I am a Jew, not a Christian. Yet I found loathsome the mockery of the Last Supper—one of the holiest scenes in the New Testament—during the opening of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. In fact, it is actually troubling to constantly read the words, “Many Christians are offended”—as if only Christians are offended by France’s and the International Olympic Committee’s mockery of Jesus’ Last Supper scene. Indeed, if only Christians were offended, there is little hope for civilization. But we live in the age of groupthink, in which only members of targeted groups are expected to be offended. To write that Christians were offended by what just transpired in Paris would be as if one were to write, “blacks were offended” by slavery, or “Jews are offended” by Islamic attempts to eradicate Israel, or “women are offended” by the rape of women. One assumes that moral individuals of every group would find men in drag, transwomen, and a naked man enacting Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper—on the world’s largest stage—offensive. In fact, “offensive” doesn’t do justice to how we all should view what the French and the Olympics did. What was done in the opening to the 2024 Paris Olympics was far more serious than “offensive.” It actually represented the greatest threat to Western civilization in the Western world’s history: the Left. You don’t have to be a Christian to understand that Christianity—more specifically, Judeo-Christian values and the Bible—made Western civilization. Without Christianity and the Bible, there would be no West. That is why contempt for Christianity and the Bible is synonymous with mockery for the West. The current civil war within Western civilization is a war between the Left and the Bible. It is also the reason the Los Angeles Dodgers not only allowed a group called Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence—a self-described “order of queer and trans nuns” that mimics and mocks Catholic nuns—to perform prior to a Dodgers game. The Dodgers actually honored them. It is the reason an “artwork” titled “Piss Christ”—a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine—toured museums throughout America. It is why the European Union Charter does not once mention Christianity. It’s why every left-wing group in America is apoplectic over Louisiana’s recent decision to require that the Ten Commandments be posted in Louisiana classrooms; and Oklahoma’s decision to make teaching of the Bible mandatory in public schools. And why the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, praised his country’s opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, posting on X: Thanks to Thomas Jolly (the artistic director) and his creative genius for this grandiose ceremony. Thank you to the artists for this unique and magical moment. … Thank you to everyone who believed in it. We’ll talk about it again in 100 years! WE DID IT! And there’s more bad news: As of this writing, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has said nothing about the Olympics’ degradation of the Last Supper. Perhaps he was too busy preparing another encyclical about climate change. It is crucial to note that the Left, whether in America or Europe, never mocks Islam. One would think that with virtually all religious violence in the world emanating from that religion, the Left would concentrate its antireligious fire against Islam, or at least fundamentalist Islam. Why doesn’t it? One reason is that leftists fear Muslims. If you mock Islam, you will have to spend your life in hiding or risk being beheaded. On the other hand, the Left has no fear of Christians. No matter how much the Left mocks and undermines Christianity, the Left assumes that not one of the world’s 2.5 billion Christians will hurt them. And the Catholic pope will not only not issue a fatwa against you, he won’t even speak out against you. Because he, too, is a man of the Left. The second reason is that fundamentalist Islam is the Left’s ally in attempting to destroy the West. That’s why the Left is allied with Islamic fundamentalists who seek to eradicate Israel and all its Jews. Israel is seen (correctly) as an outpost of Western civilization in the midst of the Muslim world. The Left does not hate religion. It hates Christianity, Judeo-Christian values, and the Bible. That is all you need to know to understand the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post You Don’t Have to Be Christian to Loathe the Opening of the Paris Olympics appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Live Results: Tuesday Night Primary Fight in Arizona!

NYT: The Problem With Venezuela Is Too Much Capitalism

On the Monday PBS News Hour, NPR White House reporter and PBS pundit Tamara Keith ripped into Sen. J.D. Vance having a "really terrible, no-good week" as the pro-Biden media endlessly rehash his 2021 comments to Tucker Carlson. Anchor Geoff Bennett began: "J.D. Vance is getting a lot of scrutiny now for his controversial comments about women without children. He called them childless cat ladies, said they're miserable with their own lives....he has not disavowed the comments, and he said in a podcast just the other day that he stands by the substance of what he said. There are lots of Democrats now who are more than happy to target J.D. Vance." Then he ran a soundbite from Sen. Charles Schumer: "Vance seems to be more erratic and more extreme than President Trump, and I will bet President Trump is sitting there scratching his head and wondering, why did I pick this guy? The choice may be one of the best things he ever did for Democrats."   Bennett asked Keith: "Has J.D. Vance become a liability for Republicans?" Keith replied:  He has had a really terrible, no good week. He has somehow galvanized people who own cats. At the — I went to — I covered Harris at this fund-raiser she went to. There were people outside of her fund-raiser holding up signs that said "Cat Ladies for Kamala Harris." This is after he — essentially, he has a long file of things that he has said back when it didn't matter what he said, because he wasn't going to be vice president. He was the author of a book and a guy running for the Senate in a Republican primary. And so at one point, he had said that people who — I think he called Harris, a woman without children, a cat lady, and others who don't have children, who should somehow have less political power than those who do. And that just set people off.... And what Trump now has is voters, everyone, the media, very focused on Vice President Harris and this huge amount of fund-raising she had, and then all the remaining oxygen is going to his vice presidential pick and his very bad, no good week and all the crazy things he's saying or said five years ago that have now become memes. You have to shake your head at "wow, Vance is so bad the pro-Kamala media is laser-focused on pro-Kamala messaging." The media love to think they allocate the "oxygen" of political attention. Bennett then turned to political analyst Amy Walter to confirm the problem:  "And it allows Democrats to settle on this new messaging, where it's not just offensive, it's also really weird. We keep hearing like the Democrats like Tim Walz and Brian Schatz and even Vice President Kamala Harris have said on the stump that the things that Trump and Vance and other Republicans have said are just weird. Dissect that as a strategy." Walter gave a conventional analysis, that the Vance pick doesn't go after some demographic Trump hasn't captured, he's more of a doubling-down on Trump's appeal. "So of course he's turned off swing voters, because he was never brought on to appeal to swing voters, and he's never had to [in Ohio]." This segment is a classic episode in political analysis. The framing was "What do Democrats need to do to win?" They don't want to focus on any political weakness for Democrats unless it's to address how do the Democrats get around this obstacle? It's like a sports show with a home team.

An Indiana woman is accused of drugging and raping a 12-year-old in her care and then forcing the child into prostitution, according to police. Naomi Floren, 21, was arrested and charged with numerous crimes related to the accusations outlined in court documents. Law & Crime indicated that the victim is a female.Officers found sexually explicit photographs of the victim on Floren's cellphone.Bloomington police said Floren was babysitting the victim and four other siblings from July 3 until July 9 at an apartment on South Walnut Street Pike in Bloomington. The abuse began when a 17-year-old male was invited to the apartment, and Floren told the male that the 12-year-old was 15 years old, the victim said. The male made sexual advances on the victim before he and Floren had sex in front of the child, according to police. The victim allegedly was given a pill and a THC vape before she was pimped out to a 54-year-old man known as the “Rat Guy" at his apartment. The next day, the victim was taken to another apartment and given an unknown orange pill, more marijuana, and alcohol before having sex with two males. When Bloomington police searched the suspect's residence, officers found sexually explicit photographs of the victim on Floren's cellphone as well as numerous prescription pills. Police said Floren initially denied any sexual abuse but later admitted to kissing and cuddling the victim before they took a shower together. Floren was booked into the Monroe County Jail on July 18. She was preliminarily charged with three counts of child molestation, a level 1 felony; two counts of vicarious sexual gratification with a victim under the age of 14, a level 4 felony; and sexual battery with a deadly weapon, a level 4 felony. Floren also was charged with two level 6 felony counts of neglect of a dependent, one level 3 felony count of promotion of child sexual trafficking, and a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Police said the children she babysat knew Floren by her middle name, Bella. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Bill Maher might be a never-Trumper, but that isn’t stopping him from taking shots at Joe Biden’s replacement, Kamala Harris. “On the Democrat’s best issue, abortion, she’s a walking reminder to women that Republicans are coming for the abortion pill. She won’t just protect Plan B, she is Plan B,” Maher joked to his audience. “Harris would be the first woman president, first black woman president, and first Asian president. But I don’t vote for who will be the first. I vote for who will win. And for whatever reason, Harris has never been popular. You can count the number of delegates she won in the 2020 primaries on one hand. As long as that hand has no fingers,” he continued to thunderous applause. Maher also poked fun at her career as a prosecutor and her horrific job handling the border, and shockingly, his audience laughed at all of it. “He’s acknowledging she’s not popular,” Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” comments, pointing out specifically his border joke. “If you care about anything that is liberal, if you care about women or minorities or anything else, then the border is the number one issue. Everything is downstream from immigration, period,” Rubin says. “Bill is acknowledging that nobody likes her. She has no track record of doing anything. And the few things that she was tasked with or in this case, the one thing that she was tasked with in the last 3-and-a-half years, she absolutely destroyed. Which is the border,” he adds. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The original Call of Duty Warzone holds a very dear place in a lot of FPS fans’ hearts. While its current iteration still attracts millions of players, many believe it’s an inferior experience. Unless old content gets remade and re-released in the new Warzone (as we’ve seen with Rebirth Island, for example), the first game is now totally unplayable. However, out of nowhere, Activision just unvaulted the original’s final, large-scale map Caldera - but not in the way anyone would’ve predicted. Continue reading Call of Duty Warzone’s Caldera map returns, but not how you’d expect MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Warzone loadouts, Best Warzone AR, Best Warzone guns

The coal train derailed in Bennet, Nebraska and collided with an empty car, resulting in an estimated $350,000 in damages. The post Nebraska Teen Accused Of Intentionally Derailing A Train To Create ‘Insane’ YouTube Video appeared first on All That's Interesting.

This self-portrait of the 20th-century English artist was hidden directly on the reverse of his painting Bar Scene. The post Never-Before-Seen Self-Portrait By English Artist Norman Cornish Discovered Hidden On The Back Of One Of His Paintings appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Good News Story of the Day as 'Pro-Hamas Glampers' Are Shown the Door by the University of Georgia