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When most athletes look back on their glory days, it’s the game-winning plays and the intense team camaraderie they want to relive.

Not former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

‘My victory was secure on the cross … and it doesn’t matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament.’

Ten years after he first knelt in protest during the National Anthem, the onetime culture warrior has written a book. His publisher describes “The Perilous Fight” as “equal parts memoir and manifesto.”

Kaepernick may miss that era — after opting out of his contract in 2017, he never played for another NFL team again — but it’s safe to say most fans are happy to have moved on.

In fact, there’s been a different kind of rebellion brewing in pro sports lately — quieter and less disruptive, but no less profound.

Players taking a knee today are more likely doing it to pray than posture — and they don’t seem especially concerned with who’s watching.

While faith has always had its place in sports, this boldness is something new. These aren’t symbolic gestures or vague references to “the man upstairs” but unabashed statements of conviction: Christ comes first.

Here are five Christian athletes proudly living their faith.

1. C.J. Stroud

Stroud doesn’t treat faith as a postgame add-on. The Houston Texans quarterback consistently credits his success to God.

Even after a career-worst performance led to a crushing playoff loss against the Patriots, Stroud kept it in perspective: “Before I do anything, I want to give God the glory — my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Without Him, I’m nothing. I just appreciate Him giving me this opportunity, this platform to play this great game with this great organization.”

2. Brock Purdy

Brooke Sutton/Getty Images

49ers quarterback Brock Purdy may have been last pick in the 2022 NFL draft, but his subsequent success has shown he’s no “Mr. Irrelevant.” His legendary predecessor Steve Young says that makes sense, considering that the greatest QBs aren’t flashy, but “at peace.”

The secret to Purdy’s serenity? Founding his identity on faith, not football: “No matter what I’m going to face moving forward … football, God, and Jesus are going to be my identity.”

3. Scottie Scheffler

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

For someone who’s the highest ranked golfer in the world, Scottie Scheffler doesn’t seem too interested in keeping score.

After his second Masters victory in 2024, the 29-year-old made it clear that he’s got his eyes on a higher prize.

“My buddies told me this morning, my victory was secure on the cross,” he said. “And that’s a pretty special feeling to know that I’m secure for forever, and it doesn’t matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament. My identity is secure for forever.”

4. Clayton Kershaw

Michael Chisholm/Getty Images

Clayton Kershaw was always the kind of player who let his performance do the talking. Over 18 years pitching for the Dodgers, the left-hander racked up three Cy Young awards, 3,000 strikeouts, and three World Series titles — including last year’s, his final season.

He brings that quiet excellence to his life as a Christian as well, putting his time and energy into Kershaw’s Challenge, the Christian charity he and his wife run. When the Dodgers insisted on holding “Pride Night” in 2025, he countered by writing “Genesis 9:12-16” on his hat — drawing attention to the rainbow’s older, sacred meaning.

5. Stephen Curry

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Stephen Curry may have been born into basketball — his father played for the Charlotte Hornets — but it was his family’s deep faith that formed his life.

Early in his career as a Golden State Warrior, the gifted point guard made his priorities clear:

The Holy Spirit is moving through our locker room in a way I’ve never experienced before. It’s allowing us to reach a lot of people, and personally I am just trying to use this stage to share how God has been a blessing to my life and how He can be the same in everyone else’s.

More than a decade later, Curry is still at the top of his game — and making sure his three kids get the same faith-first upbringing he did.

​Sports, Christianity, Colin kaepernick, Stephen curry, Scottie scheffler, Clayton kershaw, C.j. stroud, Brock purdy, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Religion, Faith 

An old comment from Pope Leo XIV is circulating widely again on social media amid his ongoing apostolic journey to Africa, where he has been meeting with Muslim leaders and visiting Muslim holy sites, including the Grand Mosque of Algiers.

In December 2025, during an in-flight press conference on the papal plane returning from his trip to Turkey and Lebanon, the pope said, “I think one of the great lessons that Lebanon can teach to the world is precisely showing a land where Islam and Christianity are both present and are respected and that there is a possibility to live together, to be friends.”

He added: “I think those are lessons that would be important also to be heard in Europe or North America. We should perhaps be a little less fearful and look for ways of promoting authentic dialogue and respect.”

Liz Wheeler, BlazeTV host of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” is deeply disappointed to hear “the successor of Saint Peter [articulating] leftist political opinions.”

Liz shares some harrowing statistics: “93% of the 4,849 Christians who were murdered for their faith last year were murdered by Muslims, by Islamists, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.”

“The pope is visiting Africa as we speak, and I would wonder if he visited the mass graves of the Catholics slaughtered in Africa,” she says, playing a video clip of a Nigerian Catholic priest pleading for Western intervention, as he stands behind the body of a woman murdered for her faith by Muslim radicals.

“[The pope] put a wreath on a Muslim grave yesterday in Algeria to commemorate Algerians that were killed in their war of independence. What he didn’t mention was these Algerians who were killed were fighting Catholics. They murdered Catholics,” she continues.

“It is discouraging to hear the pope tell us to be less fearful of Islam as if we’re in sin for this — for recognizing the fanatical nature of their religious belief in jihad, which is based on our observation that our differences with Muslims are not relegated to something in the past,” she says.

“It wasn’t just a battle during the Crusades centuries ago, but it’s happening now. The massacre of Christians is happening today in Africa at the hands of Islamists who are killing in the name of their religion.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Algiers, Blaze media, Blazetv, Catholics, Christianity, Extra ecclesiam nulla salus, Grand mosque, Invincible ignorance, Jihad, Leftist political opinions, Liz wheeler, Muslim leaders, Muslim radicals, Nigerian catholic priest, Nostra aetate, Persecution, Pope leo xiv, Subsaharan africa, The liz wheeler show, Vatican ii, Western intervention 

As the state of New York continues to experience a mass exodus of its richest denizens, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is getting desperate.

On March 11, during a Politico New York Agenda: Albany Summit, Hochul essentially admitted that the state is toast without the rich to sustain its costly social programs.

“I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state, right? Now there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. … But maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded,” she said.

Glenn Beck was shocked by her brazen treatment of the wealthy as cash cows.

“Do you hear what she’s saying there? I need people of high net worth because I need their money to do stuff in the state,” he scoffs.

Glenn says that the reason he doesn’t permanently move to Idaho, where his vacation home is located, is because of a single interaction he had with a Republican politician in the state.

“When I went to speak to some of the Republicans up in the House and the Senate in Idaho … a Republican came up to me and said … ‘We hope you [move here], because we want to add you to the tax base,”’ he recounts. “And I said, ‘You know what? You’ve guaranteed that I will never move to Idaho.”’

Similarly, ex-New Yorkers have zero incentive to return to the state. “If you live in the city, you’re already taking an additional 12%, plus the state gets their [cut] as well, plus the federal government,” says Glenn, “so, you know, if you’re making good money, you get to keep, like, I don’t know, 40% of it.”

“Who doesn’t want to live like that?” he asks sarcastically.

Glenn speculates that Hochul’s desperate pleading won’t produce the results she desires and neither will her proposal to implement an annual tax surcharge on luxury second homes in New York City that are valued at $5 million or more.

Announced on April 15, the new surcharge, which would be on top of regular property taxes, is designed to make ultra-wealthy non-residents who do not pay city or state income taxes “contribute their fair share” to city services so that New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) can close the city’s budget gap.

The choice is simple, says Glenn: “Pay none of that in Texas or Florida or Tennessee,” or “go back [to New York] and pay all of that and then pay an extra if you have something that [Kathy Hochul] thinks is too much.”

“I’m so tempted to go back to New York right now. … I’m like, I don’t know, should I live in Florida or should I maybe go back to New York City and help them build that supermarket?” he mocks.

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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​Democrat governor, Generous social programs, Glenn beck, Kathy hochul, Mass exodus, New york, New york city, Nyc, Social programs, Socialist mayor, The glenn beck program, Zohran mamdani 

Artificial intelligence has taken the wired world by storm, but the backlash came almost as fast. Progressives complain about job losses, environmentalists question the ecological impacts of large data centers, and local activists clamor for assurances that household utility bills won’t skyrocket because of the centers’ voracious electricity demands. Others simply worry that the technology will overwhelm humans’ ability to control it.

At least in part, these reactions stem from the overselling of AI.

AI is super cool, but it’s not superhuman, nor is it superintelligent. AI is simply very fast processing of vast amounts of data.

Intelligence, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are distinct concepts. The distinctions among them elucidate the scope and limits of both human and electronic “intelligence.”

AI models are amazing and useful despite being incomprehensible to most of us, but AI is not infallible.

Intelligence is the ability to process information into an internally coherent framework that is useful and adds or detracts from knowledge to the extent that it is more or less accurate. Knowledge is the accumulation of information organized into coherent frames or models that help us understand. Understanding is awareness of the significance, purpose, or meaning of accumulated knowledge.

And wisdom is judgment seasoned by experience and the awareness that intelligence, knowledge, and understanding are limited, inherently flawed, and useful only to the extent that they advance a worthwhile purpose.

Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Oracle of Delphi reportedly declared that no man was wiser than Socrates. Socrates claimed to be stunned by this because he was keenly aware of how much he didn’t know. But after talking to others widely acclaimed to be knowledgeable, such as the leading politicians, poets, philosophers, and artisans of his day, he discerned this Delphic wisdom: Those claiming knowledge were ignorant of their own ignorance, whereas Socrates knew he knew nothing.

For this insight, Socrates was put to death for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, thereby proving for all time both the foolishness of his accusers’ certainty and the wisdom of Socratic questioning.

This bears repeating today, as we enter the age of artificial intelligence: It’s wise to question the “intelligence” of machines, the “knowledge” they propagate, and our understanding of the significance and limits of the technology.

AI models are amazing and useful despite being incomprehensible to most of us, but AI is not infallible. AI will expand human knowledge and understanding of the world only if and to the extent that human users are encouraged to question AI results, processes, and functions.

People make mistakes, as do those who make and train the machines. Still, people tend to trust machines more than people, especially with respect to processing information that is harder to process. For example, tennis players have more faith in electronic line calls than in human ones, although that faith in the new technology has been shaken by errors, such as inconsistent ball marks with electronic line calls.

As AI use spreads, people will increasingly rely on AI and trust its results for routine tasks, like Google searches, while most people remain more skeptical of AI results for more complex tasks and do not trust AI to act to handle certain tasks for its users without human intervention.

It’s wise to question AI’s results; errors are common even in routine searches.

Examples of AI errors, hallucinations, and political bias are common. A Northwestern University business school professor of my acquaintance recently asked ChatGPT for advice evaluating investment alternatives. ChatGPT recommended that he invest in a particular fund and described in detail that fund’s returns, risks, and assets. When the professor went to invest in ChatGPT’s recommended fund, he discovered that the fund did not actually exist; ChatGPT made it all up, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “AI hallucination.”

Indeed, AI can screw up even mundane tasks: In my research for this piece, a Google AI summary ascribed quotes to Socrates that are not supported by any historical record.

Artificial intelligence — like human intelligence — is prone to error and is not always reliable, but that’s to be expected, especially in a fledgling technology. AI is artificial intelligence, not artificial knowledge, understanding, or wisdom. AI is a processor, a very fast processor, that organizes and distills information, and organized information is easier to evaluate and use by humans than vast amounts of unorganized information.

Properly understood, AI supplements and does not replace human intelligence, knowledge, or understanding; plus, the limitations and faults within these amazing models remind us that human intelligence is limited, too. Human intelligence imperfectly organizes the imperfect data to which a human has access and frames data in a subjective, not an objective, manner.

Many of us expect the machines that humans make to have “better” intelligence than the intelligence of its human creators — more objective, more comprehensive, more insightful. This is a naïve hope. In one sense, it is “better.” AI organizes more information faster than humans can. But who do people think programmed the thing? Every AI model is regurgitating imperfect information collected, created, and input by imperfect, subjective human beings.

What to make of all this?

First, perhaps the math nerds creating AI are mistakenly training machines to handle information processing on human topics as if they were math problems with a specific answer. Perhaps instead, machines should be trained to suggest questions to consider instead of answers to accept with respect to human inquiries relating to politics, economics, psychology, child-rearing, crop science — the full range of arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Second, people training these machines should be explicit about the biases and perspectives being built into how the AI organizes, sorts, and frames information. My own bias on this topic is that I believe American AI companies should be building AI with quintessentially American framing.

Third, AI creators should consider the political, regulatory, and legal risks of “overselling” what AI is and what it can do. For example, should AI creators anticipate a duty to warn users of shortcomings in AI’s results and/or disclaimers of warranties?

Fourth, AI creators need to consider improving the quality of the data on which the systems are trained, recognizing that many online data sources intentionally mislead to advance political agendas. Perfectly “unbiased” information is impossible to obtain, but some information is more accurate and less biased than other information; trainers should exercise better judgment about data.

The creation of AI large language models is an incredible feat of engineering. It’s quite useful and will soon be essential, but it is still a product of human invention. As such, we need to recognize that AI is ultimately just the latest, greatest — but still imperfect — implementation invented and used by homo sapiens to make life better for homo sapiens.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​Ai errors, Ai models, Artificial intelligence, Data centers, Electricity demands, Machine intelligence, Opinion & analysis 

A deadly shooting that took place at a Northern California high school earlier this month has been deemed self-defense — but the student who allegedly fired the fatal shot isn’t completely in the clear.

Sacramento County prosecutors have declined to file homicide charges in the case because the April 10 killing at Natomas High School occurred during a violent attempted robbery, which falls under self-defense, KXTV-TV reported.

‘Our professional and ethical obligation requires us to decline charges when the evidence cannot establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that two non-students went on campus looking for a specific student, the station said.

Authorities said one of them was wearing a ski mask and carrying a handgun, KXTV noted.

More from the station:

Investigators determined the pair found the student and violently tried to rob him, leading to a confrontation, according to the DA’s office. During that encounter, the targeted student — who was also carrying a firearm — shot and killed the armed suspect, according to prosecutors.

The person who was killed has been identified by family members as 16-year-old De’Jon Sledge.

After reviewing the facts, evidence and applicable law, including self-defense, the district attorney’s office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove a homicide case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Our professional and ethical obligation requires us to decline charges when the evidence cannot establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the office told KXTV in a statement.

RELATED: Teen robbers open fire on victim behind Texas Family Dollar, but victim also has a gun — and turns the tables lethally

The person associated with the individual who was fatally shot will be charged in juvenile court with attempted robbery, the station noted.

The intended target who fired the weapon will be charged with various weapons charges, KXTV said, citing the DA’s office.

The station said the DA’s office also raised concerns about school violence and noted that schools should be safe places for students — and that youths should not feel compelled to carry weapons for protection.

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This week, I sat down to pay a medical bill. It wasn’t the entire bill, but just my portion.

It came to about $5,300.

That’s the co-pay for my wife’s new prosthetic legs. And that’s after insurance did what insurance does, which is a separate conversation best handled with prayer, patience, and possibly a therapist (who also requires a deductible and co-pay).

On top of that, I’ve had a few medical issues myself lately. A biopsy this week, an MRI last month. More bills trickling in. You don’t even wait for the mail any more. They find you online now.

If what we believe is true, then suffering is not meaningless or random, and it is not final.

So I did what I have done for 40 years of caregiving. I paid what I could and planned the rest while waiting for the insurance payments to sort out.

In four decades, with nearly a hundred surgeries for my wife, every provider — and in a medical journey like hers, there have been many — has always worked with me. Particularly when I showed the initiative and talked with the provider first.

But this week, I didn’t just plan a payment; I accidentally paid the whole thing. All of it. In one click.

There’s a special kind of silence that fills the room when you realize what you have just done. It’s not panic or fear, but that slow, sinking realization that you have just made a very enthusiastic financial decision you did not intend to make.

I immediately called the provider. The person I spoke with voided the payment, set me up on something more manageable, and reassured me that I was not the first person to make such a mistake. Since it was caught on the same day, everything would be fine.

I thanked the reassuring person, hung up, sat there for a moment, and then laughed.

I laughed because it brought to mind a PSA I helped put together years ago during National Caregiver Awareness Month. We riffed on the comic “you might be a redneck …” routine and did it about family caregivers.

Caregiving gives you plenty of material for that sort of routine.

If a hospital bed has ever hampered your love life … you might be a caregiver.

If you’re the one asking for a price check on suppositories … you might be a caregiver.

If you’ve ever hooked up your dog to your wife’s wheelchair just to see if it would work … you might be a caregiver. (It does work — but watch out for squirrels.)

And after that phone call, I laughed because I could add another one: If you’ve ever financed your wife’s prosthetic legs … you might be a caregiver.

This is how we have learned to shoulder the immensity of what we carry.

We live in a culture where outrage is currency and perspective is in short supply. Outrage and victimhood are easy to perform. Caregiving isn’t. When someone you love is suffering, she doesn’t need a performance.

RELATED: The most honest phrase you’ll hear all week

Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Caregiving chips away at those cultural indulgences. Bills still come, and bodies still break. Responsibilities don’t pause so that you can craft the perfect complaint. You either learn to carry it, or it crushes you.

If you’re going to endure this, you also learn to laugh. Not because things are easy, but because this isn’t the end.

Scripture tells us there is a time to weep and a time to laugh.

We weep in hospital rooms. We weep in quiet moments when the weight of it all settles in. We weep while watching helplessly as someone we love struggles.

But we also laugh because we are refusing to let the pain define us.

And for the Christian, that refusal is not rooted in being naturally strong or optimistic, but in what we believe to be true. That truth requires something of us, especially in our darkest moments.

If what we believe is true, then suffering is not meaningless or random, and it is not final.

God is not absent from it. If He is Lord at all, then He is Lord of all. The promise of the gospel is not that we learn to cope better, but that Christ redeems completely.

Right now, my wife uses prosthetic legs. Right now, we deal with bills, setbacks, and the daily logistics of a body that has endured more than most people can imagine. But a day is coming when all that will change. No prosthetics, pain, or co-pays. No fragile bodies that wear out under the strain of this world.

Until then, we live here. So yes, we weep. But we also laugh — sometimes right after accidentally trying to pay $5,300 we don’t have. For now, we still crack a smile, even with tears on our cheeks.

“Ten more payments … and you can walk anywhere you want, baby!”

I reach for her hand and help her stand. She chuckles. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s not the end.

​Caregiving, Christ, Christianity, Christians, Healthcare costs, Insurance coverage, Prosthetic legs, Redemption, Suffering, Wheelchair, Opinion & analysis 

The therapy world has exploded in recent years. Not only has going to therapy been totally destigmatized and is even seen as a status symbol, but the research and clinical sides of the industry have developed an enormous range of different types of treatment.

But how are Christians supposed to view the therapy world? Just because a particular treatment has been touted as effective, does that mean a believer can give it a stamp of approval?

On a recent episode of “Relatable,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey dove into the secular therapy world and exposed several popular practices as unbiblical — one of which is the concept of the “inner child.”

The “biggest threat” to Christian women in particular, says Allie, is “not progressivism,” “not feminism,” “not the New Age,” and “not toxic empathy.”

“It’s therapy culture,” she says bluntly.

“I actually believe that the progressivism, feminism, toxic empathy, emotionalism, me-centeredness, New Age-ish stuff that unfortunately infects so many women’s Bible studies … and conferences are all downstream from the secular therapy, pop psychology, pseudo-spiritualism that we find on social media that is dedicated to women’s therapy and therapy concepts.”

For Allie, a lot of “therapeutic language” is just “an excuse for complaining and self-centeredness” and “a replacement for sanctification, for self-denial, for generosity, and the hard work of Holy Spirit-empowered holiness.”

She says that nowhere is this more evident than in the concept of the “inner child.”

In the therapy world, the “inner child” refers to the part of your adult self that still carries the emotions, needs, wounds, and beliefs formed during childhood. Therapeutic treatments often include patients learning to identify, reconnect with, and heal their childhood wounds, unmet needs, and emotions through techniques like visualization, reparenting exercises, emotional processing, and inner dialogue work.

But Allie says that “there’s no such thing as an inner child in the Christian worldview.”

While she validates the existence of “childhood memories,” “childhood experiences that shaped us,” and “childhood pain,” she argues that “the concept of an emotional or spiritual existence of an internal version of ourselves at 6 or 8 or 12 years old does not exist.”

Further, the concept of an inner child has problematic origins for the Christian, she says.

Sigmund Freud “popularized the idea that repressed childhood trauma is what drives much of our adult behavior,” but this perspective, Allie argues, denies our “sin nature that we inherited from Adam.”

One of Freud’s protégés, Carl Jung, then expanded on the idea of an internal child, which he called “the divine child” — a symbol for the pure, whole, innocent, and miraculous potential inside each person.

But Allie condemns this concept, as it also denies the biblical reality of sin nature. It has also, however, birthed and fed the New Age notion of the “inner goddess” — a divine or sacred internal energy or essence in each person that, if awakened, allows one to reclaim personal wholeness and embody her highest self.

“This underlying assumption that if it weren’t for all of these other factors, my inner self would be perfect and perfectly loved and if I can find her and find a way to perfectly love her and heal her, then I’ll just be okay — that is a secular New Age idea. It’s not a biblical idea,” says Allie, citing Jeremiah 17:9, which warns that “the heart is deceitful above all things.”

Ultimately, the inner child and other concepts that turn our gaze inward put the focus on us instead of God — the true healer, says Allie.

“This journey to finding the untainted, perfect, divine self inside of us is a losing battle that actually will just encourage more self-focus, which is the thing that is oppressing and trapping us, not the thing that’s going to liberate us.”

To hear Allie’s full biblical breakdown of the inner child — as well as more therapy treatments that she argues are unbiblical — watch the episode above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Gallup has been asking Americans for decades about the importance of religion in their lives. For both sexes and across various age groups, the general trend since 2000 has been downward.

With the exception of an increase from 2010 to 2013, this was certainly the case among men ages 18-29, but no longer.

‘A similar increase has occurred among young Republican women.’

A possible course correction athwart the forces of atomization and disenchantment appears to be under way, with young men stating en masse that religion is now “very important” to them.

Whereas in 2022-2023, only 28% of this cohort said religion was very important to them, that number skyrocketed to 42% in 2024-2025.

Women lag

Women in the same age group are plumbing new lows, with only 29% of respondents reporting that religion was very important to them in 2024-2025, down from 52% in 2000-2001. In every other age category, women lead men when assessing religion as very important.

Young men’s sense of religion’s importance has been more than rhetorical.

Church attendance shot up seven points between 2022-2023 and 2024-2025, hitting 40% — a virtual tie with young women and its highest level since 2012-2013. This year’s data, showing that young men are continuing to attend places of worship weekly or monthly, suggests this was no flash in the pan.

RELATED: What Christians can learn from a high school musical

KEVIN WURM/AFP/Getty Images

Bipartisan boom

When broken down by party affiliation, the latest reported term-over-term increase for young men was seven points for Republican men— from 45% in 2022-2023 to 52% most recently — and 3% for Democrat men — from 23% to 26%.

Not only did 2024-2025 see a spike in religious attendance, it saw the highest recorded identification with a specific religious affiliation — 63% — since 2012-2013. Of course, there are higher records to beat, including the decades-long high of 80% in 2000-2001.

Religious affiliation among women in the age group also increased since the previous term, hitting 60% in 2024-2025 — the first increase since 2002-2003.

Record conversions

“The finding that Republicans have driven heightened religious attendance among young men — and that a similar increase has occurred among young Republican women — suggests political dynamics may be playing a role in religious changes among the nation’s young adults,” said Gallup.

Young men’s turn to religion comes at a time of record convert baptisms both for the Catholic and Mormon churches in America. It also comes amid a period of relatively stabilized religiosity after years of decline and disaffiliation.

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Ten years have passed since I last spoke to my grandfather as himself. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.

The man who forgot me isn’t the one I carry. I carry the other one. The one who took me for long walks, who collected acorns the way other men pocket loose change. He taught me never to speak ill of others, advice I have absorbed deeply and applied far less than he would have liked.

He never had a bad word to say about anyone. Not once. As an Irishman, this made him practically a medical curiosity.

We fed livestock together in the early mornings, breath visible, ground hard underfoot. He had a tenderness with cattle and sheep that I have never seen replicated . A slow hand to the forehead, a particular stillness, and the animal would simply decide to trust him. Even the wild ones. Especially the wild ones.

Unshakable faith

In the garden, he taught me to plant vegetables with something approaching ceremony. Potatoes pressed into drills with two hands, like an offering. Scallions in lines so deliberate they made the rest of existence feel approximate. Soil under the fingernail. The unshakable faith that what you plant will, in its own time, pay you back.

He taught me how to play piano and the Irish flute — hours of patient instruction that I traded, around age 13, for sports and the dubious pleasures of warm cider in a field. I stopped. He said nothing. I am still grateful and still guilty in roughly equal measure. He was the kindest man I have ever known.

He never had a bad word to say about anyone. Not once. As an Irishman, this made him practically a medical curiosity. We are, by temperament and long tradition, a people who can elevate mild inconvenience into competitive suffering. He never caught that particular bug.

A passing cloud

Then Alzheimer’s arrived. Before it takes the body, it takes the person, which makes the grief savage in its specificity. You mourn someone still breathing in front of you, still drinking tea, still occasionally smiling, while the version you knew withdraws without a forwarding address.

The first time he didn’t recognize me, I expected hesitation. What I received was blankness. Placid, absolute blankness. A face I had known my whole life, looking at me like I was a stranger who had wandered into the wrong room. For him, likely a passing cloud. For me, a clean line dividing before from after.

My grandmother outlived him by months. The official cause was a heart attack. The accurate cause was a broken heart, and I mean that with clinical precision rather than poetic license. She simply had no further use for mornings without him. Fifty years of reaching for the same hand, and when the hand was gone, she simply lost the argument for continuing. There is a particular brutality in watching love become a countdown.

RELATED: ‘Farmer’ George Clooney wouldn’t last a minute with my family’s sheep

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Andia/Getty Images

A complicated picture

For decades, the dominant scientific theory treated Alzheimer’s as a single-villain story: amyloid plaques accumulating in the brain. One cause; one target. It was neat and tidy.

It was also completely wrong. Researchers now describe a far more complicated picture. Tangled Tau proteins. Genetic vulnerabilities. Metabolic failures. Disruptions originating in the gut, of all places.

The brain fails as part of a longer story. The first forgotten name is never the beginning, but only the moment the beginning becomes impossible to ignore. Medicine, in other words, spent decades treating the final chapter as the only one worth reading.

Newer treatments show modest results. They slow the decline, but they don’t reverse it. They don’t put a man back at his kitchen table, telling a story his family has heard so many times they could recite it backward, about meeting his wife at a dance, and making it feel, on the 43rd telling, like something worth leaning in for.

The current scientific ambition, at least, has grown more honest: attack the disease across every front simultaneously. Target the proteins, the aging cells, the metabolic dysfunction, and the genetic predispositions. Treat the system, not the symptom.

Bone-deep

My grandfather would have grasped this without a single journal article. He understood, bone-deep, that everything connects. Soil quality shapes the crop. Weather shapes the soil. The animals depend on both. You can’t fix a failing field by fixating on one plant.

There is something resembling hope in this shift. It arrives too late for him and for her. But the possibility exists that fewer families will sit across from someone they love and watch recognition drain from a familiar face. Over 7 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s. The people who love them number considerably more, and their suffering doesn’t appear in the statistics.

My grandfather carried me when I was too tired to walk and when I was too sick to stand. In return, I carry him. The man who never gave anyone a reason to be forgotten. It is the least I can do and nowhere near enough. And I will do it anyway, gladly, until I no longer can.

​Alzheimer’s disease, Ireland, Lifestyle, Health, Family, First person 

Yesterday, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey debated New York Times columnist David French, who has long identified as an evangelical Christian and a conservative.

Despite their shared theological and political identities, Stuckey and French clash on a number of issues, including transgender pronouns and gender ideology, abortion, and Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, among others.

In their 95-minute debate, the duo respectfully went head-to-head on topics that have drawn strong criticism of French from many on the conservative right.

Here are three highlights from the debate:

Talarico dispute

Allie brought up French’s recent article in which he praised Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico as a Christian who sets a positive example of the faith in politics compared to “MAGA Christianity.”

In contrast, Allie has sharply criticized Talarico’s progressive theological views, accusing him of twisting Scripture to support abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, and left-wing policies

But French doubled down: “I’m just really not willing to say James Talarico is not a Christian.”

He continued, “When I look at our political discourse around Christianity in this country and political Christianity, it’s so broken. … We’re writing people out of Christianity based on policy positions.”

Allie pushed back, arguing that Talarico is pushing far more than policy positions.

“They’re not policy positions to say God is non-binary … or to say our trans neighbors need abortion care too, or to say that, ‘I think all religions share the same central truth,’” she countered, insisting that these are primarily “theological” issues.

Given that Talarico refuses to “affirm Genesis 1,” Allie made it clear that it’s “going to be tough” to agree that he’s the Christian he identifies as.

The Harris vote

In another part of the debate, Allie brought up French’s 2024 endorsement of Kamala Harris.

“I don’t understand voting for someone like Kamala Harris,” she said, referencing the Biden DOJ’s removal of SNAP benefits for public schools that refused to allow biological males to use girls’ facilities or compete on girls’ teams.

She also pointed to Harris’ pledge to restore the Roe v. Wade framework and her opposition to bills banning late-term abortions.

“I agree with you on so many of these issues. … I just don’t think I could ever vote for Kamala Harris,” she reiterated.

French countered by arguing that for him, the Russia-Ukraine War took precedence over gender and abortion issues.

“I would place a war in which a million people are being killed and injured, which could potentially lead to a World War III that we may not survive as a species … way above things like pronouns,” he said.

But Allie pushed back on what she saw as “diminishment” of her original argument.

“You know I’m not just talking about pronouns,” she resisted.

“I’m talking about medical guidance for hospitals to chemically castrate kids. I’m talking about in Democrat states … taking kids out of the custody of their parents because the parents won’t affirm this newfound gender of the child,” she continued.

Pronoun clash

Allie also called out what she perceived to be conflicting statements regarding French’s position on “pronoun politeness.”

Last year during a podcast, French referred to his male colleague (Brian Riedl) who identifies as a woman using female pronouns — an act many, including Allie, perceived as a contradiction to his 2018 article, in which he wrote, “The use of a pronoun isn’t a matter of mere manners. It’s a declaration of a fact. I won’t call Chelsea Manning ‘she’ for a very simple reason. He’s a man.”

“Is your stance one of pronoun politeness that you believe that a man who identifies as a woman should be referred to as ‘she/her’?” Allie inquired.

French claimed he “didn’t remember” using female pronouns to refer to Riedl and partially reaffirmed his 2018 statement.

After praising Riedl as a “brilliant analyst,” French stated, “I’m going to be kind to [trans people], but I also don’t want to say things that I don’t believe are true, and so the way I deal with that is, I use people’s names.”

He caveated, however, by declaring that he’s “definitely not going to go out of [his] way” to call trans-identifying people by the pronouns matching their biological sex.

Allie replied, “I don’t see it as unkind calling someone, whether it’s to their face or not to their face, the gender that God made them.”

But French dissented. “Oh, I think if somebody is dealing with gender dysphoria, … I don’t see the value in me saying something to them that I know and they know is going to be hurtful to them.”

“It’s just normal, complete politeness and manners,” he continued.

“I’m just not going to go out of my way to say something that I know is going to be hurtful just because I can justify it as being true. All true words are not kind by virtue of just simply being true.”

Allie conceded, “I agree that you don’t have to be rude to someone and say, ‘That shirt looks bad on you.’”

“But when it comes to [gender], when we know it’s a lie that damages someone, that hurts them spiritually and physically and emotionally, hurts their family, I just can’t get on board with assenting to the idea that 2+2=5.”

Overall, the debate offered a revealing look at the growing divide within evangelical Christianity over truth, compassion, and cultural engagement. Watch the full hour-and-a-half exchange below.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Abortion, Allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey david french debate, Blaze media, Blazetv, David french, Debate, Evangelical christian, Gender dysphoria, Gender ideology, James talarico, Kamala harris, Maga christianity, New york times, Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Transgender pronouns 

A Major League Baseball umpire chased down and fought a teenager who allegedly stole his phone on a Philadelphia street earlier this month, KYW-TV reported, citing police sources.

Multiple law enforcement sources identified the umpire as Brock Ballou, who has been an MLB umpire since 2022, the station said.

‘They ended up on the ground, at which time the victim struck his head, causing injury. The male continued his assault, violently punching him.’

Police released surveillance video of the suspect, KYW noted. Police said the suspect is a teenage male with brown complexion wearing a light blue sweatshirt and black pants.

Police said the suspect approached Ballou from behind in the 1600 block of Walnut Street in the downtown section of the city around 7 p.m. April 9, stole Ballou’s phone while the umpire was looking at directions, and then ran off, the station reported.

“The suspect approached the male and snatched his cell phone out of his hands,” Capt. Jason Smith told KYW. “The victim went chasing after the male, at which time they got involved in a physical altercation at 16th and Walnut.”

Investigators told the station that when Ballou tried to take his phone back, the suspect punched him several times in the head. KYW said surveillance video it reviewed shows the suspect repeatedly punching Ballou.

“They ended up on the ground, at which time the victim struck his head, causing injury,” Smith added to the station. “The male continued his assault, violently punching him.”

The suspect then ran away without the phone, which was returned to Ballou later by someone on the street, police told KYW.

RELATED: Coach for 10-year-old baseball players shoves umpire, knocks him to the ground; injured ump says he’s pressing charges

Ballou’s injuries were not serious, police added to the station.

Ballou was in Philadelphia to work the Phillies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks series last weekend, KYW said, adding that Ballou umpired at first base the night after the incident and was behind home plate two days later.

KYW said MLB declined to comment.

In addition, police told the station the same suspect about a half-hour previously had entered a 7-Eleven just a few blocks away in the 1200 block of Chestnut Street and allegedly stole several items. Police told KYW that an employee confronted the suspect, after which the suspect punched the employee multiple times before the suspect fled the store.

Police are asking those with information about the crimes to contact the department’s central detective division at 215-686-3093/3094, the station said.

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​Physical attack, Theft, Fighting back, Philadelphia, Police, Major league baseball, Umpire, Head injury, Brock ballou, Suspect at large, Crime 

In case you missed it, April 14 was “World Quantum Day” — a day promoting global awareness of quantum science and technology’s role in society.

Glenn Beck acknowledges that to most people, quantum computing is “a bunch of geek stuff.” But he warns that ignoring the technological breakthroughs happening right now in quantum computing is a grave mistake.

“I know you’re worried about your mortgage and the gas price and everything else,” he says, “but quantum is about to touch everything — everything — in your life.”

In simple terms, quantum computing involves harnessing tiny quantum particles called qubits that can explore millions of possible answers to profoundly difficult problems at the exact same time. What would take humans years, maybe lifetimes, to solve would take a quantum computer just hours.

Right now, quantum computing on the verge of a major breakthrough. In some ways, that’s great news for us, says Glenn.

It “means faster, cheaper drug discovery instead of the 10-year, billion-dollar guessing game that we play now,” he says, speculating that because of quantum computing, “we are on the edge of solving some of the worst diseases ever.”

It will also have its economic benefits.

“It’s going to affect your wallet, because better optimization is going to mean cheaper shipping, smarter traffic lights, lower energy bills,” says Glenn.

But that doesn’t mean quantum computers are all sunshine and rainbows. There’s a dark side to such power.

Glenn warns that right now, “governments and companies are racing to roll out post-quantum codes.”

“Bad actors are scooping up all of this encrypted data because they know a quantum machine will open it later, and once that happens, we’re in real trouble,” he says.

Once quantum computers become powerful enough, nothing will be safe — no secrets, no private bank accounts, no protected personal information.

“Right now, [quantum computing] looks like ivory-tower stuff, but it’s not,” says Glenn.

Despite quantum computing feeling like nerdy “’Star Trek’ stuff,” the truth, he says, is that it is about to totally upend reality.

Glenn warns: “Because of the super tiny rules of the universe, we are about to rewrite the big rules of everyday life, and the people who understand that … won’t just watch the future. You’ll help write it and protect the future.”

“That’s why this matters to you.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Blaze media, Blazetv, Encrypted data, Glenn beck, Optimization, Postquantum codes, Quantum computing, Quantum day, Quantum science, Quantum technology, Qubits, Tech revolution, Technological breakthroughs 

This week, I watched a segment on “The View” that felt less like a conversation and more like a fever dream. The topic, of course, was Donald Trump, prompted this time by an image circulating online that depicted him in a Christ-like form. The reaction was predictable — outrage, mockery, moral posturing, stacked in real time. But around the table, they argued about the identity of Jesus until Whoopi Goldberg mercifully moved the conversation to another topic. Trump brushed off the criticism, but the explanation felt thin. When a man plays loose with small things, it raises questions about the larger ones.

But that was not the strangest part.

Around the same time, tensions surfaced between Trump and the Vatican over Iran. Statements were issued. Concerns were raised. The familiar choreography of international moral authority began again. Yet for all the urgency, the moral clarity felt selective. For decades, the regime in Iran has wreaked havoc, killed, and brutalized even its own people in full view of the world. Yet many religious leaders have not spoken with the same force or urgency about those evils.

Because in the span of a few days, Jesus was invoked as an image to be shared, a symbol to be argued over, a moral reference point in international conflict, and a talking point in media commentary.

The church leaders making the talk-show circuit aren’t wrong to call this an unjust war. They’re just facing west when they should have been looking east, 47 years ago. Their tardiness doesn’t get a pass.

Then, as if the moment needed one more voice, Tucker Carlson entered the conversation and remarked that many Americans do not realize that Muslims love Jesus.

“The View,” Trump, the Vatican, Tucker. It sounds less like a serious public conversation than a strange collision of modern media and politics. And yet, for a brief moment, all of it circled the same question, whether anyone meant for it to or not.

Jesus.

Scripture makes clear that there is no more important question. And for a moment, the culture stumbled into it almost by accident.

Because in the span of a few days, Jesus was invoked as an image to be shared, a symbol to be argued over, a moral reference point in international conflict, and a talking point in media commentary. Everyone seemed eager to bring His name into the discussion. Almost no one seemed eager to define who He is. And that matters.

When someone says Muslims love Jesus, it sounds, on the surface, like a bridge-building statement. In one sense, it points to something real. In Islam, Jesus is honored as a prophet and born of a virgin. He is respected, even revered. But He is not confessed as the Son of God, nor as the crucified and risen Savior who takes away the sins of the world.

That is not a minor difference. It is the difference between a prophet and the Christ.

So when the conversation settles for saying that “we all love Jesus,” it often passes over the very question that gives such a statement meaning. The real issue is not whether Jesus is admired, referenced, or respected. The real issue is who He is.

And Jesus did not leave the matter of love undefined.

In the Gospel of John, He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (14:15). Not admire. Not reference. Not invoke. Keep.

That means love, as Christ defines it, is not measured by sentiment but by obedience.

That is where the conversation becomes serious.

People say, “Just give me Jesus,” as though that settles the matter. But the moment you ask, “Which Jesus?” or “Who is Jesus?” the conversation changes. It must. Because a Jesus who can be reshaped to fit the needs of the moment is no longer someone to be followed. He becomes something to be used.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus asked His disciples a question that still cuts through all the noise: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (16:13). They answered with names that sounded respectful and reasonable: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Close enough to sound reverent, far enough to miss the truth. Then Jesus made the question personal: “But who do you say that I am?” (16:15).

Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

That was not sentiment. It was a confession.

And Jesus did not correct him. He affirmed him.

We live in a time when Jesus is frequently mentioned and rarely defined. He appears in political imagery, on social media, and in public argument. His name is used freely. His identity, far less so.

A Jesus who can be remade according to our preferences is no Jesus at all. He becomes a reflection of ourselves rather than the Savior of the world, a tool for our purposes rather than the Lord to whom we must bow.

And that applies to politicians, commentators, and religious leaders. It applies to all of us.

Jesus did not ask, “What do you admire about Me?” He did not ask, “How would you like to interpret Me?” He asked, “Who do you say that I am?”

And He did not leave love open to our private interpretation.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Which brings us back, strangely enough, to that panel discussion.

A table full of people arguing about Jesus. A politician posting images that invoke Him. Commentators speaking about Him. Religious leaders referencing Him.

Everyone talking.

Very few obeying.

And that may be the clearest answer of all.

​Savior, Scripture, Son of god, The view, Opinion & analysis 

Centralized smartphone app storefronts, like Apple’s App Store for iPhone and the Google Play Store for Android, make apps feel like they all come from the same safe place online, but the developers behind these apps are spread out all over the world. This month, the FBI brought attention to international developers, warning that installing apps built by foreign nations could pose a major threat to user privacy and security. Are they right? Let’s find out.

Do you use these popular Chinese apps?

On the final day of March, the FBI issued a warning “to highlight data security risks associated with foreign-developed mobile applications (apps) frequently used in the United States.”

Privacy labels reveal the secret parameters embedded in your favorite apps.

The FBI was especially critical of apps developed in the heart of China. Although it didn’t go out of its way to list some of the most dubious offenders, you may have heard of these popular candidates:

TikTok, before its USDS joint venture, was made and owned wholly by ByteDance in Beijing.Temu and Shein, two popular online discount stores, are Chinese-owned with the former belonging to PDD Holdings Inc. in Shanghai and the latter founded by Chris Xu, who moved his company’s headquarters from China to Singapore earlier this decade, though there are talks that Xu may relocate back to the mainland for an IPO.CapCut, a popular mobile video editing app, is also developed by ByteDance, especially to help users create more engaging TikTok videos.RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu), a TikTok alternative that briefly garnered public attention in the USA after TikTok’s USDS joint venture launch, is also based in Shanghai.Tencent, a technology giant out of Shenzhen, owns the popular texting app WeChat. The company also invests in many U.S.-based game companies, including Epic Games (makers of Fortnite), Larian Studios (the group behind Baldur’s Gate 3), and FromSoftware (the developers of Elden Ring).

Needless to say, Chinese companies — and by extension, the Chinese government — have their hands in many apps and games that U.S.-based users enjoy daily.

New warning, same old threat

The FBI’s warning noted that downloading and installing apps from Chinese companies could potentially leave users open to China’s mass data collection practices, which would inevitably put users’ security and privacy at risk for monitoring and abuse.

RELATED: Is downloading Trump’s new White House app a security risk?

Douglas Rissing/Getty Images

Unfortunately, while the FBI’s warning is new, foreign-made apps have long had the ability to gather user data at scale. This is partially the reason both Apple and Google implemented mandatory “Privacy Nutrition Labels” on all third-party apps in their digital stores.

How to check apps’ ‘Privacy Nutrition Labels’

The best way to protect yourself from apps with malicious data-gathering practices is to understand the kinds of data your apps can access and how the information is processed. You can find these details on the “Privacy Nutrition Label” included on any given app page.

Much like the nutritional label on a box of food displays hidden ingredients, privacy labels reveal the secret parameters embedded in your favorite apps.

Let’s look at TikTok on iOS and Android. If you click on one of those links on your mobile device and scroll down, you’ll find the “App Privacy” area on iPhone and the “Data safety” section on Android. Both of these clearly detail which bits of data the app collects and links directly to your identity.

Zach Laidlaw/TikTok/Apple App Store

As you can see, TikTok gathers a lot of personal information, including your location, contacts, search history, browsing history, device IDs, usage habits, and more. It’s a treasure trove of personal data all used to create digital user profiles and strengthen TikTok’s algorithm. This information is better protected now that all of it is stored on Oracle servers in the USA — thanks to the USDS joint venture — but before that, the CCP-influenced ByteDance saved and analyzed all of it on its servers in China.

Zach Laidlaw/TikTok/Google Play Store

Protect yourself from intrusive apps

China’s intrusive data-collection practices are the exact reason President Trump spearheaded the deal that moved TikTok’s U.S.-based user data to U.S. soil. Without it, China would continue to collect, analyze, and monetize U.S. users for reasons that benefit the Chinese government.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that TikTok is only one of many Chinese apps that can gather personal information on U.S. customers, and they do it usually without users’ knowledge. There are a few things you can do to keep yourself safe though:

Be sure to check and verify the apps you install on your smartphone before you download them. Don’t just install anything to your device. Do some research and confirm that every app — and its developer — is legitimate and safe by reading the app’s terms of service and privacy policy, as well as checking out app reviews.Limit permissions so the app can only access the features on your phone that it needs to operate. Refrain from enabling location, microphone, camera, or photos access, and never provide other sensitive information, unless you know you can trust the app.Always download the latest software updates for your phone and the app itself. Updates regularly patch security vulnerabilities to keep your device safe.

At the end of the day, the best way to secure your data and your device is to use your best judgment. Only download the apps you absolutely need. For everything else, you’re much safer accessing online services through your web browser.

​Tech, China, Privacy, Security, Apps 

Less than 100 days into his administration, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been forced to slam the brakes on his signature campaign pledge. Instead of the citywide no-cost transit he promised, New Yorkers are being offered a scaled-back pilot covering three bus lines per borough. That is, if the state legislature can pass a budget, which is already a week past its deadline.

Here’s the part that really stings: Mamdani sabotaged his own policy. He and state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D) successfully launched a Queens free-bus pilot in 2023. It worked. But when Mamdani picked a fight with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D) over a housing dispute, Heastie yanked the expansion from the budget.

What does a socialist mayor do when his promises collapse? He makes bigger ones.

Mamdani killed his own program, then ran for mayor promising to bring it back citywide. He campaigned on cleaning up a mess he made.

Now he’s calling a three-line pilot “a first step.” Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber has been critical of the plan. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who has committed an additional $1.5 billion to bail out the city, is making it clear that buses rank below housing and auto insurance on her list.

The reception in the state legislature has been, generously speaking, chilly.

So what does a socialist mayor do when his promises collapse? He makes bigger ones.

This week, Mamdani announced that La Marqueta in East Harlem will become New York City’s first government-owned grocery store. The plan outlines one in each borough, where prices are “fair” and New Yorkers can “actually afford to shop.”

The man who couldn’t deliver free buses now wants to compete with Costco. He even challenged the private sector directly: “I look forward to the competition.”

What he doesn’t seem to understand is that the competition has already won. Decades ago. And the proof is everywhere.

It will cost $30 million just to open the East Harlem location, with a $70 million budget for all expected stores. That’s $70 million in taxpayer money going into a business where even the best-run private grocery stores average margins under 2%.

Every major retailer in America has spent decades perfecting supply chains and slashing spoilage, and yet they’re still barely breaking even. Mamdani, fresh off failing to stop charging $2.90 for a bus ride, thinks he can do better.

The real-world track record is telling. Baldwin, Florida, opened a city-run grocery in 2019, struggled to break even, and shut down in 2024. Erie, Kansas, ran its only grocery store at a loss for years before handing it to a private operator. Those towns had zero private competition, and they still couldn’t make it work.

In New York City, the sequence is even more dangerous. The government store moves in, undercuts private competitors with taxpayer subsidies, and drives out the corner bodegas and family grocers who actually pay rent and taxes.

RELATED: The liberal guide to committing national suicide

Blaze Media Illustration

Then, as history guarantees, the government store collapses too. The Soviet Union, Venezuela, and Cuba all tried it. Every time: empty shelves, shortages, black markets. You don’t end up with affordable groceries. You end up with a food desert and no private stores left to fill the gap.

The reason is simple: Politicians are not personally responsible for the losses their policies create, so they have no incentive to operate efficiently. The losses get folded into next year’s budget and repackaged as progress.

Three out of four young voters put this man in office. Voters who had lived in New York City less than five years backed him 85% to 14%. They voted for the TikTok version of governance: big promises, great optics, someone else’s problem. Free buses sounded great in a Trevor Noah interview.

City-owned grocery stores sound great at a rally in East Harlem. Governing eight million people with real money and real consequences? That’s where the fantasy ends.

New York City doesn’t have a bus problem or a grocery problem. It has a mayor with a socialism problem. And unlike his buses, the bill is running right on schedule.

​Bus lines, Campaign promises, City run grocery stores, Citywide transit, East harlem, Food desert, Free buses, New york mayor, Socialist mayor, Taxpayer money, Zohran mamdani, Opinion & analysis 

CNN’s chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, was ridiculed after she posted an unhinged response to criticism from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth compared some of the mainstream media to the Pharisees of the Bible during a media briefing Thursday morning.

‘You have *never* been in the United States military, and you should be absolutely drummed out of journalism for attempting to equivocate (sic) yourself to an [actual] member of the military.’

Amanpour fired back in a lengthy rant on social media, where she appeared to claim that she had a similar rank as Hegseth when he left the military.

“Using the Pentagon podium to lash out at journalists in extreme biblical terms is unprecedented, misguided, and frankly wrong on the substance,” she wrote.

“Ever since Sunday School Catholic classes, I have been well aware of the Scribes and the Pharisees. They were the bad guys against Jesus, the good guy … in current U.S. good v evil war parlance. Bearing witness to the truth is what we journalists are commanded to do, without fear nor favor,” she added.

Hegseth pointed out that the Pharisees had ignored the miracles that Jesus Christ was performing and instead waited to catch him breaking the laws of the Old Testament. He compared that to the media ignoring the president’s accomplishments to criticize him.

“I am also well aware of the Ten Commandments, and therefore urge any government radical anywhere, to follow the 9th … against bearing false witness,” Amanpour continued.

“And finally an observation: the current Secretary of War, f/k/a Defence, left the military with the rank of Major,” she added. “I recall my dogtag in the first Gulf war had the rank of major … the very same rank. Just sayin’!” she concluded.

She was immediately mocked online for the bizarre statement.

“Read the last paragraph, folks. If @CNN had any editorial standards, Christiane Amanpour would be fired for her bizarre attack on @SecWar‘s military service,” one response reads. “Why is a journalist mocking the rank of major, which @PeteHegseth earned while risking his life in Iraq & Afghanistan?”

RELATED: Hegseth goes viral for ‘Pulp Fiction’ prayer at the Pentagon

“A Major, really? Perhaps, a major pain in the ass, but definitely not Major,” another user said.

“You have *never* been in the United States military, and you should be absolutely drummed out of journalism for attempting to equivocate (sic) yourself to an [actual] member of the military. Quite literally the definition of stolen valor,” another detractor said.

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​Christiane amanpour, Hegseth attacks the media, Amanpour vs hegseth, Media pharisees, Politics 

A dog attack near a homeless camp led to the death of the dog owner, a dead dog, and the search for a suspect, according to Florida police.

Lake County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the shooting near a homeless camp in Leesburg on Friday at about 7:20 a.m. and found a man with gunshot wounds.

The dog owner stepped in between the dog and Pasco and was struck by the gunfire instead.

The man was transported to a hospital, where he later died.

Police said they were searching for an armed person of interest identified as 43-year-old Matthew Lee Pasco, a homeless man believed to have shot the dog owner.

The dogs were attacking a woman outside the homeless camp when Pasco intervened and fired at a dog, according to police. The dog owner stepped in between the dog and Pasco and was struck by the gunfire instead.

The woman, who was bitten numerous times, was also transported to a hospital.

Two dogs were shot, and one was killed.

Police said Pasco fled the scene on foot, and they are searching the area to locate him. They said the homeless man has a distinctive scar on the right side of his face.

The investigation into the shooting led to a lockdown at Carver Middle School.

One person named Leilei told reporters that the shooting came about after her friend’s girlfriend kicked one of Leilei’s dogs. She said her boyfriend intervened and was shot.

RELATED: Homeless man found tied up in vacant home was brutally beaten with signs of torture, police say

Animal services took control of more than one dog, police said.

Police asked for help locating Pasco but warned the public not to approach him and instead contact them.

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​Homeless florida killing, Matthew lee pasco, Dog biting leads to shooting, Shooting death dog attack, Crime 

When it comes to the impending AI takeover, two main camps of belief get the most attention: those who welcome technological singularity, believing it will deliver humanity into a utopia of universal basic income, freedom, and prosperity, and those who deeply oppose it, fearing it will render humanity useless and usher in the apocalypse.

But is there a middle ground — a reasonable center that embraces the good AI offers but opposes the dystopia it threatens?

BlazeTV hosts Christopher Rufo and Jonathan Keeperman believe there is.

On a recent episode of “Rufo & Lomez,” the duo spoke with Samuel Hammond, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Foundation for American Innovation, about the “sweet middle ground” of artificial intelligence.

Hammond acknowledges the dual nature of artificial intelligence. “It’s the thing that’s going to build us all-new efficient defended software, but also in the meantime enable hackers to hack that software; it’s a thing that will discover new drugs but also create new viruses. And to be able to hold both those realities in your mind is incredibly taxing.”

In the same way that the Industrial Revolution created both wealth and the administrative and welfare states, so the AI takeover will have both benefits and drawbacks, he says.

Keeperman inquires about the regulatory measures being taken by AI developers to mitigate the potential damage.

Hammond admits that regulation is difficult because of the sheer scope of AI. Like electricity, “it’s this massive umbrella term,” he says.

“The areas where people have legitimate concerns are easier to gerrymander, right? It’s things like designing novel bioweapons or very powerful, autonomous malware that could hack into your program and go rogue. These things are difficult to keep in a box,” he explains.

On the upside, however, “getting to advanced AI first will have major national security implications.”

“The fact that we have a friendly U.S.-based company that built a system like Mythos first that could, in principle, hack into all these different critical pieces of infrastructure is an incredible fortune for us, right?” says Hammond, noting that this allows the U.S. to “patch up and harden [its] systems” before other countries reach the same capabilities.

On the other hand, the U.S. government currently has little control over the companies that are leading AI development.

As of now, these companies “are being benevolent with their use of this and certainly have the intentions to try to be sort of trustworthy and good stewards of this technology, but as a matter of state governance, do we actually have any greater control over this technology than, let’s say, China?” Keeperman asks.

Hammond admits that we’re on precarious terrain.

“I think of us as sort of on this knife edge between a Chinese-style panopticon or some kind of anarchy where things kind of fall apart,” he says, advocating for a “third way.”

“We need a strong state to enforce property and contract and our rights, but that state can’t be completely divorced from rule of law,” he says. At the same time, however, “democracies have committed genocide,” whereas “private corporations just want to maximize shareholder value.”

In the end, Hammond urges us to reject both utopian dreams and apocalyptic fears in favor of a pragmatic middle course: building institutions strong enough to govern AI’s immense power, yet constrained enough to prevent it from becoming a tool of tyranny or disorder.

Want more from Rufo & Lomez?

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​Ai, Ai boom, Ai developers, Ai takeover, Artificial intelligence, Blaze media, Blazetv, China, Chris rufo, Foundation for american innovation, Jonathan keeperman, Lomez, Mythos system, National security, Rufo & lomez, Samuel hammond, Singularity, Technological singularity, Universal basic income 

On a recent episode of “The Drive with Lauren and Karl,” we had a conversation that was a little different — but just as telling about car culture today.

It started with something unexpected: Lego. Not just as a toy, but as a way to connect automotive history to a new generation.

For an industry that often focuses on what’s next — EVs, software, autonomy — it’s easy to overlook how important the past still is.

Our guest, Ford heritage brand manager and archivist Ted Ryan, shared the story behind a new Lego model of the Ford Model T — and what went into getting it right. And the level of detail may surprise you.

To a T

This wasn’t just a half-baked licensing exercise. According to Ryan, the designer behind the set spent months researching the Model T, even reaching out directly to Ford’s archives to verify historical details.

Where was the fuel tank located? How many lights did the car have? What year-specific features mattered?

Those details were checked, corrected, and refined — sometimes multiple times — before the final design was approved.

The whole process took a year of back-and-forth, with emails and revisions to make sure the finished product reflected the real car, not just a simplified version of it.

That’s a level of effort you don’t usually associate with something that ends up on a toy shelf.

Wheeling and dealing

There’s a bigger idea behind it.

As Ryan explained, Lego has shifted in recent years to focus on things that matter culturally — music, film, architecture, and increasingly, cars.

That last one makes a lot of sense.

From Formula 1 to classic American vehicles, automobiles are a huge part of global culture. They’re also a way to tell stories — about innovation, design, and how people lived at a particular moment in time.

And what better example than the iconic Model T.

This is the vehicle that put America on wheels, transforming transportation and making mobility accessible to millions. Bringing that story into a Lego set makes that history visible — and tangible — for people who might never read about it otherwise.

RELATED: The EPA just proved it can lower gas prices overnight — so why wait for a crisis?

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Pieces of history

What stood out in the conversation is how much these sets are now aimed at adults as well as kids.

Lego calls them “AFOLs” — adult fans of Lego — and it’s a growing category. They want builds that are more complex, more detailed, and more likely to be display pieces than playthings.

In this case, the Model T set also includes historical context, helping explain why the car mattered — not just what it looked like.

It’s all part of a broader trend. Car culture isn’t just happening at racetracks or car shows anymore. It’s happening in living rooms, offices, and hobby spaces — through collectibles, models, and even digital experiences.

A classic you can keep

For an industry that often focuses on what’s next — EVs, software, autonomy — it’s easy to overlook how important the past still is.

Projects like this show there’s still real demand for that connection.

Not everyone is going to restore a classic car or attend a concours event. But a lot of people will build a model, display it, and learn something along the way.

For younger enthusiasts, this may be their first introduction to a crucial moment in history; for longtime car fans, it’s a potent reminder of what cars mean to them.

Either way, it goes to show that car culture — despite the carping of the environmental doomsayers — isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

​Auto industry, Automotive history, Culture, Ford, Ford model t, Lego, Lifestyle, Ted ryan, Align cars 

A 34-year-old man is facing nearly 500 charges after police found a trove of human remains he allegedly stole from graves in Pennsylvania.

Investigators caught Jonathan Gerlach of Ephrata coming out of the historic Mount Moriah Cemetery and Arboretum in Yeadon with a burlap bag and a crowbar.

‘To be able to sell body parts on the internet just appalls me, and I just think it should be stopped.’

In his car they discovered “numerous bones and skulls in plain view in the back seat.”

Gerlach allegedly admitted to stealing remains from more than 30 grave sites. Investigators were shocked when they searched his home and storage unit.

“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home,” said Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse at a press conference. “It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific. I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through this, who are trying to figure out if it is in fact one of their loved ones.”

They found that Gerlach was a part of a Facebook group where people allegedly sold and purchased human remains.

On Friday, some of the burglary charges were dropped against Gerlach, but he faced additional charges from other counties.

Judy Prichard McCleary said her great-grandfather’s mausoleum from 1915 at Mount Moriah Cemetery was broken into, and many remains were stolen.

“It just made me sick to my stomach to think anyone would want to do that,” she added. “To be able to sell body parts on the internet just appalls me, and I just think it should be stopped.”

Law enforcement sources told KYW-TV that Gerlach had been caught with the remains of two children in the burlap bag. The sources indicate that a plea deal is being sought.

RELATED: 4 people arrested over numerous incidents of human remains found scattered across New York, bail reform lets them walk free

McCleary went on to say that sentencing for grave robbing should be stiffened to deter potential criminals.

“I think laws need to change,” she said. “And we can’t sweep it under the rug because it will just happen again in five years or six years or after I’m gone, and people will wonder, ‘Why didn’t you do anything?'”

Gerlach was given a bail of $1 million and is being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility.

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​Jonathan gerlach, Mount moriah cemetery, Human remains theft, Pa man robs graves, Crime