A vulnerable House Democrat compared the recent Supreme Court prayer in public schools decision to the Taliban while calling for court-packing.

Rep. Susan Wild, D-Penn., made the comparison during a Wednesday radio interview where she said the Court’s ruling a Christian high school football coach could pray after games ‘is what happens in theocracies.’

‘We could talk about the recent prayer decision out of the Supreme Court and all that stuff and we can talk about the fact that, really, this is all just about making Christianity the law of the land,’ Wild wildly claimed. ‘And quite honestly, that’s what it appears to be.’

HOUSE GOP RE-ELECTION ARM TARGETS ‘VULNERABLE’ DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENTS OVER SOARING GAS PRICES

‘It’s scary. This is what happens in theocracies,’ the member of Congress and attorney of over three decades claimed. ‘This is what happens in countries that we can’t imagine living in or being a part of – where the religion – you know, think about the Taliban.’

‘Think about women in Afghanistan who, not so long ago, were able to wear normal clothing and go to school,’ she added. ‘And all in the name of religion and it’s just such a bad, bad precedent to be setting.’

Last month, the Supreme Court sided with a former Washington state high school football coach who lost his job at a public school because he recited a silent prayer on the 50-yard line after football games.

The Taliban tend to kill those who do not subscribe to their radical Islamic ideology, including Christians. The terrorist organization commits mass murder and rape, and often employ suicide bombers.

Additionally, the Taliban force women and girls to marry Taliban soldiers — including child brides — and prevent female students from learning.

Last year saw the Taliban take control of Afghanistan after President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal that left 13 American service members dead from a suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport.

The airport was filled with people fleeing the war-torn nation. Over 150 people were injured in the attack on top of the 13 American military members killed.

Following the Biden-led withdrawal that left Americans stranded in Afghanistan, Taliban soldiers went house to house looking for blue passports — a telltale sign of someone’s American citizenship.

In the same interview, Wild said that, following the Supreme Court’s decisions, she would be signing onto a House initiative to pack the Court with four more justices.

‘I always thought of the Supreme Court as the last bastion of fairness and, not that they got every decision right, but that it was certainly the place to go for justice,’ Wild said. ‘Along with something like 65% of the American people, I’ve completely lost confidence in the institution.’

Wild said that she believed the Supreme Court needed to be reformed and asked her ‘team in Washington to put together some reading materials for the weekend’ on the subject.

‘I’m going to be doing a lot of careful reflection and study, but I anticipate next week that I am going to sign onto a bill to expand the court to 13,’ Wild said, adding the number came from the 13 district courts below the Supreme Court.

‘Because right now, you’re right – we have the 6-3 majority, but the 6 are quite young,’ Wild said. ‘Unfortunately, judges don’t seem to retire at the rate that other people do.’

Wild’s progressive stance toward the Supreme Court may grab her brownie points with the far-left of the Democratic Party, but it may not sit well with her constituents.

The Pennsylvania Democrat is facing one of the toughest races this midterm cycle and is one of the most vulnerable blue members in Congress, turning the GOP’s sights to her.

Wild’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Maureen Mackey contributed reporting.

Last year, thanks to hard work from dozens of conservative groups, a handful of congressional Republicans managed to kill a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have required America’s young women to register for the draft. 

Yet, here we are again. With the Senate Armed Services Committee passing this provision in the yearly NDAA bill and the House set to consider legislation next week, we will see if Democrats — with the potential support of Republicans — will once again push forward legislation to force our daughters to the front lines. 

This legislation will harm the American family, undermine our military readiness, and is an overt attempt to advance a radical agenda that seeks to eliminate all distinctions between men and women. Republicans knew that last year; it’s no different now. 

MILITARY RECRUITMENT LAGS DESPITE REDUCED TARGETS, RECORD INCENTIVES TO BOOST INTEREST

Last year’s victory proved that if conservatives fight for family values in the NDAA, we can win. There’s no excuse for any member of Congress — especially a Republican — to support an NDAA that, in the name of ‘national defense’ sets the stage to conscript mothers and daughters to the battlefield.  

This is not, and has never been, a question of whether women can serve effectively in our armed forces; the answer is obviously yes. Thousands already do voluntarily, and they deserve the utmost commendation for their service and sacrifice. But today there are around 17 million men of draft-registration age and some 60 million of ‘fighting age’ (18 to 49), the vast majority of whom are able-bodied.  

Many of my colleagues argue that women will never be sent to the front lines. Oh, really? Much of the left can no longer define what a woman is and is working to destroy any and all distinctions between the sexes. They teach children that girls can become boys, boys can become girls, and that men can become pregnant. Even in the military itself, they applaud radical gender ideology and force biological women to share living space with anyone else who identifies as one. 

Worse, many of those same colleagues say we won’t need to draft women unless it’s ‘really bad.’ Well, which is it? If it’s ‘really bad,’ then everyone’s going to the front lines. The truth is that this a question of whether we as a nation, and we as Republicans will unnecessarily force young women to fight wars through conscription in the name of political correctness. That’s it. 

Chasing ‘equity’ over military readiness threatens the fabric of our nation by playing into the radical left’s anti-science gender ideology; it will undermine the very security of our nation that our armed forces are charged with defending. Men and women are innately different, they bring with them different physical capabilities. While of course some women are as capable as men on the battlefield, on average they are not. In 2015, the U.S. Marine Corps spent over $30 million to conduct a study on this question, unsurprisingly finding that all-male units outperformed mixed-gender units nearly 70% of the time in ground combat tasks. 

Or more recently, take into consideration the controversial Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). After changing the test multiple times, the Army decided to drop the gender-neutral standards after nearly 50% of female soldiers could not pass previous versions. More disturbingly, these standards were eventually dropped for physically demanding combat roles. When Senator Tom Cotton, R-AR, asked about this decision, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth admitted they abandoned these standards because ‘we didn’t want to disadvantage any subgroups.’ 

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Incorporating women into the draft is just another step in the left’s long quest to eliminate distinctions between the sexes and impose their extreme agenda on the rest of us. They failed last year, but if they fail again this year, they’ll try again next year. They won’t give up, and we can’t, either. 

A military that cares more about ‘equity’ than military readiness will waste no time putting your daughter on the front lines. The purpose of the Selective Service is to ensure the availability of combat replacements for casualties on the battlefield. When the United States is in peril, not pulling replacements from the strongest subsection of our population disadvantages all — including ‘subgroups.’  

Republicans must never fall prey to the notion that we ‘must-pass’ legislation at the expense of our future and must always stand up for our daughters and our country’s security. Last year’s NDAA showed that we can win this fight, if we commit.  

Word on the street is that there is an understanding by Republicans that drafting women is not the right path to take. Lord willing, that is the case. But make no mistake: if Congress passes legislation to register our daughters to be drafted, it will be Republicans who make it happen. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM REP. CHIP ROY 

Oh. I hope this is good. Happy Thursday, everyone. I know I look great. Those injections of panda tears into my face are really paying off. We made them cry by reading aloud from Kilmeade’s book. The only side effect is me craving bamboo shoots 24 hours a day. Alright, enough of that crap. 

So we’re learning more about the July 4th fiend. Now, I ain’t showing the guy, but we have a replacement for him. This, this is a pile of horse —-. And trust me, it’s an improvement. We’re not saying his name, but that’s not good enough, from now on it’s just horse —- from us. My apologies to the horses and their —-. Thank you. 

Fact is, for every minute this fiend’s face is up on a screen, you create more just like it. That’s the power of the media. Ask any woman who had a Jennifer Aniston haircut in the nineties or me. So enough with the guy’s face. He’s a mass killer, not L’oreal’s first plus size cover girl. 

HIGHLAND PARK SHOOTING SUSPECT ROBERT CRIMO THREATENED TO ‘KILL EVERYONE’ IN 2019 HOME INCIDENT: POLICE 

Now, mass shootings are almost always linked to previous ones. For the unstable and evil, they keep stats and record the damage like ghouls in a demented fantasy league. So it infuriates me to see the news slap that tattooed face right up there all the time as they repeat the same B.S. we already heard before. Meanwhile, the victims get a quick mention like they had a tiny part in a Hollywood blockbuster. Doesn’t it drive you crazy? It does to me. Because is it news or is it spectacle? And are we culpable when we know we’re supplying the fiend’s reward, which is attention? People don’t commit suicide for notoriety, but suicide plus, when you take people with you, that’s for infamy. And we indulge it under the guise of news, as another monster gets 15 minutes of fame. 

Now I get it, I’m in the news business, hard to believe. How did I get here? I don’t belong here. But now it’s just overkill. Now we know the guy had more red flags than a parade on Chinese New Year. Threatening to kill his family. I know, I know. I’ll cut him some slack on that one. I think we’ve all done that, at least on one Thanksgiving.

 He threatened to kill himself. He posted stuff about mass shootings like it was excerpts from an upcoming book. He painted a mural about killing. He brought up mass shooting the night before. This guy tipped his hand more times than me at happy hour with a bottle of Tito’s. And did I even mention the face tats? Now, that doesn’t mean you’re a psycho killer, but I wouldn’t ask him to babysit. And yet he got guns and he took innocent lives. 

So if you can’t prevent that guy with all those signs, then what can you do? Makes no sense. Well, you ever notice how certain people only intervene in stuff when the risk is low? But when there comes a time when someone really has to speak up, they don’t. 

You know, we used to hear neighbors say ‘hmm, he was so quiet, the last guy you’d suspect.’ But now they say ‘oh, yeah, we all knew that guy was a psycho. Oh, well, back to watching Tik Tok videos.’ It’s like if courage was coffee, we’ve replaced it with instant Folger’s crystals. It’s the virtual version based on virtue signaling and virtually useless in the real world. 

HIGHLAND PARK JULY 4TH SHOOTING SUSPECT’S PARENTS WERE ‘A PROBLEM,’ SAYS FORMER COACH

Don’t you dare deadname a trans celebrity, that’ll get you an instant ban, but racist murder fantasies from the Waukesha killer or video rants from New York subway attacker, Zuckerberg and company look the other way. 

You know, we condemn people for opinions, but obvious threats slide on by, because we aren’t supposed to say anything. That’s because deliberate antisocial behavior is now just another lifestyle choice. And to call it out, well that makes you antisocial. 

So now we sit back, and we watch or we just film it. Take a look at this scene in downtown NYC. Three women destroy a restaurant, all because they were charged extra for sauce. I haven’t seen that violent a reaction since Brian Stelter was shorted a McNugget in his Happy Meal. But you could look at those bystanders, many of them so-called men, cheering it on while the workers cowered in the back. You know, I’d ask them to man up, but that would be asking for toxic masculinity or misgendering. That’s the kind of argument intellectuals want to have while a street loony bashes your head against the sidewalk. 

So you got to ask yourself why would anyone open a business to see it smashed by a bunch of laughing jerks? Why would any employee risk their life for this? But we’re now a nation of spectators, so quick to condemn pointless stuff but shy away from the severely wrong. There used to be a name to describe people who saw the risk of stepping in, but went ahead anyway, they were called brave or crazy. 

This place used to be the home of the brave, but it’s turning into a hen house, home of the chicken. We need help from each other. Now, I’m not saying the mass shooting could have been prevented, but in an engaged community. Who knows? 

Now, there’s no law against minding your own business. In fact, most of us like it that way. I don’t need my neighbors calling the cops on me every time they see me doing tai chi on my balcony wearing nothing but Kat’s old hair extensions. But this isn’t about laws. It’s about community and we have lost community. Looking out for your neighbor, that regular contact with them, knowing the police, the businesses around you, the kids. We should bring that back. But it’s hard when politicians, and teachers and celebs pit us against each other like a nation of drunken real housewives, while insisting your neighbor is an oppressor and your country’s shared history is a lie. 

Perhaps the answer is less gawking and more talking. More time outside being a neighbor as opposed to online. Now, I’m not saying you got to raise a barn together like a mob of lemonade guzzling Amish, but maybe keep an eye out for each other. You know, I hate to say this. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe this lady had a point. I know. Hear me out. It was like 20 years ago, okay. Her last great point when she said ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ because right now, families, they’re having a hard time. And I, yeah, I cannot believe I just complimented Hillary Clinton. Truly, pigs have flown. I think I see her husband doing a barrel roll.

When I read the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the one that allowed the school football coach to pray on the field after the game, I thought of my maternal grandmother, Minnie Manger. As I look back, it turns out that ‘Baba,’ as we called her, played a large part in the formation of my understanding of the religion clauses of the First Amendment.

Baba emigrated from Central Europe to the United States at the beginning of the last century in pursuit of religious freedom and economic opportunity. She found both in abundance here, and that is why Baba was one of the most patriotic Americans I ever knew. Her five children worked their way up the American ladder of economic opportunity. None of them went to college, but each of 10 grandchildren did and then went on to live successful lives that were unlimited by their Jewish faith or observance. In 2000, one of her grandsons was even nominated by the Democratic Party for vice president of the United States.

Baba was proud of all that family achievement, but I think she was most emotionally grateful for the religious freedom America gave her. She once told me that I probably could not appreciate how much it meant to her that on Sabbath when she walked to synagogue services in Stamford, Connecticut, instead of being the target of verbal abuse or worse, as she had been in the ‘old country,’ here her Christian neighbors would stop and say, ‘Good Sabbath, Mrs. Manger.’

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH SCORES BIG WIN AT SUPREME COURT OVER POST-GAME PRAYER

Once during my youth, there was a local controversy in which a group of people protested the presence of a nativity scene in a public park near Baba’s house. She told me she did not understand the protest, explaining that the presence of that nativity depiction in the park clearly meant something spiritual to the people who put it up, and she respected that, but it did not in any way compromise the wonderful religious freedom she enjoyed in America. So why would she oppose it?

In that response, Baba captured what I believe is the meaning of the First Amendment’s religion clauses. If government action does not compromise freedom of religion, in any way, that government action is not prohibited. The Constitution promises freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Therefore, it seems to me (and I think would to Baba if she were still alive) that because Coach Joseph Kennedy’s prayers after the game did not limit anyone’s freedom of religion or anyone’s freedom not to be religious, they were not an establishment of religion, as prohibited by the Constitution.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER 

‘Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic,’ Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his opinion for the Supreme Court majority. And he added (perhaps to reassure people that he was not establishing Coach Kennedy’s Christian religion but only protecting his right to pray) that if the Bremerton School System could fire the coach for his prayers on the field, ‘a school could fire a Muslim teacher for wearing a head scarf in the classroom or prohibit a Christian [or observant Jewish] aide from praying quietly over her lunch in the cafeteria.’ 

At law school, I was taught that over time Supreme Court decisions could slide on a ‘slippery slope’ from what their authors intended to unacceptable applications. In his opinion, Justice Gorsuch has put up some strong roadblocks against such sliding, and we must, as always, depend on future Supreme Courts to understand that the great goal of the First Amendment is to protect freedom of religion, and that the prohibition of the establishment of a religion is in the Constitution to protect every American’s freedom of religion, not to banish religious expression from American life, as my Baba understood and taught me.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM JOE LIEBERMAN

ASHBURN, Va. – Suburban women in Virginia weighed in on the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and whether it would motivate voters in the midterm elections.

‘I’d rather see an abortion than a child put in a dumpster someplace, because they didn’t want it,’ Sonya, from Leesburg, told Fox News.

‘If they can’t afford to have children, then let’s put it on the Republicans’ step,’ Sonya added. ‘Let them raise them.’ 

But one woman said: ‘I’m not sure how this Supreme Court decision is going to impact our upcoming elections, because I’m not in the minds of other people, but I’m so extremely happy about this Supreme Court decision. We’re finally having a voice for babies who do not have one.’

MAJORITY OPPOSE OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE, BUT ALSO OPPOSE EXPANDING NUMBER OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICES: POLL 

The Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on June 24, stripping abortion as a constitutional right and giving each state the authority to decide their abortion laws. The ruling led to a rise in Democrat campaign ads focused on abortion rights to energize voters in midterm elections. 

‘We’re gonna have a lot of unwanted children,’ Nancy, a pro-choice supporter, said. ‘I hope the government is ready to take care of that.’ 

Nancy said abortion is ‘not a decision that should be taken lightly, but it should be on the table for people who absolutely need it.’ 

WHY DEMOCRATS ARE NOT PURSUING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS

Nearly 80% of registered Democrats said the Supreme Court decision motivated them to vote in the midterms, compared to 54% of Republicans, according to a NPR/PBS NewsHour Marist poll published in late June. Nearly three-quarters of suburban women said it made them more likely to vote.

Suburban women are frequently a crucial voting bloc for candidates. In 2020, for example, President Biden won 59% of their votes, according to the Associated Press.

‘It makes my decision even more firm than it was before,’ Susan, from Ashburn, said. ‘I would’ve voted Democratic regardless.’

Jessica, also from Ashburn, said the Supreme Court decision ‘will certainly impact and motivate me to vote.’

But Annette, who supported overturning Roe, said the ruling wouldn’t affect how she voted.

DEMOCRATS REACT SWIFTLY TO ROE V. WADE RULING, BUT WILL ABORTION UPEND THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS?

But one voter said other issues will be more consequential in November midterm elections. 

It’s going to ‘depend on what’s going on in the world at the time that they vote,’ Debra, from Fairfax, said.

A July poll found that one-third of American adults – the plurality – said inflation was their top concern. Only 5% cited abortion.

‘While they may not like the Supreme Court decision, there are other things that are overwriting what’s going on,’ Debra said.

Former South African track star Oscar Pistorius could be released as early as this year for the 2013 slaying of model Reeva Steenkamp in a case that captured international attention.

The double amputee, 35, was sentenced to 13 years and five months after he was convicted of murdering the TV reality star in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day.

The Olympic athlete, who earned the nickname Blade Runner for the futuristic carbon-fiber prosthetics he used for competitions, met face-to-face with Steenkamp’s father for the first time on June 22 as part of his parole bid.

The disabled athlete, the first to compete against able-bodied men, was once hailed as the most inspirational figure in sports. 

‘BLADE RUNNER’ PISTORIUS CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER GIRLFRIEND SHOT TO DEATH IN HOME

But that image was shattered when he fired four shots into a bathroom stall in his Pretoria home in an upscale gated community, killing 27-year-old Steenkamp, his girlfriend of three months.

He claimed he mistook her for an intruder — but prosecutors argued that the two had an argument, and he fired out of anger.

Who is Oscar Pistorius?

Pistorius was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a congenital abnormality that left him without a fibula bone in either of his lower legs.

His legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old — but his mother taught him that his disability was not an excuse and pushed him to participate in sports.

After obtaining his first carbon-fiber prosthetics, Pistorius competed in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens and won gold in the 200 meters. He soon became the world’s most famous disabled athlete.

At the 2008 Paralympics, Pistorius won gold in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, setting world records in all three categories.

He also began competing against non-disabled athletes, but many critics complained that his carbon-fiber blades gave him an unfair advantage.

At the pinnacle of Pistorius’ career, he competed at the 2012 London Olympics, becoming the first amputee to race in an Olympic track event, and he was chosen to carry South Arica’s flag at the closing ceremony.

The accomplishment was overshadowed a month later at the London Paralympics when Pistorius was beaten in the 200 meterS by Brazil’s Alan Oliveira. In response, Pistorius complained that his opponent’s blades were unfairly long, prompting some critics to brand him a sore loser.

The trial 

But his athletic career was soon eclipsed by the murder of Steenkamp in the early morning hours of Feb. 14, 2013, — cutting short the promising future of the beautiful law graduate with a budding modeling and TV career.

She had graced the covers of several South African magazines, was a contestant in the reality show Tropika Island of Treasure and worked as a presenter for FashionTV.

OSCAR PISTORIUS DOCUMENTARY DETAILS OLYMPIAN’S ‘FALL FROM GRACE’ AFTER MURDER CONVICTION, DIRECTOR SAYS

A year after the slaying, a dramatic seven-month trial began in the High Court of South Africa before Judge Thokozile Masipa, who would ultimately decide Pistorius’ fate.

During the pathologist’s graphic testimony, which included gruesome autopsy photos, Pistorius openly wept, repeatedly gagged and at one point vomited.

After the state called 21 witnesses, Pistorius took the stand for five days, apologizing to the victim’s parents, June and Barry Steenkamp, and insisting that the tragedy was a terrible accident.

‘I wake up every morning and you’re the first people I think of, the first people I pray for,’ he said. ‘I can’t imagine the pain and the sorrow and the emptiness I’ve caused you and your family.  I was simply trying to protect Reeva.’

He claimed he had awoken in the middle of the night and heard a sound that he thought was a burglar, who had climbed in through a bathroom window.

‘I heard a noise from inside the toilet,’ he said of the enclosed stall. ‘Before I knew it, I had fired four shots.’ The bullets struck Steenkamp in the hip, head and hand.

He rushed back to his bed and realized that Steenkamp wasn’t there. He put on his prosthetics, returned to the toilet stall and used a cricket bat to smash open the locked door.

Without his prosthetics, Pistorius said he felt vulnerable and slept with a gun under his bed. Violent home invasions are common in the country, which has one of the highest murder and crime rates in the world.

Pistorius’ story doesn’t add up, prosecutors say

Prosecutors argued that the bullet holes in the door and Steenkamp’s wounds contradicted his claims.

The downward angle of the shots through the door indicated that Pistorius was wearing his prosthetics when he fired. Steenkamp was crouching on the floor with her hands over her head behind the bathroom stall’s locked door when three bullets struck her. 

The defensive position suggested that she was not caught by surprise but was hiding in fear, according to lead prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

A neighbor testified that she heard a woman’s ‘blood-curdling’ high-pitched screams before the shots went off, and other witnesses said they had heard the couple fighting earlier in the night.

Prosecutors read a text Steenkamp had sent to Pistorius about two weeks before her murder. ‘I’m scared of u sometimes and how u snap at me and how u will react to me,’ she wrote.

Cape Town defense lawyer William Booth, who has been practicing for 27 years, told Fox News Digital that the case hinged on whether Pistorius’ testimony matched the forensic evidence at the scene — and the public perception was that it had not.

‘The main problem was the story about an intruder,’ Booth said. ‘He wasn’t truthful. If he had told the truth from the beginning and admitted that he got angry and lost his temper, he may have been better off with a plea bargain.’

Pistorius and Steenkamp had no known history of domestic violence during their three-month courtship, and none of his ex-girlfriends had accused him of physical abuse.

Pistorius is acquitted then convicted of murder

Although Judge Thokozile Masipa said she found Pistorius’ testimony inconsistent and contradictory, she acquitted him of murder. She found him guilty of culpable homicide, a charge similar to manslaughter in the U.S.

She sentenced him to five years in prison in a ruling that outraged Steenkamp’s parents who said Pistorius had not told the truth about what happened that night.  But the saga was far from over.

Prosecutors appealed and, in 2015, the Supreme Court of Appeal upgraded the conviction from culpable homicide to murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.

One of the judges compared the Olympian’s life to a Shakespearean tragedy when he read the new verdict.

The case was kicked back to Masipa who sentenced him to six years in prison in 2016 after a lengthy hearing.

In a written decision obtained by Fox News Digital, Masipa credited Pistorius’ claim that he felt vulnerable because he wasn’t wearing his prosthetics at the time of the shooting. 

She also rejected the prosecution’s assertion that the couple had a vicious row before the murder, calling it speculation and a ‘misperception.’

The judge said that Pistorius’ life was forever changed by the impulsive act. ‘He is a fallen hero, he has lost his career and is ruined financially,’ she wrote. Masipa described him as a broken man that was clearly remorseful.

But South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled unanimously in 2017 that Masipa’s sentence was far too lenient and imposed a term of 13 years and five months.

The reversals were highly unusual, Booth told Fox News Digital. 

‘It happened in this case because of the extensive media coverage,’ he added. ‘The trial was televised internationally and also on pretty much every radio station in the world, as well as in most newspapers. There was a lot of pressure.’

The Blade Runner meets with slain girlfriend’s father 

Under South African law, offenders who commit violent crimes are eligible for parole after serving half their sentences — a milestone Pistorius reached in July 2021.

But Pistorius had to first meet with Steenkamp’s parents as part of the parole application process, which is known as victim-offender dialogue.

The program gives victims or their relatives a chance to meet with offenders, if they choose to, as part of the healing process.

Pistorius had to be transferred from a prison in Pretoria to a facility near Steenkamp’s childhood home in Port Elizabeth, where her parents still live.

Steenkamp’s father, Barry Steenkamp, who said for years he wanted to meet with Pistorius man-to-man, finally had the opportunity on June 22. His wife, June Steenkamp, did not participate.

The parents’ lawyer, Tania Koen, who was present for the meeting, would not disclose specifics but said it was ‘good for both parties.’

‘It is a very sensitive and private matter, and now [Barry] needs time to process,’ Koen told local newspaper HeraldLive. ‘Nobody in that room could not have been affected.’  

Pistorius must still attend a parole hearing where department of corrections officials will determine whether he will be released early — a decision that could come before the year is out.

The once revered gold-medal-winning athlete now faces an uncertain future.

‘He certainly can’t compete again, that is gone,’ said Booth. ‘That, I suppose, is part of the punishment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Incendiary sound waves, shooting like fireworks off the strings of an electric guitar, have defined pop music around the world for nearly 70 years.

Credit Adolph Rickenbacker (1887-1976), a Swiss-born entrepreneur, for this wonder. He invented the electric guitar in California alongside partner George Beauchamp in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

The powerful new instrument inspired a uniquely American art form that grew to dominate global pop music culture. 

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO WROTE ‘THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC’

They called it rock ‘n’ roll. 

Electric guitars ‘were affordable, they were loud and they were relatively easy to learn,’ Nicholas Toth, a professor of anthropology and cognitive science at Indiana University — and a stringed instrument collector — told Fox News Digital in an interview.

‘The electric guitar was a great social equalizer.’

The electric guitar produced more than just sound and power. It gave musicians an outlet to express every imaginable emotion — while also giving listeners the ability to feel an artist’s joy, pain, elation or desperation seep into their own souls.

Beatles guitarist George Harrison, when he was just 25 years old and caught up in ungodly fame and fortune, lamented the world’s love still to be realized ‘while my guitar gently weeps.’

A young N.J. musician struggled to find his voice in a Vietnam War-torn America. Then ‘I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk,’ Bruce Springsteen boasted to love interest Mary on ‘Thunder Road.’

‘Just one guitar, slung way down low/Was a one-way ticket, only one way to go,’ raved the fist-pumping British-American act Foreigner in ‘Juke Box Hero’ — reflecting the countless dreams of stardom inspired by the instrument.

The earliest model electric guitar was dubbed the Rickenbacker Frying Pan, so called because it resembled a round cast-iron pan with a long handle. In this case, however, it had a neck of steel guitar strings. 

Toth and his wife Dr. Kathy Schick, also an Indiana University professor, own one of the earliest-known models of the instruments, a circa-1934 model Frying Pan with the name spelled ‘Richenbacher.’

‘The electric guitar was a great social equalizer.’ 

The inventor changed his name later in the 1930s amid growing anti-German sentiment before World War II. His cousin Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s greatest flying ace of World War I, had changed his name years earlier. 

The slick entrepreneur looked to capitalize on his war-hero cousin’s national popularity, some rock experts have argued, noting that the inventor kept the name Rickenbacher in personal use. 

The Rickenbacker Frying Pan quickly proved a commercial success while inspiring waves of imitators, innovations and improvements. 

MEET THE AMERICAN BAKER AND BUSINESSWOMAN WHO FOUNDED PEPPERIDGE FARMS

Designers such as Les Paul, Leo Fender and Roger Rossmeisl all built upon the technology pioneered by the Rickenbacker Frying Pan — ultimately empowering a raw, energetic and, at first, uniquely American style of music. 

‘The guitar remains the primary sonic sexual and sensual stimuli for excitable people everywhere,’ rock star Ted Nugent told Fox News Digital, while describing the intense power that comes from wielding an electric guitar in front of a live audience.

‘If ever there was an experience available to mankind that qualifies as ‘out-of-body,’ it would be sharing, mining, milking, exploring and collaborating musical guitar-fire with people that love it as much as I do,’ he also said.

Overcoming tough odds

Adolf Adam Richenbacher was born on April 1, 1887, at 7 Gemsberg St. in Basel, Switzerland. He overcame great personal challenges on his way to reshaping global pop culture.

His father, Adolf Sr., ‘ran a small business as a cabinetmaker and model-builder,’ wrote Swiss journalist Baenz Friedli in a biography of the inventor at Rickenbacker.com. The guitar company still bears his Americanized name today. 

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‘While the economic gloom of the 1870s had lifted, the rich had fled the inner city for the suburbs, leaving the narrow, crowded old town to the have-nots.’

Amid limited prospects as lower-class citizens of Europe, the family, including Adolf’s oldest sister Emma and newborn brother Robert, left for the United States through the French port of Le Havre in 1891. 

Rickenbacker’s father lost both legs in a train accident ‘and began to drink away his pain and grief.’

They arrived a week later at Castle Garden, the pre-Ellis Island immigration center at the southern tip of Manhattan, before settling in Columbus, Ohio. 

Rickenbacher as a young boy found life no easier in the U.S. His mother Elisabeth died shortly after their arrival, according to the company biography. His dad lost both legs in a train accident ‘and began to drink away his pain and grief.’

Journalist Friedli described a harrowing childhood after the crippled and alcoholic elder Rickenbacher abandoned his own kids. 

‘Emma rescued her younger brothers from an icy death when she found them, covered with snow, asleep in a doorway,’ Friedli wrote. ‘With her rudimentary English, and barely out of childhood herself, she found work as a maid with a wealthy family in the southern end of town, and got permission to lodge Adolf Junior and Robert in her room as well. For seven years Emma raised them there.’

The know-how and the funding

Rickenbacher eventually married Charlotte (‘Lottie’) Kammerer, a first-generation German-American whose family had grown wealthy in the Pennsylvania oil business. He changed his first name to Adolph. 

Around 1918, they moved to Los Angeles, where Rickenbacker put his intellect to use, building a manufacturing company that provided metal parts for various industries. 

One of its clients was the National String Instrument Co. — whose co-founder George Beauchamp was frustrated in his efforts to electrify guitars. 

The two men filed the patent for the ‘electrical stringed musical instrument’ in 1934 and received it in 1937.

Rickenbacker provide the know-how and funding needed to make the next leap forward. While Rickenbacker provided the tools and capital and manufactured the new guitars, Beuchamp was the tinkerer, along with others. Together they created an instrument with electromagnetic pick-up that turned the vibration of strings into electric pulses, which could be dramatically amplified in ways other guitars could not. 

The electric guitar was born. 

The two men filed the patent for the ‘electrical stringed musical instrument’ in 1934 and received it in 1937.

The earliest electric guitars were largely popular among Hawaiian musicians, said Toth.

The nation at the time was in the midst of an obsession with Hawaiian culture — the same craze that fueled, around the same time, the rise of Hawaiian tiki cocktail culture from the likes of Trader Vic or Donn the Beachcomber. 

American invention embraced by the British

American kids from all walks of life soon became aware of the power and potential of the electric guitar that provided the soundtrack to Hawaiian beach vibes.  

These were mostly teenagers filled with raw energy and an intense interest in new musical tastes. They’d been weaned on a dynamic American stringed-music culture of blues, jazz, bluegrass and other influences — and they were buoyed by the intense economic success of victorious post-World War II America. 

‘Innovative artists in the 1940s and 1950s like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Les Paul, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry revolutionized [the electric guitar] and ultimately made it become the primary instrument of rock ‘n’ roll throughout the 1960s and beyond,’ Andy Leach, senior director of museum and archival collections at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, told Fox News Digital.

The electric guitar proved the perfect instrument for an egalitarian society of diverse cultures and influences.

When The Beatles came to America, it was like seeing a new color for the first time.

‘I find it very appealing, as an American, that you didn’t need money, prestige or the right background to be a successful musician,’ said Toth of Indiana University. ‘The electric guitar was affordable to most people.’

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Americans invented rock ‘n’ roll. But the British added a certain flair. 

Young English kids such as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page — among a long list of other British musicians — grew mesmerized in the 1950s and 1960s by the pulsating electric guitar sounds emanating across the ocean. 

The Beatles counted American rockers Berry, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley among their greatest influences. 

The Fab Four then made American music better and more popular than ever, as the global phenomenon of Beatlemania proved in the 1960s.

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‘When the Beatles came to America, it was like seeing a new color for the first time,’ a devotee of the band once said. 

That brilliant new color was painted with Rickenbacker’s electric guitar. 

John Lennon strummed his prized 1958 Rickenbacker 325 when he harmonized ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yea’ for the first time in America on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ in early 1964.

The word ‘Rickenbacker’ was emblazoned across the head stock of Lennon’s guitar that night. 

He was reportedly given a new 1964 Rickenbacker 325 just a few days later — and played the new model when The Beatles returned to ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ that same February. 

Embodiment of the American dream

After a battle with cancer, Rickenbacker died on March 21, 1976, in Fullerton, Calif. He was 89 years old.

He died with a fabulous gift. He had lived to see his invention, the electric guitar, become a powerful force in pop culture. 

The popularity of Rickenbacker guitars, plus Adolph Rickenbacker’s affiliation with rock ‘n’ roll lore, skyrocketed in the immediate aftermath of The Beatles’ arrival in the U.S.

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‘[Roger] McGuinn bought a Rickenbacker 360/12 after seeing the movie ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and literally made the bell-like quality of its tone the foundation of the Byrds’ early style,’ according to the Rickenbacker’s company history. 

He reportedly handed out business cards that read ‘Adolph Rickenbacher, Father of the Electric Guitar.’

‘The Who’s Peter Townshend, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, Steppenwolf’s John Kay and many other well-known 1960s guitarists became faithful Rickenbacker users,’ the same source said.

‘What had been a six-week waiting period from the factory for some models became a six-month (or longer) waiting period in the mid-1960s.’ 

Rickenbacker flaunted his role in shaping music history. He reportedly handed out business cards that read ‘Adolph Rickenbacher, Father of the Electric Guitar.’

‘Rickenbacher was the embodiment of the American dream,’ wrote Friedli, the Swiss biographer. 

‘He had come [to the U.S.] in 1891 as a poor kid, and he died a wealthy man.’

To read more stories in this unique ‘Meet the American Who…’ series from Fox News Digital, click here. 

Oregon’s Department of Education allocated nearly $2 million for a fellowship that would train K-12 educators from diverse backgrounds to reject the ‘eurocentric worldview’ of ‘individualism,’ Fox News Digital has learned. 

The antiracist fellowship, funded by ODE, is broken down into several arcs for ‘decentering.’ One of them is pushing back against the ‘euro-centric worldview’ on ‘individualism.’ 

‘We are more than our titles and more than the roles we’ve been assigned; this arc will create space for each fellow to identify and unpack their multiple identities of self,’ the arc stated. 

Another arc focused on ‘unlearning;’ fellows will learn to ‘practice understanding themselves as a grounded bridge between curriculum and their students.’ This arc will also focus on ‘unlearn[ing] harmful practices that deny self, story, relationship, and context.’ 

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The total cost for the 23-month project will be $1,929,637.50. The fellowship will teach at most 600 educators how to create ‘racially affirming environments’ in their classrooms. Affirming means that the teachers’ identities are ‘seen’ and ‘honored’ in classrooms, ODE told Fox News Digital.

The fellowship will ‘deepen educators’ understanding… of the individual, the institutional and the systemic impacts of racism on schools and communities.’ Fellows will create their own project ‘that disrupts a racist pattern/practice/policy, or works towards liberation/equity/decolonization.’

The fellowship is funded by Oregon’s Student Success Act, which planned to invest $2 billion in K-12 education, for the purpose of ‘improving access and opportunities for students who have been historically underserved in the education system.’

In order to qualify, grant applicants must demonstrate an ‘equity lens or tool’ in order to ‘ensure that no focal group or community is ignored in the process of community engagement and plan development. 

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‘What is essential now is that districts, schools, and ODE find the will to keep churning through the relentless dynamics of… sustained and systemic racism,’ ODE said in its eligibility statement. 

The department’s definition of an ‘equity lens’ means a focus on ‘on race and ethnicity,’ but also includes other groups as well. ODE stated that ‘Centering racial equity is rooted in the historical context of Oregon and is the path through which we can heal while targeting areas of action, intervention and investment.’

ODE told Fox News Digital in a statement that the law ‘specifically directs the state to invest in programs to recruit and retain racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse educators in Oregon.’

‘In this effort, the [Educator Advancement Council] solicited proposals to design and pilot a sustainable model for a Racial Justice Institute aimed at achieving culturally and racially affirming environments across the PreK-12 school system,’ the statement stated. 

The son of U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., was arrested for possession of methamphetamine on Wednesday, according to reports. 

The suspected nine grams of meth was found inside a zippered eyeglasses case that James Womack, 34, allegedly tried to hide by sitting on it when officers arrived as part of a probation home visit connected to a past felony charge, FOX 16 Little Rock reported. 

Police also found several syringes and a metal spoon inside the case. 

Substances found inside a glass vial and a baggie both tested positive for meth, an affidavit said. 

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Womack was charged with felony possession of controlled substance-methamphetamine and felony possession of drug paraphernalia. He was booked into the Benton County Jail on a $20,000 bond, FOX 16 reported. He remained in jail on Thursday. 

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In 2019, Womack was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to gun and drug charges but was given early release due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

He has had legal trouble and several run-ins with police since the early 1990s.

Steve Womack, 65, has represented Arkansas’ third congressional district since 2011. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.