The cultural anthems, too, are very different. “Self-care” has supplanted “self-confidence.” The “killer mindset” has given way to “knowing your limits.” The media have consumers poking under every rock for signs of fragility. “There’s a good chance that someone you know is struggling with their mental health,” reported Good Morning America on May 19th. “A lot of us feel anxiety and panic. Don’t suffer in silence.”

First, tennis icon Naomi Osaka wilted in the face of interviews and began backing out of tournaments. Time magazine then rewarded her with a cover shot beneath the headline, “It’s O.K. to not be O.K.” Next, all-world gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from Olympic competition after a confidence hiccup (the dread “twisties”) early in the competition. Coverage promptly pronounced the withdrawal her “bravest act.”

In a field known for its jargon, psychologists consolidate the traits common to top achievers under the laughably ordinary umbrella term, mental toughness (MT). Psychologists score the attribute via industry-standard questionnaires as well as more esoteric experiential measures. It’s hard to find a setting in which MT isn’t at least a predisposing factor in success. Study after study finds that it unambiguously helps athletes to overcome adversity. Accordingly, notes another major study, “The concept of MT has grown in popularity over the last decade and has broken out from its silo of sport psychology into other domains.”

It’s possible that life is not only out there, but abundantly so. The same raw ingredients that gave rise to life on Earth are found everywhere, and similar conditions are found all throughout the galaxy

But to make any sort of reasonable estimate, we have to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all of science: how life began on Earth.

Our Solar System, as far as we can tell, isn’t special or privileged in any way. The same laws of nature are in place here as in all other places and at all other times elsewhere in the Universe. The raw ingredients that formed our Solar System are found in equal, nearly-equal, or even greater abundances in stellar systems

the fact that galaxies grow and evolve over time indicates something quite profound: that if we can look back early enough, we might find a population of the “first” stars and galaxies, and beyond that, no stars or galaxies at all.

Cosmic inflation posits that, prior to the hot Big Bang,

the Universe was instead completely empty. Only, instead of having no energy in it (or a very small amount, as in the case of today’s dark energy), it possessed a tremendous amount of energy inherent to the fabric of space.

Since then, “cis”

is more commonly used to describe

internally felt gender identity.

I was moved to put up a Herescope post titled "The Transitional Worldview." This post attempted to describe the spiritual and mental processes by which people became compromised, even corrupted.

At that time our Discernment Research Group was researching a great falling away of pastors and leaders as they bought into (quite literally $$$) new systems, new methods, new buildings, new ideologies and new doctrines. We were being inundated with letters from sheep in churches where their shepherds were going astray. WHY and HOW could this happen?

Solzhenitsyn philosophized,“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Furthermore, it appears that fear is an addiction for many people. While godly Christians would eschew an addiction to actual pornography, many are now fear junkies. While we were working on multiple series of articles on the topic of the endtime fear-mongering our research associate, the late Pastor Larry DeBruyn, noticed that fear itself was a potent biochemical addiction.[7] Those who watch horror movies for entertainment, or who play frightening video games, or who watch round-the-clock fear-ridden news broadcasts, would be classic examples. In 2011 we co-wrote an article warning about various forms of mind-altering inebriation. In recent years this addiction to fear has actually come to have its own defining terminology:

A key evidence of ongoing fraud is the uniform, uni-party, in-unison programmed narrative. This sort of obvious gaslighting makes people suspicious. They don’t trust it. And for good reason.

The first prong of the attack is the shut down the free flow of information. The powerful hand of Big Brother has turned off diverse faucet feeds of fact.

What the Russian Invasion Teaches Us About the Right

By David French March 18, 2022

The first number is 57. That’s the percentage of Republicans who told Yahoo News/YouGov pollsters that the United States should take Ukraine’s side as it defends itself against Russian invasion (28 percent said the U.S. should back neither, and 5 percent said we should back Russia). By contrast, 76 percent of Democrats said the U.S. should back Ukraine.

In a bizarre rant at the iconic Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, Kirill asserted that the fighting in Ukraine was a result of the rejection of “fundamental values” by those who “claim world power.”

These nefarious powers, the Patriarch goes on to explain, “demand that you hold gay pride parades as a test of loyalty.”

The war in Ukraine, according to the spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, is one of “metaphysical significance.” It’s a battle between good and evil, in which Russia is the last powerful guardian of the good, seeking to maintain God’s Holy Laws while the decadent rest are just trying to hold a gay pride parade in Kyiv.

August 9, 2018

By now, practically everyone has seen that picture of the two guys at President Trump's weekend rally in Ohio wearing T-shirts that said: "I'd Rather be a Russian than a Democrat!"

seemed to chill the enduring warmth between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. Paul carried a handwritten note from Trump to Putin on his trip.