Texas Republican credits church security team, change in state law after shooting

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-republican-credits-church-security-team-change-in-state-law-after-shooting

The deadly shooting inside a Texas church on Sunday prompted Republicans there to credit the changes in state law that permitted concealed firearms inside places of worship after it was revealed that the gunman was fatally shot six seconds after opening fire.

The unidentified gunman killed two when he opened fire inside the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, which is outside Fort Worth. Authorities are trying to determine a motive. Police said the gunman entered the church and sat down before 11 a.m. He stood up, pulled out a shotgun and shot two parishioners who died at a nearby hospital.

In this still frame from livestreamed video provided by law enforcement, churchgoers take cover while a congregant armed with a handgun, top left, engages a man who opened fire, near top center just right of windows, during a service at West Freeway Church of Christ, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, in White Settlement, Texas. (West Freeway Church of Christ/Courtesy of Law Enforcement via AP)

Two armed parishioners who were volunteer security guards returned fire and killed the gunman.

Britt Farmer, the church's senior minister, told the Dallas Morning News that the church lost two "great men today, but it could have been a lot worse, and I am thankful our government has allowed us the opportunity to protect ourselves."

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed eight gun bills into law in June that included one that allowed legal gun owners to bring their concealed weapons into places of worship.

The Texas Tribune reported that the state's House gave preliminary approval of the bill more than one year after the shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs that killed 26.

"We have learned many times over that there is no such thing as a gun-free zone," state Sen. Donna Campbell, co-sponsor of the bill, said at the time. "Those with evil intentions will violate the law and carry out their heinous acts no matter what. It makes no sense to disarm the good guys and leave law-abiding citizens defenseless where violent offenders break the law to do great harm."

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, at a press conference after the shooting, praised the two volunteer security guards and credited the changes in state law.

"The immediate responder is the most important," he said, according to the Dallas  Morning News. "The citizen responder. Because even though the chief’s brave officers were here in less than a minute … by the time they got here, the shooting was over. And that always happens, that over 50 percent of shootings, our first responders, it’s usually over when they get there, no matter how hard they try."

Democrats like Julian Castro pointed to the shooting as another horrific outcome due to lax gun laws and poor leadership.

"We can take steps to reduce these horrific attacks right now—we just need our elected leaders to have the courage to act," he tweeted.

Beto O'Rourke, the former Democratic presidential hopeful who has spoken out against gun violence in the past, tweeted that he was saddened to learn about the shooting and said, "Clearly what we are doing in Texas, what we are doing in this country, when it comes to guns is not working."

Colorado, Nebraska sheriffs puzzled by nocturnal drone flights

https://www.foxnews.com/us/colorado-nebraska-sheriffs-puzzled-by-nocturnal-drone-flights

A squadron of drones flying over the Midwest every night for nearly two weeks have left both residents and officials wondering who’s flying them and what purpose they are serving, a report said Sunday.

In the past week, three more rural counties have experienced nightly flyovers from the northeast corner of Colorado to at least one county in neighboring Nebraska, the Denver Post reported.

Sheriffs in Lincoln, Washington and Sedgwick counties say their offices have been inundated with calls this week about the devices, the newspaper reported.

While there has been no claim of responsibility, an abundance of theories have been offered, ranging from the work of a Mexican drug cartel, to aliens from a far-off galaxy to The History Channel searching for long-lost cities or farmers looking to track cows.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Carlton Britton is taking it all in stride, saying with a chuckle: “Oh, yeah, there’s a lot of conspiracy theories floating in Sedgwick County right now.”

Britton admits to seeing the drones himself and said residents have been calling his office since Dec. 17, reporting six to 10 drones at a time.

Similar calls have also been received by officials in nearby Phillips County: The drones hover or cruise through the area between 7 and 10 p.m., flying several hundred feet in the air, the report said.

Sheriffs have reached out to the Federal Aviation Authority, and Elliot previously told the newspaper the Air Force has denied involvement. The FAA also told The Post this week it had no information on the mystery flyers. Neither did the Drug Enforcement Administration nor the U.S. Army Forces Command.

Thus far, it’s all been speculation as to who is flying the drones with six-foot wingspans and what their purpose might be.

Britton, along with Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliott, have been trying to determine if any laws are being broken with the nocturnal flights. Currently, he said, it’s all above board — even if it’s a bit disconcerting.

“We have no idea at this point. No leads and no thoughts. It’s just an odd phenomenon.”

— Sedgwick County Sheriff Carlton Britton

Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Nestor said he received the first report of a drone sighting in his jurisdiction Thursday night. He expects the conspiracy theorists to run wild, but Nastor said he’s most concerned with the drones colliding midair with planes from Limon’s airport or helicopters used in emergency situations, the Post reported.

“I would love for someone to break it wide open. I don’t know what it is, but I would like it not to be in my county,” Nestor said.

We Can No Longer Ignore The...

https://thefederalist.com/2019/12/29/we-can-no-longer-ignore-the-attacks-on-jews-in-new-york/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=692d7c00bd-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-692d7c00bd-83828933

We Can No Longer Ignore The Attacks On Jews In New York

David Marcus

In Rockland County last night, during a Chanukah celebration at a synagogue a man stormed in with a machete and stabbed at least five victims, who were taken to the hospital. This is the latest in a string of antisemitic attacks in the New York City area, coming in the wake of the tragic killing of four people during an attack on a Jewish grocery store in Jersey City.

These two acts of violence this month have brought renewed attention to the sharp uptick in anti Jewish violence that has quietly held New York City in its grip over the past few years. Sadly, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spent much of the year more concerned with his farcical run for president than protecting the citizens of his own city, and the state governments of New York and New Jersey have, been flatfooted in addressing the growing concern.

It has frankly been astounding how little attention attacks on Jews in the New York City area have received. If any other minority group were subject to such abuse, it would be a leading national story. Why have these attacks been swept under the carpet? The clearest answer seems to be that the news media and our political leadership are uncomfortable with the fact that many of these attacks, including last night’s, were perpetrated by black people.

Make no mistake, if white supremacists in MAGA hats were shooting minorities or carving them up with machetes, it wouldn’t just be news, it would be the only news. So satisfying would that narrative be to our politicians and scribes that we would scarcely be able to turn away. But alas, it’s Jews being killed and maimed. And the criminals don’t fit the bill of right-wing, Trump-supporting Nazis, so, you know, it’s complicated.

De Blasio, who has ignored this festering problem for years, had this to tweet last night: “Horrific, So many Jewish families in our city have close ties to Monsey. We cannot overstate the fear people are feeling right now. I’ve spoken to longtime friends who, for the first time in their lives, are fearful to show outward signs of their Jewish faith.”

Seriously, Bill? You are just realizing this now? Attacks on ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn have become an almost weekly occurrence under de Blasio. Synagogues and schuls are vandalized regularly, and children and old people are attacked. This is a crisis and has all too often happened throughout Jewish history. It has typically been ignored at best. At worst, the victims are blamed for not fitting in.

Nobody wants to talk about it, but something is going on between the black and Jewish communities in the New York City area that needs to be addressed. The Jersey City shooters were Black Hebrew Israelites; the machete-wielding man who attacked last night was also identified as black. It is time we stop simply wishing that this problem did not exist and address it full on.

For progressives like de Blasio, this is hard to do. The notion that hatred is harbored by some in the black community towards Jews does not comport with their hierarchies of oppression. So rather than deal with the problem, they ignore it. This has to stop. And it has to stop now.

It doesn’t matter how uncomfortable the conversation is. The growing tensions between the black and Jewish communities in New York, harkening back to the Crown Heights riots, must be dealt with. This will take real effort, and a commitment from leaders in the black community to educate and eradicate anti-Jewish bias.

Nobody wants to talk about this, but that’s just too bad. It has to be talked about before more Jews are killed. There is no bigger story than this in the five boroughs and its adjacent communities. The war on Jews has to be ended. But before it can end, it must first be acknowledged.

Hecklers derail Biden New Hampshire campaign event: 'Quid pro Joe'

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hecklers-biden-quid-pro-joe-new-hampshire

Former Vice President Joe Biden was interrupted by a series of hecklers calling him "creepy" and a "pervert" during a campaign event in Milford, N.H., on Sunday night.

Shortly after Biden started speaking, a man in the back of the room accused him of acting inappropriately, shouting, "don’t touch kids, you pervert."

"This is not a Trump rally," a flustered Biden fired back. "This is a democracy."

A woman then started chanting "quid pro Joe," before another attendee shouted at the 2020 hopeful, inquiring about Biden's business dealings in Ukraine.

Andy Ngo

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“Don’t touch kids, you pervert!” shouted a heckler to Joe Biden at his NH campaign event.

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Both comments seemingly refered to President Trump's impeachment and his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Many Democrats said Trump improperly urged Zelensky to open investigations into Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the 2016 election, as well as into Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in the country, withholding military aid as leverage. The president has denied doing anything wrong.

“I've released 21 years of my tax returns, how many has yours? What's he hiding?" Biden responded.

No campaign staff or law enforcement removed the hecklers from the event.

Video

Earlier this month,  Biden blasted a man at an Iowa town hall as a "da-- liar" -- and challenged him to a push-up contest -- after he accused the 77-year-old former vice president of being "too old" and took a swipe at son Hunter's role on the board of a controversial Ukrainian natural gas firm.

"You sent your son over there to get a job and work for a gas company where he had no experience. ... In order to get access for the president... you're selling access to the president just like he was,” the questioner said.

Biden fired back: "You’re a da-- liar, man. That's not true and no one has ever said that."

Biden, who would be 78 upon becoming president if he wins, repeatedly has defended his fitness on the campaign trail, noting that with age "comes wisdom."

The 2020 hopeful was ramping up his campaign efforts ahead of early voting contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, as nobody has emerged as a clear front-runner to win the Democrats' race for the presidential nomination.

Diversity Obsession Partly to Blame...

https://www.theepochtimes.com/diversity-obsession-partly-to-blame-for-rise-in-anti-semitism_3187730.html

Diversity Obsession Partly to Blame for Rise in Anti-Semitism

The horrible attack on a Jewish shul in Monsey, New York on the seventh night of Hanukkah is not directly connected to the atmosphere on American campuses and, sadly, in certain quarters of the U.S. Congress. But they are of a piece spiritually and psychologically.

Something is drastically wrong. The canary in the coal mine (Jews first, others later) is back. It’s permissible to slur Jews and to beat or stab them (five different violent incidents during this Hanukkah alone in the New York City area). Jewish students on college campuses are hiding their religious affiliation as they cross the green to class.

Why now? What has caused all this?

It’s not the sole reason, but I am going to say something outrageous to some. It is the worship of diversity. Note that word—worship.

Diversity is by itself a good thing. We are a diverse society. As many have said, that’s part of our strength.

What has developed in recent decades, however, is the elevation of diversity above all. The slogan “E pluribus unum” (out of many one) has virtually disappeared from our country, the “unum” pushed to irrelevance.

Everywhere we go these days, diversity is counted and measured ad nauseum. How many of this group? How many of that group? It’s an obsession.

Where you worship diversity, there will always be winners and losers in that diversity. Like it or not, it creates a pecking order. And these pecking orders are reinforced, consciously and unconsciously, by our media, entertainment, and the academy.

And, naturally enough, out of pecking orders, hatreds (or old hatreds, as in the case of anti-Semitism) emerge.

Today’s Democratic Party with its devotion to and reliance on identity politics fans these hatreds, deliberately or not.

The rise (and domination) of the concept of intersectionality on our colleges and universities is also a leading factor in this, In this theory, groups are virtually ranked according to their levels of supposed victimhood. Sometimes only members of those deemed most disadvantaged are even allowed to speak.

How absurd and morally and psychologically damaging this is when we are all humans with nearly identical DNA. It’s a reactionary and proto-fascist idea masquerading as progressive. It is, in essence, a new form of segregationism.

Yet it has spread and been transmogrified to many aspects of our society. Identity is everywhere. Even the recent killings at the New Jersey kosher market were motivated by some people thinking they were the real Jews and the other people weren’t. How crazy is that!

Plenty. But it’s crazy instigated in part by our culture.

Even though some guy in Williamsburg wears payus (ear locks) and dovens (prays) when he gets up in the morning, the differences between you and him are minuscule.

You and he are homo sapiens. Get it?

If you’re looking for genuine “diversity,” go to the zoo. Human beings and giraffes are indeed separate species. But please don’t shoot or stab the animals.

And meanwhile, STOP worshipping diversity. It’s a fact, not a religion.

“E pluribus unum.”

Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times’ Senior Political Analyst.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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New York City mugging victim, 60, dies 3 days after brutal Christmas Eve beating over $1

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-man-beaten-and-robbed-of-1-dies-in-hospital

A 60-year-old New York City man died in a hospital Friday, three days after unidentified suspect brutally beat him, demanding money while he walked down a Bronx street early Christmas Eve morning,  police said Saturday.

Six muggers punched, kicked and stomped on Juan Fresnada as he tried to keep his partner, Byron Caceres, 29, safe from the attackers who robbed him of $1, ABC News reported.

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“My husband tried to defend me,” Caceres told The New York Post. “The guy had his fist ready like he was ready to attack me. My husband said, ‘Don’t you get close to him.’”

Caceres said Fresnada told him to run away.

“They were beating him for 10 or 15 minutes,” he said. “I went back and found him on the floor. He was breathing heavily and bleeding from his head.”

The beating was caught on surveillance video but no suspects have been arrested, ABC reported.

“He takes care of me,” Caceres said. “He’s very calm and I’m the one who is stressed all the time.”

He told The Daily News he didn't think the attack was a hate crime.