Pakistan Attacks India - LIVE Breaking News Coverage

Well, we've had retaliation; now the question that has to be going through the minds of the rest of humanity is "will it remain conventional or will it go nuclear?"

Fair Admissions II: UCLA Medical School Sued Over Discrimination in Admissions

NEW: UCLA medical school was sued today for discriminating against whites and Asians in admissions.

The lawsuit is based on my reporting from last year. It was filed by Students for Fair Admissions—the same group that got affirmative action outlawed nationwide.🧵 https://t.co/9mm1B6ErsN

— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 8, 2025

Per Twitchy via the Free Beacon... UCLA medical school was sued for race discrimination on Thursday after whistleblowers alleged that the school holds black and Latino applicants to a lower standard than their white and Asian counterparts, the latest challenge for a beleaguered university already in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

The complaint is based on multiple Washington Free Beacon reports about the extent of racial preferences at the medical school. It was filed by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the group whose lawsuit against Harvard University resulted in the Supreme Court decision, in 2023, that outlawed affirmative action in higher education.

In a statement to the Free Beacon, SFFA president Edward Blum framed the lawsuit as a sequel to the Harvard case. 'This lawsuit sends an important message to every institution of higher education: Any school and administrator that uses race and racial proxies in admissions in defiance of the Supreme Court's ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard will be sued,' Blum said. 'University administrators in their official and personal capacities will face vigorous legal challenges if they use race and racial proxies in the admissions process.'

I could see this going pear-shaped for UCLA at least three different ways: (1) if this case makes it to SCOTUS, expect them to use the 2023 Fair Admissions case as the cudgel (and if Roberts is smart, he'll let Thomas write the opinion), (2) Title VI investigations from the Dept. of Justice (UCLA, like most universities, receives federal funding/grants and (3) both Proposition 209 and the Unruh Civil Rights Act since UCLA is part of the University of California System.

Bottom line here is that the courts are going to have to, legally speaking, beat the Fair Admissions case law into the heads of university presidents, provosts and admissions officials until John Roberts' quote is firmly entrenched into federal law to the point where no one dares touch it...

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Period, end of story.

Founders' Quotes, 7-8 May 2025

A pair of quotes about the American Revolution (a/k/a the "War for Independence") from John Adams and George Washington....

Adams, John: Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations. - letter to William Cushing, 1776

Washington: - Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life. - Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission — 1783

In both quotes we see the beginning and end of the Revolution; in Adams' quote, we see one of the ringleaders of the Revolution reminding his fellow revolutionary of the period they were living in, a period that would ultimately result in America gaining her independence from Great Britain. Washington, meanwhile, puts an ending to the Revolution by resigning his commission as Commanding General of the Continental Army, the same spirit of self-sacrifice he would later show by retiring from the Presidency after two terms in office.

Happy Sabbath, 9 May 2025

After a pretty eventful week weather-wise, may you and yours enjoy a blessed weekend!

Founders Quotes, 5-6 May 2025

Two quotes on virtue from Benjamin Franklin and George Washington....

Franklin: Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. - letter to John Alleyne — 1768

Washington: There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. - First Inaugural Address, 1789

Virtue is a dying art in modern society; too many of us seek out the vices but not the virtues...and you wonder why things are so rotten at times? That's one reason of many.

Inclement Weather

We had our first sustained bout of severe thunderstorms this season; there's still areas south of the homestead getting battered but things are finally beginning to calm down...nothing like some good old hail-dropping, windy storms to remind you that, in the end, Mother Nature is still in charge.

Founders' Quote, 4 May 2025

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify. - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, 1788

Federalist #33 is one of the more interesting Federalist Papers in that it discusses and balances out the concerns of the people in giving government the power of taxation ("no taxation without representation") with the government's powers in collecting taxes (and the passing of laws in order to do so). Hamilton posits that if Congress is given the power of taxation, it must also be allowed to craft laws in order for the Executive Branch to carry out the powers given to it.

Hamilton's response to the people's concerns is that while the branches of government have a responsibility in checking & balancing each other, it is ultimately the American people who exercise the final checks & balances on the government.

India Attacks Pakistan - LIVE Breaking News Coverage

Its' never a good day when these two countries square off against one another; hopefully, nothing worse happens.

Is Seventh-day Adventism Sola Scriptura? | Part 2

note: Part 1 can be found here.

Being relatively new to the Seventh-Day Adventist church (going on three and a half years since I first started attending the local SDA church here in Morganton, NC) one of the things I've spent time learning about are the denomination's core tenets, two of which (Belief #1 and Belief #18) deal with the issue of the Bible's inerrant, infallibility and the role of the Spirit of Prophecy as testified to by Ellen G. White.

Now, as I commented on below the video over on Youtube, if you were to ask me, my question would be that officially the SDA church is sola scriptura, based on everything I have read. Unofficially, however, I would say we were very much prima scriptura.

What is the difference? Sola scriptura (by Scripture alone) is a core tenet of Protestant Christianity, a natural outflow of the protests against the Roman Catholic Church from Martin Luther onward. Prima scriptura (Scripture as the primary guide) basically means that the Bible is first, but not the only standard used by Christians. (This is something we see in both Catholicism and in the LDS Church w/its' Standard Works).

So why say the SDA church is primarily prima scriptura? For this simple reason: if we as Adventists are truly sola scriptura, why then do we read/listen/follow the writings of Ellen G. White? You see often in Adventist churches - "Sister White says," "the Spirit of Prophecy says..." and so forth, yet we then turn around and say "go to the Bible and the Bible alone."

Well, which is it? That's the eternal question and one definitely of conversation down the road.

Change is needed... does IndyCar have the solution?

Short answer: no, not in the least.

Long answer: What do you do that either hasn't been done or is too expensive to do? (I'll get back to this in a moment.)

On a side note: why is there all this apparent hate towards Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou? The man is showing a master-class on how to dominate a racing series as his teammate Scott Dixon, probably the GOAT of his generation of IndyCar racers, once did in years past. Three wins in four races is a thumping and yet people want to blame the driver for, as David Land above points out, doing his job out on track?

As to the long answer, it boils down to one thing, cost. It costs a lot more money nowadays to run an IndyCar team than it has in past years and a lot of that goes back to the bazillions of dollars sponsors/suppliers pumped into the sport in the late 1990's/early 2000's....that money is gone and ain't returning; the sponsors ain't returning either. Nowadays its' a sponsor-a-rama which isn't not so bad (Heck, NASCAR, which once prided itself on single-sponsor entries, now does the sponsor-a-rama regularly as well and no one seems to complain about it.)

The other problem is on the supplier side; yes, we have a semi-spec series (semi-spec as in all Dallara chassis' and either a Honda or Chevrolet twin-turbo hybrid engine) but its' not the fault of the suppliers. That fault lies squarely under Roger Penske and Penske Entertainment for not providing a justification for other suppliers to want to enter the IndyCar Series.

On the chassis side, Dallara is akin to Boeing & Airbus in the airplane industry - they are the 1,000 lb. elephant and no one, not Swift or Taatus or Lola, is going to knock them off that perch. On that, I've got no problem. On the engine side, though, its' another story. I can think of several different potential IndyCar engine suppliers offhand - Ford Racing, Toyota, Cosworth, Lotus, AER, Mercedes - and other than Toyota, none of them are likely headed to 16th and Georgetown anytime soon. That needs to change and quickly.

So what needs to be done? I would say "take a page from the former Grand-Am Series." 

How? Instead of building a chassis and dictating an engine formula, put out RFPs (Requests for Proposals) stating what formula you're looking for in terms of the engine and in terms of the chassis and then see who bites. Grand-Am did that and throughout all three iterations of the Daytona Prototype class, they had a minimum of 4-5 different engine and chassis suppliers and these were well-known: Doran, Fabcar, Multimatic, Coyote, Crawford, Dallara and Riley for the chassis;, two different BMW, Ford and Porsche engine builds each, along with Nissan (via Infiniti), Toyota (via. Lexus) and Honda....and guess what? The racing was damn good during the 12-13 years of the Daytona Prototype era.

IndyCar could take a page out of it....otherwise? I'm afraid to ask.

Founders' Quotes, 2-3 May 2025

A pair of quotes on two very mutually exclusive things: the Press and Truth.

-the Press: No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, 1792

-Truth: In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend. - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31, 1788

Why would the Press and truth be mutually exclusive? Has anyone been watching the Mainstream Lying Snake Media these past recent years?

Interpreting This Past Week's Jobs Report

Three things are apparent: (1) that the April 2025 jobs report was better than economists expected, (2) the unemployment rate remained steady and (3) that any effects from the recent tariffs announced have yet to manifest themselves. There's also the question of job reductions from the federal government via. both  DOGE and the Executive Branch's deferred resignations program; those shouldn't fully manifest either until later this year.