Did police do the right thing?

'He's one against seven!'

'A significant risk of further escalation'

We Checked‚ And Don Lemon Told A Series Of Whoppers During The Elon Musk Interview

'Get back here. We aren't playing your games. We know what you're doing here'

Angel Reese is headed to the WNBA

Our list of the Top 10 String Cheese Incident Songs introduces a band whose eclectic music blends progressive bluegrass‚ psychedelia‚ country‚ and rock elements. Active since 1993‚ the group initially performed at private events and ski resorts before founding their independent label‚ SCI Fidelity. Under this label‚ they released their eagerly anticipated debut album‚ Born on the Wrong Planet‚ which showcased a mix of original compositions and covers‚ all characterized by a melodic approach. Their follow-up album‚ self-titled and recorded live at Colorado’s Fox Theatre‚ soon followed. By the time they considered their third album‚ Round the Wheel‚ the band The post Top 10 String Cheese Incident Songs appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

President Joe Biden released his official fiscal 2025 defense budget request in March‚ and in the document‚ his administration’s misguided priorities are on full display. While paying lip service to the concept of China as the primary challenge for the United States‚ the official request fails to align spending with strategy. Most egregiously‚ the request fails to procure the ships‚ aircraft‚ and munitions the military needs to deter China in the Indo-Pacific. It is‚ in a word‚ insufficient to keep the American people safe. In response‚ The Heritage Foundation has produced an alternative “Conservative Defense Budget for Fiscal Year 2025‚” which details what a fiscally conservative and strategically focused conservative defense budget would look like. >;>;>;Read more: “A Conservative Defense Budget for Fiscal Year 2025” By contrast‚ to account for the historically high inflation levels throughout this administration’s tenure and to provide a real increase in military capacity‚ the fiscal 2025 conservative budget calls for a roughly 3% overall increase over the official fiscal 2024 request (as opposed to the 1% increase called for in the president’s fiscal 2025 request) with procurement accounting for the majority of new funding. It also calls for procurement in addition to that new spending‚ to be funded by shifts from elsewhere within the defense budget. Ships‚ aircraft‚ and munitions are the basis of real military capacity that potential adversaries are prioritizing and need to be similarly prioritized within the U.S. defense budget. When faced with budget constraints‚ the services invariably cut procurement. In the official fiscal 2025 request‚ for example‚ the Navy chose to cut a Virginia-class submarine and the Air Force opted to cut its procurement of F-35 fighter jets. Meanwhile‚ the Air Force increased its Research‚ Development‚ Test‚ and Evaluation (RDT&;E) budget‚ and the Navy proposed to hire an additional 2‚000 civilian employees. But procurement of critical capabilities‚ such as ships and aircraft‚ should be the last place the Pentagon chooses to cut when faced with budget constraints‚ particularly given the near-term challenge posed by China’s dramatic military buildup. Within RDT&;E‚ the Defense Department must focus spending on the projects that are most likely to produce real military capacity‚ such as the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform. Generalized RDT&;E projects‚ RDT&;E projects of secondary importance‚ and all nondefense RDT&;E projects must be cut and reallocated to the procurement of ships‚ planes‚ and munitions. The conservative defense budget supports the troops by endorsing the requested 4.5% pay raise‚ reallocating $400 million toward family housing to improve the lives of service members‚ and advocating for the end of the politicized‚ woke policies negatively affecting readiness and recruiting. In terms of strategy‚ the conservative defense budget endorses a strategy of denial in the Indo-Pacific. The strategy of denial’s primary objective is to deny Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific even as U.S. forces defend the U.S. homeland and work closely with allies and partners to counter other threats. The United States faces an increasingly dangerous world‚ and it has limited resources with which to confront all the threats to the nation—a reality that Biden’s defense budget request regrettably does not recognize. As a result‚ it’s increasingly vital for the United States—and the Defense Department in particular—to prioritize the Indo-Pacific. That means focusing U.S. forces first and foremost on defending the U.S. homeland and denying China’s imperial ambitions while supporting U.S. allies and partners to lead efforts to defend against other threats. In doing so‚ the United States can protect Americans’ security‚ freedom‚ and prosperity‚ while also strengthening America’s alliances and partnerships around the world so that they‚ too‚ can live without fear. To resource this strategy of denial‚ U.S. defense spending will have to focus on the procurement of ships‚ planes‚ and munitions relevant to the Indo-Pacific. The conservative defense budget contains detailed recommendations for munitions procurement‚ and advocates for the Navy to purchase two Virginia-class submarines and two Constellation-class frigates in fiscal 2025. Defense spending should flow from strategy and should be focused on military capacity and lethality. Nondefense spending‚ politicized initiatives within the Pentagon‚ and unfocused spending all distract from the military’s core mission of defending the American people. Given the dramatic expansion of Chinese military capabilities in recent years‚ U.S. defense spending must focus on capabilities that are relevant to deterring China in the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon has neglected the procurement of new ships‚ planes‚ and munitions for decades. The recommendations in this special report go a long way toward reversing those negative trends and ensuring that the U.S. military is capable and ready to carry out its mission. The post What the Conservative Fiscal ’25 Defense Budget Would Prioritize appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A ballot initiative OK’d by the Florida Supreme Court perpetuates abortion advocates’ favored strategy of using vague definitions of “health” to expand abortion on demand. Florida voters will face a referendum measure in November that would allow abortion up to the moment of birth if deemed “necessary to protect the patient’s health” after the state Supreme Court’s decision on Monday allowing the measure on the ballot. Amendment 4‚ the so-called Amendment to Limit Government Interference With Abortion‚ is being pushed by a pro-abortion political committee‚ Floridians Protecting Freedom. The proposal’s vague definition of “health” is similar to that of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Doe v. Bolton‚ which defined “health” of the mother as “all factors” affecting the woman.  The Supreme Court held in Roe v. Wade that same year that states could issue no regulations for first-trimester abortions and some regulations for second-trimester abortions‚ but only for the purpose of protecting the “health” of the mother. In the third trimester‚ when the unborn child is viable‚ the since-overturned Roe allowed states to make abortion illegal contingent on the existence of exceptions to protect the mother’s life and “health.” Doe v. Bolton‚ the lesser-known case decided on the same day as Roe‚ defined the “health” of the mother as “all factors” that affect the woman‚ including “physical‚ emotional‚ psychological‚ familial‚ and the woman’s age‚” drastically expanding the allowable abortions legalized by Roe.  Florida’s Amendment 4 similarly would prohibit restrictions on abortion when “necessary to protect the patient’s health‚ as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”  The proposal would circumvent current state law protecting unborn children with a heartbeat. On the same day the Florida court approved the ballot initiative‚ it upheld a state law protecting unborn children from most abortions after 15 weeks‚ enabling a six-week abortion ban approved last year to take effect on May 1. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the six-week ban into law last April‚ but it couldn’t take effect unless the 15-week ban survived legal challenges in the state Supreme Court.  Because the text of the constitutional amendment contains no definition of “health” or “health care provider‚” the measure would likely legalize abortion at any stage of the pregnancy if anyone who claims medical expertise asserts the mother would benefit from it physically‚ emotionally‚ or otherwise.  Florida statutes define a health care provider as “a physician licensed under chapter 458‚ an osteopathic physician licensed under chapter 459‚ a podiatric physician licensed under chapter 461‚ or an advanced practice registered nurse registered under 464.0123.” If it receives 60% of the vote in November‚ the ballot initiative would allow any doctor‚ osteopath‚ podiatrist‚ or nurse to determine if a woman’s health could in any way benefit from ending the life of her unborn child.  Michigan voters legalized abortion up until birth with similarly vague language in a November 2022 ballot initiative. Proposal 3 prohibited laws against abortion if a “health care professional” deemed it to be “medically needed to protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health.” Broad and unclear definitions of health have allowed half a century of violence against the unborn after Doe v. Bolton‚ and have ended thousands of lives in Michigan with the passage of Proposal 3.  In November‚ Florida voters will have the chance to stop another vague definition of health from turning the Sunshine State from one of the states with the most protections for the unborn to the most pro-abortion state in the South.  The post Pro-Abortion Ballot Initiative in Florida Aims to Trick Voters With Vague Definition of ‘Health’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

This week‚ famed British atheist Richard Dawkins explained that he was a “cultural Christian.” Praising civilization in the United Kingdom‚ Dawkins stated: I do think that we are culturally a Christian country. I call myself a cultural Christian. I’m not a believer. But there is a distinction between being a believing Christian and being a cultural Christian. And so‚ you know‚ I love hymns and Christmas carols‚ and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos. I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense. Dawkins went on to praise Christianity as a “fundamentally decent religion in a way that I think Islam is not.” Dawkins’ case for Christianity—a case made on the basis of utility—is nothing new. It was made long ago by Voltaire‚ an acidic critic of the church who famously averred‚ “If God did not exist‚ it would be necessary to invent him.” But the problem with the utilitarian case for religious belief is that it doesn’t animate religious believers. It is simply impossible to build a civilization on the basis of Judeo-Christian foundations while making the active case as to why those foundations ought to be dissolved. In fact‚ Western civilization has doomed itself so long as it fails to reconnect to its religious roots. Philosopher Will Herberg wrote: The moral principles of Western civilization are‚ in fact‚ all derived from the tradition rooted in Scripture and have vital meaning only in the context of that tradition. … Cut flowers retain their original beauty and fragrance‚ but only so long as they retain the vitality that they have drawn from their now severed roots; after that is exhausted‚ they wither and die. So with freedom‚ brotherhood‚ justice and personal dignity—the values that form the moral foundation of our civilization. Without the life-giving power of the faith out of which they have sprung‚ they possess neither meaning nor vitality. We are a cut flowers civilization. And eventually‚ cut flowers die. That has never been more obvious than this week‚ when the Biden administration decided to honor the newly invented Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday. Gender ideology is a symptom of our society’s reversion to gnostic paganism‚ in which unseen‚ chaotic forces buffet us about‚ and in which nature is directly opposed to the freedom of our disembodied essences. It is no wonder that gender ideology is opposed by every mainstream traditional religion. Yet claiming that this magical holiday could not be moved‚ the White House issued a variety of statements in celebration of radical gender ideology‚ including a deeply insulting statement from the president of the United States citing the book of Genesis to the effect that transgender people are “made in the image of God”—ignoring the last half of the biblical verse‚ which reads‚ “male and female he made them.” What better time than Easter‚ the holiest day in the Christian calendar‚ to pay homage to an entirely new religion? Richard Dawkins is obviously correct that a civilization rooted in church is better than a civilization rooted in an alternative set of values. But in reality‚ the churches cannot be empty; they must be full. The cathedrals that mean Britain to Dawkins must ring with the sounds of hymns in order to maintain their holiness and their importance; otherwise‚ they are merely beautiful examples of old architecture‚ remnants of a dead civilization preserved in stone. But our civilization must live. And that means more than cultural Christianity. It means reengaging with the source of our values—the Scriptures that educated our fathers and grandfathers. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.  The post The Cut Flowers Civilization appeared first on The Daily Signal.