Word for All of Us! Come, deeper my beloved, come closer and soak in my presence. Allow me to be Abba, Father and take care of you. Come and surrender in worship and sing me a love song I see you're tender and weary trying to do everything on your own. Trying to please everyone. From this day forward there will be no more “what-ifs,” no more whispers of what others will think or say. Only what l say matters. Just breathe, for I am your secret hiding place, where joy whispers, and love rewrites your story to use for my glory. Let the noise and the distractions of this world fade away. Listen for my voice in the stillness and l will whisper secret love notes only for you to hear. Surrender to the silence and listen! Allow me to hold you safely in my arms. Come closer! Let me anoint you for my glory. Allow me to pour overflowing living water and burst clouds of Joy within you. The harvests are rising and the seeds you sown from the quiet place are ready for the final g!
athering. They are blooming from the quiet corner of your life. My dear beloved My chosen one You belong to Me And I’m all yours. You were created to worship me. So, walk gracefully wrapped in my unwavering love for you. My arms are always open, My beloved, l will forevermore be in our secret place, waiting for your return and soak in my presence. Nov 29, 2025 (redacted)
Friday, December 5, 2025
ILHAN OMAR IS NOT THE KIND OF IMMIGRANT AMERICA NEEDS
National Review
Ilhan Omar Is Not the Kind of Immigrant America Needs
By Rich Lowry
December 2, 2025 9:33 AM
She stands for everything we shouldn’t want an immigrant to be.
Is it too much to ask that immigrants love America and its system of government?
That’s a question that President Trump has been asking, with an especially high level of vitriol, in the wake of the horrific shooting of members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving.
In a corker of a Truth Social post announcing “a permanent pause” in immigration from third-world countries, Trump went after Minneapolis-area Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and for good reason.
Omar stands for everything we shouldn’t want an immigrant to be — ungrateful, hostile to the American system as such, and perhaps not above perpetrating immigration fraud.
Maybe the next time Omar is a refugee from a war-torn, desperately poor African country looking for a safe haven in the West, she should try Canada or Australia.
After fleeing the civil war in Somalia, Omar was granted asylum in the United States in the 1990s, and she lived for a time in one of the most desirable suburban counties in the country — Arlington, Va., outside of Washington, D.C. — before settling in Minneapolis.
In the course of her successful life here — so far from Mogadishu, in a country characterized by its peace, prosperity, and opportunity — one would have thought that she’d have steadily accumulated a debt of gratitude.
Most “heritage Americans,” after all, never become members of Congress or enjoy a net worth as high as $30 million (Omar’s husband has a venture capital firm).
But, no — quite the opposite.
“In Omar’s version,” a Washington Post profile noted a few years ago, “America wasn’t the bighearted country that saved her from a brutal war and a bleak refugee camp. It wasn’t a meritocracy that helped her attend college or vaulted her into Congress. Instead, it was the country that had failed to live up to its founding ideals, a place that had disappointed her and so many immigrants, refugees and minorities like her.”
It’s not just that she came here with nothing and is now a person with prestige (in certain circles) and resources; she may well have gotten away with a scheme years ago to marry her brother for fraudulent purposes. She hotly denies that the man she briefly married was her brother but has never managed to definitively rebut the charges, relying instead on accusations of racism to scare away critics.
Is this a great country, she must secretly think occasionally, despite herself, or what?
The same thought might have occurred to those members of the Somali diaspora in Minnesota who engaged in a gigantic grift of the state’s social-services funds. Prosecutors believe that more than $1 billion has been stolen in a variety of plots. The perpetrators stole from programs intended to provide meals to hungry children during the pandemic, services to the homeless, and therapy for autistic children.
At least these members of the Somali diaspora must have been grateful — for the generosity and credulousness of a Minnesota welfare state that couldn’t be bothered to keep fraudsters from stealing from the taxpayers on an epic scale.
Obviously, native-born Americans commit graft, too, but the Minnesota crimes are especially galling, coming from a group of people we did a favor for by allowing them into the United States in the first place.
It’s one thing to look a gift horse in the mouth; it’s another to steal the incisors and molars when you think no one is looking.
It should go without saying that these crimes don’t implicate law-abiding Somali-Americans, and not all Somali immigrants share Ilhan Omar’s grievances (although many of them repeatedly show the poor judgment of electing her to Congress).
Still, the crux of the matter is that U.S. immigration policy should be about serving our national interest rather than the interests of immigrants. We should select as carefully as possible for newcomers who want to embrace America and are willing and able to thrive in an adopted homeland that they love.
AUNT DROWNS NEECE AT WEDDING BECAUSE SHE LOOKED PRETTIER THAN HER
New York Post
Jealous aunt drowns niece, 6, at wedding because child ‘looked prettier than her,’ admits to murdering 3 other relatives
By Ella McIlveen, News.com.au
Published Dec. 4, 2025, 5:33 a.m. ET
Originally Published by: News.com.au
A woman is accused of drowning her six-year-old niece during a wedding celebration because the child “looked prettier than her.”
The woman, who goes by Poonam, reportedly drowned her young relative in a tub of water after her family gathered for a ceremony in Panipat, northern India, on Monday.
The girl, named Vidhi, had attended the wedding with her father, mother, 10-month-old brother and her grandmother.
Vidhi’s father is said to have received a phone call during the celebrations, informing him that the girl had gone missing – prompting a family search party.
After an hour, Vidhi’s grandmother, Omwati, tragically found her dead in a nearby storeroom, with her head submerged underwater.
She was rushed to the nearby NC Medical College, where she was later pronounced dead.
Police arrested Poonam following the death, where she then confessed to killing Vidhi, her paternal niece.
According to local media, Poonam told police that “she didn’t want anyone to look more beautiful” than her at the wedding.
Superintendent of Police Bhupender Singh said that according to investigators, the woman committed the crime when all the guests were out of the house.
Poonam allegedly saw the child climbing the stairs before following her to the terrace and making conversation with her.
“After having her placed in a plastic tub filled with water outside the storeroom, she drowned the child in the tub, then bolted the door from the outside, and came down,” Superintendent Singh said.
“During interrogation, the accused woman told the police that she was irritated by beautiful girls.”
Poonan also reportedly confessed to previously murdering another three children, including another niece and her own son, whom she also drowned.
In 2023, the woman allegedly murdered her sister-in-law’s daughter, 9, before then killing her own son to “avoid suspicion.”
In August this year, she allegedly killed a young girl in a nearby town because she was “prettier” than her.
Police revealed that the family previously considered these deaths accidental and that Poonam “committed these crimes one after the other.”
Thursday, December 4, 2025
8 YEAR OLD (NONFATALLY) ELECTROCUTED BY PHONE CHARGER IN BED
PEOPLE
8-Year-Old Electrocuted by Phone Charger in His Bed: 'I Almost Thought I Was Going to Die'
By Charna Flam Published on December 1, 2025 07:45PM EST
An 8-year-old boy is recovering after suffering a nearly fatal electrocution while sleeping in his bed.
Lorenzo Lopez was asleep with a phone on his bed that was loosely plugged into an extension cord connected to a nearby outlet. He then rolled over in his sleep, prompting his chain necklace to fall “between where the gap was on the extension cord and the charger, which is what shocked him,” his mother, Kourtney Pendleton, told KWCH.
Feeling heat on his neck, the boy told KWCH that he tried to scream, but couldn't call for help as he was being electrocuted. Ultimately, he was able to take the necklace off and sought help.
Lopez said he remembers a portion of the “scary” incident. "It was chaos,” he told the outlet. “I almost thought I was going to die.”
Pendleton said that one hospital employee told her, “Had he not pulled that chain off, he would have been electrocuted to death,” according to KWCH.
The mother added how her son “basically saved his own life.” “I guess I saved myself, and I’m happy about that,” Lopez said.
He was transported to the hospital, where he underwent a skin graft. He is expected to remain in their care for a total of two weeks, according to the GoFundMe page created by Pendleton.
“Lorenzo made it through his skin graft surgery, and while he’s in a lot of pain right now, he’s fighting through every moment with so much courage,” Pendleton wrote on Nov. 27. “This has been such a heavy and emotional journey, but he’s holding on with a strength that inspires all of us.”
As for Lopez’s hospital stay, he said, “They’ve been treating me nice, I just like being nice to talk to and having fun,” according to KWCH.
As of Monday, Dec. 1, Lopez is still in the hospital, according to a post to Pendleton’s Facebook page. In a recent update, Pendleton urged parents to keep electronic devices out of their kids' beds.
"Renzo wants his story shared to hopefully save another kiddo, so take renzos story as awareness to never ever let your babies sleep with electronics please," Pendleton wrote.
PEOPLE reached out to Kourtney Pendleton for comment.
APPLE DESIGNATES POPULAR IPHONE MODEL OBSOLETE, LEAVING FURIOUS USERS WITHOUT SUPPORT
New York Post
Apple designates popular iPhone model obsolete, leaving furious users without support
By Ben Cost
Published Dec. 3, 2025, 10:09 a.m. ET
It’s tech-stinct.
Apple fans are up in arms after the tech firm added the first-generation iPhone SE to its obsolete products list.
Effectively immediately, the device will no longer be eligible for repairs or other services at Apple Stores or authorized third-party vendors, MacRumors reported.
Launched in 2016 alongside the iPhone 7, the iPhone SE was widely considered Apple’s first true budget smartphone, running buyers only $399, Mashable reported. For reference, the starting price for the new iPhone 17 clocks in at a staggering $799.
The discount device featured the best aspects of the iPhone 5, including a 4-inch display, a Touch ID home button and an iconic aluminum-and-glass frame.
It also came with an A9 chipset that made it markedly faster than other small phones on the market, and boasted longer battery life, double the processing power and better graphics than the iPhone 5.
Alas, the proletariat gadget was discontinued in 2018, meaning that it is effectively obsolete per Apple’s policy, which designates products as such when they’ve stopped distributing “them for sale more than 7 years ago.”
By comparison, products are labeled “vintage” after being out of circulation for five years.
In accordance with the obsolete designation, the company is not obligated to repair the iPhone SE even if it stops working, rendering it no more than a relic form the past.
“Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products,” the site specifies.
The iPhone SE’s loyal fanbase was none too pleased with the tech firm putting their favorite product out to pasture.
“They’ll pry my 2016 iPhone SE from my cold, dead hands,” griped one, while another wrote, “I don’t change mine until forced to. My SE iPhone works just fine.”
Some even accused Apple of purposefully scrapping products prematurely to boost their profits. “Never ending push for you to spend more money,” lamented one tech-head. “Digital planed obsolescence. There is nothing wrong with that generation of phone.”
Apple rolled out the second-generation and third-generation iPhone SE models in April 2020 and March 2022, both of which feature similar designs to the iPhone 8,
The iPhone SE was then given the axe entirely for the foreseeable future, after getting swapped out for the iPhone 16e.
The iPhone SE joins a long list of Apple products relegated to obsolescence.
Recent additions to the proverbial scrap heap include the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (second generation), the Apple Watch Series 4 Hermes models and the Apple Watch Series 4 Nike models.
MEET THE MEN GETTING BREAST REDUCTIONS, THE MOST POPULAR COSMETIC SURGERY FOR GUYS IN THE U.S.
New York Post
exclusive
Meet the men getting breast reductions — which is now the most popular plastic surgery among guys in the US
By McKenzie Beard
Published Dec. 3, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET
Brian Lewis Gonzalez spent most of his life trying not to be seen.
Growing up in Brooklyn, he kept to himself, slouching and layering to disguise the excess breast tissue that made him the target of schoolyard taunts.
“There were summers that I would wear two shirts just to feel comfortable enough to go outside, even if it was 100 degrees,” Gonzalez, now 44, told The Post. “And that was even when I wasn’t that heavy.”
In his early 20s, a devastating breakup led him to put on weight, pushing him up to 300 pounds and further intensifying his deepest insecurity.
“The additional weight made it much worse. It looked very much like a pair of women’s breasts,” he said. “It was tough to socialize. It was tough to do anything.”
But even after he shed over 100 pounds his chest still sagged — a stubborn reminder of the gynecomastia he’d battled since puberty.
Gonzalez, a porter in a residential building, had long dreamed of a permanent solution: a male breast reduction. In 2021, he finally made it happen, taking out loans and paying $10,000 to surgically remove the excess fat, glandular tissue and skin caused by his condition.
“It changed my life,” he said. “I had to get used to walking with my chest out and having confidence. Before, it felt like I was carrying around a big bag of rocks — that’s what my gynecomastia was.”
The male makeover
Gonzalez is far from alone. A growing number of men are seeking surgical treatment for gynecomastia, which is estimated to affect at least half of all men at some point in their lives — though in many cases, it occurs during puberty and resolves on its own.
“Since 2020, I’ve definitely seen a steep increase in men doing consultations and going forward with gynecomastia surgery,” Dr. Claudia Kim, chief medical officer and lead cosmetic surgeon at New Look New Life in Manhattan, told The Post.
The procedure is now the most popular plastic surgery among US men, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The group reported its doctors performed 26,430 male breast reductions in 2024, up from 20,955 done in 2019.
Kim, who performed Gonzalez’s operation, credits the rise in part to social media, where men are increasingly opening up about their struggles with gynecomastia — and sharing their solutions.
“There are certain kinds of pain that are worth experiencing, and [surgery] is one of them,” Gonzalez said. “When you have this condition, you’re willing to go through anything and everything to overcome it.”
The mental toll of “man boobs”
Kelbin Ramirez knows this firsthand. The 32-year-old radio personality first noticed he had excess breast tissue around the onset of puberty, a common phase for men to develop gynecomastia amid hormonal fluctuations.
“There can be an imbalance of the hormone levels where it actually stimulates the male chest to form more glandular tissue,” Kim explained. “That’s the most common cause.”
The condition can also be triggered by certain medications, drugs like marijuana and alcohol, obesity and other medical conditions.
As he began to sprout what he called “man boobs,” Ramirez was also wrestling with his sexuality, a complicated period that leveled his self-esteem.
At the mall, he recalled, “I would go into the fitting room and get so emotional and frustrated because no matter what I wore, they were still so prominent.”
Growing up in South Florida, he avoided taking his shirt off at the beach or a pool party, keeping his jacket on even in the summer to conceal his chest.
He explored surgical options in high school, but the steep price tag — often not covered by insurance — left him grappling with the insecurity into adulthood.
“I did try to embrace the whole body positivity movement,” he said. “I tried to wear stuff that I really liked … but at the end of the day, under the clothes, they were always there. And I always felt it.”
Despite radiating courage on air, Ramirez was a shrinking violet in his day-to-day life, avoiding strangers and struggling to find community after moving to Charlotte, NC.
It wasn’t until he was 30 that he was able to pay out of pocket for surgery.
How gynecomastia surgery works
Doctors approach the operation based on the type and severity of the condition. If it’s mainly caused by excess fat deposits, often called pseudo-gynecomastia, they typically use liposuction.
But if it involves an overgrowth of firm, glandular breast tissue beneath the nipple — as is often the case — doctors generally need to make a cut, usually around the areola, to remove the mass.
Kim said many men have both glandular and fatty tissue, meaning both liposuction and excision are needed.
Ramirez woke from his excision woozy. Drainage tubes sprouted from his chest, where they remained for a week to collect and remove excess fluid.
“Reaching for things was uncomfortable, but nothing was unbearable,” he said. He was back to work after about eight days of rest.
The impact was almost immediate. Now comfortable at the gym, Ramirez started working out and learning about fitness, transforming his physical and mental health.
“I never really understood confidence until this year post-surgery,” he said. “Now I wear whatever I want. I’m not crying in fitting rooms anymore. I go up to people and introduce myself. It has completely changed everything.”
A weighty issue
While gynecomastia can worsen with weight gain, slimming down isn’t necessarily the solution.
If the issue is purely fat deposits, men who gain weight may see their chest enlarge and almost feminize — but if they lose weight, it’ll typically go away.
However, for glandular tissue overgrowth, weight loss won’t eliminate the problem.
“It can get smaller if you lean out because you’re decreasing the fat in your chest, but it won’t completely go away because the glands are unaffected by your body fat percentage,” Kim said.
DeShawn Pennix, 33, assumed the enlarged breast tissue he developed in adolescence was a result of being overweight.
Now a social worker from the DC area, Pennix eventually grew to be more than 350 pounds, with the weight largely concentrated in his upper body.
“I honestly can’t remember what it’s like to have a masculine-presenting chest,” he said.
He lost more than 120 pounds through lifestyle changes and a GLP-1 medication. And yet, “the gynecomastia was still there.”
Last month, despite initial delays due to shame and stigma, Pennix opted to go under the knife for the latest step in his physical transformation.
The comprehensive procedure — which involved liposuction, skin removal and excision — cost him $10,208 out of pocket.
“It was absolutely worth it,” Pennix said, noting that the pain level has been bearable. “I’m pleased with what I see right now, I still have a long ways to go in terms of healing.”
After their surgeries, Gonzalez, Ramirez and Pennix all shared a similar sentiment: Your body is yours. If you need to make a change to feel good in it, do it, but make sure it’s for the right reasons.
“Don’t be afraid to be yourself, regardless of what imperfections you may have,” Gonzalez said. “There’s more to life than just what other people think.”
“If you do the surgery, do it for you,” he continued. “At the end of the day, it’s all about how you feel about yourself.”
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