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Mark Caserta: Stand down and let the president do his job
Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
I've very concerned our nation is rapidly returning to a "pre" Sept. 11, 2001, mentality.
Every day, I see an increasing number of people lackadaisically living their lives with seemingly little knowledge of or concern over the threats our nation faces.
Some are even fighting against protecting our country.
Have we truly become so desensitized to terror and death that we're willing to suppress the lessons of the past and expose ourselves to another attack, possibly even larger than we experienced on 9/11?
Granted, 15 years is a long time. Some millennials were simply too young to remember the frightening view of the planes flying into New York's World Trade Center.
Some have been spared the horrific memory of innocent people leaping from windows, choosing to die from the fall rather than be consumed by the flames. They've no memory of the people screaming, scrambling in terror, on the streets below.
But, I'll never forget. And neither will many of you. It changed us – forever.
Unfortunately, I believe that confirmation of U.S. vulnerability, combined with eight years of emboldening our enemies, has positioned us dangerously close to an attack unlike anything we've ever seen.
Now, progressives are sure to default to their conservative "the sky is falling" rhetoric regarding my statement. But that sort of irresponsible thinking will cost lives.
A February 2016 column in the National Review, co-written by R. James Woolsey, national security and energy specialist and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, addresses our "nave reliance" on other country's "transparent disavowals" potentially costing millions of American lives.
The column, entitled, "Underestimating Nuclear Missile Threats from North Korea and Iran," revealed the White House had not recognized that North Korea already had demonstrated the ability to kill millions of Americans with an electromagnetic-pulse (EMP) attack.
The attack would involve detonating a small nuclear warhead, a hundred miles or so, over the United States creating an EMP leading to a nationwide blackout. The resulting societal chaos (especially in today's environment) could lead to overwhelming death and destruction.
Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, as President Trump has described it, is a disaster waiting to happen. Since signing the agreement in mid-2015, Iran has test-launched at least two ballistic missiles, despite a U.N. resolution prohibiting such tests. Every indicator suggests Iran is working diligently to become a formidable nuclear power.
We must remember the threat of nuclear attack from leaders who aren't afraid to die is very real and very different.
A military standoff resulting from opposing nations being unwilling to be destroyed because they initiated a nuclear attack will not apply. These leaders do not subscribe to the "no-win" scenario.
Yet, liberals are fighting more for the rights of people who could potentially harm our nation than for protecting their own families here at home.
Sadly, we know all it will take is another devastating attack to quickly bring things back into perspective.
But, by then, it may be too late.
Stand down liberals. You had your chance.
Let President Trump do his job and protect the U.S.
Tags: free state patriot, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, mark caserta, President Trump, world trade center
Categories FREE STATE PATRIOT, FSP, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
Mark Caserta: American lives overrule political correctness
Simply put, political correctness and a liberal misrepresentation of Islamophobia in our nation are costing lives.
Last week we sustained the worst mass shooting in our nation's history. An Islamic gunman, wielding an assault-style weapon and handgun, reportedly opened fire on hundreds of innocent people killing dozens and injuring many more.
While authorities are investigating whether the attack was an act of domestic or international terror, there is little doubt the shooter was influenced by his radical Islamic roots. CNN reported the afternoon following the attack that the attacker called 911 to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers, according to a U.S. official.
Shortly following the attack, a friend asked me, "Mark, what do you think Obama will call this attack?"
Of course, my friend was alluding to Obama's prior shameful reference to "workplace violence" as in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, or an act of violence committed by a "lone gunman," as in the shooting deaths of four Marines in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2015.
"Anything but an attack from radical Islam," I replied.
And true to form, following the attack, multiple news agencies including USA Today, reported President Obama calling the mass shooting in Orlando "an act of terror" and "an act of hate."
No mention of Islam.
Interestingly, however, while the president made no mention of the shooter's Islamic background, he was sure to identify the victims as being part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender culture.
I wonder how long before he blames the assault rifle and/or conservative "homophobe mentality" for the brutal attack.
But liberal libel and intellectual dishonesty aren't going to protect our families from the threat of Islamic terrorism. Obama's persistent refusal to admit innocent blood is being shed in the name of Allah should be troubling to all Americans.
And we all should be reminded, Hillary Clinton plans to carry on Obama's failed Islamic foreign policy if elected.
It's naive and otherwise blatantly ignorant to believe that simply refusing to call these extremists "Islamic terrorists" is going to save lives or in any way help fortify our relationship with Muslims around the world.
In fact, quite the opposite is happening. Our enemy is emboldened and prepared to bring the fight within the borders of the United States, as it was in Orlando.
To make matters worse, the president seems determined to exacerbate the problem by bringing thousands of un-vetted Syrian refuges to the U.S. Obama's own FBI director James Comey told a House Committee on Homeland Security in 2015 that the federal government simply does not have the resources to conduct thorough background checks on all of the 10,000 Syrian refugees and exclude ISIS penetration.
America needs leadership willing to deliver a message of "shock and awe" to radical Islamic extremists around the world. Obama has proven he isn't even willing to rattle his saber against Islamic terrorists, much less defeat them.
And we have no need of a president who values protecting the tenets of Islam over protecting the lives of Americans.
American lives matter.
Tags: DOMESTIC TERRORISM, free state patriot, mark caserta, TERRORISM, WAR ON TERROR
Categories DOMESTIC TERRORISM, FREE STATE PATRIOT, FSP, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, LONE WOLF TERROR, mark caserta, TERRORISM, WAR ON TERROR
Mark Caserta: Gitmo not symbolic of U.S. malfeasance
Frankly, I'm tired of liberals maintaining that the Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) detention camp in southeastern Cuba is a recruitment tool for radical Islamic terrorists and must be closed.
News flash for progressives: Gitmo was constructed to house war criminals captured by U.S forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and other theaters of the war. The intelligence acquired from detainees has, in fact, saved American lives.
And Americans are weary of our president apologizing for it.
Only those refusing to believe the war on terrorism isn't a "holy war" would insist that Gitmo is a determining factor in the recruitment of terrorists. Muslim radicals don't need any "incitement" in their devout call to arms against the United States.
According to "The Religion of Peace" website, "the Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers" for the sake of the Islamic Caliphate. It further states that Muslims who don't join the fight are called "hypocrites" and warned that Allah will "send them to hell" if they don't join the slaughter.
It's very naive to believe groups like ISIS would attempt to leverage Gitmo interrogation techniques as a recruitment tool, while they're busy chopping off heads, burning people alive and drowning them in cages.
The truth is the expansion of Islamic terrorism on behalf of Allah began decades ago.
In November 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Iran and took 52 American diplomats as hostages. For 444 days, Americans were held hostage while a feckless Carter administration attempted to negotiate with Iran's revolutionary leaders. The event captivated our nation and helped give birth to an era of terrorism and regional instability in the Middle East.
In October 1983, 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers were killed as Islamic terrorists drove a truck carrying explosives into the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Shortly afterward, 58 French paratroopers were killed in a similar attack. It was reportedly the deadliest attack on the U.S. Marine Corps since the battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
In February 1993, New York experienced the first attack on the World Trade Center when Islamic terrorists parked a rental van in a garage below the twin towers packed with explosives. Six people died and more than 1,000 people were injured in what was, at the time, one of the worst terrorist attacks ever to occur on U.S. soil.
Incidentally, after closing Gitmo, President Obama plans to relocate these Islamic extremists to prison facilities in the United States.
Now, prisons are filled with individuals potentially dismayed with their lives in the U.S. What successes would these Islamic leaders have within the confines of their prison walls in the recruitment and training of domestic terrorists?
Terrorists are far more empowered by Obama's tepid response in curtailing their activity than they are by Gitmo. Obama and his liberal followers want Gitmo closed because they're desperate for accomplishments in his fruitless legacy – period.
Gitmo is not symbolic of U.S. malfeasance as liberals maintain, but rather our resoluteness against terrorism.
Tags: free state patriot, GITMO, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, mark caserta
Categories FREE STATE PATRIOT, FSP, GITMO, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, mark caserta
Mark Caserta: America is primary target for jihadists
More than once last week, I heard the analogy "Nero played while Rome burned" to describe the antics of President Obama in the wake of the brutal Islamic terrorist attack in Brussels, Belgium.
Following the attack, despite promptings to return from Cuba to the United States in a presidential display of leadership and support for the Belgium people, Obama chose to stay and attend an exhibition baseball game hours after the attack. The following evening he chose to dance the tango and sip champagne at a state dinner with his wife, Michelle.
Reportedly, at least 31 people were killed and hundreds injured in the attack.
I found the comparison quite fitting, since Nero is thought to have been an abhorrent Roman Emperor whose reign was both lavish and tyrannical. But as appalling as Obama's actions were, it's his "inaction" on terrorism that's most dangerous for Americans.
Despite the barbarous attacks, genocide against Christians and warnings of ISIS activity within the U.S., Obama has consistently downplayed the threat of Islamic terrorism, refusing even to utter the words.
In January 2014, Obama likened ISIS to the "J.V." team.
"The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a J.V. team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant," Obama told David Remnick of The New Yorker.
In a February 2015 interview with Vox's Exra Klein and Matthew Yglesias, Obama charged the media with "absolutely" overstating the threat of "terrorism" compared to the threat of "climate change."
During the exchange, Obama was asked "if the media sometimes overstates the level of alarm people should have about terrorism" as opposed to the problem of climate change.
"What's the famous saying about local newscasts, right? If it bleeds, it leads, right?" Obama said. "You show crime stories and you show fires, because that's what folks watch, and it's all about ratings."
Obama said stories relative to climate change just aren't "sexy" enough for the media.
Nearly a year-and-a-half after the United States and its allies began confronting the Islamic State, Obama still didn't have a strategy to defeat them. A June 2015 New York Times column written by Julie Davis and Michael Shear reported Obama acknowledging the fact at a news conference following the G7 Summit in Germany.
"We don't have, yet, a complete strategy, because it requires commitments on the part of Iraqis as well," Mr. Obama said. "The details are not worked out."
In February 2015, FBI Director James Comey warned that his agency was investigating suspected supporters of ISIS "in various stages of radicalizing" in every state across the U.S.
Failed leadership and an anemic response to the threat are enabling the return of the Islamic Caliphate and the rise of ISIS. Innocent people around the world are paying the price with their lives.
We know America is a primary target for radical jihadists. One has to wonder when a coordinated array of ISIS attacks will begin in the U.S.
And what our president is doing to prevent it.
Tags: free state patriot, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, jihad, mark caserta, TERRORISM
Categories FREE STATE PATRIOT, FSP, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, LONE WOLF TERROR, mark caserta, TERRORISM, WAR ON TERROR
It's time for U.S. to deal with "Jihadist" abuse
Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot
The Muslim world is rampant with cultural pathologies that keep it living largely in the mean and barbaric world of the 7th Century Arab peninsula. Common sense says that Western, civilized nations will look askance at that world, and view them with suspicion, and natural fear, and a sense of self preservation. We do not fear the Muslim world because they look, speak, or believe differently. We do so because they demonstrably generate people who try, often successfully, to kill us because we look, speak, or believe differently. Fearing this is a sensible thing to do. Defending against it is a sensible thing to do.
Rational people begin to question why leaders continue to assure them of things they know to be wrong. They wonder why they tell them not to fear that which they know to be fearful, and trust that which they know to be undependable.
I think one answer may be that Islamists are analogous to abusive men, and their apologists play the role of the battered woman. He didn't really mean to hit me.
(They don't really want to blow us up, they love peace.)
It was my fault. I started it. I told him that he needed to get a job and stop drinking.
(It was our fault. I started it. We locked up some of the murderers and noted the fact that such murderers seem, overwhelmingly to issue forth from one group of people. We said stuff they don't like. Of Course they would want to murder us in return.)
He's really sorry. He's being so nice now. I have to forgive him or he'll get mad again.
(CAIR regrets that people died. Muslims are really worried that we will get made and hurt their feelings.)
All I have to do is figure out how to change so that I never do anything to set him off. . I know if I'm nicer to him, he won't hit me again.
(All we have to do is do everything exactly like they do, and we won't set them off.)
Reality check?
Abusive men will beat and assault the women in their lives many times before they report it. They will finally either kill her, unless she finally manages to escape.
The cycle repeats over and over, building tension, violence, contrition and affection. Finally the learned actions no longer work. Avoiding the things that set him off don't matter: he will still beat her. Giving him what he wants always, being properly submissive no longer works: He will still beat her.
And in dealing with Islamism, they attack and murder over and over. They plan, prepare, attack, then we hear how the big fear is not the attackers murdering us, but the victims over reacting. No matter what the West does, it is not enough, and leads to more attacks. Many try to deny it, or excuse it, but still they beat their victims. (Is it totally coincidental that in Islamist countries women are beaten regularly, legally, and often fatally?)
The abusive man does not cease to abuse because of what his wife or girlfriend does to change him. He stops because either he gets help for his issues, he kills her, she kills him, or he is shot by police.
She finally manages to overcome her learned helplessness and escapes to a shelter. She finds protection from someone stronger.
For the abusers of Islamism, their victims have limited escape: the West. Most notably, the US.
They can gain safety because the US military, like the police, will react with outrage to atrocious acts. The US, like right thinking people, will defend their victims, and kill murderers until they are unable or unwilling to murder any more.
Unless the US becomes the battered victim.
It is time to remember that we are strong. It is time to stop being the helpless victim, trying desperately to placate the one who beats us at a whim, and at will.
It is time to remember that we are still, for the moment, the biggest dog on the porch. And that biting our tail, or stealing our food, is a terrible mistake.
Tags: DOUG SMITH, free state patriot, Islamic jihad
Categories DOMESTIC TERRORISM, DOUG SMITH, FREE STATE PATRIOT, FSP, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, TERRORISM
Mark Caserta: Americans must be prepared for ISIS attack
Not only have the feigned strategies of Barack Obama been ineffectual in deteriorating the might of the Islamic State, they have emboldened radical jihadists in bringing their savagery to the United States.
The recent attack in California where 14 people were heinously murdered at an office Christmas party was just a preview of what I believe is to come as a result of the failed policies of this administration. And it's simply a slap in the face to all Americans that this president wallows in intellectual dishonesty by not even being able to admit we are at war with radical Islam.
Americans must now begin preparing for threats against our citizens that we heretofore had primarily associated with Middle Eastern nations. FBI Director James Comey has already revealed he has ISIS-related investigations in all 50 states. I share the belief of many that this formidable presence is busy readying sleeper cells for a coordinated attack on the United States, perhaps at an even greater magnitude than we witnessed in Paris.
I recently received a social media "terror alert" with this warning about the Islamic State. "They will use your laws to get inside your country and then use your freedoms against you." The nature of this alert, and the fact that it was urgently sent by an individual who has studied the intricacies of Islam for decades, was quite disturbing. Even more disturbing is that our own government appears lackadaisical in providing timely, truthful information to its citizens.
Barack Obama seemingly places being an apologist for the Muslim faith above the safety of Americans. And he appears to value protecting the narrative that he has "ISIS on the run" beyond being truthful with the American people. His words lead one to believe he is either grossly negligent or dangerously incompetent in understanding the true nature of the threat we all now face.
Just one day before the brutal coordinated attacks in Paris, where at least 120 people were killed, President Obama said in an interview that ISIS was not growing stronger and was, in his words, "contained."
"I don't think they're gaining strength," Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "What is true, from the start our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them."
But just last week, the nation's top military officer, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing a very conflicting report to that of President Obama.
"We have not contained ISIS," reported General Dunford. In a column in "The Hill," written by Kristina Wong, Dunford went on to say that ISIS has been "tactically" contained in areas but "strategically they have spread since 2010."
And spread they have. The conversation about the tactics for fighting terrorism is no longer solely about "boots on the ground" or "the number of air attacks."
It's now about how do we prepare ourselves and local law enforcement for being able to proactively deal with an ISIS attack here at home.
Tags: free state patriot, ISIS, LONE WOLF TERROR, mark caserta
Categories FREE STATE PATRIOT, FSP, ISIS, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, LONE WOLF TERROR, mark caserta
ALERT: A MUST READ
From Perry Stone's FB page:
TERROR ALERT: Since the 1980's groups of Muslims have been provided finances from their governments (including Morocco) to come to America, getting visas and finding jobs, to eventually participate in an American "Jihad." They are given a phone number to call. There are warehouses in all 50 states with weapons, and when "the word" is given, they will be given an address to go to pick up their weaponry, and as one Muslim said, "America will burn." W…hen Obama opened the Mexican border numerous Muslims, some speaking Spanish, posing as Mexican immigrants came into America. Obama is demanding to allow Syrians, (98% Muslims) to enter America – with untold numbers who could be possible terror agents. There are hundreds of sleeper cells, including cells in Knoxville, Tennessee, Lexington, Kentucky and throughout the Southeast, including in the mountains of West Virginia. Recently, two Muslims with Kentucky tags was spotted locally video taping numerous buildings, including churches. I received a message -connected with the U.S. military, that when a radical leaders says publically, "Last days brothers-last days," the United States won't know what hit them! They are targeting places around the holidays.
It is time to get security in all malls, schools and churches, and visit "Smith and Wesson" and get your conceal and carry permit. Report suspicious activity, and yes, get a security team that WILL PROFILE individuals when needed. Israel is not afraid to profile anyone at anytime, and this is why they have stopped numerous attacks. When a knife wielding radical comes toward anyone in Israel, to stab them, they will be shot dead by police or a "packing" Israeli. Christians, get your head out of the sand and realize terror has come to America and it is only beginning. Benjamin Netanyahu told me, "They will use your laws to get inside the country then use your freedoms against you!" There is much but I will restrain from sharing it on an open page. Please PREPOST THIS to everyone – to be alert and be in prayer and ask God to expose these ungodly and dangerous individuals – and God bless our MILITARY and GOD BLESS ALL POLICE OFFICERS who are doing their job! I am counting the days when the incompetent D.C. leadership will be replaced – hopefully with someone who will defend the nation, the Constitution, and stop the non-sense we have endured for 7 years!
Categories FSP, ISLAMIC TERRORISM
Mark Caserta: Muslim outcry over terrorism is missing
…even from our own president.
FSP EDITORIAL
Feb. 26, 2015 @ 12:01 AM
Civilized nations around the world are mourning the loss of 21 Egyptian Christians, ruthlessly murdered last week by the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS.
The brutal act, a "mass" beheading of "Copts," an Orthodox Christian minority dating back to the first century church, was aimed directly at the Christian faith. The entire five-minute-long massacre which was videotaped and posted online, was entitled "A Message Signed With Blood, To The Nation of the Cross."
The gruesome film emblazoned the severed heads sadistically set atop the victims' backs. An ISIS jihadist dressed in military fatigues spoke with American-accented English as he pronounced, "All praise is due to Allah, the strong and mighty. And may blessings and peace be upon the ones sent by the sword as a mercy to all the worlds."
I found this vile message of "blessings and peace" to be sickening and inexorably spewed from the mouth of a demented, Islamic deviant who inhumanely values the glory of death over the condition of life. Surely such an act of terror, in the name of Allah, would be rigorously condemned by those following the Muslim "religion of peace."
But few supporters of the Muslim faith have stepped out to denounce the barbarism of Islamic terrorism and rightfully recognize it as a "religious war" being waged by radical Islamic extremists – including President Obama.
However, Reverend Franklin Graham, a Christian, was quick to decry the horrific act and provide some austere perspective to the incident.
"Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians?" Franklin asked. "Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world? As we mourn with the families of those 21 martyrs, we'd better take this warning seriously as these acts of terror will only spread throughout Europe and the United States."
He added the grave warning, "The storm is coming." And I believe the reverend is right.
A number of recent reports indicate there are already a number of Islamic terrorist "sleeper cells" within the United States spread out across the country. Intelligence reports from Egypt, a nation now at the forefront in fighting ISIS, indicate global jihadist groups are planning a worldwide offensive this spring or summer that could reach targets within the U.S.
One would think that the reality of another Islamic terror attack on the U.S. would spur some sober thought and deliberate action from the Obama administration. But all Americans are seeing is a president who apparently values the sanctity of the Muslim faith over protecting Americans from Islamic militants who value their religion over the lives of those who don't.
And progressives, like Obama, attempting to "level the killing fields" through a superfluous comparison of burnings and beheadings to other periods of bloodshed throughout history, serves absolutely no purpose in protecting the U.S. and is sanctimonious and naive at best.
How can we ever hope to defeat an enemy that we refuse to recognize?
Yes, there is a storm coming. And President Obama should be leading America as commander-in-chief, not an Islamic apologist.
Tags: free state patriot, Islamic jihad, Muslim radicals, Obama
Categories BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, FREE STATE PATRIOT, ISLAMIC TERRORISM

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Jerusalem Post Blog Home The Jewish Problem - From anti-Judaism to anti-Semitism
"This is said about Christ, whom you, in your parents, led to death"
By DAVID TURNER
(Augustine, Against the Jews 7.10)
"It is not too much to say that, at this juncture, Christianity 'permitted' Judaism to endure because of Augustine." (Carroll, Constantine's Sword)
Moses Mendelssohn is said to have quipped, "But for Augustine's lovely brainwave we would have been exterminated long ago." Prescient for the attempted and failed "final" solution only decades in the rabbi's future. In fact were it not for Augustine Jews likely would not have survived the fourth century. The perpetual poverty and persecution imposed on Jews by the church provides the backdrop to Augustine's "witness doctrine," survival as punishment. For "the Jews" a reprieve from the fate meted out to "Christians" deemed by the church "heretical." William Nicholls finds it strange that the Witness Doctrine even took hold since,
"the survival of Jews and Judaism threatened the very legitimacy of "catholic Christianity."
I suggest the key to understanding why an "Augustine" was needed to provide a "Witness Doctrine," the reason that the Vatican adopted it is, as Dr. Nicholls describes above, the threat of Judaism as "living religion." A surviving and practicing Jewish People calls into question basic Christian claims as successor to the parent religion; its claim as the "New Israel." Augustine, in nine brief words in City of God describes the threat: "that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ." God's reason for Jewish survival, according to Augustine, is punishment. "The Jews," he writes, are condemned as was Cain to wander the world without home and in poverty. And the church, overseer of that punishment, proscribed Jews to a life of poverty, homeless in dispersion.
But Augustine's Witness Doctrine addressed a much deeper and more primal need facing Christianity. Why concern regarding Christian reading of "prophesy" in Jewish scriptures foretelling Jesus as future messiah? Certainly Jewish rejection of Jesus as their messiah represents a red flag demanding explanation. Might hesitation regarding interpreting Jewish scripture have led to Augustine's concern that, "we have not forged the prophecies about Christ"? Augustine would have been aware of the danger of misunderstanding between the Hebrew of the Jewish homeland and the Greek translation, the Septuagint of the Greek speaking Diaspora. The gospels, representing Christian communities outside Judea, would were based on the Greek, not the Hebrew. Even if Augustine was not literate in the Hebrew version he would certainly have been aware that translations always involve problems in language and meaning. In itself this would represent a shadow over Christian claims based on the Septuagint. We will return to the problems resulting from translation and meaning shortly.
While Augustine did succeed in removing the immediate threat hanging over Jewish survival by Christendom, I suggest he was less successful in overcoming his doubts, a possible cloud hanging over the church, regarding its reading of Jewish scripture and particularly those "prophesies" relating the future messiah.
i. "Jews as Witness"
"It is in order to give this testimony [to the truth of Christianity] that they are themselves dispersed among all nations, wherever the Christian Church spreads."
Augustine' approach to "the Jews" was little different from that of John Chrysostum: they killed Jesus and punishment is justified. But unlike other Church Fathers, Augustine described Jewish survival as justifying Christian claims. Condemned to live alongside Christians as homeless, miserable and debased, Jews provide living witness to Christian Truth, to having been replaced in God's favor. For scriptural justification for Jewish survival Augustine enlisted Psalm 59:12, "Slay them not, lest your people forget; [instead] scatter them with your might." In Augustine:
"not by bodily death shall the ungodly race of carnal Jews perish. For whoever destroys them in this way shall… bring upon himself the sevenfold penalty under which the Jews lie for the crucifixion of Christ. So to the end of the seven days of time, the continued preservation of the Jews will be a proof to believing Christians of the subjection merited by those who… put the Lord to death."
The Problem of Translation
"Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us."
Was Augustine's concern for forged prophesies based on awareness of the inferiority of the Septuagint as basis for Christian claims? Likely literate in Hebrew and Aramaic, was reading Jewish scripture in the Judean Tanakh the source for his doubts? The most obvious and theologically important example of "translation" is already evident in the assertion by the fourth century Church of life-long virginity for Jesus mother. In the Septuagint "virginity" may be translate from Isaiah where the Greek parthenos can be read as "virgin." But in Aramaic the word is alma, meaning "maiden." A far weaker case for life-long virginity!
The parthenos/alma example is but one such but its significance is difficult to miss. And it may be that Augustine's reputation as the most important theologian and philosopher of the Middle Ages is yet insufficient. It would take psychoanalysis to recognize not just this source of Christian insecurity but to suggest its "solution." God allowing the "the Jews" to survive despite gospel representation as rejecting and murdering His son was unacceptable and demanded explanation. It took Augustine to arrive at the Witness Doctrine as justification.
II. Replacement Doctrine (Supersessionism)
"The very presence of the Jewish people in the world... puts a great question against Christian belief… cause[s] profound and gnawing anxiety." (Nicholls, Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate)
Church claims to having replaced Judaism in God's favor is at the very foundation and evolution of the Christian religion. Although Augustine established a reasoned justification for the doctrine, Paul had already described Jewish guilt as deicides in 1 Corinthians. Two examples of early Church Fathers provide a bridge between Paul and Augustine. In Justin Martyr's (+/- 150) Dialogue with Trypho (an imaginary rabbi):
"For the true spiritual Israel [are we] who have been led to God through this crucified Christ."
And Tertullian, a contemporary of Justin:
"Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices,—the old law being obliterated." (emphasis added)
Augustine's writings fall generally within the Adversus tradition in blaming "the Jews" for Jesus' death and supporting eternal punishment for "their crimes." Where he seems to depart the traditional polemic is in framing it within his Witness Doctrine, justified by Psalm 59:11, "Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power and bring them down," where them refers to "the Jews" and my people to Christians!
Augustine set out to provide a response to what, for two centuries, had been a source of insecurity regarding Church claims: the enigma of continuing Jewish existence. The Church adopted his explanation, a doctrine that would provide for limited Jewish survival to this day.
Nostre Aetate, the document produced by the1965 Vatican Council II, "absolves" present day Jews of guilt for the death of Jesus. It also reminds that the Church "is the new people of God." This claim to having replaced Judaism was reaffirmed thirty-five years later in the closing summary of the 2010 Vatican Special Synod of Bishops for the Middle-East:
"We Christians cannot speak of the 'promised land' as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. This promise was nullified by Christ... In the kingdom of God… there is no longer a chosen people."


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Air Products has today revealed that it has completed the previously announced sale of interests in its vinyl acetate ethylene polymers joint ventures to its partner, Wacker Chemie AG, for $265m and full ownership in the Elkton and Piedmont production facilities and related businesses.
The sale consists of the global VAE polymers operations including production facilities located in Calvert City, South Brunswick, Cologne, Ulsan, and commercial and research capabilities in Lehigh Valley, and Burghausen, Germany.
"We are pleased to complete this sale to Wacker, our long time joint venture partner. This move is consistent with our efforts to make Air Products a more focused, less cyclical, higher growth and higher return company," said John McGlade, President and CEO of Air Products.
The business produces VAE for use in adhesives, paints and coatings, paper and carpet applications. There are approximately 430 employees directly associated with this business. These employees have been offered employment with Wacker, which intends to continue operating the business out of the Lehigh Valley.
Air Products is currently seeking a buyer for the Elkton and Piedmont plants and related North American atmospheric emulsions and global pressure sensitive adhesives businesses.


Work on site is underway and breathing new life into the Herne Hill Velodrome.
The UK's oldest velodrome and home of track cycling in London for over 120 years, Herne Hill Velodrome is the only remaining venue still in operation from the 1948 Olympic Games. It is where Sir Bradley Wiggins, Britain's first Tour de France winner, trained as a boy before going on to win the internationally acclaimed race in 2012, and it is continues to give today's youngsters the opportunity to take part in cycling sessions.
The new design by Hopkins Architects includes a new two-storey pavilion to replace the existing derelict structure. The centrepiece will include changing rooms and coaching facilities as well as covered outdoor seating and a new club room featuring views over the track. The original cast iron columns from the 1890's building are incorporated into a £1.75 million contemporary GLULAM / CLT design.
Herne Hill Velodrome Trust's aims focus on regenerating the velodrome to create the leading cycling centre in London, catering for all ages and abilities of cyclists and securing its future for generations to come.


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"saw his work a few years ago and was majorly impressed!"
"I saw Bruce's work at the Columbus Arts Festival, Friday night. I have been thinking about it all weekend! Each painting is a dichotomy; simple, yet complex; sad yet whimsical; both light and dark in"
"after meeting the artist and seeing a few of the originals .. i want all of them"


Our Be Encouraged eVideos are sold in our Encouraging Bookstore for $30. These eVideos are another GIFT to you from our PARTNERS.
Our PARTNERS personally know HOW IMPORTANT these have been to them and so many other men who eventually sent in their Restored Marriage Testimonies!!
These videos are vital to your Restoration Journey to give you the Courage you need. The word "Encouraged" actually means "to give Courage."
However, some men write to use saying they are unable to watch the videos. They may have a slow Internet, they may not be allowed access at their work or not be able to watch them from their phone where they access their emails, our site and/or our lessons.
If you are unable to watch the videos for any reason, it means you are going to witness first hand the principle found in Philippians 4:19 that says, "And my God will supply ALL your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." GOD wants to fulfill this and every need you have! Why hasn't He fulfilled that promise before?
Because it also says in Luke 11:9-10 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened."
So if you try to watch the videos and it doesn't work for you, then you need to STOP and ask GOD to show you WHERE and HOW He WANTS you to watch them. Don't try to figure it out, but do exactly what the verses, which are promises and principles to live by, say.


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Angelo Gordon, We're Group Score $350M Office Space Refi
Posted in Home Finance News On Jun 18, 2021
Josh Baumgarten (left) and Adam Schwartz, co-CEOs and co-Chief Investment Officers of Angelo Gordon with 2 Huntington Quadrangle, Melville, 6 and 8 Corporate Center Drive in Melville (Angelo Gordon, We're Group)
A joint venture between alternative investment firm Angelo Gordon and local developer We're Group landed a $350 million floating rate loan for 16 Long Island office properties.
Barclays and Citigroup provided the loan, which has a two-year term with three one-year extension options, according to the commercial mortgage rating report by DBRS Morningstar. Commercial Observer first reported the deal.
In November 2019, Angelo Gordon acquired a 95.5 percent leasehold interest in the 2-million-square-foot portfolio from We're Group, which developed and had managed the buildings for decades.
The We're Group kept the remaining 4.5 percent interest and formed the joint venture with Angelo Gordon.
A majority of the buildings in the portfolio are located in New Hyde Park in Nassau County and Melville in Suffolk County. Among the biggest properties are a 400,000-square-foot complex at 2 Huntington Quadrangle and a 206,000-square-foot campus at 6 and 8 Corporate Center Drive in Melville.
The new loan's proceeds will be used to pay back an existing mortgage of about $235 million while returning about $98 million in equity to the joint venture, according to DBRS Morningstar.
We're Group principal Tony Fromer said that part of the cash will go right back into the portfolio for the upkeep and tenant improvements.
"It takes a lot to keep these buildings filled," he said. "You need to have a lot of capital available to keep these buildings well leased and keep them looking good to attract new tenants."
The portfolio is currently 86.6 percent occupied, with tenants including ProHealth Corp, Northwell Health and Newsday.
Contact Akiko Matsuda
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Open Door is an interesting concept. It wasn't available in the area where we recently sold but is in the area where we are buying. As a buyer I looked at several Open Door houses.
I will say that I loved, loved, loved the model they had for looking at houses. Of course, it only worked because the houses were vacant. Basically you get their app and look up Open Door houses. If you want to look at the house you tell the app and it gives you directions. You get there and use the app to cause the door to be unlocked and then you can visit the house. I've loved how easy it was to just go and look at all the Open Door houses.
That said -- I wasn't really interested in any of the houses. By and large they were mostly at the bottom of my price range and needed a lot of work. There was only one house that I looked at that I felt was in reasonable condition (and it was not in a location I ended up liking).
A lot of these houses needed massive updates. I mean over $100k updates. Most of them didn't have obvious serious structural problems but they were mostly seriously in need of updates (houses that hadn't been updated in 40 years, that kind of thing).
One house I looked at had what were clearly a lot of "updates" that had been done by the prior owner. There were homegrown built in shelves, wiring, etc.
Most of the houses had some sort of "problem" in that they either really needed updating, or had owner upgrades (so to speak) or had an atrocious layout or there was something wrong with the location, etc. And maybe that makes sense. The market here is hot and move in ready houses usually sell within a week or less. So people with houses that would appeal to the move in ready market may not want to try Open Door.
They did seem to cater primarily to the middle of the market and didn't really have houses in the most of the areas where we were ultimately looking.
I'd be interested in the last chapter; when you turn over the keys.
Thanks for this post. I receive — at least 2x a week — snail mail offers to buy my rental properties from several companies including Open Door. Yesterday I received a laughable one from a company called RisingPhoenix in Dallas. They actually stated the offer amount of $158,687 on a house that is valued over $200K by the property tax appraisal district and is in excellent condition.
I have no interest in selling my rentals, and the fact that the houses' ownership is transparent online and owed by a Trust must attract the buzzing bandits. I find the continual stream of offers annoying. But its good to know there is perhaps one of these companies that is taking a market — vs. predatory — approach.
We're in the "final chapter" as all papers have been signed by both parties, final walkthrough is on Tuesday morning. I highly doubt they'd risk the expensive legal nightmare that'd result (and they would lose) if I had to force specific performance. "If" they were going to pull out it would've happened before the docs were signed last week.
As for offers and actual value, you do realize County Tax appraisals mean nothing when figuring the home's market value right?
Thank you. I look forward to the update. When it becomes a buyers market I wonder how they change the model?
Agree. The long-term viability of a business model depends on surviving the normal cycles of that industry.
Yes, they are usually below market. Been in this game since 1970; I know how to comp properties. My point is that the offer was about $80K below market for that house and almost every owner in our county knows tax appraised value is below market and the written offer was so incredibly below value.
We are working one at the moment for a buyer. Around $440K. It is in a place where the opendoor model breaks down...inside a gated community. They cannot allow showing directly by the public without providing a gate code which would not be allowed by most HOAs.
Looking at it they paid $408K for it in mid March. Asking $440K for it. Clearly painted and did reasonable floors. And I would think the pool was cleaned up...has that look. But some junkie stuff...an extensive outside kitchen has been stripped of all appliances...just structure and empty holes. And no refrigerator or any of the appliances except a stove. Probably needs 25 or 30K worth of stuff to meet the neighborhood average.
If they got 6.6% service fee (what they claim to charge locally) and sold for $440000 less 5% for selling costs they would net $37,000. So maybe $27,000 after there fix up costs. So 6.5% in a quarter. That will work but it would go to zero pretty quick if took a year and you had to pay taxes and carrying costs.
On Opendoor's website, there's a section devoted to explaining why the company isn't a home flipper. The distinction the company wants to highlight is that its business model is set up around collecting a transaction fee, not on capitalizing on home price appreciation between the time it buys and sells the house.
Yet, when buying and selling homes in an environment where home prices are rising, it's almost impossible not to capitalize on home price appreciation if the home is sold on the open market. An analysis by real estate advisor Mike DelPrete on 350 Opendoor listings in Phoenix concluded that the company sold properties at an average price appreciation of 5.5 percent.
The company's insistence that it's not a home flipper may be about avoiding the negative connotation associated with the term "home flipper" more than anything. But to its credit, Opendoor and OfferPad undeniably offer customers benefits that a traditional home flipper doesn't—convenience, speed, and certainty.
And for what it's worth, Opendoor believes its model would still work if home prices fall, which is happening in some of the neighborhoods in which the company currently operates. According to Kim, Opendoor would need to charge a higher fee and sell the home as quickly as possible to make it work.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I was really curious about this. When opendoor first hit the market (I think they were first) I was very excited to see how it would play out and if it would expand to one of my markets. As a house flipper, it could be a very useful partner/opportunity. Will be interesting to see how the competition plays out...zillow and redfin will be dabbling in a similar play and there's also a company called knock that kinda does the same thing but with a reverse approach.
That is also very interesting to know, thanks for sharing. I thought they strived for very bland, standard homes that wouldn't carry too many variables into the marketplace. Interesting to hear that most of them actually had obstacles that would make them difficult to sell.
Do you think these homes were priced well considering the work that needed to be done? Was the value still there and you just didnt like them cause you aren't interested in doing the work yourselves?
Unfortunately for me it didn't work. They don't purchase homes valued over $500,000.
You actually reminded me of something. When they inspected the house during the inspection period I was told that I could take out the water softener, washer,dryer and refrigerator and a couple of other things because they don't want them there. When I asked why I was told "we don't warranty items like that so we take them out". One other thing is they don't require seller disclosures which surprised me.
They do ask a couple of important questions when you fill out the questionnaire before the offer about Termites but other that that basic question nothing else.
I get that the model might not work for everyone but it was worth the try because I could always say no to their offer.
In our case it is clearly a flip. The price was increased by 7.8%. That is way more than the one month increase in home values. Not a conventional flip in that the house was not remotely prettied up as most flips here are. For instance any rational flipper would have at least partially restored the outside kitchen.
they do offer a 30 day buy the home back guarantee. But pretty problematic. You have to move into the house for instance. And you have to be prepared to move out again quickly. So if you find problems with the house while restoring the things not there you have to move in anyway to activate the guarantee. And it appears that they will disclaim all problems after the 30 days.


There are about 15 minutes at the end of the day when colors turn brilliant from the low angle of the sun - the golden time. Artists tend to love this time of the day for its saturated colors.
This image is Endangered, ie. almost Sold Out.
Available as a hand signed and numbered limited edition of 73 of which 10 are Artist's Proofs.


Lock the Gate Alliance condemns moves by the South Australian Government to open up the region surrounding the iconic Australian outback town of Coober Pedy to fracking.
Last week, the Marshall Government approved an environmental impact report and statement of environmental objectives from fracking company Sapex, a subsidiary of Tri-Star Petroleum Group.
Tri-Star must now submit a further application with specific technical details before it receives the final go ahead.
LTGA spokesperson Naomi Hogan said there were serious concerns about the impact fracking would have on water in the remote and arid region.
"To get the gas, Sapax needs to frack through the much larger Great Artesian Basin, the only water source for Coober Pedy's 2,000 residents," she said.
"There is no social licence for this activity in this region either from the majority of local residents or the broader South Australian community.
"Today, we have seen the local council's chief executive Colin Pitman express concerns about fracking in Coober Pedy, including the controversial practice's potential to trigger earthquakes.
"Thirty percent of buildings in Coober Pedy are underground - clearly an activity like fracking that has the potential to trigger earthquakes should not occur here.
"If allowed to proceed, the existence of an unconventional oil and gas mining industry will also have a negative impact on a region that relies heavily on tourism.


Culture Clash: Is Obama's running mate all that important in the long run?
We've debated pop star photos, hamburgers, hand-to-hand combat, aging rock stars. Let's lower the bar and talk politics.
Meo: All right Tim, we've debated pop star photos, hamburgers, hand-to-hand combat, aging rock stars. Let's lower the bar and talk politics. Who should be Barack Obama's running mate? Does it matter?
Malcolm: Well, the rule with picking a running mate is it should be someone from an area where you may not have strong support. And it should be someone who isn't exactly carrying the same ethos. I thought New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson would've made a nice choice for Obama, but he's not even in the running. U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., seems like the right guy now. I gotta say, it's a tough one.
Meo: I say he should pick someone with the same star appeal, but with similar political experience. What's Master P doing these days? Nothing, right? Lil' Wayne? Maybe too busy mumbling his next record-breaking hit. Jason Giambi's mustache has lost interest in baseball. Maybe it's ready for a leap into politics. Oh, I know ... Ernest Borgnine. He has way too much time on his hands.
Malcolm: Yeah, that's a great idea, picking someone with no political experience whatsoever to help lead the country. Look, this isn't "American Idol." You've seen in these last seven years just how much power a vice president can possess. Scary, huh? Well go ahead, have a guy that goes "uuuuhhhh" tell Obama how to deal with the health-care crisis.
Meo: They've got about as much experience as Obama, so what's the difference? Obama could pick another guy in a suit, or even a woman in a pants suit, but that's all he or she would be, no matter their religion, heritage or philosophy. Politicians have two goals: (1) get elected, (2) get re-elected. Politics is the process of working harder to KEEP a job, then to DO a job. Sure, we could get all uppity, but in the end, some dude in a suit will take the oath and move us further along the path to ruin. Why not have a little fun along the way?
Malcolm: Because that's giving into our cynical nature. Why bother having an election? Why bother having a president? Let's toss the Executive Branch! But wait — there go some checks and balances. Shoot, best to get rid of the Legislative Branch, too. And you know, since that really unbalances things, let's just throw out the Judicial Branch. I guess we don't need the Constitution then. Out that goes. So now what? Anarchy? Bloodsport? Cannibalism and Darwinism? Sounds like your kind of world. Let's get rid of systems, of organization, of progress. Makes sense to me.
Meo: To paraphrase Jack Nicholson's Joker: "This government needs an enema." It's time to start over. Politicians were never meant to be professionals. Judges were never meant to legislate from the bench. Governments — federal, state, local — were never meant to turn a profit, to tax their citizens, to be the self-perpetuating cycles of waste and gluttony they've become.
Malcolm: Start over? It's ridiculous. You're ridiculous. You can't start over, but you can change things. And you can do it with the younger generations. They need to know the truth about government, so they can be the leaders who we're supposed to have in this country. We sensible people know universal health care, a stronger education system, less reliance on foreign lands and less environmental impact are the answers to a stronger America. We know there are nations out there that follow that example. All we need is the right people, and in time, with hope, we can have that. But you have to want to change. You have to make it happen. You can't blow it up, start over, sell off the country's basis of operation. That's the coward's way out. There's promise in tomorrow, but we need to work hard today.
Tim Malcolm is The Bulletin's custom publications editor. He wonders if the Democratic National Convention will have a Dippin' Dots stand. John Meo is The Bulletin's design editor. He has no interest in paying for anyone's health insurance but his own, and even that makes him cringe.


In this joint piece, Trine Søndergaard and Nicolai Howalt focus on the living mega-fossil Kongeegen — the King's Oak. This tree stands in the woods by Jægerspris north of Copenhagen and is somewhere between 1500 and 1800 years old. Large serigraph prints show parts and sections of the huge and ancient tree stretching skywards, while a small box on the wall holds a twig from the tree itself. Pulling the tree out of its historical and natural environment, the artists point to the shifting status of living materials as they become preserved historical objects in a museum.
Megafossil was originally made for the group exhibition Shaped by Time in the prehistoric collection of the National Museum of Denmark, 2012. A catalogue in English has been published by Revolver Verlag. Edited by Milena Hoegsberg.
Raphaëlle Stopin: In an earlier series, How to Hunt, you explored the idea of the territory, as a space to be explored and experienced. This series was deeply rooted in your own country, Denmark. With Megafossil you are again exploring that national territory, albeit on a different scale. How did this project start?
Trine Søndergaard et Nicolai Howalt: The Megafossil series has a historical starting point. We began by working with the images connected to the exhibition "Shaped by Time" at the National Museum of Denmark, 2012. We were invited by the museum to research and respond to the prehistoric collection, which is composed of historical artefacts from the end of the Ice Age to the Viking Age. Anything between 1500 and 2000 years old, and located in the Jaegerspris woods, the "Kongeegen" or "King's Oak" is one of the oldest living organisms in Europe. We were fascinated by its connection to the past and the idea that it represents a direct link to the past.
RS: How did you come to decide on a minimalist four-panel portrait, focusing not on the tree's imposing stature but only on details, with close-ups of its thick and cracked skin? Why did you choose this visual synecdoche (as these four parts represent the whole) as a way of grasping your subject?
TS & NH: Megafossil examines the concept of time. Standing in the presence of the King's Oak there is a sense of connection with history. The tree is a witness to the passing of time and an image of something larger than us. Monumental in size, rich and immense in detail, the tree reminds us how small we are and how brief our time here is.
By focusing on parts and sections of the tree we wanted to take the tree out of context, away from its natural environment and into the museum space. We wanted to look at the tree in isolation, not only as a piece of nature, but also as an object.
RS: You have chosen to print these photographs on wood using the silkscreen process, which implies overlapping layers of different inks, and therefore the presence of various strata on the paper. Was this an attempt to get closer to the physicality of your subject, to recapture a texture that a photographic print cannot convey?
TS & NH: We wanted to look at the tree outside its forest, away from its natural environment. Cut out, it stands alone and the silkscreen process reinforces this method. Unlike photographic prints, our silkscreen prints have more than one layer. Printing the different layers of grey and the details of the tree on wooden plates enhances the physical presence of the tree.
RS: In the final presentation of the work, you have included a branch from the tree. Why did you choose to complement the image with this real part of your subject?
TS & NH: Installed in the museum space the branch almost assumes the status of a relic. We originally meant to keep it alive for the duration of the exhibition, but due to considerations concerning conservation and sterilisation this was not possible. Before we were able to bring the branch into the exhibition space it had to undergo a process of being frozen for 24 hours.
In this joint piece, Trine Søndergaard and Nicolai Howalt focus on the living mega-fossil Kongeegen — the King's Oak. This tree stands in the woods by Jægerspris north of Copenhagen and is somewhere between 1500 and 1800 years old. Large serigraph prints show parts and sections of the huge and ancient tree stretching skywards, while a small box on the wall holds a twig from the tree itself. Pulling the tree out of its historical and natural environment, the artists point to the shifting status of living materials as they become preserved historical objects in a museum. Megafossil was originally made for the group exhibition Shaped by Time in the prehistoric collection of the National Museum of Denmark, 2012. A catalogue in English has been published by Revolver Verlag. Edited by Milena Hoegsberg.


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Marriage Equality: Federal Judge Strikes Down Same-Sex Marriage Ban In Pennsylvania
The movement for marriage equality made significant headway in Pennsylvania this week, when the Honorable John E. Jones, issued an opinion striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage for constitutional reasons. The federal lawsuit brought by 11 gay and lesbian couples, one widow and two teenage children of a same-sex couple was originally filed last year. The plaintiffs in Deb Whitewood, et al. v. Michael Wolf, et al. argued that provisions of Pennsylvania's Domestic Relations Code were unconstitutional because the laws prohibited same-sex marriages and refused to recognize same-sex couples who were legally married in other jurisdictions. Adopting the rationale utilized by 12 other federal district courts, Judge Jones found that the principles of equality, deeply embedded in the U.S. Constitution demanded that all couples have equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage.
Pennsylvania's Same-Sex Marriage Ban
In 1996, Pennsylvania amended its marriage laws, to explicitly state Pennsylvania's "traditional and longstanding policy" of only recognizing marriages that are "between one man and one woman," a sentiment echoed by the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was signed into the legislature by President Bill Clinton. Moreover, the 1996 amendments also included an anti-recognition provision by which the Commonwealth refused to recognize marriages lawfully entered into by same-sex couples in other jurisdictions.
Following the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Windsor, which ruled that the federal same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, over 70 lawsuits were filed challenging various marriage laws throughout the country. The Whitewood case was filed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania on July 9, 2013. Two days after the suit was filed, Pennsylvania's Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, announced that she would not defend the Commonwealth's version of DOMA. A trial date was set for June 9, 2014 but at the close of discovery, both parties agreed that there was no need to move forward to trial because the Commonwealth did not contest any of the facts made by the plaintiffs and had no witnesses to present who opposed the freedom to marry.
Constitutional Arguments for Marriage Equality
The plaintiff's in Whitewood challenged Pennsylvania's marriage laws for constitutional reasons—arguing that the ban on same-sex marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Judge Jones reiterated that marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Relying on prior Supreme Court case law that struck down Virginia's ban on interracial marriages, Judge Jones ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed the right to marry a person of the same sex. Accordingly, Pennsylvania's marriage law that defines marriage as being only between one man and one woman is unconstitutional. Furthermore, Judge Jones found that Pennsylvania's refusal to recognize lawful same-sex marriages entered into in other jurisdictions unconstitutionally robbed same-sex couples of their fundamental liberty interest in the legal recognition of their marriage in the Commonwealth. Lastly, Judge Jones found that prohibiting marriages between same-sex couples also violated the Equal Protection Clause.
Impact of the Ruling
Judge Jones' ruling effectively redefined marriage in Pennsylvania. As a result of the ruling "same-sex couples who seek to marry in Pennsylvania may do so, and already married same-sex couples will be recognized as such in the Commonwealth." While the ruling may be appealed by the Commonwealth, for now, marriage equality has become a reality for Pennsylvania residents, as same-sex couples began obtaining marriage licenses and scheduling marriage ceremonies immediately after the ruling. Pennsylvania is the tenth state, since the Supreme Court's historic DOMA ruling, where a federal judge has struck down a state ban on same-sex marriage.
Categorized In: Pennsylvania, Same-Sex
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Our club Labor Day walk will be at the Collier County North Regional Park on Livingston Road at 7:15, next Monday, September 5. Wendy has generously offered to bring the coffee and a breakfast snack, so please let me know if you plan to come so she can plan accordingly.
Drive to the back of the soccer field parking lot where the walk will begin. There is a covered area near the field for our refreshments. Hope to see you there. Please email or call (571-2770) if you are coming. Thanks, Mary.