Category: Watching

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strengthened religious liberty in the workplace Thursday, ruling in favor of a Christian postal worker who lost his job for refusing to work on Sundays.

The Court’s unanimous opinion in Groff v. DeJoy, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, overruled the decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the United States Postal Service (USPS) did not violate the religious accommodation rights of postal worker Gerald Groff under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“This decision will give those religious minorities a fair shot in court and, one would hope, encourage more employers to adopt more inclusive workplace policies so that religious employees won’t have to choose between their livelihood and their faith,” Joshua McDaniel, director of Harvard Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic, said.

After clarifying Title VII’s requirements, the Court gave the case back to the Third Circuit to retry the case because of its factual complexity. This means that either Groff or the USPS could eventually prevail, but the USPS — and all employers — must meet a much higher standard to deny a religious accommodation.

Groff, an Evangelical Christian and longtime employee of the USPS, never worked Sundays in line with his religious beliefs and his initial job description. But when the USPS started to deliver packages on Sundays because of a deal with Amazon, the postal service would require him to work on his Sabbath. To avoid conflict, he transferred to a different location.

His new location started delivering on Sundays, and he claimed that USPS “progressive[ly] discipline[d]” him because he refused to work Sundays. He then resigned and sued the USPS for religious discrimination. The Third Circuit rejected his claim.

The controversy in this case surrounded a 50-year-old standard from Trans World Airlines v. Hardison. In that case, the Court held that an employer could deny an accommodation if it causes a “more than de minimis cost” — a legal term meaning that anything more than a “very small” cost would be enough for an employer to legally deny any religious accommodation.

The Court held that Title VII’s “undue hardship” language requires employers to show that the accommodation would impose a burden that “is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” Justice Alito stated that a business proving the accommodation would cause a small cost is not enough “to establish ‘undue hardship’ under Title VII.” This means that an employer now needs to show a substantial hardship would be caused by the religious accommodation in order to deny it.

His new location started delivering on Sundays, and he claimed that USPS “progressive[ly] discipline[d]” him because he refused to work Sundays. He then resigned and sued the USPS for religious discrimination. The Third Circuit rejected his claim.

The controversy in this case surrounded a 50-year-old standard from Trans World Airlines v. Hardison. In that case, the Court held that an employer could deny an accommodation if it causes a “more than de minimis cost” — a legal term meaning that anything more than a “very small” cost would be enough for an employer to legally deny any religious accommodation.

The Court held that Title VII’s “undue hardship” language requires employers to show that the accommodation would impose a burden that “is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” Justice Alito stated that a business proving the accommodation would cause a small cost is not enough “to establish ‘undue hardship’ under Title VII.” This means that an employer now needs to show a substantial hardship would be caused by the religious accommodation in order to deny it.

Read more at: www.dailywire.com

Earlier this year, the Grocery Gazette reported that the UK was set to be a world-leading developer of lab-grown meat. In the recent past, Guardian climate hysteric George Monbiot claimed lab-grown food “will soon destroy farming – and save the planet“. Alas, such boosterism is being challenged by hard facts. Lab-grown meat is up to 25 times worse for the environment since it needs ‘pharmaceutical-grade’ production to make it fit for human consumption. In particular, there is a need to remove endotoxin from the cultured mix, a substance that in concentrations as low as one billionth of a gram per millilitrie can reduce human IVF pregnancy success rate by up to four fold.

These are the startling conclusions of ground-breaking work recently published by a group of chemists and food scientists from the University of California. It turns out that ‘pharma to food’ production is a significant technological challenge. The major problem with lab meat is that it uses growth organisms that have to be highly purified to help animal cells multiply. Compared with environmental savings on land, water and greenhouses gases, the whole bio-process is noted to be “orders of magnitude” higher than rearing the actual animal.

“Our findings suggest that cultured meat is not inherently better for the environment than conventional beef. It’s not a panacea,” said co-author Edward Spang, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. The study found that even across scenarios using lower pharma standards, efficient beef production outperforms cultured meat within a range from four to 25 times. This suggests that investment to advance more ‘climate-friendly’ beef production may yield greater reductions in emissions.

The route to New Zero is littered with improbable technologies that promise much – and give endless opportunities for virtue signalling – but deliver little. While many countries press ahead with plans to destroy conventional animal husbandry, the options for new ways of actually feeding populations look thin on the ground. To be fair to Monbiot, he has picked up on the problems of lab meat, noting in a recent blog post that “the more I’ve read about cultured meat and fish, and the more I’ve come to appreciate the phenomenal complexities involved… the more I doubt this vision will come to pass”. Always the worrier, Monbiot asks, “How can mass starvation best be averted”? Not removing the 337.18 million tonnes of global meat production in favour of flaky factory solutions might be a start.

The California study could throw a major stick into the spokes of the lab-grown meat bandwagon, which to date has had a largely uncritical mainstream media ride. Grocery Gazette’s cheer-leading report noted that the sector was predicted to “rapidly increase its market share within the food industry”. Research was quoted suggesting cell cultured meat was expected to make up almost quarter of global meat consumption by 2035.

The authors in California acknowledge that lab-grown meat ventures have attracted around $2 billion of investment to date. Early reports on feasibility were bullish with some predicting a 60-70% displacement of beef by 2030-2040. But of late, sentiment has waned with more conservative estimates noting a 0.5% share of meat products by 2030. As noted, the huge problem in producing lab meat is the presence of endotoxin which is said have a variety of side effects including harm to in vitro fertilisation. In pharmaceutical labs, animal cell culture is traditional done with endotoxin having been removed. There are many ways to remove the unwanted substance, but the use of these refinement methods “contributes significantly to the economic and environmental costs associated with pharmaceutical products since they are both energy and resource intensive”.

Read more at: www.sott.net

After facing removal, the Bible will remain in Utah’s Davis School District. Tuesday the district’s board of education unanimously voted to keep the Bible in school libraries. The Bible will not be taught in schools, but will still be available for students to read.

Local TV station KSL notes that the district reviewed the Bible and then voted earlier to remove it from elementary and junior high school students. The complaint that started the controversy was from a parent who was angered by a state law that made it easier to remove books that contained what many consider to be obscene material. This complainant pointed out that the Bible contains passages depicting violence and sexual themes, and should therefore be removed along with books that parents found objectionable. And the district concurred.

That sparked outrage among parents and state lawmakers alike. Fox 13 reported that, during a June hearing, State Senator Curt Bramble highlighted explicit content in a book that was approved to remain in the schools after the Bible had been banned. He commented, “Adults can tell the difference between a religious text from the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, even though they depict historic or evidence of various acts, relative to pornography, that which is sexually explicit. I mean, come on, folks!”

Rep. Kera Birkeland queried, “How do we write and change this law to where books where a woman naked over a man with a gun to his head is allowed in the libraries of your junior high, and the Bible is not?”

Read more at: pjmedia.com

Last September, five red heifers arrived in Israel amid great fanfare, because some Jews and Gentiles believe red heifers are a key element leading to the building of the Third Jewish Temple.

The heifers are now in a secure, undisclosed location in Israel. Plans include moving them, sometime soon, to a visitor’s center in Shiloh, where the tabernacle of the Lord once stood for nearly 400 years.

The book of Numbers explains that ashes of the red heifer are used to purify priests for their service in the Temple:

“Now, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come.  You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him … its offal shall be burned … for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin.’” (Numbers 19:1-5)

These red heifers are now between 1 ½ and 2 years old. To replicate the ceremony mentioned in the Bible, they need to be at least 3 years old. And within that time span, they cannot have a blemish or anything that would disqualify them for the ceremony, even one white or black hair.

According to those working on the project, the ceremony of the red heifer needs to be performed on the Mount of Olives, and in a place that would have looked directly into where the Temple stood. The land directly east of the Temple Mount, purchased 12 years ago, meets both of those standards.

Rabbi Yitshak Mamo owns that land on the Mount of Olives. Mamo is with Uvne Yerusalim, a group that preserves Israel’s history and works to educate future generations.

Concerning the specifics of the land, he told CBN News, “It had to be exactly at the front of the place that the priest that made this ceremony can see the Holy of the Holy Place.”

Rabbi Mamo added, “And we hope that in a year and a half from today, we can make here in this area the ceremony of the red heifer that actually will be the first step to the Temple.”

He says the ceremony needs priests who have not been defiled by touching anything dead.

“The Temple Institute actually have, nine pure priests,” the rabbi explained.  “They didn’t born in hospital, okay? They born at home. Because they are priests. So anyway, they don’t go to any cemetery. And the parents keep them in a situation that they will not get to any cemetery, not going to other, any problematic place.”

He added, “And they are pure, and they are waiting.  So, we have the priest, we have the red heifer, we have the land.  We have everything ready. We just need to wait another one and a half year.”

Byron Stinson from Boneh Israel helped find the red heifers in the United States.

“So we believe that it’s very likely that the ceremony would happen somewhere in the area of Passover, 2024, out to the possibility of Shavuot, 2024,” Stinson said. “Somewhere in that timeline, the cows would be old enough and it would be the proper timeline for that ceremony.”

Stinson believes this would be the first possibility for such a ceremony in 2,000 years, and that the process toward building a Third Jewish Temple began when the Jewish people started their return to the Promised Land from the four corners of the world, culminating with Israel becoming a nation.

“And then in 1948, in one day, they were reborn as a nation, and nobody said that could happen. And then, you move forward, and Israel continues to be this strong nation and all of these prophecies start fulfilling,” he said. “There’s so many now being fulfilled, is just incredible. The evidence of what God is doing with Jerusalem is the center of that. And the Temple is the center of Jerusalem, and so how can it happen and how will it happen?  I don’t think anyone really knows for sure.”

Read more at: www2.cbn.com

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green possesses evidence that some Chinese migrants that crossed the southern border illegally and were released into the U.S. under the Biden administration are connected to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), he told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a press conference Wednesday.

The intelligence came directly from a Border Patrol sector chief, Green told the DCNF. Border Patrol has seen a roughly 393% increase in illegal Chinese migrants at the southern border, with 9,711 Chinese migrant encounters recorded between October 2022 and April.

“In terms of the verification that the individuals released into the United States have ties to the PLA came from a sector chief and I’ll leave it with that at this point. We have a classified briefing coming up in the very near future,” Green said.

China expert Gordon Chang recently expressed concerns of sabotage among Chinese migrants crossing the southern border in an interview with the DCNF.

“When I first saw that the surge in Chinese migrants, that’s the thought that came to my mind that these are either Ministry of State Security agents or Chinese military, who are coming to this country to commit acts of sabotage against the US,” Chang said at the time.

Green announced the revelation while presenting his evidence suggesting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is guilty of “dereliction of duty” in his handling of the crisis at the southern border. Green’s committee released a report on Wednesday about its initial findings on a five-phase investigation into Mayorkas’ tenure, saying the probe will conclude in roughly 12 weeks.

“I believe that the major fault falls with Secretary Mayorkas,” Green said.

Read more at: dailycaller.com

Zionism is the legacy of Cyrus the Great and the national inheritance of the Iranians. The Islamic Republic’s anti-Zionism is not a historical norm, but a radical break from history by a radical regime. The Iranian revolution seeks to return to its historical origins, and Zionists must rejoice if it succeeds.

The former crown prince of Iran and the most prominent opposition figure, Reza Pahlavi, became the most prominent Iranian to have ever visited Israel this week. He made history by taking the first step to restore it. Pahlavi’s cautious approach to leadership, out of the fear of alienating Iranians from different camps, has been a point of criticism over the decades. His trip doesn’t suggest that he has overnight become more risk-taking, but that he understands that anti-Zionism is no longer a political force among his audience inside his country. This is an early sign that a free Iran will cease hostilities with Israel and end the region’s most destabilizing conflict, caused by one of the most destabilizing regimes in the world. Only a few years after Abraham Accords, we can now envision the potential for the future Cyrus Accords.

Pahlavi’s trip was as much about symbolic gestures as it was political business, evident by his decision to visit during Holocaust Remembrance Day and participate in the ceremonies. He posted a picture of himself wearing a kippah and his wife praying at the Western Wall. His post’s caption cited the Book of Ezra and Cyrus the Great’s edict to rebuild the Second Temple. On Farsi social media, Cyrus Accords immediately began to trend, with more than 100,000 tweets in 24 hours.

The Iranian opposition leader also met with Israeli government officials, likely to seek their assistance for the protest movement that has been roiling Iran for the last seven months. Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel hosted the crown prince, and the itinerary included meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. Given Israel’s covert assets in Iran, Pahlavi’s following there, and the two parties’ mutual interest in regime change, it is a reasonable guess that they discussed avenues of cooperation to effect change. He had also mentioned that, given Iran’s water crisis and Israel’s expertise in desalination, he intended to meet with Israeli water experts, so Gamliel gave him a tour of the water desalination facility in Shurk.

As seen by their reactions to Pahlavi’s visit, for many Iranians, Israel has transformed from an enemy to an ally against the Islamic Republic. Masih Alinejad, another opposition leader, tweeted that “the nation of Iran has no enmity with Israel. It is the Islamic Republic that has conquered the borders of hostility against Jews, not just in Iran, but also in the region and the world.” Hichkas, the first professional Iranian rapper, humorously tweeted his wish that the trip would result in countless Qassem Soleimani-like assassinations. Former national soccer team captain Ali Karimi, the opposition leader most in tune with the Iranian street, posted a picture of the Pahlavis and Gamliel with Iranian-flag-colored hearts.

The regime’s response, on the other hand, has been official silence. The spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs dismissed a question on the topic for it concerned “an irrelevant individual to an irrelevant destination country.” Unofficial and semi-official media tried to downplay it by mentioning Israel’s domestic political turmoil and the Pahlavi dynasty’s historically warm views of Israel. The combination of the regime’s dismissiveness and the opposition’s embrace is a hint that both sides are aware that Israel has ceased being a bogeyman in Iran.

Read more at: providencemag.com

Three Christian organizations will host a prayer vigil on the west steps of the California state Capitol in Sacramento on Monday as a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is honored inside by elected officials.

The California Family Council (CFC), the American Council, and the California Catholic Conference are hosting the vigil in response to Sen. Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) decision to recognize “Sister Roma,” a member of the drag performers accused of mocking Christianity and Catholicism, on the Senate floor.

“It’s disheartening to see the California Legislature honor a group characterized by its mockery of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular,” CFC President Jonathan Keller remarked in a press release. “By promoting the profane ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,’ these elected leaders are endorsing mockery, hatred, and blasphemy. This ceremony is deeply offensive towards millions of Californians across the Golden State.”

“The vigil is not a political protest but a time of solemn prayer and worship,” it continues.

Wiener’s invitation was met with condemnation by California Senate Republicans, who drafted a letter in opposition.

The letter said the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence “is well known for their public denigration of the Catholic faith,” adding, “We respectfully request the withdrawal of this invitation, as it sends a troubling message to Californians of all faiths.”

“While the California State Senate serves as a symbol for many values, it should not be associated with disrespect or hatred towards those with differing religious ideologies.”

Read more at: www.dailywire.com

Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Kansas to hide life-saving information from pregnant women and basically force them to kill their unborn babies even if they have a change of heart.

The lawsuit challenges a new state law that requires abortion providers to inform women about the abortion pill reversal treatment, a safe and effective method of reversing the abortion drug mifepristone that can save an unborn baby’s life.

Responding to the case, Danielle Underwood, director of communications at Kansans for Life, said the abortion industry is “aggressively working to speed up the decision-making process, seemingly forcing women into abortion without discussion of alternatives.”

Underwood said women have the right to be informed about abortion risks and alternatives before going through with ending their unborn baby’s life.

For many years, Kansas has required abortion facilities to provide informed consent to women at least 24 hours prior to their abortion. This year, the Kansas Legislature amended the Woman’s Right to Know Act to include information about the abortion pill reversal treatment, which has saved more than 4,500 unborn babies to-date.

The law ensures that women:

– receive information about the medical risks of abortion

– have the chance to see the ultrasound and hear the heartbeat of her unborn baby

– learn the gestational age of her unborn baby

– be informed of any disciplinary actions against the abortionist

– receive information about the abortion pill reversal treatment

In its lawsuit, the Planned Parenthood abortion chain argued that the law “undermines the principles of bodily integrity and decisional autonomy that underlie the doctrine of informed consent” and violates doctors’ freedom of speech, according to Reuters.

Read more at: www.lifenews.com

“VUMC would be absolutely crazy to proceed with these treatments on the basis of an injunction,” lawyer says.

The State of Tennessee is vowing to defend its law against child sex changes from a Biden administration challenge, floating an aggressive legal theory that could hold medical providers to account even if a federal judge imposes the injunction sought by the White House.

The law, S.B. 1, was triggered in part by The Daily Wire’s September 2022 exposes on Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) genital mutilation of children, which top doctors acknowledged were “big money makers” and were done “with little evidence, but a lot of love.” The state law is scheduled to take effect July 1, but the Biden administration joined the ACLU and several teenage plaintiffs suing to stop it and is now seeking the injunction in order to block its enforcement until a judge rules on the case.

Adam Mortara, an outside attorney hired to argue the case for Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, said in a May 19 brief that even if a judge imposes an injunction, VUMC should resume treatments at its own peril because if the injunction is later overturned, the state may retroactively prosecute it.

“A preliminary injunction is, by definition, preliminary,” Mortara said. “It will disappear if this Court rules for Defendants at trial, and it could be stayed or reversed on interlocutory appeal. If either occurs, VUMC can be held liable for its violations of the Act while the preliminary injunction was in place,” he wrote.

The gist of the theory, which cites a 1982 case called Edgar v. Mite Corp, is that an injunction doesn’t actually strike down the law, it merely prohibits the defendant — the Attorney General — from initiating enforcement action while it’s in place. If the injunction is eventually lifted — whether through a ruling by District Court Judge Eli Richardson, the Sixth Circuit, or ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court, then Tennessee can resume enforcement, including retroactive prosecution for the period in which the law was in place but the injunction was in effect.

The result is that an injunction could have little effect, because VUMC and others who might perform gender surgeries likely believe conservative appeals courts will ultimately side with Tennessee, and may be afraid of costly litigation and punishment after the fact.

The maneuver, which could provide a blueprint for other states that ban gender surgery but then face an injunction, takes a cue from the Texas Heartbeat Act, which largely succeeded in banning abortion in Texas even before the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade. The Texas bill was written by Jonathan Mitchell, an unorthodox conservative attorney who is close friends with Mortara. Mitchell wrote an academic paper laying out the case that injunctions are not as powerful as they have traditionally been regarded.

Read more at: www.dailywire.com

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro challenged a member of the Biden administration to publicly read from a sexually graphic book found in school libraries across the country as the administration appoints a coordinator to challenge so-called “book bans.”

Shapiro said that someone from Biden’s team should publicly read the book “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe if they think that it is appropriate for young children. The book contains graphic descriptions of masturbation and oral sex alongside explicit illustrations.

“I challenge somebody from the Biden administration to get up and read out loud on camera while showing the pictures ‘Gender Queer,’ and explain why that should be available to 9-year-olds or 15-year-olds, for that matter, at public expense,” Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, said on his Friday podcast.

Shapiro’s challenge comes as the Biden administration announced that it would be creating a position in the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to fight against local and state laws intended to shield children from graphic books like “Gender Queer” in schools.

One scene in “Gender Queer,” found in school libraries across the country, involves a teenager having a sexual fantasy about an adult male.

“What [Biden] really wants is for your local second grader to be able to walk into a school library and see graphic cartoon depictions of anal sex. That’s really what Joe Biden wants. I notice that everybody on the Left who constantly talks about these book bannings is unwilling to actually read out loud the books that they think should not be prevented from being disseminated,” Shapiro said.

Read more at: www.dailywire.com