FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—South Dakota pro-lifers say they experienced physical threats, verbal abuse, doxing, and stalking from a pro-abortion group collecting signatures for its radical referendum ballot measure. Dakotans for Health “used antifa-style actions, lies, and abuse to illegally get Amendment G on the ballot,” according to Chris David, a South Dakota resident and volunteer with the pro-life organization Life Defense Fund. State constitutional Amendment G, or the Right to Abortion Initiative, allows abortion right up until birth for nearly any reason that a doctor thinks is a “health” risk to the mother.  Because the amendment overrides existing state laws, opponents say it would remove parental consent requirements for a minor to get an abortion and would force doctors and nurses to perform abortions without exemptions from conscience protections. South-Dakota-Abortion-Rights-Amendment-G-2024Download To get the amendment on the ballot, Dakotans for Health gathered 35,000 signatures, many of which Life Defense Fund contends are likely invalid. The petition circulators were “verbally abusive and even physically threatening,” David said in a statement to Life Defense Fund that was shared with The Daily Signal. An intimidating Facebook post from a Dakotans for Health petitioner. (Screenshot: Facebook) “Circulators doxed us online with lies and vulgarities, asking their followers to identify us, asking where we worked, and who family members were by name, including asking for my children’s names,” David said. Doxing refers to publicly identifying or publishing private information about someone against their will. An X account brags about doxing pro-lifer Chris David. (Screenshot: X post) The pro-life volunteer claimed he saw Dakotans for Health lying to voters to get petition signatures while he volunteered with Life Defense Fund urging people not to sign the petition. “They purposefully misled South Dakotans, downright lied to petition signers to get signatures, and they broke election law doing it,” David contended. Life Defense Fund is suing Dakotans for Health, claiming it deceived voters about what the amendment does, allowing signatures of people who aren’t registered to vote, and failing to pass out petition-circulator handouts, which are required in South Dakota to explain what people are signing. “Dakotans for Health did their very best to keep potential signers of the petition from knowing exactly what it was about,” Life Defense Fund attorney Sara Frankenstein told The Daily Signal. Dakotans for Health denied Life Defense Fund’s claims. “This is utter nonsense and an obvious attempt to distract from their failed campaign to stop the people of South Dakota from even having a vote on their radical abortion ban—one that forces victims of rape and incest, even children, to carry to term,” the organization told The Daily Signal. “Our petitioners are thoroughly trained and dedicated to ensuring that South Dakotans have accurate information about Amendment G, which simply restores the reproductive rights women had for 50 years under Roe v. Wade.” An anonymous South Dakota Democrat said Dakotans for Health petition circulators used that claim to deceive her about the scope of the amendment. “I was approached to sign this petition outside of work,” the unidentified woman said in a statement to Life Defense Fund that was shared with The Daily Signal. “It was conveyed to be as a ‘pro-Roe v Wade petition’ to reinstate the original Roe v Wade abortion conditions. Had I known that this petition was for the purpose of allowing full-term abortions, I never would have signed.” “The means with which the petitioners got signatures is nothing short of a gross misrepresentation of information,” the registered Democrat continued. Life Defense Fund’s case against Dakotans for Health claims that it violated a number of election laws. The circuit court has not yet set a date for the trial, though a signed order from a judge said the trial would begin the week of Sept. 23. If Life Defense Fund wins the case, the amendment would be disqualified from the ballot and invalidated, and Dakotans for Health would not be allowed to serve as a ballot committee again. Mary Motz, another Life Defense Fund volunteer, said in an affidavit shared with The Daily Signal that Dakotans for Health circulators prevented her from talking to voters about the extreme nature of the abortion amendment. “During those days, I was physically blocked from sharing my handout, stepped on, sworn at, mocked, and called names,” Motz said. “One of my first days out, the petition circulators called the police on me because I pulled out my cellphone to record, and [they] told lies about me.” Motz said she never saw a petitioner give a circulator handout to a signer. Last October, Motz said, an abortion petition circulator stepped in front of her and blocked her attempt to share information with a woman considering signing the pro-abortion petition. Another petitioner then told the woman the amendment would just restore pre-Roe v. Wade abortion law, which was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022. “Restore just how it was before,” the circulator stated, according to Motz. “It’s the original Roe v. Wade, and that’s the language we want in the amendment.”   When Motz corrected the woman that the amendment would provide for abortion for all nine months of pregnancy, the circulator told the woman interested in signing that was a lie. After that, a male petitioner followed Motz home in her car, switching lanes whenever she did, until she was able to lose him in a school zone. Motz reported the incident to the police. Police told her she could file charges if it happened a second time. “I just hope that voters read the entirety of the initiated measure and think carefully before they vote,” Life Defense Fund’s Frankenstein said. “But better yet, I hope the court disqualifies the measure because cheating should not be allowed to get you on the ballot when we have election laws that should have meaning that should be enforced.” The post ‘ANTIFA-STYLE’ HARASSMENT: Pro-Abortion Activists Were ’Verbally Abusive,’ ‘Physically Threatening’ to Pro-Lifers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The True GOAT, and True Service: Sunday Reflection

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The biggest lie of the modern church has become, “We can’t talk about politics in church.” Many modern pastors have taken the enemy’s bait-and-switch lie that we can’t address biblical issues because they’ve become politicized. Issues like abortion, transgenderism, sexuality, and marriage rarely get a mention from the pulpit because they’re too “political.” But isn’t that the enemy lying to us? How are we supposed to be salt and light to a dark culture when we as Christians are not equipped for the battles at our own doorstep? Simply put, the church has believed the lie that we cannot preach truth in love as it relates to our culture. The church has not gotten more political. Rather, politics has gotten more religious. To say otherwise is a lie to silence Christians, whom God has commanded to speak up. A Christian friend of mine recently told me she had no idea how to respond to her toddler who asked if the cashier was a “boy or girl.” Another Christian friend told me she believes it’s respectful to use someone’s preferred — yet biologically wrong — pronouns. “Ah, I don’t know what to say,” echoed another Christian friend who didn’t know how to respond to her young daughter who asked about a homosexual couple. And another friend of mine didn’t want to drive through a city’s streets during June because she was afraid her kids would see a rainbow flag and she wasn't ready to address that topic. This is just the tip of the iceberg. How did we get here? And why has the church not equipped us to respond to these situations and questions related to what have become “controversial” issues of our day? Simply put, the church has believed the lie that we cannot preach truth in love as it relates to our culture. But I would argue this is a cowardly excuse by passive pastors who don’t want to address cultural issues for the sake of rocking the boat, “offending” the flock, or, heaven forbid, losing church members, though I’m convinced they’d gain more. I’m here to tell you: Jesus called us to be “salt and light” in a dark age, and we must not shy away from speaking truth in love. We must equip Christians on how to raise children and talk about every cultural issue through a biblical lens. My friend Nate Grasz said it well: “Choosing to do what’s popular is political. Choosing to do what’s right is biblical.” Jesus was no stranger to conflict. He flipped tables with righteous anger, driving out those buying and selling in the house of God. He used strong language when he called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” which was a serious rebuke. Jesus shared the gospel and convicted people of their sin — but he didn’t leave them in it. Meat offered to idols was an extremely controversial issue, and he didn't shy away from addressing that issue, either. He said to the adulterous woman in John 8 after the scribes and the Pharisees were eager to stone her to death for her sinful lifestyle, “Go, and from now on sin no more.” Jesus began a conversation with the woman at the well even though, culturally speaking, a Jewish man talking with a Samaritan — let alone a Samaritan woman — was extremely controversial. She was living with another man who wasn't her husband, yet Jesus didn’t skirt around the topic, and he certainly didn’t condemn her. He told her about the true living water by speaking the truth in love. And so should we. We see examples all throughout the Bible of courageous men and women involved in their culture and in government — using them in influential ways. Today’s threats to the family and the church are not 'on the horizon' — they are approaching the gate and coming inside. Risking her life and reputation, Esther boldly went before King Xerxes, pleading with him to save her people from Haman, who was slated to execute the Jews. Joseph went from being a prisoner to second in command of the powerful nation of Egypt, saving the population from famine. Daniel rose to political power, influencing the kings of his day and interpreting dreams. Rahab put her life on the line to save God’s servants. The many prophets of old boldly confronted kings and their sin. When the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah were instructed to kill all Hebrew newborn boys, they defied Pharaoh's orders and instead saved the babies. God’s law always supersedes man’s laws. We must always fight to preserve the most innocent among us, especially the most defenseless in the womb. So why is it that the majority of American churches dare not touch the topics of life or other moral pressing issues? God has clearly called us to do so. Gary Hamrick, pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, preached a recent Election Day sermon full of conviction and truth. He said, “The culture has hijacked the narrative on social and moral issues that the Bible has already addressed. And then the culture has twisted those things, distorted and perverted those social and moral issues into political issues. And then told pastors like me and Christians like you to stop being so political.” Hamrick also pointed out that God had the first word on all moral issues before they were ever “political.” The Bible speaks to national borders, immigration, economics, life, justice, prosperity, biological sex, marriage, parental authority, Israel, and even the environment. Our country is in jeopardy, and we are morally trending downward. 'Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.' In biblical times, watchmen were placed at the tops of city walls to watch for impending threats in the distance. When a threat was spotted, it was the duty of the watchman to warn the citizens below by blowing the trumpet. Today’s threats to the family and the church are not “on the horizon" — they are approaching the gate and coming inside. The time to speak and act is now. Pastors and Christians alike should blow the trumpet on the fact that children are being mutilated, babies are being slaughtered, and children are being bought and paid for and shipped overseas. And all these things are legal in numerous states. God tells us to fight for justice and righteousness. Therefore, we have a moral obligation to get involved, speak truth in love, and be salt and light. We are his ambassadors, after all, and ambassadors don’t sit on the sidelines being silent about moral issues. It’s our right and our duty to vote and be engaged in our country’s decisions and active in our churches. Though slavery was a highly contentious issue, British politician William Wilberforce courageously led the charge to end the horrors of the slave trade in England. His moral and religious beliefs ignited him to stand up to the most powerful in Parliament in order to stop grave evil. He said, “Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the well-known German Lutheran pastor and theologian who implored Christians to stand up against the Nazi regime’s actions, wisely said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Let it not be said of us that we lived by lies and in fear, but rather that we lived by truth, took action, and refused to remain silent.

When I was seven, I tore up a Winged Dragon of Ra Yu-Gi-Oh! card. I was moping at the top of the stairs, upset with my brother about something. When his back was turned I ripped the card in half, treating the now-unplayable Egyptian God card as recompense for whatever slight he’d bestowed upon me. I remember this story all these years later because it fills me with regret, and while we have another Winged Dragon of Ra we play with today, I often wonder how much that un-ripped card is worth. Steam’s newest simulation hit, TCG Card Shop Simulator, answers that exact question by letting you run a store yourself - and it’s exploding on Steam. Continue reading Fascinating new TCG shop simulator doing extraordinarily on Steam MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best management games, Bes card games, Best single-player games

It’s been five years since the first Atelier Ryza game launched, bringing its charming blend of colorful anime designs, JRPG combat, and satisfying alchemy to our PCs. That initial entry was far from the first game to bear the Atelier name, which dates all the way back to 1997, yet its most recent trilogy has earned it much more attention among a Western audience. To commemorate the anniversary, Koei Tecmo Games has given all three games a polish, with optimization updates, quality-of-life features, and additional improvements. Continue reading The delightful Atelier Ryza JRPGs get a welcome anniversary overhaul

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday said he had met with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at his Florida resort.The former president, who is making his third consecutive bid for the White House with a major party, said in...