America has been inundated with sob stories from female murderers over the past few months. First, it was Lindsay Clancy, otherwise known as the Exercise Band Executioner of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Prosecutors say Lindsay deliberately strangled her three children; she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Now after a mistrial, her lawyer insists there is a “total and complete lack of evidence” that smiling Lindsay killed them. A judge rejected that bid Thursday.
Maybe JonBenét Ramsey’s killer, who is still on the loose, climbed in the Clancy window and did what Mom is being unfairly blamed for?
Remember when drawing, quartering, and beheading were the only special treatments criminals got?
Recently, the soap opera moved farther south to Tennessee, a state that had not executed a woman since 1819. The convicted female death-row inmate in the news is 50-year-old Christa Pike, condemned for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
Pike’s lethal injection was scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. CDT. Concerned about being traumatized, Christa demanded special treatment at her execution.
Christa took diversity, equity, and inclusion to new heights by requesting that women handle the execution because of her history of sexual abuse. Her attorney later said it appeared Tennessee honored the request.
Remember when drawing, quartering, and beheading were the only special treatments criminals got?
Pike also challenged Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol because of her small veins and a blood disorder. Her lawyers proposed a central line or even hanging as alternatives. It’s a shame no one thought of Lindsay Clancy; she is both a nurse and a woman. If Pike had requested that wheelchair-bound Clancy be flown in from Massachusetts to tenderly place the IV line in the femme fatale’s arm — then if that had failed, who better than Lindsay to enforce the alternative?
Poor Christa said she had been living in constant fear, unable to sleep and hoping the IV would go in cleanly. She did not want to end up like Tony Von Carruthers, the Tennessee death-row prisoner whose execution was called off in May after officials spent more than an hour trying and failing to establish the required backup IV line.
After a day of appeals, a temporary Sixth Circuit stay, and the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for Tennessee to proceed, Christa finally found herself eight miles from Music Row in Nashville, in a sanitized execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, about to be ushered into Nirvana by the all-female team she had requested.
The curtain opened at about 7:27 p.m. Witnesses saw Christa strapped to a gurney and prepped for lethal injection. Pike received pentobarbital and remained conscious long enough to smile, move, and complain that her arm hurt.
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The curtain closed, reopened, then closed again. Witnesses could still hear Christa breathing and snoring behind it. Tennessee administered a second dose. That one didn’t kill her either.
Her attorney demanded that officials stop the execution and provide emergency medical care. At 8:53 p.m. — 86 minutes after the curtain first opened — Christa Pike was still alive, and witnesses were ordered out.
Instead of a hearse, an ambulance eventually shuttled Pike from Riverbend to a hospital. As of Thursday afternoon, her lawyers said she remained in critical condition receiving “life-saving care”. Gov. Bill Lee (R) halted Tennessee’s remaining executions for the year and ordered an independent review.
No one scooped Colleen Slemmer up on that freezing winter night in Knoxville and ferried her away. Slemmer’s unrecognizable body wasn’t found until the next morning.
Christa’s journey to Riverbend started on January 12, 1995, when she was 18 years old. The night before, she told friend Kim Iloilo that she intended to kill fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer because she “had just felt mean that day”. Pike believed Colleen was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.
The next night, Pike, Shipp, Slemmer, and Shadolla Peterson left the Job Corps center together. Only three came back.
Pike later told Iloilo that Colleen had begged them to stop. Instead of mercy, Christa cut the 19-year-old woman’s throat, beat her, and cracked her skull with a piece of asphalt. Pike said a meat cleaver was used to cut Slemmer’s back and a box cutter to cut her throat. A pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s forehead and chest.
Then Pike came back with a souvenir: a piece of Colleen’s skull.
The next morning, with the skull fragment still in her pocket, Pike bragged to classmate Stephanie Wilson about the killing. Pointing to brown spots on her shoes, she said, “That ain’t mud on my shoes, that’s blood.”
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On January 13, a University of Tennessee groundskeeper found Slemmer’s brutalized body and testified that it was “so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal.”
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to death in 1996. Her prison résumé did not improve. In 2001, she choked inmate Patricia Jones unconscious with a shoelace and was later convicted of attempted first-degree murder.
With execution looming, Pike’s lawyers filed a 226-page clemency petition. They said she was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend between ages 2 and 5, raped by a neighbor at 11, and raped again by a stranger at 17. They also cited bipolar disorder, PTSD, suicide attempts, and other mental-health problems.
Granted, if Christa’s accounts are true, they are tragic. But even all that does not justify one woman brutally torturing and murdering another woman. And then, three decades later, she had the gall to ask for women around her execution gurney to lessen the “trauma.”
In the end, it is almost as if karma circumvented compassion. After all the argument over who would touch Christa, how the IV would be placed, and how much suffering the state could lawfully impose, Tennessee gave her two hefty doses of the death drug and still failed to kill her.
Now Pike remains hospitalized in critical condition with a dire prognosis — which is considerably more medical attention than Colleen Slemmer received after Christa bludgeoned her to death.
Ten years after Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest ignited one of the biggest cultural battles in sports history, the former NFL quarterback says he still believes the league has blackballed him.
But according to BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock, that claim misses the bigger story.
“Ten years later, Colin Kaepernick just told the country he won,” Whitlock says.
“He sat with NBC News and said he no longer watches the NFL because the league is actively blackballing him and the men who knelt with him. He watches college football now. That is not a quarterback begging for a clipboard; that is a man who knows the institution already belongs to him,” he explains.
“A three-minute kneel during the national anthem has been stretched into game-long signs in every NFL stadium. ‘End racism,’ ‘stop hate,’” he continues, noting that it’s not going away any time soon.
“For the 2026 season, the seventh straight year of the stencil, the league will paint those slogans in the grass and on the helmets again. Marxist liturgy as field decoration. [Kaepernick] never needed another snap. He needed the building to preach after he left the huddle,” he says.
And the “diversity score cards" within the league — like the male cheerleaders who went viral not too long ago — still “sit in the front office as if they were defensive schemes.”
“The NFL did not stumble into this; it was discipled into it. [Kaepernick] watches college football and accuses the NFL of blackballing him,” Whitlock says.
“He can afford the sneer. He is one of America’s greatest Trojan horses. He never recaptured the quarterback job. He captured the institution,” he continues. “The NFL thought it was containing a protest. It was being converted by one.”
“What began as a sideline gesture now owns the grass, the hiring, and the moral vocabulary of Sunday. The loudest league in the country is still kneeling. The quietest quarterback already cashed the cultural check,” he adds.
And while Kaepernick is often treated as a “failed activist,” that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“Ten years later, we are still talking about Colin Kaepernick. … That is a cultural victory that never required a comeback, a tryout, or another down. He sacrificed a fading quarterback career and got a league to carry his flag,” Whitlock says.
To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Britain is among the Western nations whose liberal elites embraced the cult of multiculturalism and repeated the mantra "diversity is our strength" while welcoming unassimilable hordes from the third world. The fallout of this toxic empathy has been severe and far-reaching.
It has gotten so bad, in fact, that the British Home Office evidently saw cause to remind migrants on Wednesday not to rape or mutilate children.
'The Home Office should instead deport them.'
The government's new booklet, titled "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the U.K.: A guide for asylum seekers," states at the outset, "We understand that coming to a new country can be difficult, and that laws and customs here may be different from your home country. In the U.K., there are laws that protect everyone's safety, dignity, and rights. It is important that you understand them."
The booklet points out, for instance, that women in the United Kingdom are actually allowed to "work and earn their own money; study and go to school or university; travel freely; choose who they marry, or choose not to marry; [and] make their own decisions about their lives."
The Home Office underscored that even husbands, fathers, and brothers cannot make decisions for an adult female without her consent.
In the section on sex and consent, the Home Office informed newcomers that unlike whatever backwaters they may hail from, "In the U.K., the law is clear and strict: Both people must agree to sex or sexual contact of any kind."
"If someone is asleep, drunk, or unable to respond, they cannot consent," added the booklet, published just days after an Eritrean migrant, 33-year-old Bruke Desalagne, was found guilty of raping an intoxicated elderly man for 20 minutes outside a church in North London.
After telling asylum seekers that they are expected not to threaten people into having sex with them, the Home Office's booklet emphasized that statutory rape is indeed a crime.
"The legal age of consent in the U.K. is 16. This means that anyone under the age of 16 is considered a child and cannot legally agree to have sex," said the document. "There are no exceptions to this rule. Even if they say yes, it is still illegal. You could go to prison, lose your support and accommodation, and it will affect your asylum claim."
Of course, the United Kingdom won't deport all foreign child rapists.
For example, the victims of 73-year-old child rapist Shabir Ahmed were informed in June that the criminally convicted leader of a Pakistani grooming gang — which police said victimized as many as 50 girls — was being released from prison and could not be deported due to provisions under the Immigration Act of 1971.
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Besides reminding migrants that women have rights and that it's wrong to have sex with children, the Home Office guide noted that asylum seekers are expected to refrain from making sexual comments to strangers, making kissing noises at passersby, stalking individuals in public or blocking their paths, and verbally abusing people because of their religion, sex, or appearance.
The booklet concludes by informing asylum seekers that it is a crime to "take sexual images of someone without their consent" and to "share sexual images of someone without their consent."
On Wednesday, the Home Office also released a leaflet titled "Keeping children safe in the U.K.," again reminding asylum seekers that "what is allowed in some countries may be illegal here."
In addition to reminding foreigners that sex with children is a crime and that children shouldn't be beaten with "objects like belts or sticks," the leaflet notes that "female genital mutilation (FGM) and forcing a child to marry are serious crimes in the U.K."
Just in case asylum seekers manage to miss these materials, the Home Office apparently has produced posters stating that sex with children "will affect your asylum claim."
"The Home Office has spent your money to produce these posters for illegal migrants," tweeted Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. "Why are we letting these people into our country?"
Chris Philp, the Conservative member of parliament serving as shadow home secretary, wrote, "The Home Office has just issued a booklet to illegal immigrants advising them not to commit rape and sexual assault, including of children[.] This tells us all we need to know about the kind of people illegally entering our country."
"Illegal and legal immigrants are coming from places and societies where attitudes towards women are completely incompatible with Western society," continued Philp. "It seems like every day there is another report of an illegal immigrant raping or assaulting women and young girls here. Instead of trying to train these mainly young, male illegal immigrants to behave in a civilised way towards women, the Home Office should instead deport them."
According to data obtained from the U.K. Ministry of Justice by the Telegraph, foreign nationals were responsible for over 25% of sexual assaults on women that were successfully prosecuted in 2024. The Telegraph noted that another 8% of sexual assaults on women were committed by offenders of "unknown" national origins, meaning the overall proportion of convicted foreign-born rapists is likely much higher.
It appears Britons are tiring of all this diversity.
A poll released in November by the National Center for Social Research found that whereas 64% of American respondents said that diversity strengthens society, only 49% of British respondents agreed. Forty percent of Britons said that white people declining as a share of the population was bad for society.
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BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn't giving “Citizen Vigilante” high marks as a film — rather, he argues it largely fails by traditional cinematic standards.
But the point of the film wasn’t to tell a compelling story or showcase great acting.
“‘Citizen Vigilante’ is not a movie. It doesn’t care about story. It doesn’t care about plot. It doesn’t care about acting. It doesn’t care about script. It’s not a good movie,” Whitlock says.
“It’s a provocative political statement,” he adds.
Whitlock believes the political statement is anti-illegal-immigration, anti-multiculturalism, and anti-Islam, explaining that the film is “capturing the anger that many people in America and in Europe have” regarding these topics.
However, while Whitlock doesn’t care for the film as a film, he does believe it’s important that “movies get put out to make political points.”
“For this movie to be put out and for Elon Musk to be supporting it and for the conversation that is driven and for the subject that it touches on, it’s an indication in my mind of where they want the conversation to go and what they’re trying to stir in white people globally,” he says. “Enough is enough.”
And Whitlock himself is “anti-multiculturalism” like the film.
“All cultures are not created equal. And we are tolerating cultures that are satanic, chaotic, not law-abiding, degenerate. We’re tolerating and embracing these things under, like, ‘Hey, this is what we’re supposed to do. Diversity is good,’” he explains.
“I’m fed up with the melting-pot mentality that, when I was younger, that slogan sounded good. As I’ve now reached full maturity, I’m like, not everything needs to be in this pot. Some of this stuff in the pot will kill you,” he continues.
And while television and media are always trying to “tug at our tribalism” — usually from the point of view of the left — “Citizen Vigilante” does the same.
“That’s the point of ‘Citizen Vigilante,’” Whitlock says, “to bring out our tribalism, justify our tribalism.”
To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
President Trump won the 2024 election promising to gut Biden-era DEI across the federal government, calling it "illegal and immoral." The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence tried to do exactly that — moving to fire 19 career officers who had spent their time on diversity, equity, and inclusion assignments instead of actual intelligence work.
Two Democrat-appointed judges said not so fast.
'As long as the employee subject to termination chooses to pursue reassignment, the agencies must attempt to reassign her.'
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Thursday that the CIA and ODNI have to let the 19 DEI-linked officers appeal their firings and, in some cases, apply for reassignment before they can be shown the door, the Washington Times reported.
The panel found the agencies skipped procedural steps required for a reduction in force — a technicality that's now kept the firings frozen for well over a year, according to Bloomberg Government.
Writing for the majority, Biden-appointee Judge Nicole Berner — joined by Obama-appointee Judge Stephanie Thacker — ruled the officers had enough of a claim to their jobs to sue in the first place.
Berner wrote: "As long as the employee subject to termination chooses to pursue reassignment, the agencies must attempt to reassign her."
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In a blistering dissent, Judge Paul Niemeyer, a George H.W. Bush appointee, argued that Congress gave intelligence directors "unfettered discretion" to fire employees precisely so courts couldn't micromanage personnel decisions at agencies handling national security.
He called the injunction unlawful and urged the Supreme Court to step in, calling it a serious separation-of-powers problem: judges telling the CIA how to run its own house.
The ruling lands days after the Supreme Court handed Trump a win affirming his broad authority to fire employees, with a separate case providing a narrow carve-out for officials like Federal Reserve board members.
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Fans have shelled out hard-earned cash for 007: First Light, making it a smash hit for developer IO Interactive.
But with more than 3 million sales in the first two weeks, there are still questions about the game's profitability and, of course, its ideological direction for James Bond.
'We are well above our forecasts at this point.'
The truth is, the James Bond video game franchise has chugged along like a broken locomotive for the better part of 20 years, with First Light being the first console release for the iconic brand since 2012's 007: Legends, which was viewed quite unfavorably.
However, with help of IO Interactive, Bond has been ported from a mostly nonexistent gaming environment to a fairly good and playable game.
First Light looks and feels an awful lot like the Hitman games — which IO Interactive makes — utilizing stealth elements and interactive characters as its bread and butter. Where the titular hit man has in his repertoire multiple costume changes and the use of closets or containers to dump dead bodies, 007 employs gadgets and persuasion.
On to the game. After getting through a gigantic user license agreement, followed by an exhaustive privacy policy, fans eventually get to find out how Bond became 007.
Gamers will love the fly-by introductory sequence that breezes through game mechanics in a fun way, making it feel like the opening montage of a movie.
However, this introduction eventually turns into several boring training missions where Bond is forced to make decisions in the dreaded "mash X or Y" style to work through scenarios that don't really matter. For example, after being poisoned, Bond must choose to inject one syringe or another; the antidote or something else. The game prompts you to press both at the same time; if you don't, nothing happens. Bond injects both anyway, and the story continues.
The unfortunate beginning is the game's worst part. Soon some mission freedom is allowed. After making their way through forced many forced pathways, gamers eventually land on an extremely James Bond-esque title screen, complete with a Lana Del Rey theme song and a (PG) sex scene. It's once again an immersive, movie-like environment.
Once the story moves into actual missions, though, the game settles in to remind you of Hitman in all the best ways. You can beat up anyone you please, wander around the mission looking for secrets, and, in very Bond ways, manipulate enemies.
Fake surrenders, radio frequency poisonings, and malfunctioning vacuum cleaners are just some of the dynamics at play as Bond infiltrates rooms and gets key intel, satisfyingly providing multiple pathways to complete a mission.
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While the game is the best we've seen from Bond in more than a decade, one can't help but notice that certain elements do feel like an Amazon-backed tribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion was force-fed into the game.
The first stirrings come courtesy of Moneypenny, played by Kiera Lester. Instead of going with how Lester looks in real life, her appearance is warped into a heavily androgenized and non-feminine version of herself, complete with baggy "boss lady" suit pants.
Moneypenny sassily introduces you to M, the leader of British secret service, MI6. This role is now played by British actress Priyanga Burford, a Sri Lankan woman who was significantly de-aged for the role.
Burford previously played MI6 scientist Dr. Symes in 2021's live-action "No Time to Die," which of course makes no sense in the game context unless her character took a huge pay cut and became a scientist later in life.
Yet the rest of the game, including all of Bond's fellow spies, puts the woke away, delivering instead the classic English personalities we have all grown to love. You have to relish the drab disgust with Bond that wafts off of "Walking Dead" actor Lennie James' John Greenway.
Any trace of what would otherwise seem like typical progressive-style diversity is reserved for nondescript MI6 scientists and background characters, all of whom are given slapstick one-liners and buffoonish behaviors.
The player therefore gets an impression that the DEI-scented British government roles are there to quietly make a point. Moneypenny long served as Bond's flirtatious counterpart, but since she is now emptied of any feminine charge, the flirting moves to fellow secret agent Cressida, who is quickly framed up as a possible love interest.
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As reported by Game Developer, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak has said he's "very confident" the game will be profitable for the studio, after reports that it had an eye-popping production cost north of $200 million.
"We are well above our forecasts at this point," Abrak said.
Yet Steam charts, often used as a barometer for game performance, had First Light peaking around 71,000 concurrent players on PC, which reportedly represented about a third of the game's sales.
This does not look good for a game of this magnitude or budget. Current players have been floating around 19,000 for the past few days at the time of this writing. These figures have First Light barely breaking the top 100 of the charts.
Nevertheless, when all is said and done, 007: First Light represents a significant step forward for the franchise, marking the first game of its kind worth talking about in around a quarter-century. All it took was kind of copying another successful game.
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The title of Biden’s memoir is Promise Me, America. And it promises to be a reinvention of the former president's miserable term.
The audit reviewed 12 different public school districts across Indiana and uncovered trends of embedded DEI frameworks still within the schools.
For years conservatives warned that multiculturalism and free speech are on a collision course. If a society starts treating every culture as equal and beyond criticism, then eventually you have to police speech — and apparently, Europe has decided to do just that. French influencer Thaïs d’Escufon was allegedly assaulted in 2021 by a North […]
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