Lee Ardis

NY Times Sunday crossword puzzles readers with swastika shape on Hanukkah: ‘How did this get approved’

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah began on Dec. 18 and will end the evening of Dec. 26

The New York Times published a crossword puzzle on Sunday, the first day of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, that many readers thought was shaped like a Nazi Swastika.

No one involved with the puzzle seemed to notice. In a Times column about the Sunday crossword, Caitlin Lovinger wrote, “I love the geometry in this puzzle — so many stair steps! — and feel that it contributes to a certain evenness in the solve.” Ryan McCarty, the puzzle’s constructor, described the design as a “fun whirlpool shape.”

But The Times was criticized heavily on Twitter by people across the political spectrum for what they thought what was clear to see.

“[W]hy is The New York Times’ crossword a swastika?” Daily Wire senior writer Ryan Saavedra asked in a tweet.

Keith Edwards, a Democratic strategist and Lincoln Project alum, tweeted, “This is the NYTimes crossword puzzle today on the first day of Hanukkah. What the hell, @nytimes?”

“I personally believe swastikas shouldn’t appear in the New York Times, intentionally or otherwise. Didn’t think that would be a controversial take,” he continued.

“I know that the @nytimes crossword wasn’t intentionally laid out as a swastika so I guess the sin here is bad editing. How did this get approved without somebody noticing?” Sam Sokol, a reporter at Haaretz.com, tweeted.

‘Jesus was trans!’ Protesters clash at ‘all ages’ drag show

Protesters demonstrated outside an “all ages drag brunch” in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, clashing with supporters who eventually accosted the protesters on the street, destroying their signs. The standoff ensued for more than two hours in freezing weather, according to independent reporter Abdusselam Bezirgan. No arrests were reported.

The drag show, titled “Waffle-y cute: an all ages drag brunch,” took place at the Attic, a bar that has hosted drag shows previously, in the liberal district of Inglewood, Calgary. The venue posted about the event boasting its “fully plant based brunch menu,” with protesters organizing on Facebook with a message of “protect the children.” The protest event page has since been deleted.

“Two women stole two protesters’ signs and the altercation forced them into oncoming traffic,” Bezirgan told Blaze Media.

“Police presence grew from two officers to 12 as tensions kept rising,” he continued. “The LGBTQ side chanted ‘Jesus was trans’ and called the protesters ‘Nazis’,” the reporter concluded.

Stanford university releases list of ‘harmful language’ it plans to eliminate or replace, including ‘American,’ ‘he,’ and ‘brave’

Stanford University has identified a list of words and phrases that it will soon be removing from its websites. “American,” “he,” “straight,” and “gentlemen” are among the forbidden words listed in the school’s index of so-called “harmful language.”

What are the details?

Stanford claims on its website that “freedom of speech is core to the mission of academic life of our university.”

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the university’s president, previously alleged that besides threats of harm, disruptive speech, and unlawful harassment, “we do not otherwise restrict speech in our community, including speech that some may find objectionable.”

It is now apparent that where official communications are concerned at the university, common words and idioms that conflict conceptually with LGBT and identitarian activists’ agendas are not to be used freely.

The Wall Street Journal noted that administrators have embraced the recommendations of the so-called “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative” and published a master list of forbidden words.

BARR: Banks Might Start Closing Accounts Of Customers Who Buy Too Many Guns Or Too Much Ammo

For more than half-a-century, Uncle Sam has been giving banks the legal tools to snoop into the otherwise-private affairs of their customers. Now, they are monitoring the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.

Thanks to a recent move by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, headquartered in Switzerland), U.S. banks are starting to build databases on their customers’ purchases of firearms and ammunition. And, of course, they are ready and quite willing to share that information with federal law enforcement in the name of providing a public service to identify “mass shooters.”

This invasion of privacy began in earnest with enactment of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which mandated that banks assist federal law enforcement in uncovering, investigating, and ultimately prosecuting violations of federal law.

Virginia Democrats Fight To Abolish Single-Sex Bathrooms in Public Schools

Virginia Democrats are fighting to abolish single-sex bathrooms in public schools and keep parents in the dark when their children assume different genders at school.

Democrats on the state legislature’s rules commission in a 5-4 vote on Monday rejected Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R.) plan to protect same-sex spaces and increase parents’ role in education. If the plan is adopted, administrators and teachers would have to seek parents’ consent before referring to children by different names or pronouns. The plan would also preserve sex-specific sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

The vote is the latest attempt by Virginia Democrats to block Youngkin’s transgender policies. Delegate Elizabeth Guzmán (D.) in October floated a bill designed to counter the governor’s policies, which would make it a crime for parents to ignore their children’s chosen name, pronouns, or sexual orientation. School districts in liberal enclaves across the state have pledged to flout Youngkin’s plan if implemented.

Zelensky Made ‘Fatal Mistake’ by Visiting U.S., Russia Warns

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a “fatal mistake” in visiting the United States this week, Russia warned on Thursday.

Dmitry Belik, a member of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, made the remarks in response to the Ukrainian president’s stop in Washington on Wednesday, Zelensky’s first known trip outside his country since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on February 24.

Zelensky gave a historic address to U.S. lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol and met President Joe Biden at the White House for a bilateral meeting. Earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled a $1.85 billion military package for Kyiv that included a Patriot missile system.

The Ukrainian leader for months had requested the U.S. for stronger weapons to shoot down Russian missiles.

Biden Makes Stunning Admission About Iran In Leaked Video

A leaked video has shown President Joe Biden making a stunning admission about the Iran nuclear deal. Not only did he claim the deal was “dead” but he appeared to say that Iran has a nuclear weapon.

“Biden was meeting with supporters and Iranian activists during a campaign rally with Democratic Rep. Mike Levin in Oceanside, California on November 4,” The Daily Mail reported.

“President Biden, can you please announce that JCPOA is dead? Can you just announce that?” one woman asked the president before he answered that he could not and she asked, “why?”

“A lot of reasons. It is dead, but we’re not gonna announce it,” he said.

“We just don’t want any deals with the Mullahs. They don’t represent us,” the woman said to the president.

“I know they don’t represent you. But they have a nuclear weapon they’ll represent,” the president said, apparently confirming that the Iranians have a nuclear weapon.

Church Erases Jesus & Nativity in Christmas Carol, Replaces Them With “Queer” People

“Very important for the new religion to try to wear the skin of the old.”

A church in England has erased references to the nativity and Jesus in a Christmas carol and replaced them with a celebration of “queer” people.

Yes, really.

All Saints with Holy Trinity Church in Loughborough held a Mayor’s Community Carol Service on Monday.

In a Twitter post, trainee priest Rachael Brind-Surch lauded how the church had changed the lyrics to the classic carol “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” sung by attendees at the event.

Praying Woman Arrested For Breaking Public Space Order Outside U.K. Abortion Clinic

United Kingdom authorities arrested a pro-life woman praying outside an abortion clinic for allegedly breaking a temporary Public Space Protection Order on four separate occasions earlier this month.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a 45-year-old charity volunteer, was arrested and charged on four counts after she told police she “might” be silently praying near the U.K.’s leading provider of NHS-funded abortion services BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham, according to local media.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) published footage earlier this week showing authorities approaching Vaughan-Spruce outside the clinic. During the interaction, authorities questioned why Vaughn Spruce was standing outside the abortion facility “of all places.”

“Are you standing here as part of a protest?” asked the officer.

“No, I’m not protesting,” Vaughan-Spruce said.

Euphrates River drying up: Fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy?

“A drought against its waters, that they be dried up! For it is a land of idols; They are besotted by their dread images. JEREMIAH 50:38 (THE ISRAEL BIBLE)

The region once known as the Fertile Crescent is on the verge of a food crisis as the main sources of water disappear. Officials struggle to cope as a prophetic scenario appears to materialize.

Iraqi officials are reporting that for three consecutive years, the rainy season has begun later and ended sooner than the historic norm. This has been coupled with less water flowing through its two main rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The region has also been plagued by ongoing conflict.

“Desertification now threatens almost 40% of the area of our country – a country that was once one of the most fertile and productive in the region,” Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid told the climate summit in Egypt last week.

Nadhir Al-Ansari, professor at Sweden’s Lulea University of Technology, told Reuters that rainfall in Iraq had declined by 30% over the past three decades, with the lowest precipitation coming in the last two years.

“What was once known as the Fertile Crescent started to die about 35 years ago,” he said.

Officials accuse Turkey of cutting the river’s flow upstream over the last two years to half the level it committed to in a 1987 accord, a claim the Turkish government denies. In the year to September, rainfall in southeast Turkey where the rivers originate was 29% below the average of the previous three decades, according to Turkey’s meteorological agency. Dams and drought have reduced the waters of the two rivers to about 20% of previous levels.