The Immigration Crisis, New Outsourcing Plans, and Related Christian Ethics

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-countries-eye-setting-up-migrant-return-hubs-in-rwanda-and-uzbekistan/

The UK plan to outsource its immigration crisis to Rwanda collapsed and was cancelled by Keir Starmer. Despite this, Rwanda is still looking to sign up and receive European funds. And Paul Kagame has his takers as nations such as Denmark, Austria, Greece, and Germany have expressed interest.

Motherhood Through a Materialist Lens

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MqvIddYMMEk

This video 'short' appeared on the NPR website promoting a podcast. The clip is only about a minute long but the implications are sweeping and eternal. Materialism is a religion and its becoming pervasive in society as its implications are being worked out and applied. It is creating a new world and a new kind of person.

The Rotten Harvest of a Popular Homeschool Ethos

https://www.christianpost.com/news/austin-bomber-was-christian-homeschooled-opposed-gay-marriage-abortion-221869/

A recent conversation led me to revisit the Austin Bombings back in 2018. In some respects I'm surprised there hasn't been more of this sort of thing – more Christian Terrorism as it were.

There are many people of similar mindset and developing in the same matrix of ideas. Some can't deal with all the implications and pressures and become radicalized.

Mammon, Technology, and the Road to Dystopia

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/18/1087446715/heres-how-americans-view-facial-recognition-and-driverless-cars

Some people embrace these new technologies and some don't. Some are concerned with the role they're playing in our lives and are afraid of what they're doing to society. Others are optimistic and filled with hope and even revel in their potential.

Cyborg Warriors

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/05/05/us-space-chief-human-augmentation/

The reason this is being discussed is because it's probably already happening. Either the West is already involved in human augmentation, the Chinese are doing it – or probably a bit of both.

Facial Recognition Being Normalised in the West

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/04/06/us-army-facial-recognition-bases/

One might call this The China Effect. Already the UK is using facial recognition software and US law enforcement agencies are certainly using the software to scan through ID photo databases and social media.

Dystopia Rising: Augmented Soldiers

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/12/11/france-augmented-soldiers/

Once these technologies are developed they won't stay static and they won't be contained. At the very least they'll be sold on the black market. And even if Western 'liberal democratic' governments decide to formally reject the technology in terms of an official capacity, it is certain that they will develop them and use them via proxies.

Social Credit Scores Today and Tomorrow

https://www.thehour.com/opinion/article/Data-isn-t-just-being-collected-from-your-phone-15451658.php

The Snowden revelations in 2013 confirmed our fears that the Orwellian TIA (Total Information Awareness) programme had lived on despite the fact that it had supposedly been canceled by the Bush administration.

Surveillance and the Facial Recognition Non-Scandal

https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/hundreds-of-us-police-departments-using-dystopian-face-recognition-app-report/

It's a scandal that continues to widen in its scope and yet in the United States nothing is being done, or even seriously entertained. In fact under Trump, surveillance technology continues to increase and law enforcement is being encouraged to use everything from facial recognition to sundry tracking systems. Some of the latest intrusions have been able to slip 'under the radar' as it were, under the aegis of combating illegal immigration.

Chimeras: Contra Naturam

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/03/first-human-monkey-chimera-raises-concern-among-scientists

Science is on the cusp of great change. There are social forces holding it back but given they have no ethical foundations or anchors, the flood that is coming will prove overwhelming. All it will take is for someone to poke a hole in the dyke and it will quickly collapse. This was proven true with regard to the ethics of sexuality. Science isn't any different.

Capitalism, Privacy and Medical Records

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/06/ron-paul/medical-ids-enemy-of-privacy-liberty-and-health/

I agree with Ron Paul that a universal medical ID is a bad idea and potentially spells trouble. And yet the question of medical records has been an ongoing problem and all acknowledge the current system slows down the health care process and increases costs.

A Watershed in Genetic Experimentation

There was great consternation at the recent report regarding genetic modification experiments being conducted in China. While such experiments have been done openly on embryos and in other contexts, this was a live experiment done on a viable human being. In this case the gene edited babies were made immune to HIV.

Total Information Awareness (TIA) and DNA Data Collection

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/health/dna-privacy-golden-state-killer-genealogy.html

This new use of DNA is being marketed to the public. It's part of the anti-privacy normalisation campaign. Led by swindlers like Mark Zuckerberg we're told that authenticity demands transparency. These are the values of the new generation.

Palantir the Harbinger of Doom

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/30/palantir-peter-thiel-cia-data-crime-police

Always cast as a means to stop figures like Bernie Madoff and child molesters, computer programs like Palantir actually represent an attempt by the Deep State to recapture the Internet.

Dominionism, Fascism and The Handmaid's Tale

http://evangelicalfocus.com/blogs/2662/The_handmaids_tale_review_no_balm_in_Atwoods_Gilead_review

I remember when the original movie came out in 1990, but at the time I was somewhere between a pagan and a confused ex-Evangelical. I wouldn't have fully understood the context. I still have not seen the movie and doubt I will, but this review was quite interesting.

Oil and Geopolitical Tension

Margolis once again provides some interesting information and succinctly reveals some of the tensions at work in the Saudi-American relationship. Riyadh is plagued by angst and fears about their standing in both the Islamic sphere and larger economic world.

Remembering 80's Pop Culture and Some of its Warnings

I'm dating myself here. My wife and I are bona fide 80's aficionados. Though it will sound strange to the older generation we miss the 80's more and more everyday in the same way our parents talked about the 50's.

Orwell v. Huxley and the NSA Leak

If you haven't read 'Brave New World' or '1984' I highly recommend them. While both tend toward being a bit racy, the point is certainly not to glorify what we would identify as sinful behaviour. These works were not composed by believers and so they don't get every last jot and tittle quite right, but in no way does that negate the overall insight and dare I say wisdom that they bring to these sociological questions. If anything they are instructive in discerning how unbelievers think and react when confronted with morality enforced by a totalitarian state...something Christo-Americans evidently do not grasp.