Carma

John 14:1-14 “Way...Truth...Life.” Happily married. Mom of wonderfully gifted man & survivor of misdiagnosed brain tumor.

[Carma @got_carma]

@EricLDaugh Very Suspicious!

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 JUST IN: NITHYA RAMAN SURGES IN LATE MAIL BALLOTS, overperforms and is on track to unseat Spencer Pratt for 2nd place unless something changes

This is unreal...

Raman just NETTED +4,000 VOTES on Pratt across one drop, winning 33.5% of the latest LA mail, per VoteHub

🔵 Bass: 11,748 (36.9%)
🔵 Raman: 10,664 (33.5%)
🔴 Pratt: 6,433 (20.2%)

Nearly 300,000 VOTES REMAIN. Raman must only make up nearly 33K ballots now

I think we see where this is going.

California needs to be banned from doing this.

[Carma @got_carma]

@SMRdeka @saul_roffe @SouthernKeeks Which is why my friend chose not to abort her child although it was recommended by the physician. The child, a daughter, was born with no abnormalities and graduated from h s with honors.

[Carma @got_carma]

@IWHowlett @21milkman @JeremyTate41 @grok One can’t discount the long strife between Catholics and Protestants after the reformation throughout Europe.

Fast forward to the “new world” and its predominantly Protestant early colonies and there will be disagreements.

Later Texas would be an outlier.

[Carma @got_carma]

Sasse’s assertion is a generalization that doesn’t match historical facts. See Grok’s responses below.

Of course, there was Roman Catholic persecution. But that was in many cases a carryover from Catholic and Protestant tensions since the Reformation. Add the Enlightenment, industrialization, the strong arm of the government, and it’s a complex picture.

[Carma @got_carma]

Ecclesiastes 1:5
“The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises."

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

This is the scene in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. They're smoking ISO, a new drug that's up to 20 times more powerful than fentanyl.

[Carma @got_carma]

My perspective is there are enough clues, e.g., Semitic people in Egypt, Tel Stele - house of David, Israel; Curses Amulet Mt Ebal 1200 bce, scrolls, Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, etc., that all corroborate the OT, in conjunction with my own epiphany of faith; therefore, I don’t need further proof. One can’t know for *certain* that there aren’t further ancient artifacts that have yet to emerge. There have been important findings before my lifetime, during my lifetime, and I have no doubt that others will be discovered after I’m long gone.

[Carma @got_carma]

So you ignored the papyrus evidence?

The adage “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” (popularized by Carl Sagan but with older roots) captures it well. Negative evidence—lack of finds—can be suggestive in some contexts but rarely constitutes definitive disproof, especially for ancient periods.

Consider these examples of sparse evidence:

The Trojan War (traditionally c. 1200–1180 B.C.)
• Literary basis: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, plus later Greek traditions describing a Greek coalition’s siege of Troy.
• Evidence: Excavations at Hisarlik (Turkey) reveal a city (Troy VIIa) destroyed by fire and conflict around the right period, with some weapons and signs of violence. Hittite texts mention conflicts in western Anatolia involving “Ahhiyawa” (possibly Mycenaean Greeks). However, no single “war” artifact or contemporary account details the epic 10-year siege, wooden horse, or specific heroes.
• Scholarly view: A historical kernel is widely accepted—likely one or more raids or conflicts during the Late Bronze Age collapse—distilled into legend over centuries. Not the grand narrative of Homer, but not pure fiction.

Socrates (c. 470–399 B.C., Greece)
• Literary basis: Primarily Plato’s dialogues, Xenophon, and Aristophanes (contemporary but not biographical).
• Evidence: No writings by Socrates himself; no contemporary inscriptions or artifacts directly tied to him. We rely on later accounts from students and critics.
• Scholarly view: Universally accepted as a historical philosopher executed in Athens. The “Socratic problem” involves filtering idealizations, but his existence and influence are not doubted.
5. Other examples
• Pythagoras (c. 570–495 B.C.): No surviving writings; known through later traditions. Accepted as a real thinker/founder of a school despite heavy mythologizing.
• Confucius (c. 551–479 B.C.): Analects compiled posthumously with layers of editing. Historical figure with a real political and teaching career, but details are filtered through tradition.
• Early Roman kings (e.g., Romulus, traditional 8th century B.C.): Legendary founding stories with limited contemporary archaeology, though Rome’s growth is attested.
• Zoroaster (Zarathustra): Dates debated (possibly 2nd–1st millennium B.C.); sparse contemporary evidence, primarily from later Avestan and Greek texts. Widely accepted as a historical prophet.

[Carma @got_carma]

Leon Trotsky did not invent the word "racism"; it existed in French and English before his writings.

Historical Origins of the Word
The term "racism" derives from the French word "racisme", which appeared in the early 20th century, with "raciste" documented as early as 1892 in French texts
https://t.co/nypRPQgTEz
. In English, "racism" is first attested around 1902, and "racist" as a noun appeared in 1932, with the adjective form following in 1938
https://t.co/nypRPQgTEz

. These words were initially used to describe pseudo-scientific theories of racial hierarchy and white supremacy, particularly in the context of European colonialism and Nazi ideology
https://t.co/nypRPQgTEz

. Earlier terms like "racialism" (1871) and "racialist" (1910) were also in use in English-speaking countries
https://t.co/nypRPQgTEz

Trotsky’s Usage
Leon Trotsky did use the Russian transliteration "расизм" (racism) in his 1930 work The History of the Russian Revolution, and some sources claim he applied it in a political context to label opponents of Bolshevik internationalism
https://t.co/WCsjPSbcOX

. However, this was not the invention of the word itself, but rather its use in Russian and in a specific ideological framework. Trotsky’s writings did not create the term in French or English, nor did he introduce it into global discourse; the word was already established in European languages
https://t.co/nypRPQgTEz

Misconceptions
Some articles and online claims suggest Trotsky "invented" the word to politically target certain groups

These claims are not supported by historical linguistic evidence. The confusion likely arises from Trotsky’s early use of the term in Russian and the political framing he applied, which differs from the word’s prior descriptive usage in French and English
https://t.co/nypRPQgTEz

.Conclusion
Racism and racist predate Trotsky. While he may have popularized or applied the term in a political context within Soviet discourse, he did not coin the word. Its etymology traces back to late 19th-century French and early 20th-century English usage, long before Trotsky’s writings

[Greta Van Susteren @greta]

IT was terrible that CBS fired @C__Herridge - I worked w/ her for years and she is one of the smartest, hardest working journalists who never ‘sold out’ to be popular among other journalists

[Carma @got_carma]

@sola_chad @KatKanada_TM https://t.co/z37W4KDKfE

[Carma @got_carma]

Consensus among secular scholars.

1Bias exists in all research, across research designs, and is difficult to eliminate.
2Bias can occur at any stage of the research process.
3Bias impacts the validity and reliability of your findings, leading to misinterpretation of data.
It is almost impossible to conduct a study without some degree of research bias.

Everyone has a bias.

https://t.co/8kr9DZ1w10

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

It's been pointed out for years that while many large and relatively poor countries count all votes the same night as the election, California takes weeks or months. It's a choice to do that.

And of course it will lead to rational suspicions about the integrity of the result:

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

Like many people, I've been writing about this for years, including right after the 2020 election.

Brazil has mandatory voting, a voting age of 16, holds elections on Sunday, and the full results are known that day. Same with tons of other countries.

https://t.co/ZT5urSL7LR

[Carma @got_carma]

The archaeological data which suggests the early Israelites shared various aspects of material culture, language, and even some Canaanite ancestors is in complete agreement with records in from the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, and Judges. The ancestors of the Israelites did previously live in Canaan at one time (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph’s early years), then returned there to conquer and settle. However, the assertion by Finkelstein that the Israelites were originally Canaanites oversteps the evidence, while the conclusion that some shared ancestry, linguistics, and material culture means there was no Exodus or Israelite Conquest is a leap in logic that does not follow from that evidence. The available historical records do not state that the Israelites of the Kingdom period were Canaanites, but only that they had some Canaanite ancestors, while the archaeological data demonstrates that the two groups had shared some aspects of material culture at one time. Further, ethnicity goes beyond mere similarities in genetics, similarities in language, or the sharing of some material culture–the Israelites were clearly distinct from the Canaanites in their theological beliefs, religious practices, diet, and political structure, except in the cases where certain Israelites adopted various Canaanite religious practices (cf. the book of Judges). Therefore, the ancient Israelites were not just Canaanites as some scholars have argued, but instead an ethnic group that intermarried with people from various regions, including Canaan, and adopted some aspects of Canaanite culture in the Bronze and Iron Ages.

APXAIOC Institute of Biblical Archaeology

[Nancy Pearcey @NancyRPearcey]

From suicide bomber to Christian:

"Raised in a Muslim home in Turkey, Isik Abla was brainwashed as a child to believe her greatest purpose was to become a suicide bomber for the Islamic faith...

At just age 5, she was already idealizing the “freedom fighters” in the middle of the violence she experienced and wanted to focus that violence toward Israel and America.

Her arranged-marriage husband beat her daily, even holding a knife to her throat. He brainwashed her to focus on destroying America from within.

Isik was instructed to “blend into the society, into the culture, and they will never doubt you."

“We can first invade America, invade with Muslims with our ideology, so we can start doing economic jihad, educational jihad, media jihad, political jihad, and population jihad,” Isik recalled her husband instructing her.

Isik was told that they would not “start with the killing and bombings,” that those would come later. Instead, she was told:

'We have to start first invading the Western world. And how do we do that? Through economical jihad, population, we go populate those countries, we populate America. We send students, which I was sending students with my first husband, radical Muslim man, students to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, so they can graduate from Ivy League schools, and they can become people of power in the United States of America. And it is better for us to look modern, westernized, so they will never guess who we are.'

“Muslims,” Isik says, “are required to believe that Sharia law is supreme to any legal system in any country.”

“Under the Taqiyya law in Sharia, we can lie; we can cheat.” So, Isik was instructed to enact a “different kind of jihad,” knowing that eventually, “with swords, with spears, with guns, [Islam] will invade America. And every American will be a Muslim.”

Once in America, Isik happened to get a job where she worked with a Christian boss designing “Bible websites.” But the pressure to push Sharia and prove herself to be a good Muslim kept mounting until she broke down, sobbing in the bathroom. She decided to end her own life.

Isik dried her tears and left the restroom. Right then, her boss called her into his office and said he had to be faithful to God’s prompting to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with her. He asked her to accept Christ. She felt Jesus in the room and readily gave her life to Him. Isik left Muslim ideology forever behind, and she now leads an international evangelism ministry.

More importantly, she is giving a clear warning to America of the stealth jihad already among us.

Demand Congress VOTE YES on H.R. 5722 and S. 3009, the Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act.

--Liberty Counsel

[Carma @got_carma]

@MoodleSoup1 @nickshirleyy It all reminds me of Austin, Tx

[Paul Mauro @PaulDMauro]

New York adds: bagels; NY Strip; knishes; egg creams. New York’s Chinese is still some of the best I’ve had, but you’ve got to know where to go…!

[Carma @got_carma]

Source: Grok

Key Forms of Persecution
• Church and Monastery Destructions: Multiple waves of attacks destroyed or converted churches. In 1321, coordinated riots destroyed dozens of churches and monasteries across Egypt. Similar outbreaks occurred in 1301 (churches closed), 1354, and other years. Contemporary chroniclers like Al-Maqrizi documented these events.
• Mob Violence and Massacres: Mobs targeted Christians (and Jews), pressuring conversions under threat of death. Some estimates suggest up to 300,000 Christians killed during the Mamluk era overall, though this is a high-end figure and includes cumulative violence across decades. Riots often followed rumors of Coptic “arrogance,” wealth, or insults to Islam.
• Executions and Martyrdoms: Copts accused of blaspheming the Prophet or apostasy faced public trials, torture, and execution (e.g., beheading, burning). One documented case under Mamluk rule involved a Christian named ‘Abd al-Salib paraded, beheaded, and his body burned. Such spectacles deterred others.
• Discriminatory Laws and Humiliations:
• Enforcement of distinctive clothing (e.g., blue turbans for Christians, specific badges or belts) to mark dhimmis.
• Bans or heavy restrictions on repairing/building churches.
• Exclusion from high offices or heavy bribes/extortion for Coptic administrators and scribes (many Copts traditionally served in bureaucracy due to literacy).
• Sultan Baibars (r. 1260–1277) was particularly harsh: he reportedly ordered Coptic/Jewish scribes to convert or be executed, desecrated churches, and extorted the Church. Brutal methods included sawing people in half or burning alive in some accounts.
• Economic Pressures: Jizya poll tax, plus special levies on clergy and properties. Confiscations of church lands (e.g., 1365 under financial strain for wars). These disproportionately affected poorer Copts, accelerating voluntary conversions for tax relief.
Major Waves and Rulers
• Early Mamluks/Baibars era: Initial crackdowns tied to anti-Crusader fervor.
• 1320s–1350s: Peak violence, including 1321 riots and 1354 mob actions. Al-Nasir Muhammad and successors oversaw periods of fanaticism.
• Later Bahri and Burji periods: Continued sporadic outbreaks, executions for “reversion” from Islam, and property seizures.
Coptic sources like the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and later synaxaria document these as repeated trials, with patriarchs often marginalized or navigating bribes and restrictions.