The following article, DOJ Released Assassin’s Letter with Bounty on Trump, was first published on Conservative Firing Line. Whatever the Democrats/Feds/and assort liberals accuse you of doing, they’re doing it themselves. The DOJ released Wanna-Be Trump assassin’s letter to the public. In it, he placed a bounty on Trump’s head and hoped someone else would “Get the job done.” Trump assassin’s letter In 2023 when a confused, dangerous transgender killed 6 people at … Continue reading DOJ Released Assassin’s Letter with Bounty on Trump ...

California school districts will be forced to limit or prohibit cell phone use in public schools after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill, along with many others, into law. The bill, AB 3216, was approved by a bipartisan vote after being authored by Republican Assemblyman Josh Hoover. The bill states that schools must "adopt a policy to limit or prohibit the use by its pupils of smartphones while the pupils are at a school site or while the pupils are under the supervision and control...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida of former President Donald Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images. Oran Routh was arrested this week after authorities searched his Greensboro, North Carolina, home “in connection with an investigation unrelated to child exploitation,” an FBI official said in court papers. Investigators seized multiple electronic devices and found hundreds of files of child sexual...

The newborn stage is often described as a magical time—a fleeting blur of intoxicating baby head smells and love-rush-hormones. It’s also a time when your potential as a parent is virtually untainted. After all, the needs are simple—feed, clean, nurture, repeat—and you haven’t royally screwed up yet…at least, not that you know of. But is it really that magical? Or is that nostalgic feeling parents having while looking back at baby photos simply an example of euphoric recall? It certainly hasn’t been sunshine and roses for one frustrated mom of two, currently being put through the ringer again with a 10-week-old and wondering if she’s alone in thinking “I cannot wait for newborn time to be over.”“Can I please ask parents who have kids who are older this question… do you actually miss the newborn stage if you didn’t like being in it?,” she began in a Reddit post. She also explained that, “Once my first born was 5-6 months old I felt like I was more able to understand a little more of what she was trying to say. But I’m back here again with my 10 week old who is actually way chiller than my first was and I still am just not enjoying it as much as I thought I would have.”Which brought her to her question: “is it ok to just simply not enjoy this stage?”“You’ll miss the newborn stage…” do you? byu/Moist-Government-694 inParenting“I feel like so many people are just telling me ‘you’ll miss it…’ when I see pictures on my phone of my first born as a baby, I always tend to gush over the 5-6 month stage, not the newborn stage. Anyone else feel the same?” she concluded.After literally thousands of fellow parents responded with commiseration, it’s safe to say that this woman can probably feel a lot guilty for not loving this stage. “Mine are 8 and 6. I rejoiced to be done the newborn stage. It was not a good stage for me with either of them. But watching them grow and develop into their personalities is just so cool. They get cooler every day,” one person wrote. Another added, “Not for a single second. Mine is 11 and the independence, the ability to tell me what’s wrong and what she needs. Watching her personality blossom, seeing her grow as a person is way better to me than newborn times.”Quite a few admitted the reason why they wouldn’t be having more kids was because it would involve dealing with newborns. “I hated it so much it’s one of the reasons I’m one and done,” one person shared. Another echoed, “My kids are 5 and 8, and I absolutely DO NOT miss the newborn stage. It was extremely difficult and one of the many reasons why we stopped at two kids.”For many, the sleep deprivation alone was reason enough to not ever want to deal with newborns again. Sure, having an adorably tiny little smoosh-ball is the best. But when you’re too exhausted to even exist…the magic wanes. "I didn't sleep at all. I also felt bored beyond belief and mentally stunted. It was very depressing."Photo credit: Canva“My kids didn't sleep through the night until they were 2. They were breastfed and wouldn't take bottles. I didn't sleep at all. I also felt bored beyond belief and mentally stunted. It was very depressing. My kids are now 13 and 15. I'll take teens any day,” one mom wrote.All this to say—no parenting chapter is perfect. Each will come with its own blessings and challenges, and it can be hard to differentiate between the two when you’re in the middle of it. So if you happen to be really struggling during one phase, it doesn't mean you're a bad parent. It just means you’re a human experiencing life.

In the not-so-distant past, there was a phenomenon of American children speaking in British accents thanks to a cute little cartoon about a family of pigs. Peppa Pig and her jokes at Daddy Pig's expense had American toddlers sounding like they were on holiday from England. And now, America is returning the favor (muahahaha).Turns out the accent-changing mystery is now happening in the other direction, thanks to Ms. Rachel, every little kid's favorite content creator. A mom took to TikTok to reveal how her newly talkative toddler sounds strangely American despite being born and raised in the United Kingdom. Kelly Convey lives in London with her two children, one of whom is 21-month-old Bea, who traded in her British accent for one that sounds much less fancy. (Fancy if you live in America, but I suppose if you live in the U.K., it's not fancy at all.)Convey uploaded a video of Bea saying words like "ears," "more," and "zebra." But instead of the more soft-sounding letters that her mom uses, Bea uses harder consonants and longer vowels like Ms. Rachel. Rachel Accurso is the star of the popular YouTube channel, "Songs for Littles" where she not only teaches children the pronunciation of words but sings songs about a variety of topics. Accurso started "Songs for Littles" after she realized how difficult it was to find appropriate programs to help her own child who had developmental delays. The show took off and the mom and former teacher has become a viral sensation teaching children how to speak all over the globe. @kelly_convey Born in the USA. #mumof2 #mumlife #motherhood #mumtok #mumsontiktok #mumsoftiktokuk #parenting #funnywomenoftiktok #fyptiktok #momlife #parentingtips #toddlertok #toddler #2under2 #familytiktok #missrachel #songsforlittles American Parents in the comments of Convey's video joked about how this was payback for American kids developing British accents. "Peppa Pig got Uno reversed by Miss Rachel," one person wrote."This is payback for Peppa Pig," another commenter said. "Payback for Peppa Pig and Bluey giving them British and Australian accents," one person joked. "Well you just got Peppa Pig'd," someone said.Even Ms. Rachel chimed in on the comments saying, "I'm sorry," complete with a crying laughing emoji and a blushing one with three hearts around its face. The YouTube star also recorded herself watching Convey's video of Bea's new accent. "I’m sorry, Kelly! ? Flashing back to when I thought a little girl’s parents were British because of her accent. They were American. It was Peppa!," Accurso wrote in a comment under her own video.Bea even got to see herself next to Ms. Rachel when her mom showed her the video Accurso uploaded. Who knew part of raising children in today's world would mean deciphering what accent they're speaking in during any given week. Whether it's Bluey giving kids an Australian accent, Peppa Pig and the Octonauts giving children a British accent or Ms. Rachel giving kids an American accent, it proves children are quick studies. You can watch Ms. Rachel's video below. @msrachelforlittles #duet with @Kelly Convey #mumof2 #msrachel #toddlermom This article originally appeared on 6.24.23

Some people are in the right place at the right time when tragedy strikes. A mother and her 2-year-old are both lucky to be alive after being struck by a car that was blinded by the sun. Bridgette Ponson was walking across the parking lot of Layton Christian Academy in Utah when the accident occurred. Students rushed to the car realizing that Ponson and her two small children were stuck beneath it. While the 3-year-old managed to free themselves to crawl from under the car, the mom was trapped on top of her younger child unable to move. Help arrived nearly instantly in the form of more than 20 high school students, and a United States Airman. The school's surveillance cameras caught the entire heart-stopping rescue on video as the teens struggled to lift the car. Eventually, the high schoolers were able to lift the car high enough for senior airman Dominique Childress to help pull the mom and toddler to safety.Childress was there picking up his kids when he was asked to help by his child's teacher. He explains to KSL News, “Mom was holding him, and once we were holding the car high enough, she was able (to) get up and kind of hold the car on her back as we were lifting.”Childress went on to tell KSL that the baby's face was purple and he was unconscious but the airman was able to find a pulse. The teens worked in unison to lift the car off of the trapped mom and child, not knowing it was someone from the school's administration office. Their only focus was saving the family. Theo Roach, one of the students that helped lift the car said the reality of the situation didn't click in until afterward.“It was a relief because I didn’t understand fully. I didn’t grasp the realness of the situation until I saw the kid breathing,” Roach told the outlet. But it was thanks to their quick acting that Ponson and her child were spared. The youngest child was life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City but has since been released with minor injuries. Ponson is still hospitalized and has received multiple surgeries. The school set up a GoFundMe for the family to help with medical bills and income since both Ponson and her husband will be out of work while everyone recovers. You can watch the entire interview, including the heroic rescue below.This article originally appeared on 12.8.23

We've all done it: You snap a selfie, look at it, say, "OMG is my nose swollen?" then try again from a different angle. "Wait, now my forehead looks weird. And what's up with my chin?" You keep trying various angles and distances, trying to get a picture that looks like how you remember yourself looking. Whether you finally land on one or not, you walk away from the experience wondering which photo actually looks like the "real" you. I do this, even as a 40-something-year-old who is quite comfortable with the face I see in the mirror. So, it makes me cringe imagining a tween or teen, who likely take a lot more selfies than I do, questioning their facial features based on those snapshots. When I'm wondering why my facial features look weird in selfies it's because I know my face well enough to know that's not what it looks like. However, when a young person whose face is changing rapidly sees their facial features distorted in a photo, they may come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about what they actually look like. Not that it should matter, of course. But we're talking about people living in a society obsessed with personal appearance. It's going to matter to a lot of people, and if they get the wrong impression of their face, some people will go to all sorts of lengths to change it. That's why understanding a bit about how focal lengths on cameras can impact what we see in photographs is vital.Writer Evey Winters shared some of that education in a post on Facebook. She writes about this topic through a trans and dysmorphia lens, but it applies to everyone. Winters points out that if someone is thinking of doing surgery to change their bodies, they should seek sources outside of themselves and a cellphone camera. "I have dysmorphia and recognize that in myself," she wrote, "but even if I didn’t, there’s not a selfie I’ve ever taken that would accurately help me make choices about my face. Mirrors are slightly better only for their minimal distortions.""If you want the best chance at getting good feedback pre-op about what you might want to change," she added, "I’d recommend a skilled photographer take a series of photos of you at different focal lengths and even then none of these will be entirely accurate as none of these employ humans binocular vision and filtering."Winters shared a collage of photos of the same girl's face at different focal lengths to show the significant difference it makes. "Notice how in different photos this child’s eyes may appear to be slightly hooded," she wrote. "The nose appears enlarged disproportionately. Hairline seems to shift with every snap. So does jaw shape, face shape, and even the width and size of the ears."The difference between each of these photos is significant, but the difference between the first and the last is stunning. Cellphone selfie cameras usually have an even smaller focal length than the 40 mm shown here (Winters points out that the iPhone 13 Pro Max selfie camera has the equivalent of a 23 mm focal length), so they distort facial features even more. It also depends on how far away from the camera you are—the closer you are, the more distortion you'll see. Lighting matters, too, but even the best lighting can't cancel out what the focal length is doing. Vox shared a video specifically about the "big nose" phenomenon with selfies, showing how drastic the distortion can be. As a parent of two teens and a young adult, I find these photos to be fantastic tools for teaching my kids not to put too much stock in what they see in a selfie. Far too many people are increasingly seeking out plastic surgery to change a nose or a forehead or a jawline that doesn't even really exist. Imagine looking in a funhouse mirror and thinking you need to do something to change how you look. Selfie cameras are basically mini funhouse mirrors. Smartphones and apps are getting better at making filters that adjust for those distortions, but none of us should be relying on selfies of any kind to see what we really look like, much less taking major measures to alter our appearance based on what we see in them. Even if you have some physical feature you simply can't accept and want to change, make sure you get a skilled photographer to give you the most accurate picture of what it actually looks like. As Winters concluded at the end of her post: "Make sure you’re not reshaping your body for a you that only exists in selfie cams." Thank you for the reminder, Ms. Winters. This article originally appeared on 1.18.22

There's a certain etiquette that audience members generally adhere to while watching a live performance, and that goes doubly for the opera world. But you don't have to be an opera-goer to know that it's generally frowned upon—to put it lightly—for a member of the audience to stand up and start singing right in the middle of an opera singer's performance. It ain't Lollapalooza, for crying out loud. But an audience member adding his voice to an opera performance was exactly what happened at the Verdi Festival in Parma, Italy in 2022. According to Classic FM, renowned soprano Lisette Oropesa was performing an encore at the end of her recital, singing the female part from "Sempre Libera" (Always Free) from Verdi's "La traviata." The song is a duet, usually sung between a female soprano and a male tenor, but she was performing it solo. So when the tenor part arrived and no one sang opposite her, 24-year-old Liu Jianwei, a fan of Oropesa and a student of opera at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza, stood up and filled in the gap.No one expected it. Not Oropesa. Not even Liu himself, apparently. But the pianist kept playing and Oropesa appeared to be delighted as the young man beautifully filled in the tenor part. Oropesa's initial "Oh," is written into the piece (though you can see her searching the audience for where the man's voice was coming from), but the "Oh, grazie," she added herself to say thank you. It's a good thing he had a lovely voice. Watch: @babatunde_hiphopera Reply to @campmeldinal Reply to @campmeldinal This is the best one I could find #wholesome #opera According to Classic FM, Liu took to the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo to explain himself—and to warn others not to do what he did. “I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before,” he said. “It is definitely not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being advocated. Please don’t interrupt singers when they are singing on stage. It’s impolite behavior. Don’t imitate me and I will never do this again in the future.”Many disagree with him on the "worthy of pride" part at least, and most people commenting on the video were thrilled with both the unexpected singing and the reaction from the opera star."She was so gracious and kind!! The shock and delight on her face was so wonderful!! This is beautiful," wrote one commenter."I love how her face just lights up, it's so sweet!!!" wrote another."That is the reaction of when a musician does it for the love of music," added another "They are both amazing!"And regarding the "impolite" bit:"Look I know it would technically be considered rude but he shot his shot and was successful ?. Can’t blame him one bit.".Liu approached Oropesa after the concert to apologize. She took photos with him and gave him her autograph. Brava and bravo to them both.This article originally appeared on 1.12.22