Three Things You Need to Know - October 10, 2017

October 10, 2017

Staff

WRITER

The Vegas shooting story is getting more complicated.

What is going on with the Las Vegas attack investigation? At this point, it’s getting harder to know the truth.

The first timeline for the attack given by police goes like this:

10:05pm - Stephen Paddock begins firing from his hotel room on the 32nd floor.

10:15pm - Paddock stops shooting.

10:17pm - Police arrive on the 32nd floor and encounter security guard Jesus Campos who had been shot, through the door, by Paddock.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo explained last Wednesday that Paddock stopped firing when he saw that the security guard was at his door because he:

Observed the security guard, and he was in fear that he was about to be breached, so he was doing everything possible to figure out how to escape at that point.

Yesterday, all that changed in a dramatic reversal. The new timeline released by police says the security guard encountered Paddock before the mass shooting even began. Jesus Campos arrived at Paddocks room at 9:59pm because he heard a “drilling” sound coming from inside. Paddock then shot him through the door, then broke out the windows and commenced firing at 10:05pm.

The security guard obviously showed up in the middle of Paddock’s preparations and forced his timeline forward ahead of schedule. Police say Paddock fired 200 rounds through the door and into the hallway trying to take out the security guard. That’s quite a bit of sustained fire that probably lasted around 5 minutes.

So, here’s a few questions. Did the security guard not radio for backup during this 5 minutes of hell? Ask anyone that’s ever been in a firefight. Five minutes is an eternity. If someone has a little too much to drink in a hotel casino, you’ll instantly see a platoon of security guards there to respond. But in this case, not a single person responded. No one would officially arrive in response for another 18 minutes.

Sheriff Lombardo has also changed the date that Paddock checked into the hotel. Originally it was stated that he arrived on the 28th, but now he’s saying that they now believe he arrived on the 25th. How can you not know the date he checked in? There are hundreds of cameras, front desk records and credit card charges. Checking just one of those three sources would tell you when he arrived.

What’s going on in Las Vegas? What is the truth?

Rapist gets joint custody with his victim.

The girls were giddy with excitement when the car pulled up.

It was an older boy one of their friends knew.

He asked if they wanted to go for a ride. The three girls jumped into the car.

They thought they were going to McDonald’s.

Their excitement turned to fear as they drove past the golden arches and up to a vacant house.

One of the girls, 12, was viciously raped. A month later, the child discovered she was pregnant with her attacker’s baby.

Despite pressure to abort or put her child up for adoption, the victim kept her child. She dropped out of school, went to live with relatives, and worked jobs to try and support her family.

Eight years later, the victim is being forced to face her rapist once again, this time at the state’s request.

This week, the state of Michigan notified the attacker that, as the biological father, he had joint legal custody, visitation privileges, and must start paying child support. As shocking as this sounds, this is routinely done by the prosecutor’s office when someone makes an application for state assistance.

The victim told the Detriot News that, “I think this is all crazy. I was receiving about $260 a month in food stamps for me and my son and health insurance for him. I guess they were trying to see how to get some of the money back.”

This is not a family, it’s a felony.

And it’s a twisted situation that is surprisingly not that rare in America.

There are 15 states in the U.S. that have no law in place to terminate a rapist's parental rights and of all 50 states, fewer than half have laws that allow the termination of parental rights to rapists without a conviction.

Those estimates put thousands of women at risk of a lifetime tethered to their rapists because they chose to keep their child. Because these brave women understood the circumstances of their child’s conception did not determine its worth.

Those women shouldn’t be forced to relive their nightmares over again. They should be protected and celebrated for turning a traumatic event into a blessing.

An epidemic rages behind the Weinstein case.

Harvey Weinstein has been thanked at the Oscars more than God.

Looks like Weinstein’s number of thank yous may take a serious hit now that he’s been fired from his own company for decades of sexually harassing numerous women.

Then again, this is an industry where people still fall over themselves to be in a Woody Allen film and never skip the chance to praise Roman Polanski.

It wouldn’t shock me if Harvey Weinstein wins an Oscar when he makes a comeback in a few years.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Kate Winslet and Judi Dench spoke out condemning Weinstein. But the men of Hollywood seem to be keeping their mouths shut for some reason. In fact, Sharon Waxman revealed that in 2004 she was working on a similar report for The New York Times about Weinstein sexually harassing women, but she says Matt Damon and Russell Crowe called her to vouch for Weinstein. The Times dropped the 2004 story after pressure from Weinstein. His company was a big advertiser for the newspaper.

Weinstein is a creep and he’ll have to deal with the consequences of his gross behavior. But let’s not kid ourselves. Sexual harassment goes on in every industry.

This story reveals so much about America’s politics and hypocrisies. While it’s fun to give Hollywood a taste of their own medicine for a change, we shouldn’t miss this opportunity to have a national dialogue about the objectification of women in our culture and what helps fuel this problem.

You can’t have a national epidemic of male addiction to pornography and expect sexual harassment to decrease. It used to be considered sleazy to go to an X-rated movie theater. Now our kids are growing up with an X-rated theater on the phone in their back pocket. You think it’s bad now. Wait until the 24/7 porn generation become the bosses at work.

Combatting our porn epidemic is a cause that men and women, liberal and conservative, could work on together. It may sound old-fashioned and prudish to some, but if we don’t think this is affecting us, we’re delusional.

MORE 3 THINGS

What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

America’s moral erosion: How we were conditioned to accept the unthinkable

MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND / Contributor | Getty Images

Every time we look away from lawlessness, we tell the next mob it can go a little further.

Chicago, Portland, and other American cities are showing us what happens when the rule of law breaks down. These cities have become openly lawless — and that’s not hyperbole.

When a governor declares she doesn’t believe federal agents about a credible threat to their lives, when Chicago orders its police not to assist federal officers, and when cartels print wanted posters offering bounties for the deaths of U.S. immigration agents, you’re looking at a country flirting with anarchy.

Two dangers face us now: the intimidation of federal officers and the normalization of soldiers as street police. Accept either, and we lose the republic.

This isn’t a matter of partisan politics. The struggle we’re watching now is not between Democrats and Republicans. It’s between good and evil, right and wrong, self‑government and chaos.

Moral erosion

For generations, Americans have inherited a republic based on law, liberty, and moral responsibility. That legacy is now under assault by extremists who openly seek to collapse the system and replace it with something darker.

Antifa, well‑financed by the left, isn’t an isolated fringe any more than Occupy Wall Street was. As with Occupy, big money and global interests are quietly aligned with “anti‑establishment” radicals. The goal is disruption, not reform.

And they’ve learned how to condition us. Twenty‑five years ago, few Americans would have supported drag shows in elementary schools, biological males in women’s sports, forced vaccinations, or government partnerships with mega‑corporations to decide which businesses live or die. Few would have tolerated cartels threatening federal agents or tolerated mobs doxxing political opponents. Yet today, many shrug — or cheer.

How did we get here? What evidence convinced so many people to reverse themselves on fundamental questions of morality, liberty, and law? Those long laboring to disrupt our republic have sought to condition people to believe that the ends justify the means.

Promoting “tolerance” justifies women losing to biological men in sports. “Compassion” justifies harboring illegal immigrants, even violent criminals. Whatever deluded ideals Antifa espouses is supposed to somehow justify targeting federal agents and overturning the rule of law. Our culture has been conditioned for this moment.

The buck stops with us

That’s why the debate over using troops to restore order in American cities matters so much. I’ve never supported soldiers executing civilian law, and I still don’t. But we need to speak honestly about what the Constitution allows and why. The Posse Comitatus Act sharply limits the use of the military for domestic policing. The Insurrection Act, however, exists for rare emergencies — when federal law truly can’t be enforced by ordinary means and when mobs, cartels, or coordinated violence block the courts.

Even then, the Constitution demands limits: a public proclamation ordering offenders to disperse, transparency about the mission, a narrow scope, temporary duration, and judicial oversight.

Soldiers fight wars. Cops enforce laws. We blur that line at our peril.

But we also cannot allow intimidation of federal officers or tolerate local officials who openly obstruct federal enforcement. Both extremes — lawlessness on one side and militarization on the other — endanger the republic.

The only way out is the Constitution itself. Protect civil liberty. Enforce the rule of law. Demand transparency. Reject the temptation to justify any tactic because “our side” is winning. We’ve already seen how fear after 9/11 led to the Patriot Act and years of surveillance.

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Contributor | Getty Images

Two dangers face us now: the intimidation of federal officers and the normalization of soldiers as street police. Accept either, and we lose the republic. The left cannot be allowed to shut down enforcement, and the right cannot be allowed to abandon constitutional restraint.

The real threat to the republic isn’t just the mobs or the cartels. It’s us — citizens who stop caring about truth and constitutional limits. Anything can be justified when fear takes over. Everything collapses when enough people decide “the ends justify the means.”

We must choose differently. Uphold the rule of law. Guard civil liberties. And remember that the only way to preserve a government of, by, and for the people is to act like the people still want it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Stand with Voddie Baucham’s family in this time of loss

In the quiet aftermath of a profound loss, the Christian community mourns the unexpected passing of Dr. Voddie Baucham, a towering figure in evangelical circles. Known for his defense of biblical truth, Baucham, a pastor, author, and theologian, left a legacy on family, faith, and opposing "woke" ideologies in the church. His book Fault Lines challenged believers to prioritize Scripture over cultural trends. Glenn had Voddie on the show several times, where they discussed progressive influences in Christianity, debunked myths of “Christian nationalism,” and urged hope amid hostility.

The shock of Baucham's death has deeply affected his family. Grieving, they remain hopeful in Christ, with his wife, Bridget, now facing the task of resettling in the US without him. Their planned move from Lusaka, Zambia, was disrupted when their home sale fell through last December, resulting in temporary Airbnb accommodations, but they have since secured a new home in Cape Coral that requires renovations. To ensure Voddie's family is taken care of, a fundraiser is being held to raise $2 million, which will be invested for ongoing support, allowing Bridget to focus on her family.

We invite readers to contribute prayerfully. If you feel called to support the Bauchams in this time of need, you can click here to donate.

We grieve and pray with hope for the Bauchams.

May Voddie's example inspire us.

Overcoming loneliness: Connecting in a disconnected world

Loneliness isn’t just being alone — it’s feeling unseen, unheard, and unimportant, even amid crowds and constant digital chatter.

Loneliness has become an epidemic in America. Millions of people, even when surrounded by others, feel invisible. In tragic irony, we live in an age of unparalleled connectivity, yet too many sit in silence, unseen and unheard.

I’ve been experiencing this firsthand. My children have grown up and moved out. The house that once overflowed with life now echoes with quiet. Moments that once held laughter now hold silence. And in that silence, the mind can play cruel games. It whispers, “You’re forgotten. Your story doesn’t matter.”

We are unique in our gifts, but not in our humanity. Recognizing this shared struggle is how we overcome loneliness.

It’s a lie.

I’ve seen it in others. I remember sitting at Rockefeller Center one winter, watching a woman lace up her ice skates. Her clothing was worn, her bag battered. Yet on the ice, she transformed — elegant, alive, radiant.

Minutes later, she returned to her shoes, merged into the crowd, unnoticed. I’ve thought of her often. She was not alone in her experience. Millions of Americans live unseen, performing acts of quiet heroism every day.

Shared pain makes us human

Loneliness convinces us to retreat, to stay silent, to stop reaching out to others. But connection is essential. Even small gestures — a word of encouragement, a listening ear, a shared meal — are radical acts against isolation.

I’ve learned this personally. Years ago, a caller called me “Mr. Perfect.” I could have deflected, but I chose honesty. I spoke of my alcoholism, my failed marriage, my brokenness. I expected judgment. Instead, I found resonance. People whispered back, “I’m going through the same thing. Thank you for saying it.”

Our pain is universal. Everyone struggles with self-doubt and fear. Everyone feels, at times, like a fraud. We are unique in our gifts, but not in our humanity. Recognizing this shared struggle is how we overcome loneliness.

We were made for connection. We were built for community — for conversation, for touch, for shared purpose. Every time we reach out, every act of courage and compassion punches a hole in the wall of isolation.

You’re not alone

If you’re feeling alone, know this: You are not invisible. You are seen. You matter. And if you’re not struggling, someone you know is. It’s your responsibility to reach out.

Loneliness is not proof of brokenness. It is proof of humanity. It is a call to engage, to bear witness, to connect. The world is different because of the people who choose to act. It is brighter when we refuse to be isolated.

We cannot let silence win. We cannot allow loneliness to dictate our lives. Speak. Reach out. Connect. Share your gifts. By doing so, we remind one another: We are all alike, and yet each of us matters profoundly.

In this moment, in this country, in this world, what we do matters. Loneliness is real, but so is hope. And hope begins with connection.