Category: blaze media

Minnesota House Republicans are locked in a fierce partisan clash with Democrats as GOP lawmakers call for accountability from Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) and his administration for their years of failure to stop widespread welfare fraud that robbed hardworking taxpayers.

It is estimated that the fraud in Minnesota connected to 14 “high-risk” Medicaid services could top $9 billion.

Swanson further claimed senior-level Minnesota DHS officials ‘harassed and abused our unit for committing the sin of trying to expose a huge amount of fraud.’

The Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, led by Rep. Kristin Robbins (R), has held dozens of hearings, aiming to address these issues.

Robbins has slammed Walz for declining the committee’s invitation to testify before House lawmakers, despite being in the Capitol building for his State of the State address the same evening as the committee’s Apr. 28 hearing.

Robbins stated that his “decision-making over the last seven years … should be addressed,” pointing to a 2019 report from the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, published early in Walz’s administration, that revealed issues in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program.

While Robbins’ committee has not heard testimony from Walz, it has questioned members of his administration. However, Robbins stated lawmakers “did not get satisfactory answers.”

Republicans have introduced a wave of legislation to address the core issues at the heart of the state’s fraud crisis. However, Democrat lawmakers have put up resistance.

Last year, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to establish an independent Office of Inspector General to investigate. Currently, the OIG is under the Minnesota DHS, an executive branch agency. After weeks of party-line disagreements, a bipartisan OIG compromise advanced in late Apr. 2026.

The “Fraud Isn’t Free Act,” introduced in Feb. 2026, would have required state agencies to implement a corrective action plan in response to fraud in any program they administer. However, the proposal failed to pass a House committee.

GOP lawmakers are also pushing the “Take It Back Act,” introduced in April, which is still in play. If passed, it would impose a 100% tax on an individual or organization convicted of fraud in a state or federal court.

RELATED: Walz tries to take credit for raids on day cares in Minnesota — and Kash Patel humiliates him

Kristin Robbins. Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

As the state remains in the national spotlight for ignoring years of red flags, lawmakers are facing a tied House and are up against the clock, with the legislative session set to conclude in mid-May.

On Apr. 28, FBI Minneapolis and its federal partners raided 22 child-care and autism centers. The criminal search warrants included the infamous “Quality Learing Center,” which misspelled “learning” on the business sign posted outside its establishment, as featured in journalist Nick Shirley’s reporting that uncovered rampant fraud tied to the state’s Somali community.

That same day, Robbins’ fraud committee gathered for a hearing to discuss the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, during which Jay Swanson, a former Minnesota state trooper and a former manager of the Minnesota Department of Human Services child care provider investigation unit from 2014 to 2019, provided damning testimony.

Swanson explained that he was involved in an investigation that led to a federal indictment of the owner of the Salama Child Care Center in 2017. The owner ultimately pled guilty, was sentenced to two years in prison, and was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution, Swanson said.

“The Salama Child Care Center was located at 1411 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. That address might ring a bell for some of you because of a YouTube video taken last December at the Quality Learing Center, which was being operated at the same address,” Swanson told lawmakers, referring to Shirley’s reporting.

Swanson further claimed senior-level Minnesota DHS officials “harassed and abused our unit for committing the sin of trying to expose a huge amount of fraud in the CCAP program.” He noted that some of those individuals are still working at the state DHS.

He told lawmakers that by mid-2017, the leadership at the Minnesota DHS was not focused on stopping CCAP fraud, but “the focus was on stopping the people that are investigating CCAP fraud.”

Swanson stated that the state DHS unit he led was closed shortly after the special Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor report that flagged major weaknesses in the DHS’ fraud controls.

“Rather than INCREASING criminal investigations of childcare fraud after an OLA report came out early in his Administration, @GovTimWalz and DHS closed the unit,” Robbins wrote in a post on X. “They knew and they intentionally stopped criminal investigations.”

Robbins questioned Randy Keys, the inspector general of the Minnesota Department of Child, Youth, and Families, during the Apr. 28 hearing about whether he would want to “reinstate a criminal investigation unit” in the DCYF. This agency was established in 2024 to take over responsibility for child care-related programs from the DHS.

“No,” Keys replied. “It’s very important in our system to ensure that administrative investigations are kept separate from criminal investigations. … What we’re doing is protecting the integrity of the investigations and our ability to use that information.”

RELATED: FBI RAIDS ‘Quality Learing Center’ and nearly 2 dozen more in Minnesota FRAUD investigation

Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Less than two years ago, Walz was the darling of the national Democratic Party after Kamala Harris nominated him to join her on the 2024 presidential ticket.

Minnesota’s benefit fraud crisis, however, has damaged Walz’s political career, leading him to drop out of the re-election race. Walz’s prolonged failure to address the fraud prompted House Republicans to propose resolutions H.R. 6 and H.R. 7 in March that would move to impeach the governor and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

H.R. 6, which called for Walz’s removal, accused the governor of engaging “in corrupt conduct in office by violating his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the laws of this state.” It claimed he knowingly concealed or permitted others to conceal “widespread fraud … despite repeated warnings, audits, reports, and public indicators of systematic abuse.”

H.R. 7, which aimed to impeach Ellison, claimed that the attorney general “failed to discharge faithfully the duties of his office to the best of his judgment and ability, by engaging in corrupt conduct in office and committing crimes and misdemeanors.”

The criticism against Ellison stemmed from his alleged ties to those involved in the Feeding Our Future scandal. In 2021, Ellison met with criminal defendants involved with Feeding Our Future, 10 months before any indictments were filed. Shortly after their meeting, Ellison accepted over $10,000 in campaign donations from individuals tied to the group.

Ellison returned some of the campaign donations in 2022, soon after federal indictments were filed. Other campaign funds were returned in May and Dec. of 2025.

House Republican Floor Leader Harry Niska insisted that the only power the House has for accountability in the “multibillion-dollar fraud scandal that’s embarrassing our state” is impeachment.

Democrat lawmakers rejected the impeachment efforts. Rep. Sydney Jordan (DFL) called the attempt a “simple, stupid distraction” and a “political circus.”

Jordan accused Republicans of targeting Walz and Ellison because they “don’t like them,” and claimed GOP lawmakers should be focused on the “absolute solutions” that could prevent “scamming businesses” in the future.

“We actually have a fraud committee that could be doing this, but they haven’t heard any bills to actually crack down on fraud, so I don’t know what they’re doing either. This is exactly the kind of political stunt that has taken over our politics,” Jordan said. “This is an insane waste of time. I can’t believe this is what the Republican caucus is choosing to spend their limited committee time on.”

Walz similarly called the GOP’s effort “a waste of time.” He told Republicans to “just get over it and move on” because his term is coming to an end.

Ellison has insisted that his 2021 meeting with individuals involved in the Feeding Our Future scandal was “routine,” he wrote in a Minnesota Star Tribune op-ed in Apr. 2025.

“I took a meeting in good faith with people I didn’t know, and some turned out to have done bad things. I did nothing for them and took nothing from them,” Ellison wrote.

In Dec. 2025, a spokesperson for Ellison claimed that the AG did not receive donations from anyone who attended the 2021 meeting and that he had “returned every contribution from the handful of people associated with Feeding Our Future as soon as he was made aware of those connections.”

The procedural resolution to consider H.R. 6 and H.R. 7 was rejected along party lines on Apr. 15 in the Rules Committee.

Walz’s office and Ellison’s office did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Department of human services, Jay swanson, Keith ellison, Minnesota, Minnesota fraud, News, Tim walz, Minnesota house republicans, Minnesota house fraud prevention and state agency oversight policy, Kristin robbins, Child care assistance program, Ccap, Fraud isn’t free act, Take it back act, Minneapolis, Fbi, Fraud, Salama child care center, Minnesota department of human services, Randy keys, Harry niska, Sydney jordan, Politics 

The big news here in Portland, Oregon, is that a high school baseball player used a “racial hate speech” slur during a pregame, player-only huddle.

The slur itself has been kept from the public lest we all die of shock. I’m sure none of us has ever heard such a word.

Naturally, the media was called in, so the student leaders got to practice their TV interview skills.

One interesting thing about the incident: It happened at a prominent Catholic school in town, Central Catholic.

Unforced error

The reaction of the Central Catholic administration was the other interesting thing. Check this out:

The baseball team immediately canceled and forfeited the game they were playing.Then, they forfeited the next day’s game as well.The entire baseball team was then marched onto a stage at a special school assembly and made to publicly apologize to their classmates.Then, they sent everyone home for the next two days, for COVID-style “remote learning.” (That’s right, not the baseball player who said the slur, but the WHOLE SCHOOL was sent home.)They did this so that faculty and staff could prepare “to respond to their students’ needs” when they were allowed back into the building.

Which meant that another couple of days would be spent processing the trauma and psychological suffering they’d been put through.

This all occurred even though the only students who actually heard the “racial hate speech” slur were the players on the baseball team.

Heaven help us

Central Catholic is a typical Catholic high school. Its students are good at sports. It has solid extracurriculars. It is considered a notch above the local public high schools in educational standards.

Historically, all Catholic schools were known for a certain traditionalism regarding student behavior and teaching philosophy.

If you wanted your child to have an education tainted by the latest social trends and political ideologies, you sent them to public school.

If you wanted a more classical education, with a more disciplined and rigorous approach, you sent them to a Catholic school.

But that’s no longer the case, apparently. Even a public high school wouldn’t shut down its entire campus for two days over one baseball player saying one bad word.

In the beginning was … the Word

I’m going to take a wild guess and predict that the “racial hate speech” slur was probably based on a common derogatory derivative of the antiquated term “negro” — as further appropriated and transformed by hip-hop culture. Because of hip-hop’s massive popularity, this “soft A” variant has become a more-or-less neutral form of address among young people of all races.

Our entertainment industry has bombarded young people with this word for decades, making it sound funny and cool. And then our academic communities act like it’s the gravest sin to repeat it.

Obviously, it is not a word that should be used at school. It’s vulgar and still retains some of its capacity to degrade and insult. But a two-day shutdown of the entire student body? With a school-wide assembly? And the local media alerted? And almost an entire week lost processing the trauma?

How about the administration has a stern talk with the baseball player? In private?

Truant believers

But that would be too easy. Never mind that the kid’s high school career will be ruined by this obvious overreaction. What was important was allowing the administration to advertise its moral superiority.

The student body was also inspired to take advantage of this educational opportunity. A week after the initial controversy, students walked out of class in protest. “Not enough has been done!” they claimed, as they assembled outside to loiter in the street and watch TikTok videos on their phones.

Naturally, the media was called in, so the student leaders got to practice their TV interview skills.

This is what is being taught at Catholic school these days. Complain. Protest. Disrupt. And above all, don’t go to class and learn anything.

RELATED: Healthy as a horse: My journey into the ivermectin underworld

CBS/Getty Images

Mater DEI

One thing this controversy demonstrates is that a Catholic school is no longer a protection from woke ideology. It is, in fact, almost a guarantee of it.

So what are parents to do if they want their kids at a genuinely Christian school? Like a school where there aren’t Pride flags and sex manuals in every classroom. Where kids are not diagnosed with ADHD or toxic masculinity. Where America is not constantly slandered and vilified by radical leftist textbooks.

There are still some authentically Christian schools in Portland. I’m assuming they are authentic because they are small, they are self-contained, and they keep to themselves.

You would barely know these schools exist if you didn’t go looking for them. They dare not draw attention to themselves, lest our “social justice” local government — or our politicized media — invent some reason to attack them.

Bad education

So what was Central Catholic really up to during the racial slur controversy?

It was virtue signaling. Pretending it is more righteous than you are or I am, by wasting everybody’s time with performative outrage.

And this happened in Oregon, which famously ranks near the bottom of every national educational metric. In Portland, most parents’ choice of schools is: bad, worse, or terrible.

That is, until you realize there are a few actual Christian schools around. Just don’t tell anyone where they are!

​Catholic school, Central catholic, Culture, Dei, Education, Faith, Lifestyle, Racism, Toxic masculinity, Woke ideology, Blake’s progress 

Los Angeles is consistently ranked as one of the dirtiest cities in the United States, but one mayoral candidate thinks tying the city’s cleanliness to government officials’ records is the key to getting the city spotless.

Through a municipal service called 311, residents can already report trash, graffiti, and other garbage-related issues. However, this has not helped L.A. escape the lowest rankings of studies that measure filth in big cities.

‘Our city council members need to feel that when election time comes around.’

A 2025 study by Oxi Fresh measured cities in terms of the amount of rodents, vandalism, litter, and more. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim was No. 34 out of 35 cities, only ahead of New York-Newark-Jersey City, earning a D+ rating.

Another study from last year placed Los Angeles at second-worst in terms of living conditions, waste infrastructure, pollution, and resident dissatisfaction. The only city worse off than L.A. in the massive 303-city ranking system was San Bernardino, California.

Enter mayoral candidate and former television star Spencer Pratt, who says tying the record of politicians’ districts in the city to cleanliness will keep them accountable.

“I created an app that will replace 311 that actually has accountability and eventually the app would merge into the city dashboards … [or] go on the city website,” Pratt said on his podcast, “The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer.”

RELATED: Los Angeles mayor’s re-election campaign gets crushing news from ‘downright devastating’ poll

– YouTube

Pratt and his wife, Heidi, discussed the city’s lack of cleanliness with Juan Naula, who spends his time showcasing the filth of L.A., while actually going out and cleaning it.

Pratt proposed that his app would allow residents to film or photograph their local garbage, which then gets geo-stamped and sent to the appropriate district representatives.

“What the app will do is it will show wherever you are in the city … it’s going to geo-stamp it, and it’s going to create accountability to all the people that are responsible,” Pratt continued. “It’ll automatically email them and then it’ll show their track record of their response time, their failures, so that we see as voters and constituents, our city council members, and they’ll be ranked and rated.”

The 42-year-old likened the idea to delivery services and restaurants, which live and prosper off the back of ratings systems that push them to provide satisfactory customer service.

“Why are our city council members not held to the same expectations that my mom will hold the place [giving] her spinach artichoke choke dip,” the host asked.

RELATED: LA Times gets scorched for trying to disqualify Pratt for mayor — because his home burned down in Palisades fire

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images/MTV

The L.A. website’s reportable services currently includes dumping and trash collection issues, bulk item pickups, potholes and graffiti reports, parking enforcement, and animal services.

There is no built-in measurement for accountability, but a review of city data by UCLA showed that the typical response time was four to six days depending on the situation.

Anonymous reports allegedly took a day longer to solve than named reports; five days versus four days. At the same time, Android submissions took an average of six days for a resolution while Apple report had a response time of five days.

The pressure of performance was paramount for Pratt, who said “our city council members need to feel that when election time comes around.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​311, App, Big cities, California, Citys cleanliness, Garbage, Government officials, Graffiti, Los angeles, Mayoral candidate, Municipal service, Return, Spencer pratt, Trash, Tech 

Two men wearing ski masks opened fire at a party near an Oklahoma lake Sunday night, and at least 13 people were hospitalized, according to reports.

Edmond Police spokesperson Emily Ward told the Associated Press that authorities were notified about shots fired around 9 p.m. at a gathering of young people near Arcadia Lake. Arcadia Lake is just over 20 minutes north of Oklahoma City.

‘We are working extremely hard to find the suspects.’

Police told KOKH-TV that two men wearing ski masks opened fire during the party at Spring Creek Park near the lake.

Ward told the AP that while no arrests had been made yet, she noted to KOKH that police are reviewing video from Flock license plate reader cameras in order to identify those responsible.

The outlet, citing a hospital system spokesperson, said that 10 people were taken to Integris Health Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, and three were at Integris Health Edmond Hospital as of Monday morning.

Integris Health told Fox News that six of the 13 victims have been treated and released, and of the seven who remained hospitalized, four were listed in serious condition and three were listed in critical condition.

RELATED: 17-year-old faces attempted murder charges in connection with mass shooting near University of Iowa

Ward added to the AP that “we’re kind of all over the metro speaking with victims and witnesses.”

“This is obviously a very terrifying situation, and we understand the concern from the public and those involved, and we are working extremely hard to find the suspects,” she added to the outlet.

The AP said police did not immediately respond to an email seeking information early Monday.

The outlet also said that while police did not provide details about the party, a flyer seen on social media after the shooting suggested that an event called Sunday Funday had been scheduled near the lake Sunday evening.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Arcadia lake, Edmond, Mass shooting, Oklahoma, Shooting, Spring creek park, Party, Suspects at large, Crime 

On Sunday evening, a spokesman for “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani shared the news that the 81-year-old former New York City mayor is in critical condition in a Florida hospital.

“Giuliani is currently in the hospital,” spokesman Ted Goodman wrote on X, “where he remains in critical but stable condition. Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak.”

‘I pray he pulls through this. The world needs more of him.’

Goodman added, “We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”

Almost immediately after the news broke, well-wishes and tributes started pouring in.

“Our fabulous Rudy Giuliani, a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR, has been hospitalized,” wrote President Donald Trump on Truth Social. “What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!”

RELATED: Did Biden win Georgia? 2020 election results now in doubt after county admits counting perhaps 315,000 uncertified votes

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The president isn’t the only one offering well-wishes.

Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a New York City native who served four years as a police officer with the New York Police Department, wrote on X, “Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the most transformative figure in the history of NY City politics.”

“He pulled off an economic and public safety miracle in a relatively short amount of time, and the city rose from the dead. I worked for the NYPD during the end of his second term. It was the honor of a lifetime,” Bongino continued. “I pray he pulls through this. The world needs more of him.”

Another former mayor of New York, Eric Adams, wrote on X that Giuliani “devoted his life to this city, from his days as a federal prosecutor to leading New York through 9/11. He was there when we needed him most.”

Adams then shared that he would be praying for Giuliani.

There have been no further updates from Giuliani’s team on the reasons for the hospitalization or the prognosis as of Monday morning.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Rudy giuliani, America’s mayor, New york city, Nyc, Eric adams, Politics 

Two days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, late-night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel, parodying the upcoming event, made a joke that Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.”

Many found the joke insensitive and inflammatory, especially given the repeated assassination attempts against President Trump — the most recent of which happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, during which a gunman rushed a security checkpoint and fired multiple shots in hopes of killing Trump and other administrative officials.

Kimmel doubled down on his joke in the wake of the WHCD assassination attempt, insisting that the widow joke wasn’t about assassination but Trump’s old age.

President Trump, Melania, and many other prominent conservatives are actively calling for Kimmel’s firing.

But some conservatives are pushing back. One of them is Canadian writer, podcaster, and political commentator Gavin McInnes.

“We got to drop the pearl-clutching,” he told Glenn Beck on a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” “because you lose the youth if you clutch the pearls, and if you don’t have youth on your side, you’re done, and we have the youth on our side right now.”

Further, McInnes believes that Kimmel really was joking about Trump and Melania’s age gap.

“The joke was way before the [White House] Correspondents’ Dinner, and he always jokes about their age gap,” he says, encouraging conservatives to learn how to “take [a joke] on the chin.”

There are limitations though.

When people are “calling for violence,” that’s where we draw the line, says McInnes, citing multiple examples, including comedian Kathy Griffin’s 2017 stunt where she held up a prop that looked like a bloody, severed head resembling Donald Trump.

But Kimmel, he argues, made a genuine, albeit “cruel,” joke.

He calls conservatives out for spinning a narrative about Kimmel’s “expectant widow” comment that just isn’t true.

“That’s what the left does. That’s propaganda. They twist things, and I don’t want to join that club,” he says.

To hear Glenn’s response, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Assassination attempts, Gavin mcinnes, Glenn beck, Jimmy kimmel, Kathy griffin, Latenight comedy, Left propaganda, Melania trump, President trump, The glenn beck program, White house correspondents 

Rev. Lawrence Holland fell in his bathroom on Christmas Day and suffered a hip fracture. While the 79-year-old Catholic priest went to a nearby hospital in search of help, health care workers at the facility apparently had a final solution in mind: state-facilitated suicide.

Since the Canadian federal government under ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau legalized medically assisted suicide nationwide in 2016, the so-called Medical Assistance in Dying program has been grossly liberalized.

‘The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in.’

Initially, MAID applicants had to be 18 or older and suffering from a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” causing “enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable” to them. Now, persons struggling with anxiety, autism, depression, economic hardship, PTSD, and other survivable issues appear to be fair game.

Next year, persons suffering solely from a mental illness will also be eligible.

MAID — which Canada’s Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer boasted in October 2020 would, with expanded access, “result in a net reduction in health care costs for the provincial governments” — is now among the leading causes of death in Canada, accounting for over 5% of all deaths in Canada in 2024.

“It’s a false compassion,” Rev. Holland told the B.C. Catholic, the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s biweekly publication.

The hobbled priest claimed that a doctor and a nurse at Vancouver General Hospital, directly affiliated with the British Columbia Ministry of Health, offered him MAID while he was recovering from his hip fracture, which is hardly a terminal condition. The priest further claimed that both medical professionals knew he is a Catholic priest.

“I think I was very shocked,” said Holland. “It is such a sensitive subject.”

Rev. Larry Lynn, pro-life chaplain for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, said, “This must surely be among the most appalling examples of Canada’s coercive and insensitive euthanasia regime.”

RELATED: Euthanasia and the lie of the ‘good death’

Mininyx Doodle/Getty Images

Although he was left “kind of silent” for a moment when the topic of assisted suicide was first apparently broached, Rev. Holland emphasized to the doctor that he, a Catholic priest, was morally opposed to the practice.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that direct euthanasia is “morally unacceptable”; that such actions constitute “a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator; and that “even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted.”

The Catholic Church has long campaigned against assisted suicide.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops noted in 2023, for instance, that “euthanasia and assisted suicide (MAID) have always been, and will always be, morally unacceptable because they are affronts to human dignity and violations of natural and divine law.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has similarly and repeatedly condemned the practice, affirming that “we are dealing here with ‘a violation of the divine law, an offense against the dignity of the human person, a crime against life, and an attack on humanity.'”

Just last month, Catholic bishops in New York published a guidebook reiterating the church’s moral teaching “that this practice is objectively immoral and must be avoided, despite the false veil of compassion with which it is sold.” The state was apparently in need of a reminder given its recent adoption of a law legalizing doctor-assisted suicide.

Even when dealing with a patient from a “faith community” that’s opposed to MAID, the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers still recommends that Canadian health care professionals make the pitch for assisted suicide.

After informing his doctor that he was opposed to assisted suicide, Rev. Holland recalled the doctor explaining that he “just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not … I knew the different services I had access to.”

Rev. Holland told the B.C. Catholic that weeks later, a nurse also raised the matter of MAID with him.

A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which runs the hospital, told the B.C. Catholic that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.”

Staff are also “responsible for answering questions when patients bring up the topic of MAID,” added the spokesman.

Rev. Ronald Sequeria, the Catholic chaplain serving at Vancouver General Hospital, suggested there was something demonic about how MAID-pushers prey on suffering patients’ despair — especially when suffering can be redemptive.

“The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in, in different personalities, and says, ‘Do you want MAID? I don’t want people to suffer,'” said Rev. Sequeira.

“God makes us more pure, more strong, through the suffering when we offer it up,” said the chaplain. “So we give hope — help them not to lose hope.”

Rev. Holland drove home this point, stressing that enduring pain “can encourage growth.”

“It can motivate you, it can open up new worlds, new vistas, new opportunities,” added the priest.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Canada, Catholic priest, Euthanasia, Health care workers, Medical assistance in dying, Demonic, State-facilitated suicide, Assisted suicide, Suicide, Eugenics, Hospital, Health care, Death, Killing, Catholic, Religion, Politics 

Microsoft Windows is one of the most popular operating systems on the planet, second only to Android. With 1 billion users spread out across interests and industries, robust security software is critical to keeping personal files and private information safe. Unfortunately, a newly discovered flaw in Windows’ built-in Microsoft Defender could give hackers full access to a PC without the user’s knowledge.

What is Microsoft Defender?

Windows PCs didn’t always have antivirus protection built in. In fact, Microsoft’s first-party solution didn’t come along until 2006, 21 years after Windows debuted. Today, the aptly named Microsoft Defender ships on every PC from Windows Vista all the way to Windows 11.

The purpose of Microsoft Defender is simple: It is designed to protect your PC from the usual online threats that pervade the internet. This includes viruses, malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks. Microsoft even boasts that Defender “can block almost all malware at first sight, in milliseconds.”

That sounds promising.

In short, it provides a necessary layer of protection in a world of increasingly dangerous cyberattacks driven by AI. Unfortunately, while Microsoft Defender is meant to minimize hacking threats, it can now be used to infiltrate a PC wholesale.

Microsoft Defender’s fatal flaw

An anonymous researcher who goes by “Chaotic Eclipse” discovered a major flaw in Microsoft Defender. Dubbed “RedSun,” the threat can lead to hackers gaining administrative privileges to a target PC without the user’s knowledge or permission.

RedSun affects a wide range of PCs running Windows 10 and Windows 11.

With administrative privileges, a hacker can essentially control every aspect of the user’s PC. This includes installing or uninstalling software, running programs, changing user settings, modifying user accounts, resetting system passwords, disabling security software and firewalls (including Defender itself), and accessing user files.

RedSun, at its core, is a form of malware — the same kind that Microsoft claims to block in the blink of an eye. Then again, the company did say that Defender stops “almost all malware,” so there’s some wiggle room. It just so happens that this particular bug that the system missed comes with potentially devastating consequences.

Staying true to the name, Chaotic Eclipse left detailed instructions on a GitHub page, explaining how hackers can use the exploit to raise awareness of the issue. The move is a double-edged sword for users and Microsoft alike. On one hand, Chaotic Eclipse hopes that with this information divulged, Microsoft will patch Defender promptly to keep all 1 billion users safe around the world. On the other hand, these instructions tell hackers exactly how to infiltrate PCs using the Microsoft Defender exploit, potentially leading to mass cyberattacks of critical systems — from personal computers to businesses and even government agencies — that run on Windows.

RELATED: RED FLAG: FBI says these apps let China suck up your personal data

Dragos Condrea/Getty Images

RedSun affects a wide range of PCs running Windows 10 and Windows 11, as well as Windows Server for enterprise applications.

How to protect your PC from RedSun

At the time this article was published, there is currently no fix available for RedSun, and it could take weeks or even months for Microsoft to issue an update. Since the exploit is now openly available and receiving attention from the media, we hope this spurs Microsoft to act fast, but considering all the bugs that have plagued Windows 11 lately — including this BitLocker hole we covered earlier this year — the company already has its hands full.

While you may not be able to stop a hacker from breaching your PC through Microsoft Defender, you can add an extra layer of protection by temporarily installing a trusted third-party antivirus solution. Some options include McAfee, Bitdefender, and Norton.

In the meantime, keep an eye on the Windows Update page in the Settings app on your PC for the latest bug fixes that will finally put RedSun to rest. Of course, if all else fails, there’s always Mac!

​Tech 

From the time of one’s childhood, a person learns a sense of proportion in addition to a sense of right and wrong. Even good things must be measured in the right proportion. It is this lack of proportionality that is missing from advocates of Big Tech seeking to build hyperscale AI data centers — often multiple facilities — in nearly every region of the country.

A recent Washington Post exposé of the data center fight in Archbald, Pennsylvania, exemplifies why the data center agenda is unprecedented, is unsustainable, and makes the entire generative AI concept economically insolvent.

We have never asked so many communities to give so much for abstract and speculative promises of return.

Tucked into the Pocono Mountains northeast of Scranton, Archbald is a mountain town of 7,000. Now, town council leaders have sold out to Big Tech and plan to build six sprawling hyperscale data centers covering about 14% of the town’s land.

Those campuses would include 51 data warehouses — each about the size of a Walmart supercenter — including seven buildings encompassing more than 1 million square feet. If all the data centers were built, they would occupy about 2.5 miles of land.

We have simply never done this before. And remember, this is playing out to varying degrees in thousands of places throughout the country. And of course, these campuses offer locals nothing but surveillance and slop relative to what edge computing can do with an infinitesimal footprint.

Over the past month, most members of the seven-person Archbald Borough Council, along with several planning board members, have resigned.

Keep in mind that Big Tech wants to rezone and buy up land that is exponentially larger than anything ever done before. Apologists for the industry within the GOP accuse some of us of being anti-growth and anti-infrastructure, but there is an obvious difference between this and every other infrastructure project: namely, the return on investment.

For a fraction of the space, a gas-powered plant supplies the power to an entire region and is a universal need. These behemoths, on the other hand, require exponentially more land, and rather than offering power, they suck it out — not to mention treating the neighbors to a constant 90 decibel humming. It is all being done on the promise of “artificial general intelligence,” which is nothing more than a scam.

It would be one thing if the scaling of large language models required that one region of our country get turned into a parking lot, such as what is being proposed in Archbald. But they are trying to do this with mega-hyperscale facilities in thousands of places across the country.

To provide some sense of proportion, let’s just take eight of the proposed hyperscales under contract in Indiana. Taken together, these data centers that will power cloud computing for Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon will consume 8,300 MWs of power. That is the usage equivalent of twice the number of households in the entire state.

RELATED: Republicans must reject Big Tech land grabs or start losing elections

Nathan Howard/Washington Post/Getty Images

If not for opposition from locals, Prince William County, which is already saturated with data centers, was going to permit a 2,100-acre, 37-building campus that would have been one of the largest in the world. To put that size in perspective, one could probably build well over 50 gas-powered plants in that footprint.

The Box Elder County, Utah, Commission is about to sign off on a mega data center project on 40,000 acres of private and DOD lands that, when completed, will eventually use nine GWs of power. To put that in perspective, the entire state of Utah uses four GWs.

The sheer unprecedented amount of power these leviathans would need also necessitates an unnatural and inordinate number of transmission lines that will cut through, distort, and disturb private property. For example, Dominion Power is proposing a $1 billion 765 kV high-voltage transmission line project that would span from Lynchburg to Culpeper County, Virginia. The project would impact nine counties with the most powerful lines, standing 135-165 feet tall.

It’s even worse in West Virginia, where the residents are being forced to fund projects that cut up their land with transmission lines to fund the Northern Virginia “Data Center Alley” that is not even in the same state!

Is it any wonder why there is a national bipartisan revolt against the ruling class of both parties on the sheer insanity of this model? We have never asked so many communities to give so much for abstract and speculative promises of return.

It’s more likely that we will be stuck with the surveillance state, a degraded quality of life, and a decrepit internet full of slop than that we will achieve any greatness in human progress from such sacrifice of land, power, and continuity of communities.

Never before have we had a technology that is supposedly so progressive and futuristic, yet its resource-stripping is so cloddish, archaic, and draconian.

Everyone knows the industry lacks the power and money to actually operate thousands of hyperscale data centers. Everyone recognizes that the scaling model of LLMs is unsustainable and is not the future of AI. But will we stop this madness before so much of our land is rezoned and re-owned by a centralized monopoly?

Remember, the land-grab is not the side effect, but the main point.

​Ai data centers, Big tech, Data centers, Generative ai, Transmission lines, Eminent domain, Water usage, Land grab, Power usage, Opinion & analysis 

Between January 2023 and May 2025, Fortune 100 companies reduced their use of the term “DEI” by 98%, according to an analysis by Gravity Research.

Within weeks of President Trump’s executive order targeting federal DEI initiatives, major corporations including McDonald’s, Walmart, and Target announced they were ending DEI programs.

Conservatives celebrated as one company after another backed away from the acronym that had dominated (and in many cases terrified) corporate America for years.

That celebration was premature.

The goal is no longer to showcase diversity initiatives. The goal is to make those initiatives invisible and permanent.

DEI is far from dead. According to “inclusion consultant” Lily Zheng, its disguise is now called FAIR: Fairness, Access, Inclusion, and Representation. “It’s not just a communications rebrand,” Zheng recently told Time magazine. “It’s not just that we’re avoiding the letters DEI and trying to replace it with FAIR. It’s that the work itself is evolving.”

What Zheng calls “legacy DEI” focused on visible programs like heritage months, diversity training sessions, and demographic targets. These programs were public-facing, easy to identify, and therefore vulnerable to political pressure. The new approach abandons surface visibility in favor of work to change what Zheng calls “systems.”

Instead of counting the number of women or people of color in leadership positions, FAIR focuses on changing institutional systems. Instead of heritage celebrations, FAIR embeds what it calls “inclusion” into hiring algorithms, promotion processes, and organizational structures.

The goal is no longer to showcase diversity initiatives. The goal is to make those initiatives invisible and permanent.

Progressives adapted after losing Virginia elections in 2021. Teachers’ unions suffered a historic defeat. Rather than retreat, Data for Progress and similar groups spent millions analyzing voter habits and anxieties, then redesigned their campaign around different messaging. By 2023, Democrats won nearly every close Virginia race.

Progressives don’t abandon goals when challenged. They simply adapt their methods. Similarly, when conservatives successfully challenged outrageously unconstitutional explicit DEI programs, the machinery wasn’t dismantled. It burrowed deeper into institutional foundations, where it became harder to identify and harder to remove.

RELATED: How Republicans have failed to defund sanctuary cities for a generation

J. David Ake/Getty Images

Companies dropped “DEI” and adopted phrases like “universal fairness,” “algorithmic bias mitigation,” and “inclusion by design.” The framing shifted from blatant identity-based preferences to much more subtle process-based interventions.

In my book, “The Political Vise,” I describe group identity politics as organizing around grievance rather than achievement. This fact explains why DEI programs can never declare victory and dissolve. If equity were achieved, the machinery would become unnecessary. The system requires permanent grievance to justify permanent intervention.

Legacy DEI focused on representation metrics that could theoretically be satisfied. FAIR abandons those metrics in favor of systemic analysis that can never be completed.

There are always more systems to audit, more processes to redesign, more barriers to identify, and more marginalized people to uplift. A company can cancel a heritage month event, but it cannot skip the algorithmic audit hardwired into its hiring platform.

President Trump’s executive order triggered the strategic retreat. The grievance lobby, however, wasn’t giving up without a fight. Its members demanded that companies and public institutions find other ways to keep DEI alive. By January 2026, when Zheng described the FAIR framework to Time magazine, the evolution was complete.

Trump’s March 2026 executive order requiring federal contractors to certify that they do not engage in discriminatory activities based on race or ethnicity suggests the Trump administration recognizes the evasion.

The order notes that “some entities continue to engage in DEI activities and often attempt to conceal their efforts.” But just prohibiting “disparate treatment based on race or ethnicity” can’t root out systems-based approaches that claim to focus on universal fairness while pursuing the same demographic outcomes through different methods.

RELATED: Trump’s antitrust policy is working for everyday Americans

Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

DEI under any name serves the larger goal of institutionalizing learned helplessness. It teaches that your struggles result from discriminatory systems rather than personal choices, that flourishing depends more on institutional intervention than individual effort. Worst of all, it teaches dependence. And a lot of progressives are deeply invested in maintaining that dependence.

Eliminating DEI departments and scrubbing corporate websites of diversity language are satisfying, but not final a victory, not when the actual work of grievance culture continues under different names.

With the grievance machinery adopting ever more subtle disguises, the fight to defend merit requires more shrewdness and patience than ever before. We must ask direct questions.

When companies rebrand DEI programs as “universal fairness” initiatives, we must demand to see the metrics. When they tout “algorithmic bias audits,” ask what disparities trigger intervention — and what outcomes those interventions produce.

The left hid the machinery underground because the surface became too costly to defend. It is critically important to drag DEI back into the light and destroy it once and for all.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolicy and made available via RealClearWire.

​Algorithmic bias mitigation, Diversity initiatives, Group identity politics, Grievance culture, Dei, Trump, Executive order, Opinion & analysis 

A very disturbing TikTok video has gone viral after a pregnant woman recorded herself playing ABBA songs to make her unborn son gay — while thousands of mothers cheered her on in the comments and across social media.

The video shows her blasting the lyrics “Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight” next to her stomach.

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is shocked to read the comments, which include things like, “My son is 4 and exclusively listens to Sabrina Carpenter. Hopes are very high for him being gay.”

“My son just officially came out a few months ago,” reads another comment with a cheering emoji.

Another one reads, “My son was born to ‘Dancing Queen.’ I have high hopes for him.”

“This is disgusting that you are thinking about your child’s sexuality,” Stuckey says.

“It’s a horrible thing to wish on someone. It is. Now, I’m a Christian, and I believe that homosexuality is a sin, OK. But I also think that it’s bad for society to encourage this kind of thing,” she continues.

“We should be encouraging our boys to be strong and to be brave and to be protectors and to be fighters and to rein their masculine energy into good things. Yes, and you can call that old-fashioned, but it’s true,” she adds.

Stuckey likens these mothers’ hopes for gay sons to “conversion therapy” and calls it “very, very grotesque.”

“I talk about this concept of what I call ‘toxic mommy culture’ in my book, ‘You’re Not Enough (and That’s Okay)’ — when moms make their feelings and their validation and their social image the highest priority and they project that onto their kids and they use their children as props to perform this, like, progressivism on social media for likes, affirmation, cultural approval,” Stuckey says.

“I just find this little thing that this mother is doing gross. … Kids are always the unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments,” she continues. “It’s not good.”

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.

​Abba songs, Allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey podcast, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Christian, Conversion therapy, Dancing queen, Gay, Leftism, Masculine energy, Mothers, Pregnant woman, Progressive social experiments, Progressivism, Sabrina carpenter, Sin, The blaze, Tiktok video, Toxic mommy culture, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

Immigration policy is often argued in abstract terms — statistics, ideals, and political talking points — but its real effects are felt most sharply at the local level.

And while other countries have much stricter laws surrounding immigration, Americans like BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre are personally feeling the effects of our own lax ones.

“While the Dominican Republic is, you know, not really someplace I want to spend the rest of my life, it is a wildly, wildly better civilization, to the point where they have a wall, and they will just shoot any Haitians that get near it because they basically treat it as some kind of contamination that’s going to destroy their society,” MacIntyre explains.

“Haiti was literally founded on a satanic voodoo blood ritual. A blood sacrifice of white Europeans was the core beginning of this. … The idea that you’re just going to have the native population rise up and slaughter the oppressor and then rule itself, that played itself out in Haiti, and we can see the exact result,” he continues.

“And yet, we see people constantly trying to bring this culture into the United States. It’s absolutely crazy,” he adds.

MacIntyre notes that this has already affected his own community, where a woman in his area “was beaten to death with a hammer by a Haitian immigrant” in “one of the most horrific videos” he’s ever seen.

“So, this is no longer some kind of abstract understanding. … No, this is directly getting people murdered in my community. People in places I have been, I have driven by, are getting murdered because of what is going on here,” he says.

“And yet, we see the main concern is the safety not of American citizens who are beaten to death by hammers, but to the Haitians who are coming here themselves,” he continues, pointing out that the majority of these immigrants add no value to the country.

“If you look at the statistics, you can see that 65% of Haitian households are on welfare. They are dependent on welfare for their living. That means that the entire community is a net drain on the American social system,” he explains.

“You and I are paying to keep these people here and possibly murder our fellow Americans,” he says. “So everything about this from the economic argument to the moral argument is a complete lie.”

Want more from Auron MacIntyre?

To enjoy more of this YouTuber and recovering journalist’s commentary on culture and politics, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​American citizens, Auron macintyre, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Blood ritual, Crazy, Dominican republic, Haiti, Haitian immigrants, Illegal immigration, Immigrant, Immigration policy, Satanic voodoo, Statistics, The blaze, United states, Welfare, The auron macintyre show 

I don’t get sick days, so the test results were posted to my chart while I was sitting in my office. I opened them before I ever saw the doctor.

I knew what I was looking at, but I checked it again. After researching what I already suspected, I sat there for a moment. The first thought came and went, then the one that remained: What about Gracie?

For 40 years, I have been my wife’s caregiver. After a catastrophic car wreck at age 17, doctors didn’t expect her to survive the night. No one imagined she would marry, have children, and live to see grandchildren.

Trusting Him does not remove the burden, but it defines how I can carry it.

But she did. What didn’t change was the crises.

When the surgery count approaches 100, a crisis is no longer an interruption. It becomes the environment. For 40 years, it has never plateaued.

The pressure doesn’t arrive once a month in tidy episodes. Sometimes it arrives daily. You live on alert, always vigilant, always calculating what could go wrong next. Choking. Seizures. Code blue. Falls. Wound care. Non-responsive. I’ve seen it all. This is the terrain we live in.

Our life runs on a system most people never see and few could imagine. Meals, medications, transfers, safety, transportation, finances, advocacy. I carry all of it. I speak when she can’t. I’m there when she needs something as simple as a glass of water.

It’s a highly specialized operation with no backup, no redundancy, and no margin for error. And like millions of caregivers across this country, I am the one running it.

Two days after I received my test results, sitting in the exam room, the doctor asked if I had any questions. I had the usual, plus two more: How much care will I need afterward? And how much care will I still be able to provide?

That’s how close this is.

RELATED: Life can be hard, but don’t forget to laugh

Liudmyla Musiichuk/Getty Images

So when cancer enters the picture, the question isn’t so much about survival as collapse. If I go down, what happens to her?

That’s not fear; it’s just math.

We spend a great deal of time arguing about who is fit to lead this country. But across this country, there are millions of people quietly carrying responsibilities that would break most of the people we argue about.

Those responsibilities don’t come with cameras or talking, and they have no margin for error. There is just the weight of responsibility.

And when something like cancer enters that equation, the question isn’t political, but structural. What actually holds up when the person holding everything together can’t?

This diagnosis was caught early. That gives me time to deal with it.

Caregivers are told to take care of themselves. I have said that for years, and I meant it. But this case is no longer maintenance. It requires intervention, recovery, and being pulled away from the work. And that interrupts and affects everything: Health. Emotions. Lifestyle. Profession. Money. Endurance. Nothing is left untouched.

Spell that out, and it says what so many caregivers struggle to say: Sometimes we need help.

I need the system to hold while I step away long enough to deal with this current issue, and that means accepting care that won’t be done the way I would do it. It means training others and paying for help. It means absorbing the reality that things will go wrong, as they inevitably do.

But this is where conviction steps in. My wife has a Savior, and I am not that Savior.

But still, breakfast has to be made and the laundry has to be done. Trusting Him does not remove the burden, but it defines how I can carry it.

RELATED: Sometimes doing nothing is the hardest challenge of all

Francescoch/Getty Images

The question I have asked for years now returns to me: Christian, what do you believe?

If I believe what I say I do, then what is required of me in this moment? We sing hymns about trusting God, and times like this are when that trust is tested.

Years ago, a reporter asked me, “What would Jesus do as a caregiver?”

I don’t know what He would do. I know what He did do. From the cross, He looked at His mother and entrusted her to John.

Over the years, I have trusted surgeons I barely knew to take my wife into a room and do what I could not. I have signed the papers, handed her over, and waited. Not because I understood everything they were doing, but because I trusted that they did.

I trust surgeons I barely know. How much more can I trust the Savior whom I do?

In His hands, what looks severe is not careless. It is precise and purposeful.

I don’t get to step out of this, but I am not standing in it alone. So I take the next step.

​Cancer, Caregiver, Christian, Emotions, Health, Recovery, Savior, Trusting god, Opinion & analysis 

If you still believe you “own” your car, you’re already behind the eight ball. What you actually own is a permission slip on four wheels. A machine that watches you, evaluates you, and decides, in real time, whether you’re allowed to drive it.

Not a police officer. Not a court. Not even common sense. But instead — an algorithm.

Every piece of technology fails at some point. When it does, you’re stuck explaining to a machine why you deserve to drive your own vehicle.

And if that sounds like something ripped out of a dystopian script, it’s because we’ve crossed the line where dystopia gets rebranded as public safety. And our elected officials have voted for it.

View to a kill

Automakers are already moving toward biometric identification, behavior-based safety systems, and deeper integration with external data sources.

The stated goal is reducing drunk driving. The real-world effect is broader: cars that monitor drivers and increasingly act on that data. The trigger for all of this sits inside the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Buried in Section 24220 is a mandate that forces the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require “advanced impaired-driving technology” in every new car sold in America. That phrase sounds harmless on purpose.

Because if lawmakers called it what it actually is — a federally required driver surveillance system with the power to disable your vehicle — there might have been a real debate. Instead, it slid through.

RELATED: New Minnesota bill could run classic car owners off the road

Education Images/Getty Images

Designated driver

Here’s what is coming. Cameras locked on your face. Sensors tracking your eyes. Software analyzing your behavior, your attention, even your emotional state. The system doesn’t just look for alcohol impairment; it looks for anything it interprets as risk.

Are you tired? Distracted? Stressed? That’s enough for the system to decide you aren’t fit to drive.

And once that threshold is crossed, your car can refuse to move. You can sit there with the keys, with the title, with the payment book in your glove box, and the answer is still no. You’re not going anywhere.

This is the shift nobody voted for in plain English. And it’s already happening.

Driver monitoring systems are in millions of vehicles globally. Europe mandates them. U.S. automakers are embedding them. This isn’t theoretical. It’s slowly being built into new cars, and from 2027, every new car will have it. No exceptions.

I spy

At the same time, automakers are pushing even further. Ford Motor Company has filed patents that read less like safety features and more like surveillance blueprints. We’re talking about biometric identification, behavioral tracking, even the potential to integrate with external databases.

Your vehicle isn’t just transportation anymore. It’s a data collection terminal with wheels. And once that data exists, it doesn’t stay private.

In-cabin monitoring systems are already being used in fleet vehicles. Live feeds. Driver tracking. Behavior analysis. And it’s being sold as valuable data to whoever wants to pay for it.

Now connect the dots. This government mandate meets corporate capability. That’s not an accident. That’s alignment.

And here’s where it gets even more convenient for everyone involved, except you.

DADSS joke

Congress is pouring money into this. About $45 million has already been allocated for research, with over $100 million backing the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety program.

Government and car businesses are not paying to install it in your car. You, the taxpayer, are paying for it.

Automakers will comply, then pass every dollar of cost straight down the line to the buyer. More expensive vehicles. More complex systems. More opportunities for failure. And more profit margins built into something you never asked for.

That’s the quiet part. The loud part? It is about control.

Because once your car has the authority to decide whether you can drive, you’ve handed over something bigger than convenience. You’ve handed over autonomy. And don’t expect a political rescue. Most politicians have bailed on you.

When Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Scott Perry (R-Penn.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas) tried to push back, they exposed a vote showing dozens of Republicans and over 200 Democrats supporting measures tied to this mandate. They passed this into law.

Road to nowhere

That’s not division. That’s consensus. And consensus in Washington usually means one thing: The machine is moving forward, whether you like it or not. This is how permanent change happens. Not with headlines, but with technical language most people will never read. Until it shows up in their driveway.

We’ve seen the warning signs before. In 2017, WikiLeaks revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency had explored the ability to hack vehicle control systems remotely. At the time, people were outraged. Now we’re building systems that make that capability look tame and calling it progress.

Supporters will say this saves lives. And yes, impaired driving is a real issue. But we already have targeted solutions like ignition interlocks for convicted offenders. Which, by the way, there are already over 30 devices that stop drunk driving.

This is universal monitoring.

This is your car assuming you’re guilty before you’ve done anything at all.

Fail safe?

And here’s the question nobody in Washington wants to answer honestly: What happens when the system gets it wrong? Because it will.

False positives. Glitches. Misreads. Software errors. Even placing drivers in dangerous situations. Every piece of technology fails at some point. When it does, you’re stuck explaining to a machine why you deserve to drive your own vehicle.

Good luck with that.

And once the door is open, it doesn’t close.

If your car can stop you for “impairment,” what’s next?

Speed enforcement built into the vehicle?

Geofencing where your car simply won’t go?

Insurance companies tapping into your driving data in real time?

Law enforcement accessing in-cabin feeds?

None of that requires a leap. It’s the next logical step.

And the groundwork is already being laid and can change with no notice.

No way out

Meanwhile, your escape routes are disappearing. Older vehicles are being pushed off the road through regulation, parts shortages, and policy pressure. The market is being engineered so that opting out becomes less realistic every year.

You won’t be forced into this overnight.

You’ll just wake up one day and realize every new car on the lot plays by the same rules. That’s how control scales. Slow, steady, and almost invisible until it’s too late.

To be precise, Section 24220 doesn’t flip a literal kill switch today. But it creates the legal and technological pathway for systems that can absolutely prevent your vehicle from operating based on algorithmic decisions. And this is the law, not just an idea. And it will be in all new vehicles.

Call it whatever makes it easier to swallow.

If your car decides you’re not driving, the outcome is the same.

This isn’t about left or right. It’s about power — who has it, who’s gaining more of it, and who’s quietly losing it.

Right now, drivers are on the losing end. And that is not about to change.

And once this system is fully embedded, reversing it won’t be simple, cheap, or quick. It will be treated as essential infrastructure, too big to remove, too normalized to question.

That’s the real endgame.

Not safety.

Not innovation.

Control, baked into the very machines Americans rely on every single day.

And as of today, only a few officials are fighting on our side.

Who gets to decide when you’re allowed to drive? Because if the answer isn’t you, then you don’t own your car. You never did.

​Automakers, Biometric identification, Driver monitoring systems, Government control, Modern vehicle technology, National highway traffic, Ownership, Software authority, Align cars 

Like most American Jewish kids, I went to a Jewish summer camp. It was a good time: archery, canoeing, crafts, and a first kiss. I forget how many years I went. It was two or three summers in a row, I think.

Aside from the standard Jewish cultural stuff, such as singing, dancing, and Jewish-themed crafting, we did some historical role-playing.

The more they try to incite panic, the more suspicious you should be.

One of these role-playing exercises was when we had to “Escape the Nazis.” The camp counselors played the Nazis, while the kids played European Jews. We had to sneak around to reach the safe area without getting caught.

Looking back with the perspective of a parent, I don’t see the wisdom of this sort of re-enactment. I feel that just learning about the Holocaust was valuable enough. But we all had fun with it, and I don’t think it caused any harm.

But one night, they crossed the line.

In the early morning hours, the camp counselors woke us up. They said it was an emergency and gathered us in the dining hall. One of the lead counselors told us that the Arabs had gotten a nuclear weapon and destroyed Israel.

They told us everyone was dead — vaporized and turned to ash, like the Jews at Auschwitz.

Needless to say, we were pretty freaked out. Some of the kids — the kids who had family in Israel — were crying and wailing, screaming things like, “But what about Auntie Rachel??”

But the counselor calmed us down, and we all stood in a circle, held hands, said prayers, and sang some songs.

But then … they told us (haha) that Israel did not get destroyed tonight and most of the Jews in the world did not, in fact, get vaporized, but it was important to remember that this was something that could happen, and that’s why we — as Jews — need to remain hypervigilant about the people who hate us.

Then they put us back to bed. Good night, kids!

Needless to say, this was pretty traumatizing. Even today, when I see the words “Arab” and “nuclear” in the same sentence, that old anxiety comes roaring back.

However, that old anxiety is immediately followed by anger and resentment over what they did to us. Because this is what brainwashing is.

In the 1980s, when I was a kid at summer camp, no Arab state was even close to getting a bomb. And no Arab state is close now.

In recent memory, I have been told numerous times by authoritative sources that Iran is “two weeks away from a bomb!” so we must “act now!” But several years have gone by, and it doesn’t seem like Iran has a bomb yet.

For what it’s worth, I was also told — by the same authoritative sources — that we needed to remain in our home for “two weeks to stop the spread.” So I’m starting to think “two weeks” is a standard BS timeline. Just like when my wife says she’ll be home in “five minutes.”

And yes, some Arab states had (and have) secret weapons programs. But every competently governed country in the world (including Israel) has a secret weapons program, because they would be stupid not to have a secret weapons program.

But from a rational standpoint, Israel was safe that night. At least as safe as it can be, considering that it is surrounded by hostile neighbors who would, in fact, like to destroy it.

So yes, the threat to Israel is a very real thing. Any Israeli will tell you this. But it’s a complicated issue. Anyone who has delved into the geopolitics of the Middle East knows that it is a complicated issue.

The messy Middle East

For what it’s worth, I like Israel. I want to see Israel and the people who live there thrive. And Israeli children shouldn’t have to hide in bomb shelters while Iranian ballistic missiles are bombarding their cities. And they certainly shouldn’t be slaughtered or kidnapped like they were on October 7. Just like I don’t think anyone should be slaughtered or kidnapped.

Sometimes force is needed — as I believe it was in Gaza — but sometimes not. And often, it is just plain messy.

I believe we can calmly and rationally parse these complex issues. But the point of waking us up in the middle of the night was to remove calm rationality from the calculation and replace it with visceral fear.

They tried to break our little brains. And it probably worked on most of the kids.

Looking back, I suspect there were complaints from parents, because I don’t recall this happening in subsequent years. But my revulsion remains.

This was a counterproductive way to educate us about very real issues. Instead of illuminating the very real danger of anti-Semitism, the experience gave me a deep skepticism of Zionist propaganda and a distrust of Jewish-American cultural institutions.

Today, over 35 years later, I’m a fairly secular Jew. And while we celebrate holidays at home, I have never let my kids set foot inside a synagogue or Jewish Community Center.

Now, I’m sure most people in these institutions are, in fact, earnest and kind and would never intentionally traumatize a child. But the risk remains.

Because there are self-righteous zealots in this world — and it’s not just limited to Jews. They tend to congregate wherever there’s some sort of political cause. Environmentalists, socialists, trans/gay activists — they’re everywhere.

These people are dangerous, and I don’t want them anywhere near my children.

Many years later — long after summer camp, when I was a professional adult — I met a woman at a party. It turned out that she worked for the parent organization of my childhood summer camp.

I told her I went to one of her camps, as did she, and we had a nice conversation.

Then she asked me if I wanted to “get involved,” which really meant “would you like to donate?” I politely declined, and she asked me why.

So I told her. I told her what happened that night in the dining hall, that I don’t approve of those methods, that it’s counterproductive, and that I would hate for this to happen to other children.

She turned white. Just stark white.

Because I had broached a topic that was not to be discussed, she knew this had happened before. But it wasn’t something to be discussed. Awkward and sheepish, she stammered, “Uh, no. We don’t do ‘Experiential Learning’ any more.”

The thing they did to us had a name. It was called “Experiential Learning,” and it’s quite the euphemism. I’m sure there are many research papers on the topic. But I’ll take her at her word. Maybe, as she said, they don’t do “Experiential Learning” any more.

They probably don’t do it because those types — the self-righteous zealots — found something better. They discovered the media hoax.

Media malcontents

I’ve been around media for most of my adult life, and I knew this sort of thing happened, but the recent federal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center laid it bare.

It would seem, like a shady tire repair shop scattering nails on the street to cause flats, that the SPLC was allegedly paying neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other hate groups to hold rallies and commit crimes to raise funds and justify the SPLC’s mission of combatting “hate.”

Among other things, the SPLC allegedly funded the organizers of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

How many brains were broken by a bunch of chuds carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville? Was it in the hundreds of millions? More?

It almost broke my brain. Because I watched the mainstream media coverage, and what I saw was blood in the streets. American blood. In American streets.

And I don’t like blood in the streets. Just like I don’t like Israeli blood in Israeli streets. Just like I don’t like to see any blood in any street.

But something didn’t add up. Something was off. Because Charlottesville was portrayed in the media as a morality play, as a simple story of good vs evil. But, as with Middle East geopolitics, nothing is that simple.

The so-called “organizers,” who were cast as the villains, were too cartoonish. There was something fake. The tone was off. It was inauthentic.

Just like the camp counselors were inauthentic that night in the dining hall.

I think about Charlottesville, Russiagate, January 6, COVID, and all the other media hoaxes. It’s all the same thing — with the same pathology. The camp counselors are all grown up now, but the self-righteous zealotry remains — as does their goal. They want you to feel fear. And they don’t want you to think for yourself.

So when you see something in the media that makes you afraid, stop and think. Not that you shouldn’t be concerned, but think it through first. Think about who’s trying to manipulate you and why.

The more they try to incite panic, the more suspicious you should be. Because what you’re probably seeing is just “Experiential Learning” for the rest of us. And it’s best to ignore it.

A version of this article was originally published as an X post.

​Brainwashing, Israel, Manipulation, Media hoax, Middle east, Southern poverty law center, Opinion & analysis 

The resurrection of the body and the true meaning of eternity is one of the most misunderstood ideas in Christianity, as many believe that the goal of being a Christian is to “go to heaven” after we die.

And BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey and theologian Wes Huff are setting the record straight.

“It’s a sign of restoration, Allie,” Wes says of the “resurrection of the body.”

“It’s a sign that when Jesus says, you know, ‘I’m making all things new’ in the book of Revelation, that that’s a promise. That we understand that the world was not created to be the way that it is. That it was created good,” he tells Stuckey.

Huff points out that the phrase “it’s good” is repeated throughout the Bible as a reminder that the world is “marred by sin, but it was meant for so much more.”

“And that’s going to be restored. We’re going to see how God makes all things new,” he says.

As for going to heaven, Huff begins by noting “we often have this understanding that our end goal is to get to heaven.”

“We leave this mortal coil and that’s it, and we’re trying to escape. That’s actually an ancient pagan idea. The ancient platonic philosophers and the gnostics believed that the physical was bad and the spiritual was good and that our spirits are really trapped in these meat prisons. And the goal is to get away from this all,” he explains.

“And I think we swallow something that’s false when we think of heaven as the final goal. What we read about and what you see within the Old Testament in the hope of the resurrection is that all of the created order is going to be aligned and made new and restored and that’s going to be beautiful,” he continues.

God’s creations — the sunrise, the mountains, the ocean — will be restored to what they were meant to be.

“We’re going to be in awe once again at mountains, at stars, at oceans, at valleys, at, you know, forests, at deserts. These things are going to continue to bring us into awe in eternity because God is going to resurrect us in a body that is, I think … probably analogous to something that we have here on earth, but much, much better,” Huff explains.

“Heaven is the layover. It’s going to be a great layover. It’s going to be an amazing layover,” he says, adding, “but it’s not going to be the end goal.”

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.

​Allie beth stuckey, Ancient pagan idea, Awe in eternity, Blazetv host, Christianity goal, Created good, Created order, Final goal, Going to heaven, Hope of resurrection, Layover in heaven, Making all things new, Marred by sin, Meat prisons, Misunderstood ideas, Mountains ocean, Physical vs spiritual, Promise of restoration, Restored creations, Resurrected body, Resurrection of body, Sign of restoration, Theologian wes huff, True meaning of eternity, End goal, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blazetv, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

Whenever someone criticizes in vitro fertilization, the same response tends to come quickly: pictures of smiling toddlers, grateful parents, and testimonies from couples who spent years praying for a child.

For many people, that response feels decisive. How can something that produced such a beautiful little boy or girl be spoken of as morally troubling or wrong?

The public image of IVF — one happy baby — hides an unseen reality: other babies who never made it out of the laboratory.

On the surface, that reaction makes sense. Infertility can be a deep heartache. It is the repeated pain of empty nurseries, unanswered prayers, and hopes that seem to die month after month. People who have walked through that kind of grief are understandably drawn toward anything that promises relief.

My wife and I understand that heartache more than we wish we do.

We have lost multiple children through miscarriage. We have walked through a decade of infertility. We know what it is to ask God for life and hear silence. We understand the deep inward pull toward anything that might finally bring hope into reality.

This conversation is difficult. No decent person wants to speak carelessly into someone else’s suffering.

But moral questions do not disappear because suffering is involved. Pain can explain why a person reaches for something, but it cannot, by itself, make the solution righteous.

That is where the public conversation about IVF has gone extremely wrong.

RELATED: IVF CEO says conceiving naturally is for those with ‘genetic privilege’

Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile/Getty Images

IVF is almost always presented to Americans as a compassionate medical service. The happy nursery photos become the public face of the debate, and because those photos are emotionally powerful, very few people ever stop to ask what the IVF process itself actually entails.

Modern IVF does not only involve the creation of one embryonic child who is then implanted in the womb; it involves the creation of several embryonic children at once.

Some are chosen for transfer, some fail in the process and are discarded, and some are intentionally destroyed during testing. And more than a million embryonic children are now estimated to remain frozen in cryogenic storage facilities across the United States, suspended indefinitely because they were the extras in someone’s attempt to have a baby.

That means the public image of IVF — one happy baby — hides an unseen reality: other babies who never made it out of the laboratory.

This is not a rare malfunction of an otherwise innocent process. In 2024, when Alabama courts recognized frozen embryos destroyed at a fertility clinic as children under wrongful death law, the fertility industry immediately panicked, and lawmakers rushed to shield IVF providers from liability.

The death of embryonic children is not an unusual accident hovering at the edges of IVF. It is the standard practice.

We should be willing to say clearly what that means.

When embryonic children are intentionally destroyed because they are unwanted or medically inconvenient, that is murder. When embryonic children are frozen indefinitely because they were not selected, that is not a harmless pause in treatment. It is human beings placed in suspended imprisonment.

At this point, defenders of IVF usually return to the same emotional appeal: “Yes, but look at the children it has produced.” Some will even say, “Look at my child.”

And this is where the deepest confusion is found. Because the children produced through IVF are not the issue under dispute. Of course those children bear the image of God. Of course they are worthy of every ounce of love their parents can give them.

RELATED: Fertility doctors are bullying women into IVF

Blaze Media

Their value is not diminished in the slightest by the means of their conception. But the value of the child is not the same thing as the morality of the process. We understand this distinction instinctively in other tragic circumstances.

A child conceived in rape is no less human because of the violence surrounding his conception. His life may be full of joy, dignity, and meaning. And he certainly has the image of God stamped upon him.

Yet no one would argue that the beauty of that child makes rape morally acceptable, because we know that a precious child does not retroactively justify wicked circumstances.

That same principle must be applied to IVF.

Yes, IVF has produced children who are deeply loved, but those children do not morally absolve a process that routinely murders some embryonic children, freezes others, and treats human life as laboratory surplus in order to obtain a successful outcome.

In fact, those surviving children prove the very point many people are trying to avoid.

If the child in the nursery photo is an image-bearer now, then the embryonic siblings destroyed, discarded, or frozen in the same process were image-bearers then.

The question is not whether children conceived through IVF have value. The question is whether the existence of those loved children gives us permission to ignore the murdered and imprisoned children involved in producing them.

A good gift does not justify an evil method. And gratitude for one surviving child cannot erase the moral guilt of the children that modern fertility medicine leaves frozen, discarded, and dead.

​In vitro fertilization, Ivf, Ivf debate, Moral questions, Infertility pain, Image of god, Infertility, Embryos, Opinion & analysis 

Imagine you’re traveling down a road in a bus, and your driver suddenly passes out. What emotions would you and other passengers feel in that moment? Surely it’s a terrifying situation.

Now imagine that scenario taking place aboard a bus filled with middle schoolers — and the only adult around is the one who just went limp behind the wheel.

‘It started gaining speed. I didn’t know it had air brakes, so whenever I clicked the brakes, it about threw me out the windshield.’

Well, that’s exactly what happened aboard a Mississippi school bus recently, WLOX-TV reported.

Driver Leah Taylor experienced a medical emergency while operating a Hancock Middle School bus on the afternoon of April 22, and she suddenly passed out, the station said.

The terrifying scene was captured on bus surveillance video.

“She kind of fell over, like flopped over, and everyone started standing up,” McKenzy Finch, a sixth grader, told WLOX.

Amazingly, the middle schoolers took fast action and worked together.

RELATED: Heroic HS football players rush to wrecked car as smoke pours from hood — and rescue woman trapped inside: ‘These kids really did run right into danger’

Jackson Casnave, a sixth grader, grabbed the steering wheel, the station said.

“I saw that the bus was veering off to the side. Then I grabbed the wheel,” Jackson told WLOX.

“It was just adrenaline pumping,” he added.

Darrius Clark, also a sixth grader, hit the brakes as the bus started going faster, the station added.

“So she passed out again, and then the bus started rolling forward. And, I mean, it started gaining speed,” Darrius told WLOX. “I didn’t know it had air brakes, so whenever I clicked the brakes, it about threw me out the windshield.”

Kayleigh Clark, an eighth grader, called 911, the station said, and Destiny Cornelius, also an eighth grader, gave the bus driver her medicine.

“I saw her medication in her hand, and I saw her reaching for it,” Destiny noted to WLOX. “I knew that’s what she needed.”

Video soon shows the bus having finally come to a stop as the students continue to shout instructions and rally around Taylor, their driver.

RELATED: Kindergartners on hijacked school bus asked armed intruder so many questions that he got ‘frustrated’ and let them off, hero bus driver recalls

Melissa Saucier, principal of Hancock Middle School, told the station that her students handled the emergency correctly.

“I’m not surprised to hear that our kids remained calm and acted swiftly,” Saucier added to WLOX. “This emergency situation could have definitely been detrimental. And they handled it exactly how they should have, and we’re extremely proud of them.”

In fact, the students later were recognized for their actions at a school pep rally, the station said.

As for Taylor, she told WLOX she’s back to normal, feeling better, and naturally very grateful and thankful for her young passengers.

“I’m very proud of them,” she told the station. “I couldn’t ask for any better students than my students on my bus. I love every single one of them.”

“I’m gonna think of how they saved my life,” she added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Good news, Hancock middle school, Heroic kids, Middle school students, Mississippi, Runaway bus, School bus driver passes out, Video, Human interest 

Speculation is mounting that comedian and podcaster Theo Von is on the path to becoming a true Christian. Recent clips of him getting emotional about Jesus, attending Bible study with country music star Morgan Wallen, and asking God for a “new story” have gone viral, sparking Christian commentary and reactions about his faith journey. Von has even described himself as searching for the Lord and spiritual healing.

But is he really on the path to salvation in Christ?

BlazeTV host Rick Burgess asked this question and evaluated the evidence on a recent episode of “The Rick Burgess Show.”

“We know a pretty good friend of Theo Von … I reached out to that brother yesterday,” says Rick, noting that this person is “a man of God.”

He inquired about Von’s faith journey, and the message he received back was surprising: “I think sometimes people like Theo Von … has more trust in what Jesus can do than many people who already profess their faith in Him.”

Rick is encouraged by this message.

“Theo Von seems to know that Jesus Christ is going to transform his life,” he says.

The costliness of this transformation, Rick notes, is one of the more painful parts of the Christian walk.

“When Jesus says count the cost, usually what we think of are the martyrs. Nothing wrong with that. Or we think of I might lose my job, I might lose friends … I might have family members who abandon me. That’s all true,” he says, “but what Jesus is talking about that I think sometimes the most difficult for us is it’s going to cost us our sin. He is going to call us to a new life.”

To Rick, it seems like Von is “being honest” about this reality of the Christian faith.

“Theo Von seems to be fully aware of what is at stake here, and he’s being honest. He’s not sure that he wants it,” he speculates.

Rick then plays a recent clip of Von that he says captures this authentic wrestle he believes Von is currently caught up in.

In the video, an emotional Von recaps the story of Jesus healing a chronically ill man in Bethesda.

“Jesus asks him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ … and that’s a crazy question because, you know, if I get healed then I’m different. You know, if somebody gets healed, they have a new story,” he said.

“So that’s just been something that I’ve been having to ask myself. It’s like, yeah, do I want to be healed? Do I really want something different? And sometimes, a lot of the answer is no, I don’t,” he continued, fighting tears.

“I don’t know if I’m scared of it. I don’t know what I am. I don’t know if I don’t want to do what it takes to get, I can’t even tell what it is. And it’s hard for me. Some of this stuff’s a little bit hard for me to say. I think I don’t even know why, but I think I want a new story.”

Rick is blown away by Von’s willingness to be so authentically vulnerable about his wrestle.

“That’s honest right there, folks,” he says, emphasizing that Von’s use of the word “hard” reflects a genuine understanding of Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7 about the two paths — an easy one that leads to death and an incredibly difficult one that leads to life.

It is clear to Rick that Von is aware choosing the path of life will prove costly to him.

He hopes, however, that someone who knows the Lord is teaching Von that if he chooses life, he won’t be walking the costly path alone.

“Theo knows something’s going to change, but I hope he understands that Jesus will do the changing,” he says, citing John 15:4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

While he doesn’t know what decision Von will ultimately make, one thing is clear to Rick: “The Holy Spirit is working on Theo.”

To hear more and see the clip of Von vulnerably admitting his wrestle with the gospel, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze media, Blazetv, Christ, Christian, Comedian, Faith journey, Matthew 7, New life, Podcaster, Rick burgess, The rick burgess show, Theo von 

Spend enough time around atheists, and you’ll hear a familiar refrain: the Bible as a bundle of fairy tales about a “sky god,” stitched together long after the fact and taken seriously only out of habit.

That tone has filtered down into the culture more broadly, where it is not always argued so much as assumed. The biblical world is treated as distant and half-imagined — useful for moral lessons, perhaps, but not something you would expect to intersect with recoverable history.

In 2004, work in Jerusalem uncovered a stepped pool that matched the description of the Pool of Siloam — where Jesus sends a blind man to wash.

Archaeology doesn’t answer the larger questions of faith. It doesn’t attempt to. But it does something more modest and, in its own way, more disruptive: It keeps turning up evidence that biblical events actually happened.

RELATED: 5 reasons this ‘Noah’s ark’ discovery is harder to dismiss than skeptics admit

Heritage Images/Getty Images

1. The Tel Dan Stele

It was once common to hear that King David belonged more to tradition than to history — a useful founding figure whose existence could not be confirmed.

That position became harder to hold after fragments of a ninth-century B.C. inscription were found at Tel Dan. Written by a neighboring kingdom, it refers to the “House of David,” using the standard language of dynasties.

It doesn’t tell us everything about David. It does show that, within a couple of generations, surrounding nations recognized a ruling line traced back to him. That’s not how ancient peoples spoke about fictional ancestors.

2. The Pontius Pilate Inscription

The Gospels place Jesus within a very specific Roman context, under a prefect named Pontius Pilate. Historians had references to Pilate in written sources, but for years nothing material.

A stone inscription found in Caesarea in 1961 supplied that missing piece, naming Pilate and identifying his office.

It is the sort of detail that rarely makes headlines. But it reinforces something the Gospels assume throughout: They are describing events within a functioning Roman administration, not an abstract or symbolic setting.

3. The Dead Sea Scrolls

Before the mid-20th century, the gap between the oldest surviving Hebrew manuscripts and the time of their composition left room for speculation. Some assumed the text had shifted substantially over the centuries.

The 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls changed the terms of that discussion. Dating back more than a thousand years earlier than previously known manuscripts, they preserve large portions of the Old Testament.

What stands out is not perfect uniformity, but consistency. Variants exist, as they do in any manuscript tradition. Yet the overall stability of the text across such a long span is difficult to ignore.

For anyone concerned about how Scripture was transmitted, this matters more than any abstract argument.

4. The Pool of Siloam

The Gospel of John has often been treated as more theological in tone, with less confidence placed in its geographical detail.

Then, in 2004, work in Jerusalem uncovered a stepped pool that matched the description of the Pool of Siloam — where Jesus sends a blind man to wash.

What began as a partial discovery has gradually expanded. Last year, ongoing excavations revealed more of the pool’s full extent — confirming that it was not a small ritual basin, but a prominent landmark used by pilgrims making their way up to the Temple.

The discovery wasn’t driven by an attempt to confirm the Gospel. It emerged from routine excavation and has been clarified piece by piece since. Its alignment with John’s account has led even cautious scholars to acknowledge the text’s familiarity with pre-A.D. 70 Jerusalem.

5. Hezekiah’s Tunnel

Biblical accounts of kings often face skepticism, especially when they describe large-scale projects under pressure.

In 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, King Hezekiah prepares Jerusalem for an Assyrian invasion by securing the city’s water supply — redirecting the Gihon Spring so that it can’t be used by enemy forces outside the walls. It’s described briefly in Scripture, almost in passing, but the implication is significant: a major engineering effort carried out under the pressure of an approaching army.

In Jerusalem, the tunnel itself has long been known and even traversed — an ancient water channel cutting through bedrock. What wasn’t clear for centuries was whether this was the tunnel described in Scripture or simply one of several.

Significant doubt was removed in 1880, when two boys exploring the passage discovered an inscription a few meters from the southern exit. Carved into the wall, it describes workers digging from opposite ends and hearing each other’s voices as they broke through. Jerusalem was part of Ottoman-ruled Palestine at the time, and the inscription was taken to Turkey, where it remains today.

The tone is practical, even understated. It reads like the kind of record people leave when they have completed something difficult — not the kind they invent later.

6. The Cyrus Cylinder

The Book of Ezra depicts Persia’s Cyrus the Great permitting the exiled Jews of Judah — the southern kingdom centered on Jerusalem — to return and rebuild their temple.

Some skeptics have regarded this account as suspiciously convenient — exaggerated to fit a theological narrative presenting Cyrus as a kind of divinely appointed liberator for Judah.

A clay cylinder discovered in Babylon in 1879 complicates this view. It describes Cyrus restoring displaced peoples and supporting their religious practices across the empire — not as a one-off gesture, but as a governing approach.

It doesn’t mention Judah directly, but it does place the return from exile within a broader, historically plausible imperial pattern.

7. The Ketef Hinnom Scrolls

Debates over when parts of the Old Testament were composed often turn on how early we can place recognizable text.

Two small silver scrolls found in a burial site near Jerusalem in 1979 contain a version of the priestly blessing from Numbers: “The Lord bless you and keep you …”

They date to the seventh century B.C., before the Babylonian exile.

Delicate and tightly rolled, they show that passages still read in churches today were already in use centuries earlier than some theories allowed.

None of this proves the claims that matter most to Christians. It doesn’t attempt to weigh miracles or settle theology.

It does, however, narrow the distance between the biblical text and the world it describes. Enough, at least, to make the old habit of dismissing it as a collection of late-arriving myths seem a little less secure than it once did.

​Apologetics, Christianity, Cyrus cylinder, Hezekiahs tunnel, Ketef hinnom scrolls, Pontius pilate inscription, Pool of siloam, Tel dan stele, Faith