Day: September 7, 2017

Nashville Symphony To Hold Rescheduled Tchaikovsky Spectacular Sunday

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

The Nashville Symphony will hold its rescheduled Tchaikovsky Spectacular on Sunday at the Ascend Amphitheater downtown. It was originally scheduled for Memorial Day weekend but got rained out. The weather forecast shows Sunday will be mostly sunny and nice, with a high temperature of 78. Giancarlo Guerrero will conduct the performance, which will feature renowned pianist Joyce Yang as a soloist for Piano Concerto No. 1. The show will also include the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and 1812 Overture. A fireworks display will accompany the 1812 Overture. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and will last about an hour and 45 minutes. The Ascend Amphitheater is located at 310 First Ave. S. General admission lawn seats are $20. Reserved seats are $30 and premium box seats are $45, which includes full wait service. For more information and to order tickets, click here.  Click here for options about what to do with tickets purchased for the canceled May 27 performance.

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Union University Faces Backlash From Alumni Over Faculty Signing Nashville Statement

Wendy Wilson

  More than 400 Union University alumni have signed a letter of protest over the president and three faculty members signing the Nashville Statement, an evangelical declaration that upholds traditional marriage and describes homosexuality and transgenderism as sinful. Union University is a Southern Baptist school in Jackson, Tennessee. The letter of protest illustrates the challenges faced by conservative religious institutions as they seek to continue being an influence at a time when progressive ideas are becoming entrenched in the culture. Signed by recent graduates as well as some who graduated decades ago, the letter calls the Nashville Statement “a declaration of bigotry and condemnation that is a far cry [from] the faith, hope, love, and acceptance we were taught was the hallmark of the faith of Union University.” The Nashville Statement was approved Aug. 25 at a meeting of evangelical leaders in Nashville and was named for the city in keeping with a historical Christian practice of naming doctrinal statements for the places where they were written. Many of the initial signatories were Southern Baptists. The Union University alumni letter takes issue with various aspects of the Nashville Statement, including a section that says faithful Christians cannot agree to disagree about homosexual behavior…

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Bill Hennessy Commentary: Assessing Antifa as a Military Strategist

Admin

  by Bill Hennessy   If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal, we can flee from him. If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve. Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory. ~ Sunzi, The Art of War (Public Domain Books) Antifa activists regularly describe themselves in terms of a ‘defense force;’ but back in their ‘Occupy’ days, they were ‘the 99%’ and ‘revolutionaries;’ and before that, they were the ‘Black Bloc.’ Through it all, they were and are self-proclaimed ‘social justice warriors.’ So let’s take them at their word, and examine Antifa within a military construct – without the blinding rage and disgust they so richly deserve. Pretend both Antifa and the wretched white supremacists in Charlottesville are neither good nor bad. Neither your enemy nor your…

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Lamar Alexander Sets Aggressive Senate Committee Goal of 10 Days to Lower Obamacare Premiums

Laura Baigert

  At the first of four hearings of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions over the next week, Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) set an aggressive goal of 10 days to make the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1332 Innovation Waivers easier, which could result in lower premiums in the individual insurance market for 2018. The bi-partisan committee of 23, with a one Republican majority includes Republicans, by rank, Lamar Alexander, Johnny Isakson (GA), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (LA), Pat Roberts (KS), Mike Enzi (WY), Rand Paul (KY), Todd Young (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Richard Burr (NC), Susan Collins (ME), Tim Scott (SC), and Democrats, by rank, Patty Murray (WA), Al Franken (MN), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Tim Kaine (VA), Bernie Sanders (VT), Michael Bennet (CO), Chris Murphy (CT), Maggie Hassan (NH), Robert Casey, Jr. (PA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Elizabeth Warren (MA). The three-hour hearing held Wednesday, a day after the Senate returned from their regularly scheduled August recess, was named “Stabilizing Premiums and Helping Individuals in the Individual Insurance Market for 2018.” Witnesses for the hearing, in addition to Tennessee’s Julie Mix McPeak, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, were four other state insurance commissioners: John Doak,…

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Constitution Series: The Fourteenth Amendment – Original Intent and Unintended Consequences

Tennessee Star Staff
Constitution Series 14th Amendment

  This is the nineteenth of twenty-five weekly articles in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Series. Students in grades 8 through 12 can sign up here to participate in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Bee, which will be held on September 23 from 9 a.m. to noon at Sycamore High School, 1021 Old Clarksville Pike, Pleasant View, Tennessee. by John Harris   The Fourteenth Amendment was one of three amendments made to the United States Constitution in the five years following the end of the Civil War. These amendments were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. These three amendments were all adopted as part of the Northern efforts to address circumstances in or related to the Southern states following the war. The Thirteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1865, abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment addressed several issues concerning the former slaves including the issue of citizenship. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited discrimination in voting rights of citizens on the basis of a person’s race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed and then passed just as the Civil War was ending. It was proposed at the same time that the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866 was enacted. Congress proposed it to the States as an…

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Mexico Says It Will Embrace Dreamers ‘With Open Arms’

Tennessee Star Staff

The Mexican government waded deeply into American politics Tuesday, criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the deportation amnesty for Dreamers, and demanding U.S. lawmakers quickly move to protect Mexicans who face deportation. But Mexico, in a statement released by the government, also said it will take back the hundreds of thousands of its citizens currently…

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Georgia School Officials Say Teacher Was Wrong To Reprimand Students Wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ T-Shirts

Wendy Wilson

  School district officials in Georgia are saying a teacher was wrong to tell students they couldn’t wear “Make America Great Again” t-shirts in class. A math teacher at River Ridge High School in Woodstock, a north Atlanta suburb, told two students Aug. 31 their shirts featuring President Trump’s campaign slogan were not permitted. “Her actions were wrong, as the ‘Make America Great Again’ shirts worn by the students are not a violation of our school district dress code,” said Cherokee County Schools spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby in a statement. “The teacher additionally — and inappropriately — shared her personal opinion about the campaign slogan during class.” Other students captured the incident on video, which is now circulating on social media. The video shows the teacher comparing the slogan to a swastika and support for neo-Nazis. Republican state Rep. John Carson, whose district includes River Ridge High School, called the incident despicable. “It’s ironic to me that the political left claims to promote free speech, but then attempts to silence conservative free speech,” Carson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The school’s principal apologized to the students and their families, and the superintendent is advising schools that teachers should not share political opinions…

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Now Hillary Blames Fellow Dems: Blasts Biden, Bernie and Barack in New Book

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Former 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has expanded the list of scapegoats she believes are responsible for her loss to include several leading figures in her own party, according to new excerpts from her upcoming book, “What Happened.” Although Clinton has repeatedly blamed misogyny, former FBI Director James Comey, Russia, and WikiLeaks for her stunning…

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Democrats Plan To Spend $100 Million To Take Statehouses From GOP

Tennessee Star Staff

A new Democratic group created Tuesday plans to take back statehouses in 12 Republican-controlled states ahead of the 2020 census. Obama campaign alums created the group Forward Majority to combat Republicans in state legislatures and seek to turn both chambers of state legislatures Democratic in at least 12 targeted states by 2020, according to the group’s…

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Tennessee State Legislators Caved to Leftists on ‘Soft Amnesty’ Instead of Upholding Constitution

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  Sixteen Republicans in the State Senate and twenty-seven in the House caved to the demands of the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) when they voted to give in-state tuition to illegal aliens with deferred deportation under DACA, or who might become eligible for DACA. DACA does not alter a grantee’s illegal immigration status. Ignoring the illegal immigration issue and offering a “soft amnesty” to DACA illegal aliens, the forty-three Republicans voting “aye” for the Gardenhire/White 2015 in-state tuition bill, also voted to violate federal and Tennessee law. These lawmakers also ignored the fact that Obama’s DACA policy was neither a statutory nor Constitutional exercise of executive authority. Republican Senators voting for the 2015 in-state tuition bill:  Janice Bowling, Richard Briggs, Rusty Crowe, Steve Dickerson, Todd Gardenhire, Mark Green, Dolores Gresham, Ferrell Haile, Ed Jackson, Brian Kelsey, Becky Duncan-Massey, Randy McNally, Frank Niceley, Doug Overbey, Steve Southerland, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. Republican House members voting for in-state tuition: Harry Brooks, Kevin Brooks, Kent Calfee, Dale Carr, Mike Carter, Bill Dunn, Jimmy Eldridge, Andrew Farmer, Marc Gravitt, Mike Harrison, Ryan Haynes, Patsy Hazlewood, Bud Hulsey, Curtis Johnson, Sabi Kumar, Pat Marsh, Gerald McCormick, Steve McDaniel, Steve McManus, Bob Ramsey,…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Thursday, September 7

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing September 7, Thursday Luke 21:10-19 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. 12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me.14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me 18 “Yet not a hair of your head will perish. 19 “By your endurance you will gain your lives”

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