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Intermediate and advanced ESL Bible studies are held at Grace Presbyterian Church, 1225 Royal Palms Parkway, Palm Coast, from 9:30 to 10:25 a.m. While studying the Bible, work on your English. English language learners at the intermediate and advanced levels are the target audience for this study.
The actual figures that led to the military invasion of Washington, D.C., are noteworthy. From Statista: Since 2023, when crime peaked mostly as a result of a wave of robberies and carjackings, violent crimes have been gradually decreasing, according to data from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department. Although crime does occur in Washington, as the accompanying figure illustrates, violent crime decreased by 26% while property crime decreased by 4% during the same period in 2024. Property crime and violent crime decreased by 11% and 35%, respectively, in the previous year (2023–2024). The great majority of crime incidences in the city between January 1 and August 8, 2025, had anything to do with property. 49.8% of the 13,884 cases that were recorded fell under the category of theft (not including auto or vehicle theft). There were 99 recorded homicides (-12 percent) in the first seven months of the year, 55 sex abuse cases (-49 percent), 530 assaults with dangerous weapons (-20 percent), and 888 robberies (-28 percent). The problem with crime statistics is that not all offenses are reported.
Now, this:
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Military newspeak: what is it? It is a numbing speech, mumbled by someone like George W. Bush or Al Haig. More discreetly, it’s a Boeing TV commercial with calming voices and music over pictures of bombers silently soaring into the clouds. Their objective? to protect our liberties. How? We don’t have to inquire. We are aware. Soon, they will be dropping bunker busters on apartment buildings that aren’t displayed, causing collateral damage that is obviously off-screen. To put it succinctly, military newspeak is a long list of euphemistic jargon intended to conceal the truth, dull our moral sensibilities, and reframe reality. Similar to that Boeing commercial, it can appear in nonverbal, perhaps subconscious ways, like the small American flag that continuously flaps in the top left corner of the Fox News screen or the persistent drum beat that physically greets each CNN show and essentially yells, “War, War, War!” Worry, worry, worry! Fear! Fear! Fear! All of it is intended to make you uneasy, confused, afraid, and to confuse fear with patriotism. Military newspeak poses a risk because it trains the brain’s muscles to respond aggressively and instinctively to imagined threats, just like video games do. It is improper to try to reason with or understand adversaries. The goal is to blast and kill them as soon as possible. No regrets, no questions. But the greatest risk of all is that it obstructs rational thought. A functional democracy requires critical thinking in order to think clearly. Furthermore, under the current conditions, our democracy is collapsing beneath the weight of military jargon with the same certainty as American-made bombs have destroyed Lebanese democracy. The speed and thoroughness of the militarization of the American language has dangerously undermined our ability to resist, and there is no Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Morrow to yell at. America, wake up! Wake up before it’s too late!
From Vicki Gray’s article, “The Militarization of the American Language,” published by Truthout on August 30, 2006.
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