The Faithful Watchman

New teen comedy ‘Unpregnant’ seems to suggest that abortion is nothing but a barrel of laughs

Michael McCaffrey – August 31, 2020

The trailer for HBO Max’s Unpregnant appears to ignore the moral complexity of abortion in favor of promoting an insidious amorality on the issue. This is a poor message to send out to impressionable young girls.

Unpregnant is the controversial new abortion buddy comedy movie set to premiere on HBO Max on September 10.

The film, based on the novel of the same name, tells the story of Veronica, a pregnant 17-year-old girl, and her friend Bailey, as they go on a wild and wacky road trip from Missouri to New Mexico so that Veronica can get an abortion.

In its trailer, Unpregnant sells itself as a zany road picture where hilarity ensues when a goofy odd couple of teenage girls steal a car and try to hop a train on their epic odyssey down the yellow brick road to abortionland.

The road picture narrative is a long time Hollywood staple. Think Bing Crosby and Bob Hope with their numerous “road to” musical comedies of the ’40’s and ’50’s… except in Unpregnant, Crosby and Hope are teenage girls crossing state lines to get an abortion. Hilarious!

It is easy to see why pro-life advocates are up in arms over Unpregnant, as the trailer makes the film appear to be a piece of pro-abortion agitprop specifically designed to antagonize them by making light of abortion and demonizing Veronica’s Catholic parents as “Jesus freaks.”

2020 has been a banner year for decidedly pro-abortion films with Unpregnant, the critically acclaimed drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always and the indie dramedy Saint Frances, which all have an amoral attitude toward abortion, all being released.

Notice I described these films as ‘pro-abortion’ and not ‘pro-choice’, and that is because pro-choice implies a grappling with the moral gravity of the abortion decision, whereas pro-abortion removes any moral dimensions at all, and reduces abortion to being akin to getting a nose piercing.

https://www.rt.com

Mamma Mia! NASA Tracking Asteroid Nearly Double the Diameter of Roman Colosseum Approaching Earth

Sputnik News – August 31, 2020

The so-called ‘Near-Earth Object’, classified as such by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was first discovered by astronomers in 2010, and is set to cross Earth’s orbit on Sunday.

NASA is tracking a massive, 270 metre-wide asteroid that’s nearly double the diameter of the Great Roman Colosseum, and almost twice the height of Egypt’s iconic Pyramid of Giza.

The asteroid, formally known as object ‘465824 (2010 FR)’, is making its way toward Earth’s orbit at an incredible speed of approximately 50,530 km per hour (or 14 km per second), or over 1.5 times faster than what scientists call high-hypersonic speed.

The object, known as an ‘Apollo’ asteroid because it crosses Earth’s orbit, is not believed to be a threat to life on the planet, according to astronomers from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.

Nevertheless, scientists are monitoring space rocks such as 465824 (2010 FR) due to the effects of the gravitational pull of the planets of our solar system, as well as the Sun, which can alter their trajectory.

The asteroid is expected to hit Earth’s orbit on September 6, and will be just one of about ten near-Earth orbit flybys next month. Two such asteroids – 2020 QG5 and 2011 ES4, will arrive on Tuesday. Two more, 2020 PG6 and 465824 (2010 FR) will arrive on September 2 and 6, respectively. NASA expects ten more asteroid flybys in October.

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos commented on 2011 ES4’s approach on Sunday, promising that the planet “won’t die” from the 25 meter diameter space rock as it zips by the planet at a distance closer to Earth than our Moon. According to Roscosmos’s figures, about 80 similar asteroids approached Earth in August.

Astronomers don’t manage to spot every single asteroid that approaches Earth ahead of time. Earlier this month, a 3 by 6 meter asteroid zipped past Earth just 2,950 km above the Indian Ocean.

https://sputniknews.com

ARMAGEDDON Pakistani minister threatens India with nuclear attack in ‘the bloody last war’ and says only Muslims will survive

Samantha Lock – August 21, 2020

A PAKISTANI minister has threatened India with a nuclear attack in “the bloody last war” and says only Muslims will survive.

Sheikh Rashid made the threat of nuclear war, claiming that Pakistan has very precise weapons which are “small and perfect” and are able to target specific regions.

The federal minister warned that Pakistan will have no option in a conventional war and “if something will happen, it will be the end”, indicating a nuclear war of mass destruction.

“If Pakistan gets attacked by India, there is no scope for conventional war. This will be a bloody and nuclear war,” he said during an interview with Pakistani media channel Samaa TV on Wednesday.

“It will be a nuclear war for sure. We have very calculated weapons which are small and perfect.

“Our weapons will save Muslim lives and will only target certain regions.

“Pakistan’s range now even includes Assam. Pakistan has no option in conventional war; therefore India knows if something happens, it will be the end”.

https://www.thesun.co.uk

Hurricane Laura Leaves Trail of CAT-4 Destruction, Looks like 100 Tornadoes struck

Ricky Scaparo – August 27, 2020

(ETH) – Hurricane Laura is being called one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the US is and is moving North and East after pounding the Gulf Coast. Although Laura has reportedly been downgraded to a tropical storm, it has left hurricane damage that stretches for hundreds of miles.

The report from CBN is indicating that streets are flooded, power lines toppled, homes destroyed, and trucks have been tossed like toys. At least three people have been reported to have been killed by falling trees in Louisiana.

Brett Geymann in Moss Bluff, just north of Lake Charles, testified that his family’s OK but “there’s destruction all around”. “It looks like 1,000 tornadoes” came through, he said, with some houses “totally gone.” The report states that destruction extended West across the state line from Louisiana into Texas.

The devastating storm has also produced a large chemical fire that has sent a potentially dangerous cloud over Lake Charles, Louisiana, and has residents being advised to shelter in place. Over half a million people in Texas and Louisiana were forced to evacuate as the storm rapidly strengthened into a catastrophic Category 4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

https://www.christianpost.com

Besides Locust Invasion and Coronavirus Pandemic, There’s One More Plague Going on in the World

Aleksandra Serebriakova – August 18, 2020

A locust invasion has been sweeping parts of East Africa and South Asia since the start of the year, leading to food shortages across the region. But it appears that this isn’t the only insect plague the world is currently facing – and one no less severe than the former.

More than seven hundred million cubic metres of trees were wiped out in British Columbia between 2000 and 2015 by mountain pine beetles, a tiny species native to North American forests, according to Bloomberg, as decades-worth of lumber supplies are being eradicated across the world as a result of the pest’s invasion. With around 2.2 million hectares having already been affected by beetles, the outbreak is expected to continue for the next six years.

The tiny creature, just 5mm in length, was once part of the forest cycle, but as winters grew warmer due to climate change, the beetles were able to survive in greater numbers and chew through tree bark, with flowing resin attracting even more of them. As a result, with thousands of the insects eating on the trees and laying their eggs inside, hundreds of millions of pines across Canada’s timber-rich region were doomed to die.

British Columbia is Canada’s largest supplier of logs to the United States, Bloomberg notes, with the beetle plague eventually signaling potential shortages for both the American and global housing market. The pests have already destroyed 15 years’ worth of timber supplies in the province, material sufficient to build around nine million one-family houses. According to estimates by the Vancouver-based Spar Tree Group, the allowable production in British Columbia has been reduced by 40%, as it is believed that more than half of the region’s marketable pine trees will be dead by 2020.

https://sputniknews.com

China removes over 900 church crosses in first half of 2020: report

Leah MarieAnn Klett – August 28, 2020

In the first half of 2020, over 900 crosses were removed from state-run churches across China amid Xi Jinping’s ongoing crackdown on places of worship, according to the Italian-based magazine Bitter Winter.

According to the religious liberty magazine, crosses were removed from over 250 state-run Three-Self churches in the eastern province of Anhui, which has the second-largest Christian population in China, in the first four months of the year. Additionally, 656 state-run Protestant churches in the province saw their crosses removed during the first half of this year.

A Three-Self church in the city’s Yingdong district, which lost its cross in April, was told by authorities that the cross-demolition campaign was part of national policy.

“If a church refuses to remove its cross, congregation members may lose their social benefits, like pensions and poverty-alleviation subsidies, and possibilities for their children’s future employment will be affected,” a church member explained.

United Front Work Department officials who removed the cross from a church in Hanshan county informed church congregants that any crosses taller than government buildings “must be demolished because they overshadow state institutions,” a church member told Bitter Winter.

“Only churches that look like enterprises are considered legal. To ‘sinicize’ Christianity, Xi Jinping does not allow churches to have Western crosses.”

The believer also revealed that government officials warned an elder in the church that “protesting cross demolitions means protesting against the government.”

https://www.christianpost.com

Austin City Council Allots $250K for ‘Abortion Access’ While Cutting $150 Million From Police Budget

Heather Clark – August 26, 2020

AUSTIN, Texas — The city council of Austin, Texas has voted to not only to cut and redistribute $150 million from its $423 million police department budget, but to also earmark $250K for assisting mothers with the logistics of obtaining an abortion.

While state lawmakers last year passed a law banning funding of abortion facilities, the City is reportedly attempting to work around the law by making the funds available for abortive mothers seeking transportation and lodging, rather than giving the funds to the abortion facilities themselves.

Senate Bill 22, which went into effect last September, declared, “a governmental entity may not enter into a taxpayer resource transaction with an abortion provider or an affiliate of an abortion provider.”

Soon after the legislation became law, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza and Council Member Gregorio Casar put forward an amendment to allot $150K for the expenditures of abortive mothers, such as those traveling for an abortion or obtaining childcare while they are away.

According to The Statesman, this year, Council Member Leslie Pool proposed allotting another $100K for “abortion access,” on top of the $150K that was marked last year but never utilized.

She stated that economic hardships due to the coronvirus pandemic necessitated the additional funding, telling the outlet, “We know the need is out there in the community, and we know we have an increase in need.”

https://christiannews.net

Appeals Court Rules Va. School District ‘Discriminated’ by Not Allowing Girl to Use Boys’ Restroom

Heather Clark – August 27, 2020

RICHMOND, Va. — A 2-1 panel with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has again ruled that a Virginia school district discriminated against a female student who identifies as male by declining to allow her to use the boys’ restroom.

“[W]e hold that the board’s restroom policy constitutes sex-based discrimination and, independently, that transgender persons constitute a quasi-suspect class,” wrote Judge Henry Floyd, appointed to the bench by then-President Barack Obama.

He stated that “[n]o one questions that students have a privacy interest in their body when they go to the bathroom,” but the school district “ignores the reality of how a transgender child uses the bathroom: ‘by entering a stall and closing the door.’” Further, those with gender identity issues do not present a “peeping tom” threat as they will “mind[] their business like any other student.”

“Put another way, the record demonstrates that bodily privacy of cisgender boys using the boys restrooms did not increase when Grimm was banned from those restrooms,” Floyd said. “Therefore, the board’s policy was not substantially related to its purported goal.”

He also opined in his ruling that “[j]ust like being cisgender, being transgender is natural and is not a choice.”

Floyd asserted that transgenderism is “not a psychiatric condition,” but simultaneously stated that those who struggle with their gender “are up to three times more likely to report or be diagnosed with a mental health disorder as the general population” and noted that “[g]ender dysphoria is defined in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”

Floyd was joined in his opinion by Judge James Wynn, Jr., also an Obama nominee. Judge Paul Niemeyer, nominated by then-President George H.W. Bush, dissented.

https://christiannews.net

Five asteroids pass Earth this week BUT were only discovered 2 weeks ago

Strange Sounds – August 27, 2020

The near-constant bombardment of space rocks buzzing our planet continues, with planetary defenses alerted to a trio of asteroids measuring over 25 meters in diameter en route to Earth’s backyard this week.

To kick things off on Monday, not one but two space rocks over 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter flew past, both of which were detected just this month, leaving little time and space for error in calculating their trajectories.

Asteroid 2020 PP3, 34 meters wide, passed us by at a distance of 6.1 million kilometers (3.7 million miles), having only been spotted 13 days ago. It was followed shortly afterwards by 2020 PJ6, 26 meters wide, at a distance of 5.3 million kilometers, which was spotted four days later on August 15.

Next up, on Wednesday, asteroid 2020 FF3, measuring 25 meters in diameter came far closer, though maintaining a safe distance of 2.4 million kilometers. This space rock was only spotted on August 14.

Punctuating the mid week are two smaller asteroids, 2016 AH164 (3.9 meters) and 2020 QQ2 (15 meters), which will pass at a distance of six million and 3.2 million kilometers on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

To put the danger in context, the Chelyabinsk meteor which exploded above Russia in February 2013 was just 18 meters in diameter, proving that it doesn’t take much for a meteorite or asteroid to cause a vast amount of destruction.

Meanwhile, the recently-discovered asteroid 2020 PG6 is expected to hit the Earth on August 31, 2029, and measures 14 meters in diameter, highlighting once again the need for humanity to remain vigilant lest we be caught off guard and face a catastrophic impact event.

https://strangesounds.org

Israel prepares for Gaza showdown after 7 rockets notch up Palestinian aggression

Debkafile – August 21, 2020

Palestinian terrorists launched three salvos of 7 rockets overnight Thursday, Aug. 20 – one a direct hit to a Sderot home, six intercepted. The IDF hit back in three waves against Hamas military sites, including a rocket factory near Khan Younes. During a night broken by repeated Palestinian rocket fire, three women were treated for shock and a third was hurt when stumbling while running for shelter.

This was the IDF’s 12^th day in a row of strikes against Hamas military sites and it continued up until 6 am Friday morning, when the Southern Command urgently reviewed the deteriorating situation for its next decisions. . Local farmers told not to work in the fields adjoining the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian rocket fire came on top of the hundreds of arson and incendiary balloons launched against Israel in the past two weeks. During the day, 42 fires were ignited by balloons from the Gaza Strip; three more early Friday. The IDF reported that 15 incoming clusters were intercepted by the new “Light Flame” device devised to counter terrorist balloons for the Border police force

From a safe place in friendly Turkey, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened to raise the stakes with a renewed cycle of violence, unless Israel complied with the long list of demands submitted by the terrorists via Egyptian intelligence officers who shuttled between Tel Aviv and Gaza this week. Hard cash may be the only answer acceptable to the Palestinian Hamas for buying calm. Tensely awaited is a decision by Qatar about whether or not to continue its $25m aid program to Gaza when it runs out next month. Meanwhile, the Erdogan government is being solicited for terrorist funding.

https://www.debka.com