Christian Data Resources

I love statistics, but even I am losing interest in the presidential polling data. The following was actually broadcast on the Fox Business Channel on 12/14/15:

“A new poll is out showing Ted Cruz is skyrocketing into second place nationally, just five percentage points behind Trump and well ahead of Marco Rubio and Ben Carson. Trump has 27%, Cruz has 22%, Rubio has 15%, and Carson has 11%. Now while two polls in Iowa have Cruz in the lead by wide margins in both, you’ve also got a recent poll by Monmouth University showing that he’s way in front. The Des Moines Register poll has Cruz at 31% and Trump at 21%. The Fox News poll has Cruz at 32% and Trump at 25%. And the Monmouth University poll has Cruz at 24% and Trump at 19%.

“We have a brand new national poll from Monmouth University that shows Trump surging among Republican and Republican-leaning voters. He jumped to 41% in this new poll out today compared to 28% in the last national Monmouth poll in October. Cruz doesn’t rocket in this one. He came in second, rising to 14% from about 10% before. Marco Rubio is third at 10% and Ben Carson is falling at 9%, half of his posting in October.

“So it doesn’t exactly track that Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll that was released earlier that shows this big surge for Cruz and tightens the race nationally between him and Trump. Trump hit a new high of 27% in the Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll with Cruz more than doubling to 22%, so there’s the surge there in that one from the last NBC / Journal poll in October, with Rubio checking at 15% and Carson collapsing to 11% from 29% in the NBC News poll.”

If this were a reading comprehension test, how well would you have done?

We use the term “hero” too loosely.

There’s a growing consensus among well-meaning Americans that certain people automatically attain a certain status just because of their job position. Many people think that all police officers are heroes, but they’re not. There’s plenty of corruption in our law enforcement agencies. Police officers are still just sinful human beings, and just because they have a certain position doesn’t make them heroes. For many of them, this welcomed status has gone to their heads and fed their egos until they feel as though they are above the law, and that they can be abusive and get away with anything just because they are police officers.

Last year in Chicago, a young man named Laquan McDonald was carrying a small knife and walking away from police officers–not even threatening them, and Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot the young man 16 times in 15 seconds. He has been charged with first-degree murder. Was he a hero?

This year in Oklahoma City, police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was accused of assaulting or raping 13 women while he was no the job. He has been found guilty on 18 counts of sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy and rape. Was he a hero?

In May, 2013, Fort Worth police officer Richard Hoeppner went to the wrong house and shot an innocent 72-year grandfather seven times, killing him. The officer not only shot and murdered the grandfather in his own garage, but he shot him seven times. Think about that. Do you suppose that shooting the elderly man six times might have been plenty? After the sixth shot, what prompted the officer to shoot the seventh time, other than making sure that the murder was complete, probably in order to ensure that the only honest witness to the crime couldn’t testify? On January 29, 2014, a grand jury failed to even indict the officer. If the grandfather had murdered the officer, there is no doubt that he would have been charged, and police officers would have come from near and far to honor the “heroic” officer at his funeral. Is a police officer’s life more precious than anyone else’s?   The officer’s partner, Benjamin B. Hanlon, was later fired for falsifying a report. Were they heroes?

I’m just saying that we need to be careful before we elevate anybody to hero status. I’m thankful for the good and honest officers that we have, and I’m even glad to pay their salaries. I would just like for their training to include more instructions about honesty, humility, and the abuse of deadly force.

Let’s save the term “hero” for real heroes.

Hillary Clinton is demanding to do something about the awful gun violence in America by enforcing stricter gun control regulations. She cites that 90 people are killed by gun violence every day. What could be worse than this awful calamity?

Well, we kill 2,739 completely innocent unborn children every day, and it’s completely legal. For every person killed by guns, we kill 80 more children by dismemberment or drug / chemical poisoning. If Hillary is so concerned about the sanctity of life, maybe she needs to adjust her priorities.