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The Elf On The Shelf Is Preparing Your Child To Live In A Future Police State, Professor Warns

The Elf on the Shelf is “a capillary form of power that normalizes the voluntary surrender of privacy, teaching young people to blindly accept panoptic surveillance and” [deep breath] “reify hegemonic power.”

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For some, the Elf on the Shelf doll, with its doe-eyed gaze and cherubic face, has become a whimsical holiday tradition — one that helpfully reminds children to stay out of trouble in the lead-up to Christmas

For others — like, say, digital technology professor Laura Pinto — the Elf on the Shelf is “a capillary form of power that normalizes the voluntary surrender of privacy, teaching young people to blindly accept panoptic surveillance and” [deep breath] “reify hegemonic power.” I mean, that’s obvious, right?

The latter perspective is detailed in “Who’s the Boss,” a paper published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in which Pinto and co-author Selena Nemorin argue that the popular seasonal doll is preparing a generation of children to uncritically accept “increasingly intrusive (albeit whimsically packaged) modes of surveillance.”

Before you burst out laughing, know that Pinto comes across as extremely friendly and not at all paranoid on the phone. She’s also completely serious.

“The Elf on the Shelf” is both a book and a doll. The former is a soft pixie scout elf that parents are instructed to hide around the house. The accompanying book, written in rhyme, tells a Christmas-themed story that explains how Santa Claus keeps tabs on who is naughty and who is nice.”

The Elf on the Shelf®: A Christmas Tradition Broadcast Spot

The book describes elves hiding in children’s homes each day during the holidays to monitor their behavior before returning to the North Pole each night with a report for “the boss.”

Because we live in a world grappling with corporate smartphone surveillance,behavior management apps in the classroom and private communication interceptions by various governments, Pinto —  a digital technology professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology — sees the Elf on the Shelf dolls as one development among many threatening our collective definition of privacy.

If she’s right, in all likelihood she’s fighting a losing battle. The Elf on the Shelf book sold over 6 million copies and joined the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade last year, according to the Daily Mail.

“I don’t think the elf is a conspiracy and I realize we’re talking about a toy,” Pinto told The Post. “It sounds humorous, but we argue that if a kid is okay with this bureaucratic elf spying on them in their home, it normalizes the idea of surveillance and in the future restrictions on our privacy might be more easily accepted.”

Until the introduction of Elf on the Shelf, Santa’s mythological helpers had always been relegated to the toy workshop, Pinto said. After the story and toy were introduced by Chanda Bell, a onetime Atlanta reading teacher, the traditional narrative changed to include the hiding, surveillance and back-and-forth travel, Pinto said.

“As evidenced by the millions of books and dolls sold,” the Toronto Star writes, “the story has become a cultural phenomenon, with parents littering their social media feeds with photos of the elf in strange places.”

Facebook, in fact, is how Pinto said she originally became aware of the doll. Last December, she began to see her Facebook friends who have kids posting Elf on the Shelf photos.

The more she read about the doll and the rules that accompany it, the more she began to feel like the game that resonated with the purpose of the infamous panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s 18th Century design for a model prison (a central tower in a circular structure, surrounded by cells that made it impossible for prisoners to know if they were being watched).

She writes:

Elf on the Shelf presents a unique (and prescriptive) form of play that blurs the distinction between play time and real life. Children who participate in play with The Elf on the Shelf doll have to contend with rules at all times during the day: they may not touch the doll, and they must accept that the doll watches them at all times with the purpose of reporting to Santa Claus. This is different from more conventional play with dolls, where children create play-worlds born of their imagination, moving dolls and determining interactions with other people and other dolls. Rather, the hands-off “play” demanded by the elf is limited to finding (but not touching!) The Elf on the Shelf every morning, and acquiescing to surveillance during waking hours under the elf’s watchful eye. The Elf on the Shelf controls all parameters of play, who can do and touch what, and ultimately attempts to dictate the child’s behavior outside of time used for play.

“The whole thing with panopticonism under the Jeremy Bentham structure,” Pinto said, “is that you never quite knew if you were being watched or not and that forced you into behaving in a certain way. The elf is the same way.”

Pinto said she’s not the first person to be troubled by Elf on the Shelf’s surveilling. She’s said parents routinely contact her to say they changed the rules of the game after it made their families uneasy. And many kids, she said, often intuitively feel like spying and being a tattletale is wrong.

“A mom e-mailed me and told me that the first day they read the elf book and put the elf out, her daughter woke up crying because she was being watched by the elf,” Pinto recounted. “They changed the game so it wouldn’t scare the child.”

Emma Waverman, a blogger with Today’s Parent, told the Star that the idea of the elf watching someone all the time is “creepy.”

“It makes the motivation to behave something that’s external,” she told the paper. “If I’m not around or if the elf is not around, do they act crazy?”

Translated into academia-speak, Pinto and Nemorin make a similar point in Who’s the Boss?

“What is troubling,” they write, “is what The Elf on the Shelf represents and normalizes: anecdotal evidence reveals that children perform an identity that is not only for caretakers, but for an external authority (The Elf on the Shelf), similar to the dynamic between citizen and authority in the context of the surveillance state.” source

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BIBLE BELIEVERS SUNDAY SERVICE: What Your King James Bible Has To Say On The Doctrine Of Hell

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People go to Hell not because God failed to save them, but because they refused the Saviour and His precious payment for their sins in His own blood

Make no mistake about it, when you die you will go to one of two places, either Heaven or Hell. All people born into this world have the same starting point, this is the true equality of all men. Let me be crystal-clear about one thing. People do not wind up in Hell because God failed or refused to saved them, not at all. People wind up in Hell because they have refused the salvation God provides us in Jesus Christ on the cross. Preached live this morning at the Bible Believers Church at the Bookstore.

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 (KJB)

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SUNDAY SERVICE STUDY NOTES: On The Doctrine Of Hell

On The Doctrine Of Hell

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” Matthew 25:41 (KJB)

Make no mistake about it, when you die you will go to one of two places, either Heaven or Hell. All people born into this world have the same starting point, this is the true equality of all men. Heaven is a literal place, and so is Hell. People don’t go to Heaven because they are good, neither do people enter into Hell because they are bad. You are either saved or lost. Saved people go to Heaven and the unsaved into Hell.

Let me be crystal-clear about one thing. People do not wind up in Hell because God failed or refused to saved them, not at all. People wind up in Hell because they have refused the salvation God provides us in Jesus Christ on the cross.

Things that are everlasting:

  • God’s covenant with Noah Genesis 9:16
  • God’s covenant with Abraham Genesis 17:7
  • God Himself Genesis 21:33
  • God’s Statutes Lev 16:34
  • God’s sabbath Lev 24:8
  • God’s arms Deut 33:27
  • God’s throne Psalm 93:2
  • God’s righteousness Proverbs 10:25
  • The everlasting life of the believer John 3:16
  • The everlasting punishment of the unbeliever 2 Thess 1:9

Kirk Cameron reveals last week that he no longer believes in ‘eternal conscious torment’ for the wicked, which he suggests is “cruel and unusual punishment.” Instead, he leans heavily towards annihilationism, saying: “It fits the character of God.” Does it? Let’s open the Bible and find out.

Why do people go to Hell?

First and foremost, Hell is the place where people go because they have a sin debt with God because all sin is primarily against God.

“BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.” Psalm 119:9-12 (KJB)

Jesus paid this debt for the whole human race on the cross, and it is offered freely to all people.

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Romans 5:9 (KJB)

“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled” Colossians 1:20,21 (KJB)

What is Hell like?

The Bible says it is a place of outer darkness, torment, everlasting punishments, and filled with eternal Hell fire. Here is the first mention of Hell in your King James Bible.

“For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.” Deuteronomy 32:22-24 (KJB)

When you run the references, this is what you see about Hell. It is taught in both Testaments, is present in every dispensation, and will be the end state for the Devil, his angels, and all those who refuse God’s salvation.

“Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.” Job 26:6 (KJB)

“For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.” Psalms 86:13 (KJB)

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Isaiah 14:15 (KJB)

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalms 9:17 (KJB)

“Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.” Isaiah 5:14 (KJB)

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 (KJB)

Paul doesn’t mention the word ‘Hell’ but he doesn’t have to. It’s quite obvious he’s referring to it right here.

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 (KJB)

Perhaps the most pointed reference to Hell is found here:

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” Luke 16:22-25 (KJB)

Hell is not a contradiction of God’s love — it is the proof of His holiness and justice.

If God allowed sin into Heaven, He would cease to be holy.
If God ignored sin, He would cease to be just.
Because God is eternal, the punishment for sin is eternal.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25)

Hell is real, Hell is eternal, but Hell is avoidable.

  • Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3).
  • Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

God’s heart is clear:
Who will have all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).

People go to Hell not because God failed to save them, but because they refused the Saviour.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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New York’s New Muslim Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s First Order Of Business Will Be To Bring Back Open Air Homeless Encampments

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Muslim Socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Thursday said he will end the clearance of homeless encampments in New York City.

We haven’t talked in a little bit about the Cloward-Piven Plan to destroy America, but now that we have a Muslim Socialist mayor in New York City, Zohran Mamdani, perhaps it’s time to dust off our files and remind you of the Socialist plan that Cloward and Piven devised for our nation. The idea was simple: overwhelm the system until it breaks, then rebuild it in a new image. That is exactly what Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven openly proposed, and it is exactly the trajectory we are watching in real time.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 (KJB)

Do you know why they took down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center? Because it was the perfect symbol of America’s global financial dominance, and watching those towers fall is a stunning harbinger of the fate all of America will soon suffer. In the meantime, now we have a Muslim Socialist mayor who will turn New York City into a sweltering, infested rat hole all the while bringing in Sharia Law through the backdoor. And contrary to what ‘President of Peace’ Trump thinks, America’s greatest threat is not drug boats from Venezuela. It’s Islam.

Everyone in the city will suffer from Mamdani’s foolish decision to end homeless camp sweeps

FROM THE NY POST: The inevitable result of this decision will be more crime and disorder on the streets — and more deaths among the homeless themselves. Mamdani claims that encampment clearances are cruel because they aren’t “connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing they so desperately need.” But such complaints ring hollow when New York City has the most expansive “right to shelter” laws in the nation. Those sleeping outside have the option to get inside. They just don’t want to take it.

A major reason the homeless refuse shelter is because shelters have rules, including rules forbidding alcohol and drug use. The largest national survey of the unsheltered homeless found that about three-quarters had a substantial substance abuse problem, far higher than the rate of the sheltered homeless. The more the homeless are outside, the more they will be abusing drugs and alcohol.

Other cities saw dire consequences when they stopped enforcing rules against homeless camping.

Austin, Texas, saw a nearly 50% increase in unsheltered homelessness after it voted to decriminalize street camping and sleeping in 2019. Although some claimed this was the result of the homeless coming out of hiding, that wouldn’t explain why the number of the homeless in shelters dropped by 20%. When the homeless are given an option to sleep outdoors, more of them will take it.

Clearing encampments works. In 2006 Los Angeles Police Department Commissioner Willie Bratton, a former and future New York City police commissioner, began the “Safer Cities Initiative” to clear LA’s notorious Skid Row.

Within one year homeless overdose deaths in the area were down by 50% and homicides by even more. A later study found substantial drops in crime in the area. Even very liberal cities faced with spreading encampments, crime and disorder are moving in the opposite direction of Mamdani.

Austin voters in 2021 forced their city to ban homeless camping once again, and after the US Supreme Court in the Grants Pass case in 2022 declared that criminal penalties for street sleeping and camping were constitutional, states and cities in the Western United States increased enforcement. Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom began advocating and personally participating in encampment clearances.

Mamdani claims clearances won’t be necessary because the city will create more permanent housing for the homeless. But building sufficient new housing could take years, if not decades. READ MORE

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said he will end the Adams administration’s practice of removing homeless encampments from city sidewalks, but critics argue it will be a step backwards for the city’s quality of life.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

nteb-free-king-james-bible-program-750-550

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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NATO Jet Fighters Scramble In Poland While Russia Unleashes A Hellish Fury Upon Ukraine As WWIII Begins Knocking Loudly On The End Times Door

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NATO fighter jets were scrambled and air defense systems put on alert in Poland in response to Russia’s latest overnight drone and missile strikes in Ukraine

NATO fighter jets roared into the midnight sky over Poland last night as Russia unleashed hundreds of drones and missiles into Ukraine, this is more than just another headline in the endless drumbeat of war. The birth pangs are becoming impossible to ignore. What we are watching unfold in Eastern Europe is yet another reminder that the global stage is being prepared for the time of Jacob’s trouble, the rise of Antichrist, and the reshaping of world powers exactly as foretold in the King James Bible.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:6-8 (KJB)

The prophet Daniel saw a final form of world government, a revived Roman system — strong in places, weak in others, but unified under one global ruler (Daniel 2:41–43). What is NATO if not the lingering iron of the old Roman Empire stretching across Europe? And soon a man will arise who will promise peace, stability, and safety — and the world will hand him everything. All of this points in one unmistakable direction: The Age of Grace is closing, and the time of Jacob’s trouble is approaching. The world cannot sustain this level of geopolitical tension without breaking. The Bible says it will break — spectacularly, after the Rapture when God turns His focus back to Israel and pours judgment on a Christ-rejecting world. If you’re saved, this should stir your soul and remind you that the ‘voice like a trumpet’ is close to sounding. If you’re lost, the window of mercy is still open — but not for long.

NATO fighters scrambled in Poland as Russia bombards Ukraine

FROM ABC NEWS: “Fighter jets have been scrambled and ground-based air defense systems as well as radar reconnaissance systems have reached a state of readiness,” the command said in a post to X. “These actions are of a preventive nature and are aimed at securing the airspace and its protection, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions,” it added. The alert lasted for just under four hours, after which the command said the fighters and air defense systems had “returned to standard operational activities.” No violations of Polish airspace were observed, a follow-up post to X said.

The Spanish and Czech air forces were involved in the response, the command said, as were German and Dutch air defense systems. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles — 17 of them ballistic missiles — into the country overnight. The air force said 585 drones and 30 missiles were shot down or suppressed.

Drone and missile impacts were reported across 29 locations, the air force said.

The attack — which consisted of 704 air attack weapons — was Russia’s largest overnight bombardment since it launched 705 munitions on the night of Oct. 29, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News. The largest attack of the war to date took place on the night of Sept. 6 and involved 823 air attack vehicles. The latest overnight attack is only the fourth of Russia’s full-scale invasion to date in which the number of air attack vehicles used surpassed 700.

Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Iho Klymenko said in a post to Telegram that 10 regions of the country came under attack, with direct hits to residential buildings, railways and energy infrastructure. More than two dozen houses in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr and Lviv regions were damaged, according to Klymenko. At least three people were injured in the Kyiv region, another three people were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two people were injured in the Lviv region, Klymenko said.

In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said an energy facility was damaged, resulting in disruptions to the supply of power and heating. Some 9,500 customers were without heating and 34,000 without water as of 9:30 a.m. local time. There was also damage to energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to authorities there.

The International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog — said in a post to X that Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also temporarily lost all off-site power during the Russian strikes.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi “reiterates call for military restraint to avoid a nuclear accident,” the post said. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said she had “convened an emergency coordination meeting” with the ministers of internal affairs and energy as well as the leadership of the state-run energy companies and all services responsible for recovery operations. READ MORE

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

nteb-free-king-james-bible-program-750-550

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Continue Reading

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