CNSNews reports:

Between Friday afternoon and Monday evening, at least 63 people were shot in Chicago, five of them killed, including a 15-year-old girl, the city's NBC-5 television station reported.

Over the same period last year, Chicago recorded 48 shootings, 14 of them fatal; and there were 26 shootings (7 murders) over Memorial Day weekend 2014.

"In the first five months of 2016, at least 1,400 people have been shot in Chicago, according to the The Chicago Tribune tally," CNSNews reports.

Daniel Greenfield writes at Frongpagemag:

We live today in an America in which the butchers of the Jihad in Guantanamo Bay receive better medical care than veterans waiting endlessly at the VA. While Obama cut off hot meals for Marines in Afghanistan, Islamic terrorists in Guantanamo Bay were enjoying lemon baked fish, honey glazed chicken, lyonaise rice, tandouri chicken breast, okra, hummus, dates, honey and seasoned lentils.

While veterans died at the VA, the men they had fought and helped capture were gifted with a $750,000 soccer field. This treatment is an obscene echo of the days of segregation when German POWs were allowed to sit inside at eateries while the African-American soldiers who guarded them had to wait outside. This segregation no longer occurs by race, but by patriotism and creed.

Obama denies that Islamic terrorism exists and suppresses any training materials about the role of Islam in Islamic terrorism while his administration warns of domestic terror threats from veterans. Muslim migrants from Syria receive lavish social benefits while health care for veterans is slashed. The Muslim migrants, many of whom support Islamic terrorists, benefit from job programs while veterans head for the unemployment line. This hatefully discriminatory attitude has become pervasive on the left.

What's going on? "We are in the midst of a quiet civil war and our veterans have become its first casualties," Greenfield explains.

"The heroes of today’s ruling class are racist rabble-rousers who tear down the flag for which so many of our soldiers died and replace it with their own militant banners of identity politics. The privileged leftist activists who once chanted 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NFL is gonna win,' who even attempted to murder soldiers to aid the enemy, are in charge of the country, while Vietnam veterans sleep on the streets and groan in prisons."

Greenfield concludes: "Obama’s disrespect for veterans and the military is only a symptom of a deeper rot. Once again a civil war is underway between those of us who love this Union and those who seek to divide it. It is a conflict fought with words and laws, rather than bullets, but it has its casualties who are all around us. It is not only the veterans who have died at the VA who are its victims, but those who have long slept under green grass and gray stone, whose graves wait to be decorated, whose courage waits to be remembered and whose cause waits to be fought once again."

Nancy writes at Uncommon Descent:

The public has responded swiftly and strongly against the Obama administration’s demand that public schools admit transgender students into the showers, locker rooms, and sports teams of their choice. But to be successful, the response must also be informed. Where did transgender ideology come from, and how can we respond more effectively?

The answer may surprise you. If we dig deeply, we discover that the turning point, historically, was Darwin’s theory of evolution. It had a lasting impact in at least three ways.

Matter Does Not Matter

Let’s tease out its impact through the language of the transgender movement. California set the tone in 2007 when it changed its education code to define gender as “a person’s gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.”

What’s the key word here? “Assigned.” As though a person’s sex at birth were purely arbitrary instead of a scientific, biological fact.

What such language implies is that biological facts do not matter. The law is being used to impose a worldview that denigrates the physical body as inconsequential, insignificant, and irrelevant to gender identity. It is a worldview that alienates people from their own bodies. As Anglican theologian Oliver O’Donovan writes, transgender ideology implies that “the body is an accident that has befallen the real me; the real me has a true sex” apart from my body.

Where did such a negative view of the body come from? From Darwin’s rejection of purpose and design in nature. Both classical Greek and Christian philosophy regarded the natural world as teleological – from the Greek telos, meaning purpose or goal. It is evident that eyes are for seeing and ears for hearing; fins are for swimming and wings for flying. The only reason molecules are arranged in those particular configurations is to achieve a purpose.

Because the human body is part of nature, it too was recognized as having a purpose. The sexual differentiation of male and female was not some cosmic accident. It showed that the human body is oriented toward opposite-sex pair-bonding for emotional attachment and procreation. Teleology is the basis for naturallaw ethics: It tells us how to fulfill our true nature, how to become fully human.

Darwin did not deny that nature appears to be designed for a purpose. But he wanted to reduce that appearance to an illusion, the result of a purposeless material process. The two elements of his theory, random variations sifted by the blind automatic forces of natural selection, were proposed expressly to eliminate plan or purpose.

As historian Jacques Barzun writes, “This denial of purpose is Darwin’s distinctive contention.”

The implication of the Darwinian worldview is that the biological differentiation of male and female is a cosmic accident. The body was reduced to raw material that can be manipulated and controlled to serve human needs and preferences – like any other natural resource. Gender identity is strictly in the mind, even to the point of overriding biological identity. Matter does not matter.

This was “Darwin’s dangerous idea,” says philosopher Daniel Dennett in a book by that title. He describes Darwinism as a “universal acid; it eats through just about every traditional concept and leaves in its wake a revolutionized world-view.”

Read all of Nancy's article.

Brent Sher reports at the Free Beacon:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.), who is under federal investigation for a $120,000 contribution his campaign took from a Chinese billionaire, has a two-decades-long history of controversial dealings with China.

McAuliffe, who rolled his large network of wealthy businessmen and prolific fundraising ability into a political career for himself, has been criticized for doing inappropriate business with the Chinese since the early days of his career when he was fundraising for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns.

McAuliffe’s work with China has even been investigated by the Department of Justice before.

"McAuliffe did not respond to a request for comment," the Free Beacon reports.

Read more.

"A Virginia school board unanimously approved an ordinance on Friday resisting the Obama administration's transgender bathroom edict and requiring students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex," Claire Chretien reports at LifeSiteNews.

"The ordinance, which immediately took effect, allows public school students in Grayson County, Virginia, to request to use a single-stall facility but prevents them from accessing facilities that don't correspond with their biological sex," LifeSite reports.

Read more.

Related
Nancy Pearcey: Transgender Extremism -- The Inhumane Ideology Behind Unsafe Showers, Restrooms, and Dressing Rooms

J. Richard Pearcey: The Revolt of Intelligence Against "Marriage Equality"

Katie Kieffer writes at Townhall:

Your home or apartment -- and the neighborhood in which you live-- is under siege.

"Agents" -- sans black glasses and black business suits -- who work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have written a new regulation called "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing" (AFFH) that rejects your Fourth Amendment private property rights under the guise of fighting "discrimination."

Read more.

Zach Dasher of the Monroe, Louisiana, "Duck Dynasty" clan will be substitute hosting for FRC's Tony Perkins.

Nancy is scheduled to appear around 5:32 pm eastern time today.

Here's a list of stations to listen locally in your area. And here's the main page for Family Research Council radio.

Watch on Youtube the ad exposing the real-world consequences of Target's extremist, unsafe bathroom and dressing room policy.

Lean more at FlushTarget.com.

See also the American Family Association and its stand for the safety of women and chidlren -- and its stand against Target's socially irresponsible policy -- which absolutely opens wide the door "allowing sexual predators . . . access to their victims."

"Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the [Obama] order lacks not just the force of law, but any constitutional standing or common sense," LifeSiteNews reports.

"In his own letter to state educational leaders, Landry said he wrote 'to reassure' them that he 'will vigorously defend the state and its citizens from unlawful action threatened on the basis of this incorrect interpretation of law'," LifeSite reports.

"Let me be perfectly clear," Landry states in his letter, "President Obama and his appointees do not have legal authority to require our children share locker rooms and bathrooms with children of the oppositive sex."

Louisiana thus "joins the growing list of states that told the Obama administration its transgender guidelines are dead on arrival and will not be implemented in the remaining months of his lame duck presidency," LifeSiteNews states.

Ildefonso Ortiz reports at Breitbart:

The murder of yet another journalist in Mexico continues to make that country one of the deadliest places for the reporters. Unlike other countries, in Mexico, journalists are often targeted not only by criminal organizations, but also by corrupt government officials.

On Saturday, unknown gunmen shot and killed Manuel Torres in Poza Rica, Veracruz, Mexico's Proceso reported. The slain reporter had been in the business for more than 20 years having worked at Mexico's TV Azteca, Radiover.com, as well as the daily newspaper Noreste. According to Reporters Without Borders, Torres covered court cases, police news and cartel violence. He also edited his own news website, Noticiasmt, and worked for the Poza Rica city hall.

"Torres is the sixth journalist to be murdered in Mexico this year," Breitbart reports.

A homosexual Texas "pastor" who "sued Whole Foods after he bought a cake that he alleged had a slur written on it in icing has dropped his lawsuit against the grocer," the AP reports.

"Jordan Brown of Austin dropped the suit and issued an apology on Monday. Brown said he was 'wrong to pursue this matter and use the media to perpetuate this story'," according to AP.

"Whole Foods vigorously denied the allegation when Brown first came forward in April. The Austin American Statesman reports the company released surveillance video that it said showed Brown was lying and filed a counter suit against him," AP reports.

Whole Foods "said in a statement Monday that given Brown's apology and public admission his story was false, it sees 'no reason' to move forward with its lawsuit," according to AP.

By the way, in this email to Whole Foods, Brown apologizes for just about everything except lying. Nowhere does he admit straight up that he lied and that he apologizes for lying.

Patrick Goodenough reports at CNSNews.com:

Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister hailed by engagement advocates as personifying a supposed "moderate" element in Tehran, has expressed his condolences over the death of a top Hezbollah terrorist linked to the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Haririi.

"Zarif sent a weekend message to Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, expressing sorrow at the death of Mustafa Badreddine, saying his "martyrdom" would further strengthen "resistance" forces against the Zionist enemy and terrorism, according to Hezbollah and Iranian state media accounts," Goodenough writes.

"Zarif, who has met with Secretary of State John Kerry on numerous occasions during and since marathon negotiations on a nuclear deal, described the dead terrorist as 'all passion and devotion' in defending the ideals of Islam and the Lebanese people," according to Goodenough.

Click here to listen:

Many people today believe that Christians have a "blind faith"” that's based on feelings and not facts. But Nancy Pearcey returns to Family Talk to continue her explanation of how Christianity is the only worldview that is consistently logical. She also shows how no other worldview answers the questions that matter the most. Don't miss this powerful conclusion here on Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk.

For more on the Biblical basis for challenging blind "faith," see my Foreword to Nancy's book Finding Truth.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

It's not every day that an avowed atheist and devout hymn writer agree.

First, from famed atheist Richard Dawkins: "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."

Second, these words from the composer of a beloved hymn: "You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart." Pastor and musician Alfred Ackley wrote the hymn "He Lives" when challenged by the question "Why should I worship a dead Jew?" His answer is that Jesus is not dead but is the resurrected Messiah. How does Ackley know? "He lives within my heart."

What Dawkins condemns, Ackley approves. But note: both atheist and hymnist declare that "faith" is a matter of internal realities.

In contrast to this internalized definition of faith is the liberating call to "test everything" that infuses the Christian worldview and animates Finding Truth. In this vibrant mind-set, people are expected to think for themselves, question authority, examine evidence, and push for answers that make sense of our world.

Read more.

I enjoyed this relaxed, insightful interview between these two friends -- one in politics, the other in radio. Listen here.

Our editor at large Nancy will be discussing her new book Finding Truth (you know, the book with that fantastic Foreword).

You can listen to today's broadcast here.

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now the leading candidate to be tapped by Donald Trump as his running mate, a close confidante of Trump tells Newsmax," John Gizz of Newsmax reports.

Susan Jones reports at CNSNews.com:

The U.S. Justice Department is putting the feelings of transgenders -- men who think they are women and women who think they are men -- above the privacy rights of the vast majority of people who don't contest the biological facts of who they actually are.

Read more.

"The battle over men accessing women's bathrooms and vice versa has little do with bathrooms or even transgenderism, a well-known LGBT activist admitted last week," Claire Chretien writes at LifeSiteNews.

"It has everything to do with re-working society and getting rid of the 'heterobinary structure' in which we live -- eliminating distinctions between 'male' and 'female' altogether."

Or as a surgically altered extremist called Riki Wilchins puts it, "What really needs to be contested here is not just our right to use bathrooms with dignity . . . , but the entire underlying hetero-binary structuring of the world queers must inhabit."

Go here to read "Bathrooms Are Just the Beginning," by Claire Chretien.

John Podhoretz writes at the NYPost:

In an astounding New York Times piece by David Samuels, senior White House officials gleefully confess they use friendly reporters and nonprofits as public relations tools in the selling of President Obama's foreign policy -- and can do it almost at will because these tools are ignorant, will believe what they’re told, will essentially take dictation and are happy to be used just to get the information necessary for a tweet or two.

The White House's "greatest triumph, according to Samuels, was selling a misleading narrative about the nuclear deal with Iran -- the parameters of which were set a year before the administration claimed and which had nothing to do with the fact that a supposedly more accommodating government had risen to power," Podhoretz states.

Read more.

Patrick Howley reports at Breitbart:

House Speaker Paul Ryan's Wisconsin primary opponent Paul Nehlen is out with his first potential viral video ad of the 2016 election cycle.

Nehlen is a water filtration company executive in Wisconsin who calls himself a tea party sympathizer. He is challenging Ryan in the First Congressional District, prioritizing three key issues: government spending, mass immigration, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"Nehlen can gain traction on those issues because of Ryan's decisions since he's been at the top of House leadership, responsible in part for crafting a national bipartisan agenda with the Democratic-controlled White House," Howley writes.

Watch Nehlen's motorcycle ad here.

Walt Heyer writes at Public Discourse:

Bruce Jenner and Diane Sawyer could benefit from a history lesson.

I know, because I suffered through "sex change" surgery and lived as a woman for eight years.

The surgery fixed nothing -- it only masked and exacerbated deeper psychological problems.

Come to think of it, Target could benefit mightily from this history lesson on "sex change" surgery, as well.

Here is information on Target's leadership and contact page. For additional action possibilities, see the American Family Association website here.

Read the entire article by Walt Heyer.

Jeva Lange writes at The Week:

Hold on to your tinfoil hats -- Donald Trump just accused Ted Cruz's father of possibly having a hand in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The comment was made during Trump's phone-in to Fox and Friends on Tuesday, when the Republican frontrunner was asked about Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, who has been actively imploring evangelical voters to support his son.

"You look at so many of the ministers that are backing me, and they're backing me more so than they're backing Cruz, and I'm winning the evangelical vote. It's disgraceful that his father can go out and do that," Trump ranted.

"Then things get weird," Lange writes.

"Trump goes on to claim that Rafael Cruz is an unidentified man in an August 1963 photograph with JFK-assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, where the pair is seen handing out pro-Castro pamphlets in New Orleans," Lange recounts.

"However, the theory that the mystery man in the photograph is Rafael Cruz was first floated by the dubious tabloid National Enquirer, and has since been dismissed as 'another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage' by Cruz's campaign," Lange writes.

"Experts on the JFK assassination also agree there is no evidence at all to corroborate Rafael Cruz's affiliation with Oswald in any way," Lange notes.

"Not everyone is convinced, apparently," Lange writes. 

"Nobody talks about it . . . What [Rafael Castro] was doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death -- before the shooting. It's horrible," Trump said, according to Lange.

The story concludes with video from Fox and Friends; Trump makes his assassination comments around the 5:10 mark.

Ted Cruz says, "I don't know John Boehner, " and "He and I have never worked together."

By "don't know," Cruz does not mean never having met Boehner. Rather, as Cruz said to Meygan Kelly, "I've probably met him 2,3,4 times in my life. I'd be surprized if we said 50 words to each other. And everything we've ever said has been empty pleasantries like 'Good to see you, Mr. Speaker'."

Here Cruz is drawing a reasonable distinction between knowledge of a person that is infrequent and very casual in nature, and knowledge of a person that is beyond causal and not infrequent. A possible example of the deeper knowledge could be Boehner's (as he claims) being a golfing and "texting buddy" of Donald Trump. Most of us would agree that there are very differnent levels of knowing people -- such that one would not say of a person infrequently related to that you in fact "know" that person. This, clearly, is what Cruz is asserting. To meet does not equal to know.

To counter this, political opponents have noted that John Boehner claims that Cruz was once Boehner's lawyer. Cruz says, Boehner and I "have not worked together" and yet Boehner says: "Ted Cruz used to be my attorney." Boehner said this to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show in January 2014, according to the WPost.

According to some political observers, Boehner's assertion is supposed to help nail Cruz as a liar.

A couple of points here. I would suppose that very many of us have hired out lawyers for professional services. In certain circumstances we could therefore say truly: "I have met the said lawyer." And yet we could also say we do not really know the lawyer in any kind of depth. We could honestly say this about any number of other people we might have hired for professional services.

Secondly, the natural inference from hearing a statement like "Ted Cruz used to be my attorney" is that Boenher and Cruz worked together directly and therefore had direct knowledge of each other in this context.

It turns out however, that Cruz may not at all have been Boehner's attorney in this manner. Instead, Cruz is on record as being part of a legal team, in which younger Cruz was a "junior associate," and his "involvement ... didn’t extend beyond assisting with briefs and attending meetings with Boehner’s staff" -- that is, not with Boehner. This is according to a Cruz Campaign statement quoted in the Daily Mail.

According to the Cruz campaign, Cruz "doesn’t remember even meeting Boehner" when the Texas senator was supposedly the Speaker's lawyer. "Much less" does Cruz recall "ever having had a substantive conversation with him."

As I read and analyze the record, Cruz seems to have acquitted himself both honestly and well. If anyone might have left the wrong impression, that person may be John Boehner, whose statement, "Ted Cruz used to be my attorney" seems to rather overstate what in fact was the case.

For more from Ted Cruz on this, see this Press Conference video from Cruz in Indiana, uploaded on Youtube April 28 (he begins addressing specifically Boehner's comments at the 13:15 mark).