Equestrian jumper Laura Kraut broke a record after she helped USA earn a silver in the team event this week. The five-time olympian ran an impressive course on August 2, and her score helped her fellow riders win the silver for the second Olympics in a row. At that time, Laura became the oldest American to win an Olympic medal in 72 years. According to the Guardian, “At 58, she is the oldest American to medal at the Olympics since Everard “Ducky” Endt, who won a sailing gold medal at the Helsinki Games in 1952 at the age of 59.” Laura is no stranger to medals, either. Alongside the Olympic jumping team, Laura earned gold in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and silver at the last Olympic games in Tokyo. You can watch Laura Kraut’s gorgeous run here. Olympic Team Jumping Oldest Medal Winner Youtube. Another famous name is her horse, Baloutinue. The event commentator mentioned that Laura Kraut and Baloutinue had “by far the fastest round of all.” Even Laura was impressed with her steed. She told commentators, “he is so fast he reminds me of a thoroughbred.” The duo first met as Laura was preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. While they ended up being the perfect match, Laura admitted she had very little time to get aquatinted with Baloutinue. “I hardly knew him at all,” she said, per the commentator. “We hardly knew what he liked to eat.” Nonetheless, Laura and Baloutinue helped the Olympic jumping team take silver in that event when she was 55 years old. The Dynamic Duo: Laura Kraut and Horse Baloutinue As the announcer added, “Laura is a naturally fast rider, and this horse is a naturally careful horse, meaning he doesn’t like to touch the fences.” Spectators could see the validity in both statements as Baloutinue flew over the hurdles effortlessly, and Laura got an impressive speed of 77.45 seconds. Another area that Laura Kraut is thriving in is her family life. Commentators tell the crowd that she recently became a grandmother. Gaining medals and having grandbabies, Laura Kraut is having the time of her life. The source of the featured image can be found here. The post Laura Kraut Made History After This Gorgeous Run Helped USA Earn The Silver In Equestrian Team Jumping appeared first on InspireMore.

Willie Spence wowed the country during his stint on American Idol season 19 in 2021. He was the runner-up who started his journey with a chilling rendition of Rhianna’s Diamonds. He had great things on the horizon and the judges loved his angelic voice. Tragically, Willie died from injuries sustained in a car accident in October 2022 at the age of 23. Willie’s memory lives on through his music after his untimely death. A haunting viral clip of Willie performing Diamonds in 2017 recently resurfaced on several social media pages, ushering in a new generation of fans. UFC star Dustin Poirier chose Willie’s cover of Diamonds as his walkout song for the UFC 302 main event in May as a tribute to the late singer. Fans call Dustin “The Diamond” in the UFC circle, and with rumors that the May event may have been his last, Diamonds was a fitting choice. Fans Flocked To Willie Spence’s YouTube After announcing he’d be using Willie’s version of Diamonds, fans of the fighter and singer shared the news in the comment section of the 2017 YouTube clip. “RIP, hopefully Dustin can win this one so this guy’s voice is remembered for the years and years to come!!” Another person wrote, “Everyone here ’cause Dustin but the OGs only knew about Willie. Rest in paradise king. Thank you for amazing covers, songs, and content.” Willie’s fans loved his voice. “This is the first song I heard Willie sing and I fell in love [with] his voice. Voice of a true angel now RIP Willie.” This person agreed, “Can you imagine the joy he is bringing to everyone up there? Wish I had 1% of his talent.” Dustin ultimately lost the match by submission to Islam Makhachev. He brought many to Willie’s page, and they thanked him for the introduction. “People came for Dustin and stayed for the music.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Resurfaced Video Of The Late Willie Spence’s “Diamonds” Cover Is So Beautiful It Will Give You Chills appeared first on InspireMore.

'Part of the blessing for me was not getting married before now'

Our article, “10 Best 1950s Debut Singles and Rock Music,” presents a showcase not only of a select group of artists’ debut singles but also a look back at the origins of rock and roll and the songs that changed the world. Much is made in classic rock history about the arrival of The Beatles in 1963 and how they turned the world upside down. Of course, that is very true and a huge part of the rock and roll story. However, there would have never been The Beatles if it weren’t for the musical artists who got the rock The post 10 Best 1950’s Debut Singles In Rock Music appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

The Slavery of Just Enough: Sunday Reflection

Any day now, we’ll learn who Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen as her 2024 running mate. But there’s no suspense about how the media will react, since liberal journalists have consistently praised and promoted every Democratic vice presidential nominee since the early 1990s. One constant feature of the media’s fawning coverage has been to insist that all of these candidates — even the most left-wing nominees — are actually “moderate,” or even “conservative.” CBS’s Richard Threlkeld, for example, claimed after Senator Al Gore’s selection in 1992 that “both Gore and [Bill] Clinton are centrist, some would say conservative, Democrats...” Yet in the last full legislative year before Gore was selected (1991), he received an approval rating of just 14% from the American Conservative Union (ACU); that fell to zero in 1992. CNN’s Candy Crowley sang the same song in 2004, when Senator John Kerry tapped North Carolina Senator John Edwards to join his ticket: “It is good old-fashioned ticket balance: a Northeastern Democrat on the liberal side, a Southern Democrat on the moderate side.” Yet, similar to Gore 12 years earlier, Edwards’s ACU rating in 2003 was just 13%, and it dropped to zero in 2004. And just four years ago, CBS’s Anthony Mason attempted to brand the ultra-liberal Kamala Harris as a “conservative choice” for VP. Mason tossed this softball to Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett: “What does it say to you about the state of the Democratic Party that the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and from India was kind of the conservative choice here?” The ACU assigned Harris a score of zero in 2019, and just 9% in 2020. It’s not just lying about their liberalism. In the media’s telling of the story, Democratic nominees are “smart,” “sexy,” super-popular, regular guys, who will mop the floor with their GOP counterparts. (Earlier, we detailed how Republican VP candidates are routinely derided as too conservative, too mean-spirited, too unqualified, too religious, too extreme, and/or too dumb.) It’s an in-kind contribution that the media elite faithfully offer up each and every election year. Here’s a sample of how the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominees were covered by the press after they were selected: AL GORE, 1992 & 1996 ■ “Even liberal Democrats now...think that Al Gore and Bill Clinton could be a winning ticket. They’re willing to swallow the problems that they have with such a conservative pair in hopes of winning.”— CBS reporter Susan Spencer, July 13, 1992 convention coverage. ■ “One of the biggest advantages in choosing Gore as a political partner is the Senator’s track record on the environment. He is a best-selling author on the subject. It’s a track record the White House tries to paint as extremist. But Gore has already received the endorsement as an outstanding choice by the Sierra Club and other powerful conservation groups.”— ABC reporter Jim Hickey, July 10, 1992 Good Morning America. ■ “I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put out their stats.”— Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift on Clinton and Gore, CNN’s Inside Politics, July 10, 1992. ■ “Though Al Gore relishes politics almost as much as his boss does, tonight he is next door in the Old Executive Office Building, doing what he really loves: thinking about complexity theory, open systems, Goethe and the absence of scientific metaphors in modern society. He’s writing a speech, and the elegant Ceremonial Office is strewn with pizza cartons and Diet Coke cans...Clinton may lead the country into the millennium, but it is Gore who truly embodies the new century’s possibilities and anxieties.”— Newsweek reporter Bill Turque, September 2, 1996. JOE LIEBERMAN, 2000 ■ “Lieberman is noted for his moderate voting record and high moral standards.”— CBS Evening News fill-in anchor Steve Kroft, August 7, 2000. ■ “Lieberman is a true centrist, a moderate who can build coalitions. You know how the Republicans in Philadelphia kept trying to show how moderate they were? Well, this trumps anything the Republicans had to say.”—  CNN analyst Bill Schneider, August 7, 2000 Inside Politics. ■ “He’s known as a moderate Democrat, who had demonstrated fiscal conservatism in the Senate and a kind of hawkishness in foreign policy.”— ABC correspondent Terry Moran on the August 7, 2000 Good Morning America. ■ “This is the most conservative Democratic ticket in at least 50 years.”—  CNN political analyst William Schneider, August 15, 2000. Reality Check: Americans for Democratic Action had assigned Lieberman a near-perfect 95% liberal rating for the previous year (1999), while the American Conservative Union gave him a zero percent conservative score. JOHN EDWARDS, 2004 ■ “Edwards’s ingratiating incandescence has already brightened Kerry. The two became a buddy-buddy act, hugging and whispering like Starsky and Hutch after consuming the evidence.”— Newsweek’s Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe as part of a July 19, 2004 cover package on Kerry and Edwards headlined “The Sunshine Boys?” ■ “A passionate speaker and a prolific fund-raiser, the campaign hopes the 51-year-old North Carolinian’s ‘I’m the son of a mill worker’ message will connect with working class voters in battleground states. With a style as syrupy as Carolina sweet tea, Edwards could also help in the South. He’s a proven vote-getter in South Carolina, the state where he was born and won the February primary.”— Byron Pitts on the July 6, 2004 CBS Evening News. ■ “Somewhere along the way, the redneck son of a mill worker from rural North Carolina morphed into an almost-perfect candidate....The America that Edwards dreams of is a place where there’s no crime, no poverty and no pushing. That place, of course, just happens to be John Kerry’s America....It’s as if Edwards’s main message is his positivity. He loves the crowd, and the crowd loves him. He smiles at the crowd, and they smile at him. He speaks to the crowd, and they speak to him.”— Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe in a “Web-exclusive commentary” posted on his magazine’s Web site July 14, 2004. JOE BIDEN, 2008 & 2012 ■ “At 65, Joe Biden brings a wealth of experience into the equation. Obama was only 11-years-old when Biden was first elected senator, and he’s carved out a long record of accomplishment, especially on foreign policy.— Correspondent Dean Reynolds on CBS’s Early Show, August 25, 2008. ■ “The international experience comes from a fervor to do good and to come to a consensus and present America’s best foot forward....That’s a very powerful combination. If you’ve got a Vice President who looks like he can do something and doesn’t want anything more than to see it done, that seems to be a pretty good starting point.— Keith Olbermann during MSNBC’s live coverage of Biden’s selection, August 23, 2008. ■ “Pundits talk about Biden’s foreign policy experience, his ability to attack Republicans and the strength he brings in a key battleground state like Pennsylvania. But for the Amtrak Senator, it’s about working people he feels a part of....”— MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle profiling Biden on the Today show, August 27, 2008. ■ “He’s No. 2 on the ticket but No. 1 in their hearts. Women born before the baby boom generation seem to have a collective crush on a handsome vice presidential candidate with piercing blue eyes and a wide smile who likes to talk about government benefits for seniors. No, not Paul Ryan. Joe Biden’s bringing sexy back....”— Politico’s Jonathan Allen in an October 2, 2012 story posted to his newspaper’s Web site, “Joe Biden, Sex Symbol?” TIM KAINE, 2016 ■ Co-host Joe Scarborough: “I think Tim Kaine is about as good of a choice – ”Co-host Mika Brzezinski: “He’s awesome.” Scarborough: “ – as Hillary Clinton could have made....I think it was a home run.”...Bloomberg’s John Heilemann: “Between him and Hillary Clinton, this is the most qualified ticket in terms of sheer resume that’s ever run on either ticket in the history of the election.”— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, July 25, 2016. ■ “Kaine checks all the political boxes. Experience — serving at every level of elected office from mayor to U.S. Senator. Battleground credentials — representing Virginia, a key swing state. And fluency in Spanish — speaking directly to crucial Latino voters. To relax, the 58-year-old plays a mean harmonica. His band, the Jug Busters....A devout Catholic who took time away from Harvard Law School to serve as a missionary in Honduras, Kaine attends a mostly black church in a working class neighborhood.”— NBC correspondent Peter Alexander on Today, July 27, 2016. ■ “There’s a suburban dad quality to him, every man, whatever cliche you want to use about it. But there’s a genuineness about it. He seemed conversational in it, and there was — it exuded credibility when he took after Trump.”— NBC’s Chuck Todd during his network’s live coverage of the Democratic convention, July 27, 2016. KAMALA HARRIS, 2020 ■ “She’s so impressive....She is, in my mind, the finest prosecutor I’ve ever seen in my life of watching politics and Washington lawmakers. She’s just unbelievably smart, articulate, and good.”— CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley on CNN Tonight, August 11. ■ “She cares about women’s issues. She cares about equality deep within her soul, from her own experience. We’ve had a great time knowing her so far, and it’s kind of exciting, this pick.”— Co-host Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, August 12. ■ “I thought Kamala Harris gave a fantastic speech. She absolutely nailed it. I think this is one of the finest performances I’ve seen her deliver in terms of a speech. She has tremendous range as a speaker. There are times when she’s incredibly warm and funny and light. She’s talking about spending time with her nieces and her step-kids, being called ‘Mamala,’ cooking dinner.”— Senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson on CNN’s The Situation Room, August 12. ■ “Both of them [Joe Biden and Kamala Harris], they strengthen each other….They’re both steadier together. They’re both stronger together. That was such a beautiful thing to see. I think if you’re going to give a headline today it would be ‘Hope Reborn.’ That’s what I felt. Hope reborn. You just haven’t heard people talking that way about the country and cutting through and seeming authentic...They blew me away. Both of them were stronger today than I’ve seen them in a very long time, if ever.”— Political commentator Van Jones on CNN’s The Situation Room, August 12, 2020. ■ “It’s not just women of color who are celebrating Kamala Harris, it’s women of all colors who are cheering her on. And she seems to check a lot of boxes. I find the Jamaican community’s cheering for her, the Indian community’s cheering for her, the Asian community’s cheering for her, and certainly black America is cheering for her. But I’ve had a lot of white women, too, who have reached out to me and said this is just a great look, as they say, for women all over the world.”— Co-host Gayle King on CBS This Morning, August 19, 2020. For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.                          

There’s a concerning trend in the West: Church attendance is declining, and fewer people are identifying as Christian. In Great Britain, atheism is the most popular religion and Christianity is declining, while Islam is rising due to mass migration from the Middle East into Europe. On "Zero Hour," Calvin Robinson, a British conservative commentator, writer, and an ordained priest in the Nordic Catholic Church, sat down with James Polous to discuss this trend, and he explained how the woke and progressive cult is responsible. To fix the problem, Robinson believes nations must “go back to the root” and embrace Christianity. For Robinson, that requires abandoning the desire for a secular liberal utopia, which some on the right have advocated for. “The West was built on Christendom. We've stripped those values away and assumed we can have some kind of neutrality — we can have all ideas being equal, all cultures being equal, all religions being equal. That's not possible,” Robinson argues. Secularism is rooted in moral subjectivity, which is why it fails. Because truth is objective, not all beliefs are equal; Christianity is either true or false. So if it is accurate, and Robinson strongly believes it is, nations should embrace it. But even if it’s not, secularism is not the solution. “Even if you don't believe [in Christ], you have to believe in an objective truth; otherwise you're grasping in anything,” Robinson tells Polous. What’s more, leftists don’t want a morally neutral society where people are free to disagree. They advocate for a radically progressive society disguised as diversity. “The people who are preaching about diversity don't want diversity of thought and opinion. They want superficial diversity of skin color and immutable characteristics. The people who are talking about inclusivity don't want to include people that have different opinions to themselves,” Robinson says. To hear more of what Calvin Robinson had to say about Christianity, Western civilization, wokeism, Brexit, and more, watch the full episode of "Zero Hour with James Poulos." America was convinced tech would complete our mastery of the world. Instead, we got catastrophe — constant crises from politics and the economy down to the spiritual fiber of our being. Time’s up for the era we grew up in. How do we pick ourselves up and begin again? To find out, visionary author and media theorist James Poulos cracks open the minds — and hearts — of today’s top figures in politics, tech, ideas, and culture on "Zero Hour" on BlazeTV.