The Day of the 2020 Iowa Primary.

During the age of ancient Rome, boxing was a popular spectator sport in ancient Rome. Fighters had to protect themselves. They used leather thongs around their fists. Later, harder leather was used and the thong soon became a weapon. The Romans used metal studs on the thongs to make the cestus. Roman Amphitheaters were where such fighting events took place. The Roman form of boxing was often a fight until the death to please the spectators who gathered at such events. In later times, purchases slaves and trained combat performers were used as valuable people in the sport. Their lives were exploited. Many slaves were forced to fight against each other in a circle marked on the floor. By 393 A.D., during the Roman gladiator period, boxing was abolished because of excessive brutality. It wasn’t until the late 16th century when boxing re-surfaced in London. Records of classical boxing activity disappeared after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Many people used weapons and using fists waned. There were many accounts of fist fighting sports in different cities and provinces of Italy between the 12th and 17th centuries. There was the sport in ancient Rus called Kulachny Boy or Fist Fighting. As the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport would later resurface in England during the early 16th century in the form of bare-knuckle boxing sometimes referred to as prizefighting. The first documented account of a bare-knuckle fight in England appeared in 1681 in the London Protestant Mercury, and the first English bare-knuckle champion was James Figg in 1719. This is also the time when the word "boxing" first came to be used. This earliest form of modern boxing was very different. Contests in Mr. Figg's time, in addition to fist fighting, also contained fencing and cudgeling. On  January 6, 1681, the first recorded boxing match took place in Britain when Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (and later Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica) engineered a bout between his butler and his butcher with the latter winning the prize.

Early fighting back then had no written rules. There were no weight divisions or round limits, and no referee. In general, it was extremely chaotic. An early article on boxing was published in Nottingham, 1713, by Sir Thomas Parkyns, a successful Wrestler from Bunny, Nottinghamshire, who had practiced the techniques he described. The article, a single page in his manual of wrestling and fencing, Progymnasmata: The inn-play, or Cornish-hugg wrestler, described a system of head-butting, punching, eye-gouging, chokes, and hard throws, not recognized in boxing today. The first modern boxing rules were called the Broughton’s rules. It was introduced by champion Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring where deaths sometimes happened. Under these rules, if a man went down and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, the fight was over. Hitting a downed fighter and grasping below the waist were prohibited. Broughton encouraged the use of 'mufflers', a form of padded bandage or mitten, to be used in 'jousting' or sparring sessions in training, and in exhibition matches. These rules did allow the fighters an advantage not enjoyed by today's boxers; they permitted the fighter to drop to one knee to end the round and begin the 30-second count at any time. Thus a fighter realizing he was in trouble had an opportunity to recover. However, this was considered "unmanly” and was frequently disallowed by additional rules negotiated by the Seconds of the Boxers. Modern boxing has a three minute limit to rounds (unlike the downed fighter ends the round rule). Intentionally going down in modern boxing will cause the recovering fighter to lose points in the scoring system. Furthermore, as the contestants did not have heavy leather gloves and wrist wraps to protect their hands, they used different punching technique to preserve their hands because the head was a common target to hit full out. Almost all period manuals have powerful straight punches with the whole body behind them to the face (including forehead) as the basic blows. The London Prize Ring Rules introduced measures that remain in effect for professional boxing to this day, such as outlawing butting, gouging, scratching, kicking, hitting a man while down, holding the ropes, and using resin, stones or hard objects in the hands, and biting.


Creflo Dollar is one of the world’s most famous Prosperity Gospel preachers. He is a dedicated follower of its doctrines for decades now. His ally is the well-known Kenneth Copeland. His radio and TV show called “Changing Your World” is very popular. He has been on programs worldwide and in the Trinity Broadcasting Network plus the Lesea network. He is the pastor of the World Changers Christian Center. That is a non-denominational church in College Park, Georgia. It has a $6.5 million gold dome. Creflo said that he paid 18 million in cash for his new facility. It has 8,000 seats and a plastic container for offerings at the end of each row. The church has over 20,000 members. He has two Rolls Royce’s. He plies in a private jet worth multiple millions of dollars. He has a wife with five children. He has a bachelor’s degree in education. Creflo like other prosperity preachers said that mere humans are gods: “…See if you are truly a child of God, if you were born out of God, you got to be a part of the God class.  I know I’m not God.  But I’m a child of the Most High…I’m a part of the God class…. But then the next verse says, “Because you did not believe you were gods, you’re going to die like men.”  But it says you’re gods.  And I said now, Lord, wait a minute here.  How we going to prove this?  Because I kept hearing over and over again all this week, we need to have a God training class for Christians.  So they can start acting…”) (Our equality with God through righteousness 1/21/2001). The reality is that Psalms 82:6-8 said that, “I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." The biblical application of this verse was addressed to the judges of Israel they were called gods not because they were divine but because they represented the true and only God when they judged the people. The word for God that is used here is elohim, which can mean rulers, (not Yahweh elohim used only for the one God). The word for Judges is found in Ex.21:22; 22:8-9 it is ha elohim (other scriptures of how the acted Deut.1:16;16:18; 25:1; 2 Sam.11:7). Creflo said the false doctrine that God made a duplicate of himself when he made Adam: “So when God made man all he did was take a reflection of him… So he said let us make another speaking spirit.  When God made Adam all he did was make an exact imprint of hisself. He duplicated himself, he was the image and from his image came hisself…" (Our equality with God through Righteousness 1/21/2001). The reality is that Adam was not God. He wasn’t a duplicate of God. The Scriptures mentioned that God alone is eternal, uncreated, uncaused, and infinite.  Creflo agrees with the Mind Science position by saying, “Growing into sonship means that you grow in your ability to operate as a “little God” (a replica of the Father) in the earth” (World Changers magazine, p.6, Dec. 2002). Creflo Augustus Dollar Jr. was born in College Park, Georgia on January 28, 1962. Dollar justifies his teachings by saying that God wants righteous people to inherit wealth on this Earth. He wants people to claim it and he believes in the myth that righteousness, wealth, and riches go hand in hand. He believes that faith is a spiritual force that leads to prosperity. The truth is that wealth isn’t necessary a sign of righteousness as some of the wicked people in human history were rich. We must use logic and science plus prayer to deal with health issues as health issues exist by many reasons not because of a lack of faith. The Gospel is about changing lives, helping others, and having glory without a lust for material wealth. There is nothing wrong with houses, clothes, and cars. What is the problem is about how some want to promote the falsehood that material wealth is a prerequisite of salvation or righteousness. That is the problem.



We live in very interesting, exciting times.The 2020 Presidential election, in my view, is the most important election of my lifetime. The paradox is that the Democratic race in 2020 started with candidates representing the most diverse field among one of the two major parties in American history. Although, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Corey Booker, and other candidates left the race because of financial issues. This upcoming election is a referendum on what we Americans desire for our future. At the end of the day, this is for our descendants' future. Donald Trump is obvious on what he is. Trump has obstructed the execution of legal subpoenas, he has tried to intimidate witnesses, he has cursed out heroic, peaceful protesters (involving the NFL), and he has been implicated in numerous scandals (from Trump University to the Ukrainian scandal). Trump has been a habitual liar. The Democratic Party is also having an internal debate. Some want the Democrats to become more progressive, and some want it to embrace a more moderate approach. The DNC rule change that deals with debates (or candidates will no longer need to meet any specific requirements. For example, the candidate will need a few polls or earn a delegate in Iowa or New Hampshire to join a debate) have caused a benefit to candidates like Michael Bloomberg. This change have caused anger from many progressives. Michael Moore spoke out against Bloomberg, Bloomberg talks about his support for gun control, his policies to fight climate change, and his efforts to expand health care. Yet, many people don't know that Bloomberg imposed a five year wage freeze after the 2008 financial crisis, demanded cuts to pensions, eliminated more than 6,000 teaching positions, closed 20 fire companies, and promoted stop and frisk in New York City as mayor (he recently apologized for that bad stop and frisk policy). Bloomberg is in the race in part because of Warren and Sanders talking about having billionaires experiencing true accountability in their lives via progressive economic policies. Joe Biden, Pete Buttegieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Bernie Sanders are the leading candidates so far. What we do agree on is that we desire environmental protections, an expansion of health care, the elimination of economic inequality, promoting racial justice, and the love of democratic freedoms. History teach us that structural change is necessary beyond piecemeal policies, in causing our world to see an egalitarian, justice-filled existence. That is the truth. Social Security, civil rights laws, voting rights laws, Medicare, Medicaid, and other progressive policies existed by sacrifice, revolutionary action, and courage not moderation. The Democratic race is less diverse, but the backbone of the Democratic Party are black people. No one can win the election without black people, other people of color, women, young people, working class people, rural people, people of the urban communities, and other minorities. That's reality. Our lives matter, and voting matters. The reason is that voting determines education benefits, voting rights, which judges are on the courts, who will you have in city council, and how your resources are allocated to your communities. Therefore, this is about our freedom being protected and expanded as justice is for all.





By Timothy