecting back on the founding of our country, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1813, “The general Principles on which the Fathers achieved Independence, where the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite. . . And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity. . . ”

So whether you are a Christian or not, you should appreciate the principles that come from Christianity, including inalienable rights, and that governments are temporary institutions that are to protect the lives and liberties of beings that are eternal and made in the image of God—you and me.

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@ShabbosGroy_per @VivekGRamaswamy Antichrist speaks. Go back to hell, demon boy

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@DrNeilStone @grok I don't get the vaccine phobia

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@YossiBenYakar I stand with Israel. Her enemies are from Hell.

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@sbenari59 @Noahpinion Exactly

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@upsdwnwrld @Pro__Trading Forever wars? Only stupid people think there is such a thing.

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@BrettErickson28 @muenz12145 You lost all credibility when describing Israel government as " truly evil." Truly evil is what happened Oct 7th.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Yes

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@tparsi Read your Bible - in the end times, the world, led by antichrist, goes to war against Israel.

[Nate Friedman @NateFriedman97]

Stop what you're doing, and watch this. I exposed the islamic takeover of Birmingham and it's much more insane than you can imagine.

"So you think everyone who cheats in the UK should be killed?"

"They shouldn't cheat."

They want sharia law and reveal their plan to me on how they intend to implement it. I went into the mosque where they teach sharia lectures including how to stone your wife to death and tax funded field trips from public schools are sent to this mosque, more than 40 in fact. This is part of a much larger report that is released on my YouTube.

[Hugh Hewitt @hughhewitt]

Last year James Fallows —a journalist from the left who loathes President Trump— reminded readers of the old Soviet doctrine of “correlation of forces”:

“During the Cold War era, ‘correlation of forces’ was a Soviet term to assess the overall strategic balance between their bloc and the Western bloc led by the United States. For instance, in 1975, around the time of the fall of Saigon and Richard Nixon’s resignation, a Soviet general wrote that ‘the correlation of world forces has changed fundamentally in favor of socialism and to the detriment of capitalism.’

He turned out to be wrong, but that’s for another time. My point now is the timeless importance, in any struggle, of clearly perceiving an adversary’s strengths and vulnerabilities, and assessing how much is at stake in the outcome. And being at least as clear-eyed about one’s own strong and weak points.”

In March of last year Fallows was writing about Democrats v. President Trump, but his succinct summary of the old Soviet measuring stick for balance of power was accurately stated.

So apply that doctrine to the strategic balance between U.S.-Israel-Gulf States v. Iran as we enter into what I expect will be a five month fruitless search for an enforceable agreement with Iran. (The MOU is a giant “punt” with at least one more punt to be expected come middle-to-late August.)

Whatever the correlation of forces was between America and its allies in the Middle East v. Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” proxies when President Trump returned to office in January 2025, that calculation has fundamentally shifted in definitive ways towards the U.S. and its friends in the 17 months since Trump’s return.

Iran is a shattered wreck of a regime that has seen its nuclear program, its military devastated and its leadership wiped out. This evil regime was obliged to murder tens of thousands of its own people in January and now, with third or fourth stringers promoted to control of the vast and corrupt IRGC, it is hard to imagine that new leadership managing a rebuild of basic services much less military prowess.

Iran will receive oil revenues for two to five months while the U.S. conducts its BDA and surges more defensive systems to its Gulf allies. The U.S. suffered the loss of seven Army soldiers and six Air Force airmen who died as a result of the conflict with scores wounded, and our allies had higher total dead and wounded. The American economy has not suffered any damage at all while economies in the West suffered some temporary damage. (NATO took an enormous hit.)

The U.S. correlation of forces vis-a-vis the PRC has improved in the same period because of the dramatic change in Venezuela, looming revolt in Cuba and much-weakened Chinese allies in Russia and Iran. That does not mean the U.S. is in a glide path towards triumph in Cold War 2.0. Far from it as the battle with Iran and the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War have demonstrated clearly the enormous change in military power as the age of missiles and drones dawns as clearly as any sunrise.

It’s an extraordinarily different world of war than it was four years ago and even five months ago. The U.S. has some decided edges but also some enormous vulnerabilities. To strengthen the former and remedy the latter, the GOP Congress must seize the moment to force feed procurement reform and reconfiguration of our military forces into the existing Pentagon and defense industrial base.

More on this in today’s @FoxNews column (linked in replies) but the bright light of actual combat with a third tier military power should open everyone’s eyes to the urgent need for funding and reform.

“[T]he timeless importance, in any struggle, of clearly perceiving an adversary’s strengths and vulnerabilities” is how Fallows summarized the endless rebalancing required by a world divided between free states and tyrannies. Hope that @LeaderJohnThune and @SpeakerJohnson see the urgency of the moment and persuade their conferences to act.

[Shining Science @ShiningScience]

New neurological research reveals that writing by hand activates complex brain networks critical for learning and memory, while typing on a keyboard effectively lets the brain coast on autopilot.

For over two decades, Norwegian neuroscientist Audrey van der Meer has studied how handwriting shapes the human brain.

In a landmark 2024 study published in Frontiers in Psychology, her team utilized high-density EEG caps to track the brain activity of students as they either handwrote with a digital pen or typed on a keyboard.

The results were stark: writing by hand triggered a synchronized burst of neural activity across the entire brain, connecting regions responsible for memory, sensory integration, and active learning. Conversely, when students typed the exact same words, this sophisticated cognitive network collapsed. Because typing relies on repetitive, identical keystrokes, it requires minimal spatial problem-solving, leaving crucial learning centers in the brain quiet and disengaged.

This neurological difference directly impacts how we process and retain information. Earlier research by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer at Princeton University mirrored these findings, demonstrating that students taking longhand notes consistently outperformed laptop-users on conceptual comprehension tests. While laptop users transcribe lectures verbatim without processing the information, handwriting forces students to listen critically, synthesize ideas, and summarize concepts in real time.

Our brains are part of an embodied, living system. By replacing physically rich activities with frictionless digital keystrokes, we secure quick surface-level efficiency at the cost of deep cognitive engagement.

To truly process information, make better decisions, and keep our minds sharp, the simplest solution is also the most ancient: pick up a pen.

source: van der Meer, A. L. H., & van der Weel, F. R. R. (2024). Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1219945.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

This is the astonishing moment two rival gangs of wild monkeys fought each other.

This usually happens when a group of monkeys normally well fed by visitors meets another group and a feud can take place.

[Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf]

HORRIFYING: Yasmeen Khan, owner of a beauty salon, offered free courses to young Christian and Hindu women to lure them in. Once there, she drugged their drinks. When they lost consciousness, she called her husband Mohammed Khan, who raped them while she stood watch at the entrance.

They recorded the abuses to blackmail them and force them to have relations with more Muslim men. When questioned, Yasmeen justified the crimes by saying that helping to rape "infidel girls" would lead her to Paradise.

This is Islam.

[MikeSTL @MikeSTL5]

@NimaY1256 @bonchieredstate Wrong. They know America doesn't purposely bomb civilians. That's something Russia, Hamas, and Iran do.