Baptist Press - Calif. marriage amend. close to goal

re: from April 17, "SACRAMENTO, Calif. (BP)--An effort in California to place a constitutional marriage amendment on the November ballot appears to be close to its goal, although officials say they need approximately 50,000 more signatures in the next two to three days to reach it. / ProtectMarriage.com representatives say they are just short of their goal of 1.1 million signatures, although they're still counting. California residents who have signed petitions need to mail them -– overnight if possible... The group needs to turn in the petitions by April 21..."...

Brandywine Books: Gathering to Pray

re: from a talk by Dr. Howard Hendricks, "...There's a church in our area that has a fantastic group of young people. I love them like crazy. They went to the elders of their church and asked, "Can we open the church on Wednesday mornings to pray?"/ "Well, we'll have to take that under consideration." So, after four or five meetings (typical elders), they finally decided, "No, we can't do that. We don't have anyone who's willing to open the church and take the responsibility." Even some legal aspects to it, which I'm still trying to find out what they are. / So, the kids go down the street to a restaurant operated by a pagan and say to the proprietor, "Could we meet on Wednesday mornings about 6:00 in your restaurant? Promise you we'll take good care of it, won't tear it apart." /This guy is so blown away that he says, "What do you want it for?" / They said, "We want to come and pray." / He said, "What?" / "Pray."/ "Would you include me?" /"Sure." /"You got it, and furthermore, I'll provide coffee and doughnuts for you."..."...

The Volokh Conspiracy - - Right to Choose Which Photographs You Create

re: "...The premise of the argument I've made is that the government may not force you to create speech that you don't want to create, whether that's an article, a press release, a photograph, or a painting. You can be a racist, anti-same-sex-marriage, a devout Catholic who doesn't want to create works celebrating a marriage of divorced people, an orthodox Jew who doesn't want to create works celebrating a marriage of Jews and non-Jews, or whatever else. It doesn't matter..."

ADF Alliance Alert » Eugene Volokh: The Breadth of the New Mexico Human Rights Commission’s Rationale in Elane Photography

re: more on The New Mexico Human Rights Commission punishment of a photographer for declining to participate in a same-sex commitment ceremony...

Teenage Skeptic Takes on Climate Scientists : NPR

re: "If you're a scientist trying to convince people they are making the world warmer, Kristen Byrnes is your worst nightmare. She's articulate, intelligent, she has a Web site, and one day her people will be running the world. Her people, meaning 16-year-olds. /Kristen's Web site, 'Ponder the Maunder,' has made her a celebrity among climate skeptics. After she posted a critique of Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, her Web site got so many hits the family's internet service provider sent them a warning. /Her story may dismay mainstream scientists, but plenty of people are friendly to her ideas."...

Kristin Hansen on Crisis-Pregnancy Centers on National Review Online

re: "NARAL's disinformation campaign doesn't seem to have worked in Maryland..."...

Houston company ordered to stop selling fake licenses | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

re: R. G. Ratcliffe reports: "AUSTIN — The state has halted a Houston business from selling fake driver's licenses to immigrants that Attorney General Greg Abbott said gives "a false appearance of legitimacy on those who are in the United States illegally." /Abbott said 129th District Judge Grant Dorfman had issued a restraining order against Centro de Identificaciones and its owners: Guillermo R. Robles and Hernan C. Trujillo. Abbott said the driver's license sales violated the Texas Deceptive Trades Practices Act. /Each of the licenses sold for $225, Abbott said. He promised to obtain restitution for anyone harmed by the sales. / But Abbott declined to say whether his office would ask about the legal resident status of anyone applying for the restitution or whether his office would report anyone in the country illegally to federal immigration authorities. /"That's a different legal issue," Abbott said./ ...[snip]... / Abbott said people who bought the licenses were led to believe they were an international license that would allow them to drive in the United States and buy and sell vehicles..."...

Making Business a Crime - WSJ.com

re: Harvey Silverglate: "...In the case of Bear, the feds have a particular incentive to indict. Doing so would shift attention away from the government's role in the current economic crisis and provide a satisfactory scapegoat. Such scapegoating is one of the few areas of American political life where bipartisanship is all the rage. The Democratically controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Senate Finance Committee both indicated interest in holding hearings, and the Senate Banking Committee held widely publicized hearings on April 3. /That the feds can even contemplate making a criminal case out of a beleaguered CEO's attempts to restore investor and client confidence may seem absurd. But such a theory of prosecution is not too far from what the feds increasingly have been doing since the mid-1980s to all segments of the business community – all without bothering to get Congress or various administrative agencies to enact statutes and regulations specifying what conduct will henceforth be deemed criminal. /These creative theories rarely get tested in the courts, because federal criminal sentences are so draconian that the overwhelming majority of defendants – including those who have committed no crime – enter into plea bargains. Thus, the federal prosecutor's ability to indict the proverbial ham sandwich readily leads to guilty findings without appellate review. Even those cases that make it to an appellate court often get affirmed by a judiciary that is increasingly complicit in the DOJ's law-as-silly-putty approach..."...

The Corner: That Awful Economy

re: "Comparing Labor Market Data in 1996 and 2008..." Has table showing that today's "bad" economy charts out better than the "healthy" economy touted by Clinton in 1996.

The Corner: Jamiel's Law

re: "Michelle is on the case of Jamiel Shaw Jr., yet another black American teenager murdered by yet another illegal-alien gang member who'd been released from jail without anyone ever checking his immigration status. Now the family of the church-going high-school football star (including his mother, an Army sergeant serving in Iraq at the time of his murder) are calling on Los Angeles to repeal Special Order 40, which prevents police from checking immigration status..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » ADF to appeal N.M. commission’s ruling against Christian photographer

re: "...“The government cannot make people choose between their faith and their livelihood,” said Lorence. “Could the government force a vegetarian videographer to create a commercial for the new butcher shop in town? American business owners do not surrender their constitutional rights at the marketplace gate.”..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » NM: Photographers Denied the Freedom To Choose What They Photograph

re: "On the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh comments on this case..."... (includes links to updates)

Alliance Alert: Expert: “We’re brainwashing our children” about global warming

re: "The USA Today Weather Guys Blog reports: //William Gray, the well-known Colorado State University hurricane forecaster, routinely uses the annual National Hurricane Conference as a platform to bash global warming. In a statement to Florida Today, Gray argued that the scientific consensus on global warming is bogus — and “a mild form of McCarthyism has developed toward those scientists who do not agree” that mankind is in danger. /“We are also brainwashing our children on the warming topic. We have no better example than Al Gore’s alarmists and inaccurate movie which is being shown in our schools and being hawked by warming activists with little or no meteorological-climate background,” Gray wrote . . ."...

Planet Gore on National Review Online: Dim Bulbs

re: "The Washington Post still can’t bring itself to address openly the reality vs. the rhetoric of greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, they obsess with serially nasty editorials complaining about our lack of European-style promises, all of which consistently ignore how the U.S. has led the world in growing the economy while reducing the rate of growth of emissions. /Sunday’s story went with the following: //
Even developed countries are not cutting greenhouse gases as fast as they had anticipated. //
The obvious implication is that, unlike the U.S., these countries are actually cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Actually, not one developed country is cutting emissions at all since making the Kyoto promise a decade ago. The U.S. approach — in practice — has proven far superior to Europe’s “cap” approach, Japan’s various efforts, Canada’s…"...

Absolut apologizes for Mexican vodka ad - Los Angeles Times

re: "MEXICO CITY -- The Absolut vodka company apologized Saturday for an ad campaign depicting the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers. /The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan "In an Absolut World," showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence. / [snip] / Absolut said the ad was designed for a Mexican audience and intended to recall "a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal." /"As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market, and for that we apologize." / Vin & Sprit, Absolut's Sweden-based parent company, will be acquired by French spirit maker Pernod Ricard SA under a deal reached last week."

hat tip: The Corner

Clintons made more than $109 million since 2000 - Los Angeles Times

re: "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton reported more than $109 million in gross income since 2000, the Clinton presidential campaign announced this afternoon. /Of that amount, the Clintons have more than $57 million in after-tax earnings and paid more than $33 million in federal taxes, the campaign said. It released tax returns from 2000 to 2006 and highlights for 2007."..."...

A Two-Tier Alliance

re: "AS THE 26 leaders of the NATO Alliance gather in Bucharest this week for the organization's 59th summit, there will be simmering tensions between the United States and what Donald Rumsfeld memorably described in 2003 as "Old Europe." As the Bucharest meeting will show, the traditional rifts between Germany and France and America on some of the biggest foreign policy questions of the day is still firmly in place. The notion that Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy are ushering in a new era of transatlantic cooperation, with Europe and the United States walking hand in hand solving the world's problems is a romanticized fiction that bears little relation to reality. /It is true that the venomous anti-Americanism of Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac has been replaced by a softer and subtler message, and the rhetoric coming from the Chancellery and the Elysee Palace is less openly hostile, but the harsh fact remains that France and Germany's foreign and domestic policies are largely unchanged. The United States and the Franco-German axis are still worlds apart on the war on terror, Iraq, Russia, the Middle East Peace process, global warming, trade, economic policy, and social and religious outlook. Public opinion in both countries is still overwhelmingly anti-American, a long-term trend that will almost certainly outlast the Bush administration. Only on the issue of Iran has there been a significant shift in policy in the case of France..."...

Va. judge sides with breakaway Episcopal parishes - - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

re: "A Fairfax circuit judge has awarded a favorable judgment to a group of 11 Anglican churches that were taken to court last fall after breaking away from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in late 2006. /In an 83-page opinion released late last night, Judge Randy Bellows ruled that Virginia's Civil War-era “division statute” granting property to departing congregations applies to the Northern Virginia congregations, which are now part of the Nigerian-administered Convocation of Anglicans in North America..."...

hat tip: Alliance Alert

Baptist Press - CULTURE DIGEST

re: "...AFA ENDS FORD BOYCOTT -- The American Family Association has ended its two-year boycott of Ford Motor Company, saying its supporters are free to purchase Ford vehicles again after the company met the conditions of an agreement to stop supporting homosexual causes..."...

What's Next for Newsmagazines? - WSJ.com

re: "The weekly newsmagazines have been declared dinosaurs as far back as the late 1980s. But now that 111 employees at Washington Post Co.'s Newsweek have taken buyouts, including many longtime editors, it's clear that their cultures are finally being blown up and reinvented. And some say that's not such a bad thing..."...

HarperCollins Turns Page in Publishing

re: "Marking a radical departure from traditional book-publishing practices, HarperCollins Publishers says it will launch a new book imprint that won't accept returns from retailers and will pay little or no advances to authors. /To be headed by veteran publishing executive Robert S. Miller, the imprint also likely won't pay for more desirable display space in the front of bookstores, a common practice. Instead, the as-yet-unnamed unit will share its profit with writers and focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet, where a growing portion of book sales are shifting. /The new venture is aimed at improving the economics..."...

hat tip: roger l. simon, via Frank Wilson

rosetta stone: The Loveliness of Staying Connected

re: link to carnival of posts on everyday ways to stay connected with a husband...

Media Mythbusters Blog » Would You Please Invite Big Brother In?

re: "Via Instapundit, an attempt by the Washington, D.C. Police to convince residents to allow officers into their homes for voluntary gun searches..."...

Bookworm Room » Let’s just ignore the other problems

re: "I grew up spending a large part of my life at Lake Tahoe. At that time, Tahoe was a brilliant blue and crystal clear. More than a decade ago, after a long hiatus, I returned to Tahoe. I was overwhelmed by the crowds, by the wall to wall houses, by the big green lawns everywhere (it is, after all, a high desert), and by the fact that the lake was swampy. When I visited a favorite lakeside beach from my childhood, I was shocked that the water was brown and had massive amounts of algae floating through it. The general consensus amongst Lake residents was the the problem stemmed from the vastly increased population and the lawns — the nitrogen in peoples’ fertilizer was flowing into the lake and providing a perfect breeding ground for algae. /I was therefore quite surprised to read that my perceptions were and are all wrong. According to scientists and the news there is no problem now — the lake is crystal clear, according to the following article — but that there will be a future problem from (you can all say it with me here) global warming..."...

Planned Parenthood Abortion Business Makes $1 Billion Profit for First Time

re: "Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new annual report from Planned Parenthood shows the nation's largest abortion business has made over $1 billion in profit for the first time in its history. The non-profit pro-abortion group shows the historical gain in its new annual report covering 2006-2007./While Planned Parenthood made $972 milion in its 2005-2006 annual report, last fiscal year it brought in $1.017 billion. /On its web site posting of the annual document, Planned Parenthood says it "highlights our advancements in providing and protecting trusted health care services and medically accurate sexuality education." /Instead, the report finds Planned Parenthood doing more abortions than ever before. /The report shows an increase in the number of provided abortions from 264,943 in 2005 to 289,650 in 2006..."...

hat tip: Alliance Alert

The Great Beyond: Physicist-priest wins $1.7 million prize

re: "A Polish physicist and priest has won the annual million-dollar Templeton Prize for “progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities”. /Michael Heller walks away with $1.7 million for investigating questions including whether the Universe needs to have a cause (press release)..."...

hat tip: Frank Wilson

ZENIT - Thousands in U.S. to Join Church

re: "WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Tens of thousands of Americans will join the Catholic Church this Holy Saturday through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. / Many of those in the RCIA program participated in the Rite of Election with their bishops at the beginning of Lent and will be baptized, confirmed and receive Communion for the first time this Saturday. More, who already have been baptized, will embrace full membership in the Catholic Church... [snip]... According to early figures from the 2007 Official Catholic Directory, last year almost 64,500 adults were baptized in the Catholic Church and nearly 93,000 came into full communion./ These numbers are supplemented by the baptisms of infants that occur in parishes throughout the year. It is estimated that more than a million infant baptisms will take place in the U.S. during 2008..."...

Credentials « Charlotte was Both

re: "Last week, new US ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon presented her credentials to Pope Benedict. Elizabeth Lev writes of the occasion for Zenit with her usual grace and insight - even more so this time, since her mother is, well, Mary Ann Glendon..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Thomas More Law Center: Advocates State Personhood Amendment in Oregon

re: "Thomas More Law Center has issued this press release. It begins: //The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will present oral arguments to an Oregon Circuit Court judge in defense of a proposed amendment to the Oregon Constitution crafted by the Law Center that would protect human life from the moment of fertilization. /In addition to this effort in Oregon, the Thomas More Law Center has been working with pro-life leaders in Georgia, Colorado, and Montana to pass similar state constitutional amendments . . . /Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center . . . “For too long the national pro-life movement has been dominated by a strategy of “wait,” too fearful of losing to risk winning.” . . . "...

No Left Turns: Random Observations

re: Peter Lawler: "...5. The great dignity volume produced by the Bioethics Council is now available at bioethics.gov. You can either request a copy or download it..."...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | South Korea swaps first astronaut

re: "Yi So-yeon, 29, is to replace Ko San, 31, on a Russian flight to the International Space Station in April. /Russia's Federal Space Agency requested the change because Mr Ko broke training centre rules, a senior official said. /South Korean officials played down the breaches, which involved removing reading material from the centre. /On one occasion, Mr Ko sent a training book back to South Korea - something he said was by mistake. /On another, he received a book from a Russian colleague that he was not meant to read, said Lee Sang-mok of South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology..."...

Vital Signs: For Weekend Web Reading

re: "Randy Alcorn has a couple of very thoughtful devotional essays on his blog dealing, respectively, with Blaise Pacal (illustration at left) and Augustine. ...[snip...] / * On this page at Christian Heritage, our old English L'Abri friends Ian Cooper and Ranald Macaulay weigh in on Richard Dawkins' much-ballyhooed atheism... [ snip]... /there's an incredible difference between hearing a mere sound bite and a bunch of blathering comments from journalists about what Bill Cosby said...and just hearing Bill Cosby make his case in full. Read it (or even listen to a portion it) right here..."...

Vital Signs: Why Oppose Personhood Legislation?

re: "Judie Brown, president of American Life League just sent out a provocative letter responding to the recent refusal of certain Catholic bishops in Georgia, Montana and Colorado to support legislation in their respective states that would recognize the legal personhood of preborn human beings. The letter is a little too lengthy to print in full here (and I'm guessing that it will soon be on the ALL web site, so look for it) but I wanted to print some of the most important points Judie makes..."...

Part of the problem | The San Diego Union-Tribune

re: "...Charity is a positive thing, and especially when it comes from private individuals as opposed to government. Otherwise, there is always the risk that the whole enterprise might become an exercise in fostering dependence. /And yet, thanks to the bizarre world of reality television, we are now confronted with something you don't see every day: a spectacle that actually manages to give “giving” a bad name. / Oprah Winfrey's latest brainchild is called “Oprah's Big Give.” And, based on first impressions, it looks more like a big mistake..."...

hat tip: Real Clear Politics

Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement Regarding Court of Appeals Home Schooling Ruling - Press Release by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

re: "Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the recent Second District Court of Appeals ruling on home schooling: / "Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."

hat tip: Alliance Alert

Welcome To One80: Is Your Life Right Side Up?

re: "...I feel so strongly that this current generation of young people could rise up and reclaim our communities, our country, and our world for the cause of God's Kingdom. But we must have our hearts stirred and we must believe that another world is possible in order for that to happen..."...

Bookworm Room » Having meaning in ones life

re: "...As always with me, these ruminations about life take me to politics and the difference between Left and Right. Thus, when I started thinking about Harry’s plight, and the absence of meaning in his life before his Afghanistan deployment, that Clintonian statement “the politics of meaning” kept popping into my head. As you may recall, when the Clintons stormed the national political scene in the early 1990s, much was made of the “politics of meaning.” /The “politics of meaning” is a phrase that originated with Michael Lerner, the radical rabbi who was Hillary’s intellectual mentor in the early 1990s. Jonah Goldberg, relying on a 1993 piece Michael Kelly wrote for the New York Times Magazine, has a nice summary of what Hillary meant when she talked about her understanding of this concept and the way in which she hoped to make its abstractions real in American government..."...

Mark Steyn on William F. Buckley, Jr. on National Review Online

re: "...The 1950s are assumed, at least by children of the Sixties, to be a “conservative” era. But at home New Deal liberalism controlled all the levers of society and abroad the Communists had gobbled up half of Europe, neutered most of the rest, swiped China, were eyeing up other valuable real estate across the planet, and Washington’s foreign-policy establishment was inclined to accept this as a permanent feature of life to be “managed” rather than defeated. The Republican minority in Congress were isolationists or country-club liberals, and their presidential nominees were “moderates” like Dewey or non-partisans like Ike. There was virtually no serious intellectual energy in American conservatism. The notion that in the early 21st century more Americans would identify themselves as “conservatives” than as “liberals” would have struck the elites of 50 years ago as preposterous: a scenario unimaginable outside the more fanciful dystopian science fiction... [snip]... Then Bill Buckley showed up and was brilliantly effective. In the barren soil of the Fifties, he planted what became a mighty family tree that includes not just Barry Goldwater and then Ronald Reagan but millions of other Americans. I’ve been amazed in recent days by the number of e-mails I’ve received from readers retelling essentially the same story across the decades: Buckley came to their college in the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, or Nineties, and the scales fell from their eyes. Or they were in the local library and found a stray copy of something called “National Review” that had somehow managed to penetrate the perimeter fence. Or they were flipping through the channels late at night and stumbled across this cool guy with a pencil effortlessly eviscerating some liberal panjandrum..."...

No Left Turns: Cleaner Louisiana

re: "Bobby Jindal, six weeks into his term as governor of Louisiana has started his reforms. The watchwords are ethics and transparency and almost no one thought he could do it, but he has. This fellow is worth keeping an eye on..."...

HolyCoast.com: Weather Channel Founder Wants to Sue Al Gore

re: "I've written before that Weather Channel found John Coleman is not a fan of human-caused global warming. The channel he founded, on the other hand, is hip deep in the stuff. Today Coleman had some things to say about that..."...

America, Europe and the management of danger | A hazardous comparison | Economist.com

re: "...Few Americans or west Europeans would trade their relatively risk-free existence for the tingling dice with death that can go with daily life in Russia. But many would endorse the insistence of the Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, on the sanctity of the right to incur danger: “What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.” Being reckless from time to time preserves what is “most precious and most important—that is, our personality, our individuality.”..."...

TV Film on Nazi Germany's "Titanic" Draws Millions of Viewers | Deutsche Welle | 03.03.2008

re: "Millions of Germans tuned in to a television film about the 1945 sinking of a Nazi ship full of refugees in the Baltic, which cost 9,000 lives and surpassed the Titanic as the worst maritime disaster in modern times..."...

The Death Culture Strikes Again

re: "A rise in suicide among the young seems to be tied to the emergence of on-line suicide sites that offer advice and encouragement to kill oneself..."...

Giovanni da Verrazzano - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

re: "Giovanni da Verrazzano [1] (c. 1485 – c. 1528) was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown. He is renowned as the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between South Carolina and Newfoundland in 1524, including New York Harbor where the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is named in his honor, and Narragansett Bay, where the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge is located..."...

Baptist Press - A person's a person ...

re: "ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--Like the main character in the Dr. Seuss book, "Horton Hears a Who," Nicola McManus learned "a person's a person, no matter how small."...[snip]...In 2002, Scotland's Daily Record reported that McManus entered a North Glasgow hospital for the purpose of terminating her nine-week pregnancy. To induce the abortion, she was given the pill known as RU-486. The medication causes miscarriage and is supposed to make abortions easier. /After enduring hours of pain, the pill finally had its effect. McManus felt intense pain and "felt it happen." Her pregnancy was over. However, when she was taken to the recovery room, cold cruel reality slapped her in the face. She described the experience thusly; "I fell apart. I couldn't believe anyone could be careless enough to leave it lying there." / The IT referred to by McManus was the lifeless fruit of her womb. As she was ushered into recovery, she was met with a clear glass jar labeled with her name. McManus was confronted with the reality that she had just caused the miscarriage of a tiny human being and not some inanimate piece of tissue..."...

No Left Turns: The big Pew survey revisited

re: Joseph Knippenberg: "The good folks at Acton have given me an incentive to think about the Pew survey I mentioned yesterday. They even suggested that I take a look at these two essays on church-shopping, which seems to be one of the big take-aways from the report. /Virtually all the major stories on the survey make our church shopping the headline, followed closely by the observation that we’re headed toward minority status for Protestants, and the observation that the secularist category is growing like gangbusters. This WaPo article is typical. The WaTi’s Julia Duin (for my money one of our best religion beat reporters) focuses on the decline of Catholicism (kept afloat by immigrants, but losing those raised in the Church) and the rise of evangelicalism. Get Religion’s Terry Mattingly nicely summarizes the various angles stories have taken. /As for me, I have lots of questions..."...

Whooping cough - MayoClinic.com

re: "...Some people think of whooping cough as having gone the way of polio — a childhood disease eradicated thanks to a vaccination campaign. But whooping cough hasn't been wiped out. In fact, the number of reported cases in the United States has been increasing since a historic low of approximately 1,000 cases in 1976. In 2004, more than 25,000 cases were reported, the largest number since the 1950s, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics..."...

Betsy's Page: Forbidden from buying your own drugs

re: "The British National Health Service is trying to crack down on patients who want to pay out of pocket to get drugs that their doctors have recommended but that the NHS doesn't cover. But the health service is afraid to let too many people go outside the system so they punish those who do by telling them that, if they continue, they will have to pay for all their medical treatments, not just the drugs, on their own..."...

No Left Turns Archive: Loving one's country

re: "John McCain doesn’t have a problem with it. Peggy Noonan wants to know if the Obamas do..."...

Brandywine Books: Lies Like an Oil Spoil

re: "I want to be a good steward of my part of the earth. I think I always have. My parents taught me the evils of littering and some of the joys of gardening. I learned other joys on my own. All of my married life we have kept the house warm in the summer and cool in the winter to save energy (and perhaps our air conditioner). We've taught our girls not to waste water, especially during the last several months of the drought, and for watering our house plants we have collected rain water. I know I could do more, but it's a challenge when it seems everything we're told about saving the environment is hype and lies. / The latest is National Geographic's upcoming special, "Six Degrees Could Change the World."..."...

Captain's Quarters: Bitter Enders

re: "How are the attendees of CPAC handling the ascension of John McCain to the nomination? For the most part, I'd say fairly well. McCain hasn't generated wild enthusiasm from conservative activists, but the general sense is that he's earned an opportunity to partner with conservatives... However, not everyone wants to put the divisions behind them. When I got to Blogger Row this morning, the desks had been papered by Patriot PAC. They have launched a new website, OpenGOPConvention, to urge voters to deny McCain the outright nomination. Headlined "CONTAIN MCCAIN!", they want Republicans to wait for a "real Ronald Reagan conservative" -- as if no one thought of the idea before. They also left copies of a Washington Times column by Terry Michael calling McCain "the John Kerry of '08". /Frankly, that's absurd, and the messenger is even more so. Terry Michaels used to be the press secretary for the DNC. Somewhat ironically, the first flyer warns of a media conspiracy to promote McCain, while Michaels now works for Washington Center for Politics and Journalism, the very nexus of which Patriot PAC warns. Now we have a Democratic press flack warning Republicans not to nominate John McCain -- because he's not Republican enough?..."...

Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? - James J. Sheehan - Book Review - New York Times

re: new book on Europe and attitudes toward military force...

Studies conclude that biofuels are not so green - International Herald Tribune

re: "Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the pollution caused by producing these "green" fuels is taken into account, two studies published Thursday have concluded. /The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months as scientists have evaluated the global environmental cost of their production. The new studies, published by the journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy..."...

Greek Orthodox conclave picks successor to Archbishop Christodoulos - International Herald Tribune

re: "ATHENS: Greece's top Orthodox clerics elected a seasoned primate Thursday to succeed Archbishop Christodoulos, who died last month. /The new archbishop, Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes, received 45 votes from a conclave of 74 bishops who gathered behind closed doors at the capital's main cathedral to elect the 20th leader of the Greek Orthodox Church... [snip]... The unusually brief conclave - the new church leader was elected in four hours - seemed to suggest that Ieronymos, 70, was a popular choice among the clerics who chose him as a man who shared Christodoulos's forward-thinking views but supported closer ties with the ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew I. / Relations between the Greek church and the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Church were nearly severed during a 2003 dispute over who should have the final say in the appointment of bishops in northern Greece... [snip]... Born Ioannis Liapis, the new archbishop was one of the main contenders for the church leadership in the previous election in 1998. A professor of philosophy and archaeologist by training, Ieronymos switched to the priesthood in 1967 after a brief academic career. He was enthroned as the bishop of Thebes in 1981 and gained local prominence for the charity work carried out by his diocese. /Viewed as capable administrator, the German-trained cleric served on the church's council for educational affairs and helped manage its popular radio station but shied from media appearances. /Although Greece is formally secular, the Orthodox faith is constitutionally recognized as the prevailing religion, representing 97 percent of the country's population of 11 million..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » New Book ‘Motherhood Interrupted’ Published

re: "In Motherhood Interrupted, author Jane Brennan, former member of NOW, Planned Parenthood clinic volunteer and post-abortive woman herself, shares stories of healing and hope after abortion that will bring to light the struggle women go through before and after making this choice." Read more on PR Newswire..."...

Good immigrant, bad immigrant « Bookworm Room

re: "I’ve been re-reading a wonderful book that I first read when it was published a little more than a decade ago: As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, by Laurence Bergreen."...

Irreducible and Non-Negotiable - Prison Fellowship

re: "What is the Christian faith all about? Two stories, 18 centuries apart, provide a clue..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Jordan Lorence: NM Photographer investigated for refusing to cover same-sex "marriage"

ADF Alliance Alert » Jordan Lorence: NM Photographer investigated for refusing to cover same-sex "marriage": "ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Lars Larson radio show to discuss the case pending in New Mexico where state authorities are investigating a photographer for refusing to photograph same-sex 'marriage' ceremonies. /The mp3 audio file (9:35 minutes) can be accessed here:
20080204.mp3 /ADF’s most recent press release on the case is here."...

Cafe Hayek: Feedback, knowledge and the division of labor

re: "Arnold Kling over at EconLog tells the poignant story of worrying about his father's health care. Anyone who has had a loved one in the hospital can relate. There are a lot of smart and caring people involved in the treatment, yet no one is overseeing the process and noting the interactions between this specialist and that one..."...

ADF: ADF considering appeal to restore voters’ rights in Oregon

re: "PORTLAND, Ore. — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are considering whether to appeal Friday’s decision by a federal judge against disenfranchised signers of a petition to put Oregon’s “domestic partnership” law before the voters. The judge lifted his preliminary injunction against the law, H.B. 2007, on which voters have never been heard. /During Friday’s hearing, the judge stated that voters in Oregon have no legal right to have their petition signatures counted..."...

Baptist Press - Super Bowl worship event expands as network of Christian NFL players grows

re: "PHOENIX (BP)--The annual Super Bowl Gospel Celebration is “one of the few nightly events you can bring your entire family to,” former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Marcus Price said of the gathering of NFL players, coaches and fans in town for Sunday’s matchup between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. /“It’s an outlet for great gospel music, but also an outlet for real Christians who don’t go out to the parities and the nightclubs,” Price said of Friday’s sold-out celebration at the Phoenix Symphony Hall. /“You get what you want to find at the Super Bowl,” Price reflected, “but this is a night we can celebrate our love and our faith.” /For Seattle Seahawks placekicker Josh Brown, “It always helps you to be around other Christians, especially here in the NFL where we may not get to see each other as much. /“We are expanding the base here and spreading it more every year,” Brown added. /The Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, now in its ninth year, is officially recognized by the league as an official Super Bowl activity."..."...

Brandywine Books: Amazon Sales Up, Kindle in Demand

re: "Media sales at Amazon.com are way up, and the new Kindle is playing a part..."...

Captain's Quarters: The Olson Of Economic Endorsements?

re: "...However, Rudy brought two other endorsements that could help build bridges with disaffected conservatives if McCain wins the nomination. First came Ted Olson to provide reassurance on judicial nominations, and today Steve Forbes endorsed McCain, perhaps addressing his self-professed weakness on economics..."...

Online Speech Bank: Charlton Heston - Winning the Cultural War

re: text and audio of Feb. 16, 1999, speech at Harvard Law School: "...Now, what does all of this mean? Among other things, it means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to -- to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression? /Let -- Let's be honest. Who here in this room thinks your professors can say what they really believe? (Uh-huh. There's a few....) Well, that scares me to death, and it should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason. /You are the best and the brightest. You, here in this fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River. You are the cream. But I submit that you and your counterparts across the land are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that and abide it, you are, by your grandfathers' standards, cowards..."...

Charlton Heston: On gun control

re: text of speech to National Press Club, February 11, 1997... "...The beauty of the Constitution can be found in the way it takes human nature into consideration. We are not a docile species capable of co-existing within a perfect society under everlasting benevolent rule. /We are what we are. Egotistical, corruptible, vengeful, sometimes even a bit power-mad. The Bill of Rights recognizes this and builds the barricades that need to be in place to protect the individual..."...

Around the World: Barbaro's Resting Place Decided; See the Parting of the Red Sea; Wisdom From Charlton Heston...

re: various topics, but a lot on Charlton Heston's 1997 speech to the Free Congress Foundation.

The Publishing Contrarian – Kindle, Anyone? Wicked Witch of Publishing Predicts End of the Era of “Used & New Books” Online.

re: Lynne W. Scanlon likes Kindle...

hat tip: Frank Wilson

Power Line: McCain Denies Alito Quote

re: "John McCain held a blogger conference call today, mostly to respond to John Fund's claim in the Wall Street Journal that he might not appoint a judge like Sam Alito who "wore his conservatism on his sleeve." (Which, by the way, I don't think Alito did.) McCain said that he doesn't recall making the statement attributed to him by Fund, and doesn't know its source. McCain emphasized that he supported Alito enthusiastically, spoke in his favor on the Senate floor, and voted for his confirmation. He has said repeatedly that if elected President, he would nominate Supreme Court justices in the mold of Roberts and Alito. /In response to a question, he said he could imagine a situation where a judge could "wear his politics too much on his sleeve," but said that for him, the key question is whether the nominee has a clear track record of strict construction. /Absent more information, I'm inclined to take McCain at his word, as he certainly supported Justice Alito's nomination and, like all or nearly all of the Republican candidates, has held up Roberts and Alito as model nominees..."...

Baptist Press - ABC draws heavy FCC indecency fine - News with a Christian Perspective

re: "WASHINGTON (BP)--The Federal Communications Commission issued a $1.43 million indecency fine against 52 ABC affiliates Jan. 25 for airing nudity during an episode of "NYPD Blue" in 2003, marking the second-largest indecency fine ever proposed for a television broadcaster... [snip]... The Journal noted that complaints have been mounting at the FCC in recent years while the agency spends time defending previous decisions in federal appeals courts..."...

I'm in a Post-March-for-Life State of Mind :: Abortion :: ProLifeBlogs

re: "...From there I headed to the March and was energized by the tens of thousands (according to the Washington Post) or 100,000 (according to Fire Society) marchers who rallied on behalf of the unborn, their mothers and their fathers. /Baby boomers like me were widely outnumbered by the waves of young people who appear to be Marching for Life in larger numbers and with more joy every year. With them comes hope. /Before wrapping up my day at the March, I made a brief stop at a second bloggers event where websters busily covered the March, took photos and interviewed pro-life leaders. From there I walked back to the U.S. Supreme Court Building and listened to the brave women and men from Silent No More tell how they put their lives back together after abortions ripped them apart. /Marching for Life left me slightly tired and totally inspired. /The icing on my cake came during the train ride back to Philadelphia as I rustled the pages of yesterday's Washington Post. /"A Youthful Throng Marches Against Abortion" read the headline of a story that accurately captures the upbeat mood of the March. /
Lo and behold! Even the mainstream media noticed."...

Mommy Life: Have your views on abortion changed?

re: "...I'd like to share the positive effect blogs are having in breaking down the polarization between abortion supporters and those who identify themselves as Pro-Life. /My own background: a Second Wave feminist who fought and was involved in pro-abortion litigation prior to Roe v Wade - who thought feminism was about way more than equal pay and abortion. Who still can't understand why feminists sacrifice respect and dignity for women to support politicians who are pro-abortion. /As someone who was in on the early days of abortion - and had one myself - I can say that never in our wildest dreams did we think that abortion would become a form of birth control ending up in 1.5 million deaths per year and wiping out 1/4 of the next generation. Why aren't feminists worried about the message that sends about women and children - that our lives and decisions are worth so little?..."...

Pro-Life With Christ: NBC affiliate News4 video of March For Life today

re: has link to television news coverage of today's march...

Abortion Opponents in 59 U.S. Cities Set to Pray Fast and Demonstrate for 40-Days Straight

re: "WASHINGTON, January 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "As America marks the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling that imposed abortion on our nation, pro-life advocates in 59 cities across 31 states are preparing to launch the next wave of a unique nationwide pro-life campaign, 40 Days for Life," said David Bereit, national campaign director for 40 Days for Life. "From February 6 until March 14, people across America will join together for 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, 40 days of constant, peaceful vigil outside abortion facilities and Planned Parenthood offices and 40 days of intensive pro-life community outreach." /The campaign dates of February 6 through March 16 coincide with the Christian season of Lent. "That's what local groups asked for," said Bereit. "Lent is a season of prayer, fasting, repentance and renewal. It is our prayer that the efforts of the thousands of people who will participate in 40 Days for Life in their home towns will touch hearts and minds, save lives -- and help mark the beginning of the end of abortion in America." /During the first nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life effort in the fall of 2007, communities from coast to coast took part in the initiative. "The results were staggering," said Bereit. "Over 100,000 people united in prayer and fasting, more than 22,000 people took to the streets to participate in peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion centers, abortion facilities experienced sharp setbacks -- some cutting back hours and others closing for days at a time -- and at least 340 innocent children were spared from death by abortion."..."...

Blogs4Life - Live :: :: ProLifeBlogs

re: overview of speakers and messages at pro-life blogging event...

ABC News: Heart Disease, Stroke-Related Deaths Down in U.S.

re: "...New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that deaths in the United States from heart disease and stroke are down about 25 percent since 1999..."...

No Left Turns: Huckabee's reasonable higher law

re: Joseph Knippenberg: "Rod Dreher calls our attention to this very winsome Beliefnet interview, in which MH explains his God’s law remarks in terms that any proponent of natural law could accept. Here’s a snippet..."...

No Left Turns: Jonah is #1

re: Peter Schramm: "Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism is the #1 seller at Amazon!..."...

Captain's Quarters: Identity Politics Is Chauvinism Under Another Name

re: "Reportedly, Christopher Hitchens has just given up smoking. Apparently, this has had no effect on his curmudgeonly tone, but then again, Hitchens could hardly get more pointed in his criticisms. Today he rightly sets his sights on identity politics and exposes it as a trade for one bigotry over another..."...

No Left Turns Archive: U.S. Abortion Rate Declines

re: "This article explains that the abortion rate in the U.S. has declined to its lowest level in 30 years... [snip]... So what does this mean? Does it indicate--as was speculated in this thread and in Peter Lawler’s numerous favorable mentions of the movie, Juno, that a sea-change of public opinion is coming on abortion?"...

Henry Payne on Michigan on National Review Online

re: "...First the good news. Michigan’s crashing of early party primaries has likely fundamentally changed the face of presidential campaigns for years to come. For ill, Michigan’s auto industry is at the epicenter once again of an assault on consumer freedoms not experienced since another activist Congress, 30 years ago amid another oil crisis, empowered a spasm of big-government regulation... [snip]... Once a celebration of American individuality, the Detroit auto show floor this week was a bow to politically correct conformity. General Motors spoke of its “responsibility to society.” Ford changed its famous blue oval to green. Chrysler bragged of its “many exciting shades of green.” Mazda spoke of “sustainable zoom zoom.” There was no joy in Motorville.... [snip... In 2008, oil worries — once again provoked by Middle East crisis - have inspired a new Congress to enact “centralized command and control laws,” to quote one GM executive. After a 20-year-ceasefire brought on by the “74 rules” unintended consequences, a new, more powerful generation of greens have automakers in the cross-hairs. This big-government redux is the product “of ignorance institutionalized by our public education system,” says veteran economist David Littman of Michigan’s Mackinac Center. “It’s ignorance accepting of government as the dictator of all good things.”..."...

Melanie Phillips’s Articles » Organs of coercion

re: "...Maybe Mr Brown thinks he can humanise his image by capitalising on the distress of people suffering or dying for want of a transplantable organ. /Undoubtedly, the impulse to give people the gift of life after one’s own death is a noble one. But if Mr Brown really imagines that he will win popular acclaim by saying that the state will whip out people’s hearts or kidneys without their consent, his advisers undoubtedly need a brain transplant. /For the implications are truly terrifying..."...

Wittingshire: Deliberate Listening

re: on monks and "obedience"...

Captain's Quarters: Doing What They Do Best

re: "After watching their agenda get drop-kicked all throughout 2007 and with the surge proving much more successful than they had feared, anti-war groups have restrategized for 2008... [snip]... Unfortunately, this new agenda has even less coherence than their prior position. One can at least understand the motivation of people to end all war in demanding a withdrawal from Iraq. It's short-sighted and would have led to a massive paroxysm of violence and killed hundreds of thousands in short order, if not millions, but it's the recognizable demand of pacifists in all ages and places. /Demanding an end to a military alliance with a stable Iraq makes much less sense. Why wouldn't we want such a relationship with a democratic, representative government in the Middle East?..."...

Killing a canard quickly *UPDATE* « Bookworm Room

re: "After the Vietnam War, one of the favorite liberal tropes was that the vets came back as deranged, dysfunctional, often savage subhuman creatures... [snip]... When I’d query my parents about the difference between Vietnam Vets and all other veterans, they could only reply “Drugs. It must have happened because they all came back drug addicted.” The fact that, statistically, that wasn’t true either was something none of us could deal with intellectually. So, we simply accepted the MSM trope and, because we didn’t know any vets personally (my parents were too old and I too young), it really didn’t matter anyway. /The trope — the vet as psychotic killer — is unsurprisingly being recycled. The MSM supported the vets when they could attack the war’s progress. With the war progressing well (that darn Surge), the MSM has now turned on the vets..."...

Head Noises: Pope to Global Warming Believers: Chill Out!

re: from December 13, 2007, a post with several links to "global warming deflation information"...

Freedom for the Thought That We Hate - Anthony Lewis - Book Review - New York Times

re: by Jeffrey Rosen: "...this is not a comprehensive narrative history of the development of the modern First Amendment; Lewis already provided that in his 1991 book, “Make No Law.” Instead, it is a passionate if discursive essay that ranges across a variety of free speech controversies — from sedition and obscenity to hate speech and secret wiretapping. This may seem like winner’s history, but the victories Lewis celebrates remain controversial. There are persistent voices, in Europe and America, that continue to argue for suppressing hate speech on university campuses, for example; Lewis rightly applauds the fact that American courts have rejected their arguments. ...[snip]... In the 21st century, the heroic First Amendment tradition may seem like a noble vision from a distant era, in which heroes and villains were easier to identify. But that doesn’t diminish the inspiring achievements of First Amendment heroism. Conservative as well as liberal judges now agree that even speech we hate must be protected, and that is one of the glories of the American constitutional tradition. Anthony Lewis is right to celebrate it."...

Magnitude 6.3 - OFF THE COAST OF OREGON

re: a larger than usual earthquake off the Oregon coast...

Why Do I Love These People?

re: "...We need to appreciate how the radically changing world has forced families to adapt. People used to respect their elders, but it wasn’t just for their sage philosophy about life. Elders used to have very valuable practical knowhow. They could tell you when to plant your crops and how to build a cabin and how to sew a sweater. You listened to them because you needed to. For the last 150 years, every generation has grown up in a newly minted world. My grandmother can’t fix the wireless card in my laptop. We’ve had to find new reasons to hang on to our relationships, and largely, we have. It’s a miracle how well we’ve held together, considering all the changes thrown at us..."...

Saturday Review of Books: December 29, 2007 at Semicolon

re: special edition for booklists for 2007...

Roe v. Wade test

re: "We have created the Roe IQ Test to measure the current awareness of Roe and its effects, as well as to provide detailed information about the ruling. It only takes a few minutes to complete the test. Your answers and results will remain 100% confidential..."...

CitizenLink: Six States Work to Pass Amendments to Protect Traditional Marriage

re: "Twenty-seven states have amended their constitutions to protect traditional marriage. Six others may join them soon. /This fall, voters in Florida, California, Arizona and Indiana may have the chance to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Iowa and Pennsylvania are working toward a future vote..."...

winnipegsun.com - Gord MacFarlane - Fraser's story-telling will be missed

re: "... I will watch with sad interest to see where the literary community places George MacDonald Fraser who passed away Jan. 2. Best known for his Flashman series MacDonald Fraser is one of very few to have made me laugh out loud while reading. Both with the Flashman books and the MacAuslan series, which were brilliantly funny though completely different in tone and style..."...

The last testament of Flashman's creator: How Britain has destroyed itself | the Daily Mail

re: George MacDonald Fraser on political correctness...

hat tip: Frank Wilson

"We Had Abortions . . . . I've Had Abortions" -- A New Voice in the Abortion Debate

re: "A new voice is emerging in the abortion debate, and this voice is a powerful witness to the tragedy of killing the unborn. This voice is the voice of the fathers of abortion. /We had abortions. . . . I've had abortions," says Mark B. Morrow, a Christian counselor and participant in arranging four abortions. Morrow was speaking to a gathering of men who have become antiabortion activists through reflection on their own experiences and their own lost children. /Stephanie Simon of The Los Angeles Times provides a report on this new movement in "Changing Abortion's Pronoun," published in the January 7, 2008 edition of the paper..."...

How One Brave Boy Saved the Presidents Life - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog

re: Mike Nizza: "It could have been a dark day for the Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives if one boy wasn’t intent on proving that the Boy Scouts were more than kerchief-accented uniforms and Pinewood Derbies. /From The Associated Press, which has the full story: //“This fellow in the crowd with a knife in his hand attempted to stab the president in his stomach,” [government spokesman Mohammad Shareef] said by telephone from Male, the capital. “But a 15-year-old boy came in the way, and grabbed the knife. One brave boy saved the president’s life.”//President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said in a statement that the attack, which came during a visit to one of the 1,190 islands that he rules, “did not at all deter his will.” There were no claims of responsibility. /The president was thankful for his unofficial bodyguard, who suffered minor injuries. His name is Mohamed Jaisham Ibrahim, and his picture from a local newspaper (above) should be showing up on Boy Scout recruiting posters any day now."...

Chippewa.com: Rare January tornadoes hit SE Wis., flatten houses

re: "TOWN OF WHEATLAND, Wis. - The Kenosha County sheriff says it's a miracle no one was seriously injured when a rare series of January tornadoes ripped through southeastern Wisconsin and left demolished houses in its wake..."...

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

re: "The Associated Press has a shocking report on Barack Obama's state legislative record, though the AP's Nedra Pickler does her best to play it down: //start Pickler quote//Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters. /The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights. /During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents. //end Pickler quote//There is a word in English for "aborted fetuses who survive." They are called infants..."...

A Return To “Press Gangs” Could Be Another Solution? « Expat Yank

re: "...Before one gets too excited, “children” in this case would be 16-17 year olds; the British military does not recruit anyone under age 16. In Britain, also bear in mind, one can leave school and enter the workforce at 16; so, say, army recruiting at 16 doesn’t seem patently unreasonable. And especially not if one also considers that parental consent is required for under-18s. /In short, there might well be good questions about whether a 16 or a 17 year old joining is appropriate. However..."...

Inept, Oppressive, Untrustworthy « Expat Yank

re: "...What he doesn’t address, however, is that as Africa continues to — or doesn’t — struggle to overcome “low trust” governance, in which . . . //…the people nearest to you - whom you can trust - are first, family, and second, tribe… //. . . one shouldn’t think such could not become more the norm in what had always been taken for granted to have been “high trust” societies, like Britain’s. /Western governments, while nowhere nearly as bad, are themselves increasingly relatively distant, and simultaneously ever more intrusive, as well as seemingly inept, enfeebled, and “tribal“. And so they are, unsurprisingly, seeing “trust” in the state among their populations rapidly eroding. How much longer those governments (should they continue down this path) will be considered reasonably representative, truly national and — most importantly — generally functional, rather than capricious, divisive and corrupt themselves, is really anyone’s guess..."...

Amazon.com: Digital Text Platform: Sign In

re: "Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets you upload and format your books for sale in the Kindle Store..."...