EMPATHY HAS BEEN WEAPONIZED And there is a fantastic book about it called The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits by a fellow named Joe Rigney. Dr. Joe Rigney serves as Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College and a pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. He is the author of eight books, including Leadership and Emotional Sabotage (Canon Press, 2024) as well as The Sin of Empathy. To say his take on how our natural sympathy has been weaponized against us isn't being taken well is an understatement, as you can read in this column, but after reading the book I agree with him 100%. We need compassion, not empathy. One helps, the other enables. It's a great book and you should buy it here. It's about compassion, not empathy. He joins me at 1.
LET'S TALK PRIDE FOR A HOT MINUTE One of my favorite gays Rich Guggenheim joins me today to talk about PRIDE month and why his amicus brief was cited in the Skirmetti decision. That's at 2:30.
A CEASE FIRE THAT WASN'T So last night I saw a post from President Trump where he announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
Neither Israel nor Iran had commented so I was wondering just how "done" this done deal was. As it turns out, not so done at all. Israel unloaded a crap ton of bombs on Iran, then Iran responded. Not much of a cease fire. To say Trump is pissed is an understatement, but his reaction should make those concerned about broader war feel better.
“They [Iran] violated it but Israel violated it too,” Trump said. “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel. When I say okay, now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So, I’m not happy with them, I’m not happy with Iran either." He continued, “But I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning.”
This is after he dropped an F bomb on live TV.
“We basically, we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” Trump told reporters at the White House before taking off for a trip to The Hague for the NATO Summit.
I don't think he understands how deep seated this sort of violence in the Middle East is. Or how badly Israel wants to be done fighting forever, and they know Iran's current regime will never deal honestly with them. We'll see what happens next. This is a great column by Victor Davis Hanson on the whole situation.
DOWNTOWN DENVER OFFICE VACANCIES HIT 35.3% THIS SPRING That is UP from 34.9% a few months before so things are NOT moving in the right direction. Businesses can't survive downtown on evening and weekend business. Businesses can't survive with Denver's ridiculous minimum wage. Businesses can't survive without parking that has now been given to bike lanes no one is using. Businesses can't survive under Democrat policies. The surprising part is how this tweet took off:
Click on the post to see the responses. Hooboy. The problem for most of us is that these problems will bleed into the suburbs. Our property values will fall as the exodus continues. Homeless drug addicts who run out of people to beg or steal from will move out of the city. This is a HUGE issue that we all need to be concerned about, and I'm looking for an Independent who can run for Mayor and more to run for City Council who are dedicated to undoing all the trash policies that have been put in place in the last ten years that have made Denver unappealing and unwanted.
VAN JONES IS RIGHT ON IRAN
LET'S REPLACE THE PRESIDENTIAL PORTRAITS AT THE CAPITOL I didn't really talk about the Trump portrait flap because it was ego driven nonsense, but now that we're talking about Presidential portraits let's talk about getting rid of them. There is zero reason to have portraits of Presidents in our state capitol. In Florida and Kentucky they don't do that. As a matter of fact, I'm not aware of another state capitol that has Presidents, as most have portraits honoring STATE leaders, and that's the way it should be. Now there is a genuine move afoot to make that happen and I'm all for it.
WHEN HELPING ABETS CRIMINALS We have a great example and probably just the first of many where an organization funded by a bunch of other left wing organizations helped a criminal accused of child rape get away from ICE so he couldn't be deported. This editorial shares how the Colorado Rapid Response team helped a man ICE was about to pick up for deportation escape into our state where who knows, he could rape YOUR child. Just saying. Just as every illegal immigrants is not a violent predator, not everyone being deported by ICE ISN'T a violent predator.
THE CITY OF DENVER IS A SLUMLORD And the infamous Trouble Tree Hotel, my bad The Aspen, shows just how bad the city is at doing things. The building is falling apart and the residents, who are all homeless and many of whom are untreated addicts or mentally ill, are destroying it. Read this:
David Walsh, who worked at The Aspen for approximately 10 months, said much of the physical damage he saw there actually came from residents themselves who “literally trash the place."
"We had black mold on a pretty regular occurrence just because of the amount of leaking in the building, because of the plumbing,” he said. Repair experts brought in to mitigate mold and remedy plumbing leaks found a surprising “laundry list” of items to be extracted from numerous toilets.
“They found towels, bed linens, shirts and adult toys that had been flushed down the toilets and were clogging the system — needles, drug paraphernalia, too,” Walsh said.
The Salvation Army is contracted to provide services to the people living in the former hotel, but now building maintenance. They say they keep reporting the issues to the city, but nothing gets done. Shocking. If this were a private landlord this place would have already been shut down. This is what Housing First gets you.
DON'T SHOPLIFT IN DOUGCO Because they will arrest you as these four women just found out.
A LIAR WHO HURT FAMILIES IS GOING TO JAIL This story is still crazy to me. A woman lied about her credentials to get a job as a court-appointed parental evaluator in Colorado and when found out, used her position to retaliate against the parents she was evaluating who outed her. She is an awful person who tried to say she lied because of her "low self esteem" and you've got to be kidding me. She influence custody cases. She probably permanently damaged kids in the process. She deserves to go to prison for three years, which is what she got. Something that has NOT been addressed is how this woman got the job in the first place. Who is responsible for not even doing a BASIC background check on this woman before giving her such power?
THE ABORTION INDUSTRY IS ALIVE AND WELL And we've got about 95,000 human lives being snuffed out every month. Read more here.
AURORA GOES AFTER NEGLECTED BUILDINGS With a new ordinance designed to punish those who don't take care of their properties. The new ordinance allows the city to clean up the property FOR the owner, who will be billed for the cleanup along with daily fines. Good for Aurora and good for the citizens of Aurora.
ANOTHER NATIONWIDE INJUNCTION IS OVERTURNED This one about deporting people to countries where they have no ties. In a Supreme Court decision yesterday the high court lifted another overreaching order by a federal judge. From Politico:
The justices lifted an order from a federal judge in Boston who had placed restrictions on the deportations to those countries. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy had issued a nationwide injunction that required the administration to give immigrants “meaningful” advance notice and a chance to raise objections before they are sent to so-called third countries — nations not specified in their original deportation orders. But the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to put Murphy’s injunction on hold.
I don't think the justices were affirming this practice so much as ending another overreach by a federal judge mad with power. We'll see what happens when an individual deportation to a third party country is challenged.
MORE BIG SUPREME COURT DECISIONS WILL BE OUT THIS WEEK From birthright citizenship to gay and trans themed books for kids, it's gonna be a barnburner of a week. Read more here.
WORST. WEDDING. EVER. It must suck to go through life feeling like everything you do must MATTER in some BIG WAY. How else can you explain this wedding between two Democrat activist types?
W
I've sent regrets to weddings before because there wasn't an open bar. I'm sure as heck not going to this performative spectacle.
THIS BBC PRESENTER HAS HAD ENOUGH OF THE IDIOCY Watch her face as she corrects "pregnant people" with "women". Heh.
WIN METALLICA TICKETS!
ED WAS JUST LIVING HIS BEST LIFE And you have to wonder what a zebra thinks about this. Watch below or click here.
WASPS HATE SNAPPING? I wish I'd known this like 50 years ago because wasps are aholes. Watch below or click here.
THE ANSWER IS SOCCER and no other answer will be accepted.
WHAT'S UNDER OUR RESERVOIRS? This is cool. Watch below or click here.
CHATGPT MAKES YOUR BRAIN LAZY And of course it does because it does so much of the work for you. I have been using it a lot to gather data and crunch it quickly, but I try not to rely on it for anything more than info for my own use rather than analysis of any sort. Now MIT has done a study that demonstrates how dumb it makes us.
THE POPE LOVES HIS SOX Watch below or click here.
COSTCO PRICE TAG SECRETS That those of us who obsessively shop there already know. Watch below or click here.