ADF Alliance Alert » Pelosi gets unwanted lesson in Catholic theology

re: "...The report suggests that Pelosi is confusing church teaching with the historic debate about when a fetus receives a soul. However, as numerous Bishops have pointed out science has made the the debate moot in the last 150 years as it is clear that a new human being comes into existence at conception. /According to the AP report the Archbishop of San Francisco will address the matter in the September 5th edition of the Diocesan newspaper. The USCCB has issued this press release in response to Pelosi. LifeSite News has several articles on the topic including this one: Two More Bishops Make 8 Who Have Come Out against Pelosi’s ‘Catholic’ Abortion Theology. The Christian Newswires carries this EWTN report: Pelosi’s Abortion Statements a Scandal Says EWTN Program Host. /Republicans have also joined the chorus of criticism as reported in the Hill: GOP demands Pelosi apology for abortion comments. /
Cardinal Egan of New York issued the following statement in response to Pelosi: //FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2008 /STATEMENT OF HIS EMINENCE, EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN CONCERNING REMARKS MADE BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES /Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age. /We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name. /Edward Cardinal Egan / Archbishop of New York /August 26, 2008..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Rabbi fights order to halt home prayer meetings

re: "The First Amendment Center reports: //A Hasidic rabbi is challenging an order by the city of Portland to halt weekly prayer meetings at his home because they violate zoning regulations. /
Rabbi Moshe Wilansky, with the backing of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, has asked the Zoning Board of Appeals to annul the order because it violates his right to practice his religion..."...

Christianity Growing in China - Christian World News - CBN News

re: "...Although members of China's Three Self Churches can worship openly, millions of other Christians worship in house churches, beyond the government's watchful eye. /But both the Three Self and house churches are growing at a staggering rate. /Thousands of people have come to Beijing's Kanjie church today, but they didn't come to get a glimpse of President Bush. Like millions of other Chinese believers, they came to worship. /Across town, more than 2,000 people flooded into Beijing's Haidian church for one of their six Sunday services. /The pastor here says church attendance has more than doubled since last May."..."...

Considerettes - There’s No Place Like Home

re: "Used to be that scientists thought that our solar system was pretty normal, and that there were plenty just like it out there..."...

Peter Wilby: The media's addiction to controversy can seriously damage your health

re: "Nearly all journalists aspire to emulate two stories: the Watergate scandal, which brought down a US president; and the thalidomide scandal, which, after years of campaigning and legal battles, forced a multinational giant to eat humble pie, and made Harold Evans and his Sunday Times Insight team world famous. Watergate explains why newspapers fiercely pursue public figures accused of minor expenses fiddling, attach "gate" to their names and try to implicate anybody up to and including Downing Street in a "cover-up". Thalidomide explains why, on the flimsiest of evidence, they accuse doctors of inflicting dangerous diseases or disabilities on children. The results of one such media frenzy became evident last week..."...

hat tip: Expat Yank

The Conservative Coalition Crack-up - Acton Institute PowerBlog

re: "...The purpose of yesterday’s meetings was ostensibly to urge McCain to pass over Mitt Romney as a possible running mate, in the interests of courting social conservatives. Debra Matney, a Huckabee supporter from Fairgrove who helped organize the meetings, said of McCain, “Who he chooses will speak volumes to us.” /It’s unclear, however, what effect meetings of this kind might have, as an interview with McCain published yesterday in the Weekly Standard has McCain saying that he would not rule out a pro-choice running mate like Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge. / That fact alone ought to speak volumes to social conservatives. / Meanwhile, since his withdrawal from the presidential race, Mike Huckabee has done his best to remain in the national conversation. In a recent interview with Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Huckabee had this to say about the tension in the GOP between social and fiscal conservatism:..."...

Mary Meader, at 91; was pioneer as globe-circling aerial photographer - The Boston Globe

re: "NEW YORK - Mary Meader, who as a spunky new bride in the 1930s took off on a 35,000-mile journey to advance geographic knowledge by making unprecedented aerial photographs of South America and Africa, died March 16 in Kalamazoo, Mich. She was 91. /The saga began when Mrs. Meader, whose name was Mary Upjohn at the time, and her first husband, Dr. Richard Light, made plans to marry. They wanted to celebrate their union by approximating the highly publicized round-the-world flight he had made in 1934. She took flying lessons and learned Morse code to be her husband's copilot, navigator, and radio operator.../ ...[snip]... / Rachel Mary Upjohn was born in Kalamazoo. She was one of 11 grandchildren of Dr. W.E. Upjohn, founder of the Upjohn Co, the pharmaceutical concern. She was a language major at Smith College, specializing in French and Spanish, but dropped out to marry Richard Upjohn Light, a neurosurgeon and former military pilot who was her first cousin. They eloped to Maryland because first cousins could legally marry there. /The Lights took off first in September 1937 from Kalamazoo in a Bellanca monoplane, its cabin lacking heat and pressurization. They sucked oxygen from a tank through wooden mouthpieces. She wore a fur coat and boots as she shot pictures through an open window. Since she weighed only 95 pounds, she braced the 20-pound camera on the window frame and secured it with a clothesline. She said she once nearly froze to death. /The couple divorced in the early 1960s. In 1965, the former Mrs. Light married Edwin Meader, a professor of geography, among various callings. The couple became major philanthropists, giving millions to Western Michigan University, the University of Michigan and Kalamazoo charities..."...

Book Review - 'Iron Fists,' by Steven Heller - Review - NYTimes.com

re: Christopher Benfrey: "Steven Heller’s “Iron Fists” makes a sophisticated and visually arresting comparison between modern corporate-branding strategies — slogans, mascots, jingles and the rest — and those adopted by “four of the most destructive 20th-century totalitarian regimes”: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, and Mao’s China. As he pursues his four “case studies,” Heller, by means of unsettling images and shrewd analysis, amply restores the vileness to branding..."...

The Point: How low can a Senator go?

re: "Never mind Ted Stevens. The real bad guy of the Senate these days is Tom Coburn . . . for delivering babies free of charge.
I'm not kidding..."...