Father Knows Business - FOXBusiness.com

re: "When Greg Bishop dreamed up the idea for a father-to-be boot camp in 1990, the fatherhood industry was uncharted territory. /"One of the fundamental problems at that point and still today is that there's no media channel directed at fathers," Bishop says. "The entire world of babies is fully directed toward mothers." /...[snip].../ That question prompted Bishop, 57, to begin conducting boot camp workshops at a local hospital. Six years later, he transformed his hobby into a nationwide organization, now known as Boot Camp for New Dads. /The goal of boot camp is to help new dads become comfortable caring for their babies, supporting their spouses and making the transition into fatherhood. So far, Boot Camp for New Dads, based in Irvine, California, has expanded into 43 states and England and Australia, graduating some 200,000 fathers in about 18 years. /To support this program, Bishop founded the nonprofit New Fathers Foundation and a for-profit company, Dads Adventure Inc., in 1995. Through Dads Adventure, Bishop, a father of four, writes and publishes books and a magazine for dads-to-be. He also maintains a website offering new dads advice and resources... /...[snip]... / "I think what you're seeing is a fatherhood movement that's mostly based in guys' hearts, who want to be closer to their kids than their own father was with them," Bishop says. /Diaper Dude founder Chris Pegula, 36, is part of that movement... /...[snip].../ "A lot of the guys I know and hang out with are participatory dads. They're all really involved in the burping process and changing diapers," Mike Barclay, 36, says. /By day, Barclay is a full-time dean of students at a private school in Providence, Rhode Island. By night, he's a husband, father of two and co-founder ofBurp Armor, a twist on the traditional burp cloth. Unlike regular burp cloths, Burp Armor has a kidney bean shape and shoulder flap design that protects a parent's shoulder and upper arm from baby's many messes.... /.../ "...

Exxon Mobil Plans to Exit the Gasoline Business - FOXBusiness.com

re: "The largest publicly-traded oil company is reportedly planning to exit the retail gas industry. Exxon Mobil will sell 820 of its company-owned retail gas stations, as well as 1,400 of its dealer-operated locations to gasoline distributors. /...[snip]... /Exxon and Mobil stations will maintain a presence nationally, since nearly 75% of the 12,000 Exxon Mobile gas stations throughout the country are owned by distributors. Exxon will continue to sell gasoline to those stations and be paid by those stations for the use of the Exxon Mobil name. /The market for retail gasoline has been dealing with lower profit margins due to the soaring price of crude oil. The sale is expected to occur over a “multi-year period,” the company said."

ExxonMobil to End Gas Stations; Rush Offers Quick Fix for Prices

re: "...RUSH: I have a fast fix for energy, a fast fix for the energy prices. There is no instant cure, as we know, for rising energy prices, but as your host, I, El Rushbo, have a plan to get on the right track sooner rather than later. As close to a quick fix as humanly possible. It all starts with our gas stations. We do have gas stations out there. And these gas stations pump regular gas, and they pump premium gas. Some of them pump diesel. On every pump, every pump that distributes regular gas, we post a picture of Harry Reid with the price appearing in his mouth. On every premium pump, we post a picture of Nancy Pelosi with the price upticking in her wonderful smile; that you could drive up to any station and ask for a tankful of Reid or you could ask for a tankful of Pelosi. We would explore, we would drill, we would refine faster than a liberal can attack a Republican. / You gas station guys, you want to turn the profit in your business? Go out and get some pictures of Reid and Pelosi, stick 'em on your pumps, put the price in there. And then when the self-serve people come up just make 'em say they want to fill up with Reid, fill up with Pelosi..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Jennifer Roback Morse: Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ and the Persecution of Civil Society

re: "The NC Registers carries this article by Jennifer Roback Morse. She begins: // Advocates of same-sex “marriage” present the idea as a step forward for tolerance and respect. But recent developments place that interpretation very much in doubt. /Legalizing same-sex “marriage” is not a stand-alone policy, independent of all the other activities of the state. Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce a whole host of other social changes. /Unfortunately, these government-enforced changes conflict with a wide array of ordinary liberties, including religious freedom and ordinary private property rights . . ."...

Nazarene Communications Network - Ohio Nazarene publishes her first children's book

re: "Emily Powers, wife of Cardington, Ohio, Church of the Nazarene associate pastor Benjamin Powers, recently published her first children’s book through Tree of Life Publishing House called Wendell Has a Cracked Shell. Emily's brother, Jason Moody, is the illustrator and also attends the Cardington church..."...

Nazarene Communications Network - Tennessee prison outreach results in deputy-escorted baptisms

re: "While the literal chains may still have been in place, the spiritual chains came off recently when five inmates of a Humphreys County, Tennessee, prison were baptized at a local Nazarene church..."...

NBC's Tim Russert dead at 58 - U.S. news- msnbc.com

re: "WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after being stricken at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58. /Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” broadcast when he collapsed. He was rushed to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, said Russert’s physician, Michael Newman, who said the cause of death was not immediately known. /Russert had returned from Italy, where his family was celebrating the graduation of his son, Luke, from Boston College..."...

Catharina's blog: Fetus vs. child and a doctor that changed his mind

re: part of an episode of House, plus real-life situation that was similar...

The Belmont Club: Misdirection

re: "It's been said that the most important step in problem solving is defining what the problem is. This is even more true in politics when the terms in which a problem is originally cast often determines how it is approached in the future. Martin Kramer asks, at Middle East Strategy at Harvard, why every Middle Eastern crisis is necessarily linked to Israel. Kramer argues that Israel is placed at the center of every problem in the region not because it is true; but because things have been set up that way. The result he says, is a distortion in which otherwise tractable problems are twisted out of shape and made dependent on the resolution of its "linkage"..."...

Nazarene Communications Network - Food struggle continues for Haitian Nazarenes

re: May 14, 2008: "As the price of food continues to skyrocket, the vast majority of people in Haiti are still struggling to provide even the most basic of daily bread for their families—and this includes the 107,000 Nazarenes who live in the country. / ...[snip]... / To read more about the food crisis in Haiti, see Haitian Nazarenes suffer in the midst of food insecurity...."...

Biofuels Are Indefensible in Our Hungry World - WSJ.com

re: Peter Brabeck-Letmathe : "The world's agriculture and water crisis is only going to get worse. As China and India grow, their populations are demanding more and wider varieties of food stuffs, and competition for arable land is intensifying. Food prices are rising, in large part because agriculture suppliers can barely keep up with today's demand. So what is the world doing? Reorienting land away from food production and toward plants cultivated for energy needs. /This could be the single most destructive set of policy mistakes made in a generation... / ...[snip].../ If there's one certainty, it is this: The production of biofuels has stimulated a massive, and destructive, reorientation of the world's agriculture markets. The U.S. Department of Energy calculates that every 10,000 liters of water produces as little as five liters of ethanol, or one to two liters of biodiesel. Biofuels are economical nonsense, ecologically useless and ethically indefensible. This year, the U.S. will use around 130 million tons of corn for biofuels. This corn was not available as human food, nor as fodder to animals. Is this the right strategy, for a product that won't satisfy even a small percentage of our energy needs?..."...

Cedar Rapids hard-hit; thousands lack power, water supply critical | DesMoinesRegister.com

re: "Cedar Rapids, Ia. — A total of 3,200 homes were flooded, thousands of outages were reported, as many as 18,000 people were at risk of losing power, and dozens of flood-stranded residents were rescued by boat Thursday as Iowa's second-largest city staggered under the surging Cedar River. / Floodwater covered an area equal to 100 city blocks, said Mike Goldberg, Linn County's public information officer. / "Our rough estimate is 9,000 people are displaced because of evacuation," he said. / Much of the city's downtown was affected. The lobby of the Linn County Courthouse was flooded, as were the main police station and fire department..."...

Meals in minutes » RapidCityJournal.com

re: "...Canyon Lake United Methodist Church is offering a Build-A-Meal program./ ...[snip]... / Build-A-Meal evolved from those Wednesday night church suppers as a way to help people who didn’t like to cook, didn’t know how to cook or didn’t have time cook. It also was designed to help seniors, recently widowed elders, single parents and families ensure that they had a nutritious meal tucked away in the freezer, Schmitz said..."...

Simplot legacy feeds world

re: "...The impact of [J.R.] Simplot will continue to be felt internationally, beyond the sales and employment figures. It's appropriate to honor him, as well as mourn him, this year that the United Nations has designed as the International Year of the Potato. / This is only the second time a year has been designated for a food - the first was rice - and it's hard to separate potatoes from the legacy of Simplot..."...

Four killed by tornado at camp were Boy Scouts - CNN.com

re: "(CNN) -- Boy Scouts dived under picnic tables and were buried under a collapsed chimney when a deadly tornado hit their camp in western Iowa, survivors said Thursday morning..."...

BBC NEWS | Americas | Cuba to abandon salary equality

re: "Cuba is to abolish its system of equal pay for all and allow workers and managers to earn performance bonuses, a senior official has announced. /Vice-Minister for Labour Carlos Mateu said the current system - in place since the communist revolution in 1959 - was no longer "convenient". /He said wage differentiation should improve production and services..."...

BBC NEWS | UK | 'Scottish Islamic state plotted'

re: "Plans to set up a secret Islamist state in Scotland were discussed by two supporters of jihad, a court has heard. /The pair said it could provide a safe haven for those who felt "oppressed", London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard. /Aabid Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said the only problem was the availability of weapons, the court was told.../ ...[snip]... / Mr Khan is said to have replied: "A group of Muslims can go to a remote place and set up a mini Sharia state and they can rule according to Sharia law, like this and stay there, building them up and their children up, preparing for fitness, and then launching jihad once they strengthen themselves." /Mr Denison claimed he then added: "In the UK you can isolate with a group discreetly and train, but better in the US as they have weapons there. Over here weapons is problem."..."...

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Lancastria dead gain recognition

re: "In a ceremony at Holyrood later, the Scottish Government will issue its first ever medal to commemorate the thousands of service men and women who died with the sinking of the Lancastria almost exactly 68 years ago. / The loss of the converted Cunard liner was Britain's worst maritime disaster and the country's biggest single loss of life in World War II. /But it was hushed up and, for half a century, relatives and survivors have felt the sacrifice was forgotten. /The ship was lending support to the war effort, evacuating British Expeditionary Forces from France, when it was attacked by German bombers on 17 June, 1940. / ...[snip]... / At least 4,000 died - 400 of them Scots. So soon after Dunkirk, then Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the event to be hushed up to protect national morale. /
It remained a secret long after the war, but this led the bereaved to feel their sacrifice was ignored..."...

BBC NEWS | Americas | Peruvians seek relatives in mass grave

re: "...The victims - all peasant farmers from the area - had been tricked by the military, who had set up a base in Putis, into digging their own grave. /In 1983 the region, Huanta, was controlled by the Shining Path - a brutal Maoist guerrilla group who had declared war on the state. They had killed all the local officials and the people had fled to the mountain peaks. /In November 1984, the army set up its base in Putis and invited the local population to live there under their protection. They asked them to dig a fish pond; then on 13 December they killed everyone and buried them there. /After the massacre, the soldiers sold off the villagers' livestock, according the 2003 commission report."..."...

Culver outlines 'unprecedented' scope, destruction of floods | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register

re: "Johnston, Ia. - The Iowa floods of 2008 are on track to surpass the destruction of the historic flooding that struck the state in 1993, Gov. Chet Culver said Wednesday night. / “Absolutely,” Culver told reporters at a Camp Dodge flood briefing. “This is unprecedented in terms of its power and destruction and scope.” /Nine rivers throughout Iowa are out of their banks, damaging homes and businesses and causing destruction that will undoubtedly total in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the governor said. / Fifty-three counties have been declared state disaster areas, and more could be added because of forecasts for additional rainfall, Culver said. Some places in Iowa could experience 500-year flood levels, he cautioned..."...

Tornado kills four at Iowa boy scout camp | U.S. | Reuters

re: "DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Four people were killed and at least 20 injured when a tornado tore through an Iowa boy scout camp on Wednesday, where dozens of scouts were gathered for a summer retreat, state officials said. /The deadly twister was one of more than 30 that roared through four U.S. Midwestern states on Wednesday. It hit the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa about 6:35 p.m. CDT (2135 GMT). More tornadoes were feared for the region Wednesday night. / Ninety-three campers and 25 adults were attending the Little Sioux camp when the tornado struck, said Tina Potthoff, spokeswoman for the Iowa Emergency Operations Center. Potthoff said in addition to the four dead, at least 20 and possibly up to 40 people were injured. /Injured campers were taken to five area hospitals as parents of campers gathered Wednesday night in a nearby church awaiting news and search and rescue teams continued to sift through debris at the camp. /Iowa officials said the state National Guard had been mobilized to assist in search and rescue operations, work that was complicated by the heavily treed area where the camp was located and continued lightning strikes and heavy rain..."...

Official: 4 dead after twister tears through Scout camp - CNN.com

re: "(CNN) -- At least four people were killed and another 40 injured Wednesday when a tornado struck a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa, a state safety official said. / Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Gene Meyer said the four were killed by a storm that slammed into the Little Sioux Scout Ranch near the Nebraska state line. /Meyer said about 120 people, including 93 campers, were believed to be at the camp at the time of the storm. /About 40 people were injured, said Sheri Bauwens, a nurse with the American Red Cross..."...

The Paragraph Farmer: Warnings worth heeding

re: "You got the Anchoress, you got G.K. Chesterton, and you got C.S. Lewis. They're all singing from the same hymnal. Any questions?..."...

Baptist Press - Colts coach Dungy challenges pastors

re: "...Dungy told the crowd that winning the Super Bowl and writing his book, 'Quiet Strength,' not only helped him affect the lives of athletes and fostered conversations with many people across the country, it also made him 'realize how vital you all are, how vital our mission is to reach our world.' /He also said he has grown more attuned to the search that engages many of America's young people: 'They are looking, and they want to find it in all that the things our society calls exciting.' Yet, 'they're still searching for what we know is fulfilling, and that's the relationship with Christ. And I think that's the message that we have to continue to deliver in a lot of different ways.' /Dungy compared the Pastors' Conference to the Colts' training camp, saying he was 'excited that you're getting those batteries charged and getting ready' for the mission ahead. /'We're all on the same team,' Dungy said. 'We're going to work for the Lord, and Christ is going to honor what you do.' /Dungy thanked Southern Baptists for coming to Indianapolis, 'but more than anything I want to thank you for what you're going to do, going back to your homes and being on that mission field for the Lord.'"..."...

Baptist Press - 'Give It Away,' Gaither tells Baptists

re: "INDIANAPOLIS (BP)--Bill Gaither of gospel music's Gaither Vocal Band told Southern Baptists the answer to the nation's economic pressures is not a political solution but a spiritual solution based on God's people learning to "give it away." /"I think it starts with us, and I think when the church of Jesus Christ gets organized, we've got the resources to do it, and we can do it when we put our heads together," Gaither told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Indianapolis June 10. / As part of the Executive Committee's morning report, the Gaither Vocal Band emphasized stewardship by singing their hit song "Give It Away," and then Gaither spoke briefly about the importance of giving..."...

Considerettes - Universal "Health Care"

re: "Don Surber notes that the health care system run by the state of Oregon won’t pay for cancer drugs, but they’ll cover assisted suicide. Socialized medicine is about the money just as much as "capitalized" medicine is. /One example cited is that of a woman who’s oncologist prescribed a drug to slow the cancer growth, but Oregon Heath Care wouldn’t cover it, though she could take the Permanant Exit Door(tm) with their blessing. Instead, the drug company gave her the medicine for free. Surber notes the moral of the story..."...

American Thinker: Global Whining vs. the Truth

re: Brian Sussman: "...Like most TV Meteorologists, I loathed the heat wave live-remotes. I would much rather work in a controlled environment, complete with air conditioning and a green Chroma-key screen. And during extreme weather events, the studio lent itself to professionalism rather than playing on emotion. /"Let me guess, the bank in Walnut Creek?" I said sarcastically. I had been through this drill many times. /"Perfect location. Plus, a lot of viewers with ratings meters out there." /Walnut Creek is an upscale town 30 miles east of San Francisco. It is sheltered from the cooling influences of the coast and the Bay by a modest mountain range. As a result, in the summer that region can bake. The bank not only referenced the name of the town, but had a thermometer that was several degrees off, thanks to the heat absorbing black asphalt on the adjacent multi-lane street and the pavement of the nearby parking lot. The producer knew 105° would easily read 110°. On air, I always quickly explained the reason for the soaring temperature reading for our audience, but it was not enough. The misleading visual message was absolutely clear: 110° in Walnut Creek-another sign of climate doom! No doubt about it, the climate was under assault. It had to be global warming. / No, it's global whining..."...

American Thinker Blog: What kind of war crimes trials does Obama plan? (updated)

re: Thomas Lifson: "Barack Obama's plan for imposing unity on the nation after he takes office apparently entails a close look at war crimes trials for Bush administration officials. He has even said so in an interview with Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News. /This kind of change -- putting your predecessors on trial for their conduct of policy -- may not be what most Americans really want or expect from someone with Obama's gauzy rhetoric of unity. But unity has a dark side in the hands of people who regard their opponents as criminals. America has two centuries-plus of history lacking the totalitarian practice of jailing the predecessors when a new president takes office..."...

The Book Den: The Book Den Caption Game: Volume 3

re: numerous quotes about journalism...

Seraphic Secret: Oil Prices

re: "...The Democrats self-righteously lecture that we have to exploit alternative sources of energy. /I'm all for it. /Problem is, like almost all Democratic policies, it's delusional... / ...[snip]... / Big government: History teaches that unlimited government always yields economic ruin and personal misery. And these states inevitably evolve, by internal design, into a Big Brother rule. /As the clever cartoon points out, it's Democratic policies that enable and encourage such high oil prices. Remember that next time you fill up your tank, confront massive heating bills, pay higher prices on your airline ticket. In fact, high oil prices permeate almost every nook and cranny of our economic lives. /Alternate sources of energy will be exploited. Not by massive government programs, wasteful and inefficient, but by private entrepreneurs spurred on by the spirit of innovation and capitalism. /This Israeli company is making fine headway—with seaweed. /In the meantime, we should be exploiting the oil resources that are readily available to us. New methods of drilling now exist that do not harm the environment..."...

Kathryn Jean Lopez on Catholics & Barack Obama on National Review Online

re: some issues are not negotiable...

ADF Alliance Alert » Alaska Supreme Court issues order to keep patient alive

re: "ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Supreme Court granted an Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney’s motion for stay and signed an order Friday that will keep Providence Hospital from removing Mari Chamberlain’s life-support tubes. Ending her life support could result in her death within minutes or days. /“No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless. A man is caring for the wife he loves; it’s not the hospital’s job to end her life,” said ADF Senior Counsel Joe Infranco. “We are pleased with the court’s decision to allow Mari to continue receiving her treatment, respecting the wishes of the patient and her husband over those of hospital bureaucrats.” /Providence Hospital asserts that Chamberlain’s medical treatment does her no good and that keeping her alive violates its “ethical” standards. Chamberlain’s husband, Peter, filed suit against Dr. Javed Kamali and the hospital on May 16 to keep medical staff from removing his wife’s life support..."...

Considerettes » A Stinging Rebuke

re: "Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) slaps his party on the back of the head and tells them to wake up..."...

AMW.com | Tyrom Theis - Fugitive

re: "It was early in the morning of January 17, 1993, when a masked gunman entered the Leather's Oil Company gas station in Gresham, Ore. The three women working that day were well-known in the small community: 25-year-old Mary Beth Garey and her mother-in-law, Rosalie Girtz, as well as Kay Endicott, were all victims of a robbery gone wrong -- a robbery, cops believe, committed by a young man that Kay knew all too well: former Leather's employee Tyrom Theis..."...

MIND/FIND

re: "Interpol is offering countries the opportunity to give their front-line officers instant access to its many databases. These databases contain millions of records of criminal information on individuals and property submitted by member countries, constituting a unique and vast collection of data that does not exist at the regional or national levels. /There are millions of stolen or lost travel documents in circulation today. How can an immigration officer at an airport, sea port or land border crossing know if a passport is stolen or not? What are the consequences for national security if a terrorist or criminal enters a country using a stolen travel document and false identity? / At field level, most countries rely on their own national sources of information. Yet crime is increasingly globalized. Real-time access to up-to-date international information is vital to prevent criminals from travelling freely to escape from the law or commit further crimes. /Interpol manages a database of passports, identity cards and visas reported as stolen or lost by countries all over the world known as the stolen and lost travel documents (SLTD) database. It enables front-line officers to check instantly whether a travel document is stolen or lost. Interpol also has databases on stolen motor vehicles and wanted persons. /To help countries connect easily, Interpol has developed two integrated solutions using either fixed or mobile integrated network databases, known as FIND and MIND. Both can integrate into the existing computer-assisted verification system in a country. In addition, MIND can be used in a country without an existing system..."...

INTERPOL media release - 20/05/2008: Iran regional meeting to champion INTERPOL’s Central Asian anti-terror 'Shield'

re: "TEHRAN, Iran – The need to harness a pro-active, multi-disciplinary approach in terrorism-related investigations is the focus of the fourth working group meeting opening today in Tehran on Project Kalkan, INTERPOL’s on-going anti-terrorism initiative in Central Asia. /The two-day meeting draws together countries from the Central Asia region as well as from Africa, Asia and Europe and will review progress on the collaborative regional project amongst its 19 core countries. Specific issues under discussion include counter terrorism initiatives and operational cases, terrorism financing and the recruitment methods of terrorist groups. /Project Kalkan – meaning Shield in Central Asian countries – is one of several key regional components of INTERPOL’s multi-region Fusion Task Force (FTF) which was created in 2002 to identify active terrorist groups, and to collect, share and analyze information and intelligence on their activities. From just five initial member countries at the launch of Project Kalkan in 2004, following terrorist attacks in Tashkent, a total of 60 INTERPOL member countries are now sharing terrorism-related information as part of the initiative..."...

The More Things Change, the More Things Change

re: Irwin M. Stelzer, ""IN TIMES LIKE THESE, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these," says Paul Harvey, the legendary radio commentator. A "great transformation [is] taking place around the world...a tectonic power shift...the world is very different," writes Fareed Zakaria in his Post-American World. /They're both right. We have indeed seen economic downturns many times in the past, some severe, some shallow and short. We have gone through periods of rising oil and commodity prices, of a falling dollar, and of rapid technological change. So Paul Harvey is right. /But so is Zakaria. We are finally seeing the impact on the world economy of the emergence of China, India and other once-poor countries. The good news is that we have brought billions of people into the world trading system, enriching them so they can afford to eat regularly, and trade their bicycles for cars. The less good news is that the process of adjusting to this increased demand on the world resources is proving painful, especially here in America. /Previous increases took the price of oil, and most especially of gasoline, to levels that were merely annoying. And anyhow proved to be temporary, as modest adjustments in fuel use and advances in technology combined with new supplies to ease price pressures. The current price spurt, which has taken gasoline prices to over $4 per gallon--half the level in the UK and other parts of the world, but previously unheard of in the United States--is different..."...

Cafe Hayek: Suggestions for Lowering Energy Prices

re: "The Cato Institute's Jerry Taylor speaks much good sense, in today's New York Post, about energy prices..."...

The Associated Press: Obama, Clinton woo American Indian voters

re: "CROW AGENCY, Mont. (AP) — The purification ceremony isn't an everyday ritual of U.S. presidential politics. /The newly named Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish — better known as Barack Obama — faced east, the symbolic source of new life. His adopted Crow father, Hartford Black Eagle, prayed over him. /Afterward, they walked arm-in-arm with Black Eagle's wife, Mary, to a podium, where Obama promised to live up to the meaning of his new name: "One Who Helps People Throughout the Land." /"I want you to know that I will never forget you," Obama told the crowd, who had not seen a visitor of such political importance since Lady Bird Johnson came to the Montana reservation in the 1960s. "You will be on my mind every day that I am in the White House." /In a tight Democratic race, American Indians living in poor conditions on isolated prairie reservations could have a pivotal voice in the selection of a presidential candidate. As a result, they're hearing a lot of promises from politicians: better health care, improved housing and stepped-up law enforcement in Indian country. /Their votes could be decisive in the last two Democratic primaries, the June 3 votes in Montana and South Dakota, that Obama would very much like to win to bring him closer to the Democratic nomination. He and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who'd like victories just as much, are wooing the oft-ignored Indian vote — which is small, but big enough to matter this year..."...

The Weekly Standard: The Blog: Al Qaeda in Iraq's Totalitarian Governance

re: "In mid-May, Iraqi security forces began to crack down on Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in a Sunni area of Mosul that the U.S. military had described as AQI's last major urban stronghold. As AQI melted away in response to these operations, we gained a glimpse of the brutal and bizarre governance that the terrorist group had imposed..."...

Nazarene Communications Network - Missouri church gives away $1,300 in free gas

re: "A local church gave away more than 350 gallons of gasoline Thursday, May 22, and plans on doing it again throughout the summer." / We are doing what a church is supposed to do," Mark Hager of the Church of the Nazarene said outside the Pick-A-Dilly convenience store where the giveaway occurred. / "We are supposed to help the community, and that is what this is doing." / With local gas prices climbing, the give-away was welcome news to local residents." / I think it's a blessing what the Church of Nazarene is doing," Cindy Morton said. "It shows they actually care about the community." / According to organizers, 130 motorists received the free $10 gas vouchers. / Morton was the first in line, and estimated she arrived about 45 minutes early. / Cars were initially parked in an adjoining lot and out onto the street. The lines grew. / Kirksville police were dispatched to the scene at 4:45 P.M., and Chief Jim Hughes said officers closed one intersection before relocating all the waiting cars to another street..."...

John McCain 2008: Win a Trip to the 2008 Republican National Convention

re: "You could be in Minneapolis-Saint Paul when Senator McCain receives the Repubican nomination for President of the United States and here's how -- submit a video to the 2008 Republican National Convention's American Neighbor contest by clicking here. Simply film a profile somone in your community who serves "a cause greater than their own self-interest." This could be a solider, a teacher, a firefighter, a volunteer or anything in between. The winner and the subject of the video will win a free trip to the Convention this September..."...

The Common Room: FLDS

re: posts on the state-run mass kidnappings in Texas...

The Trial of Mark Steyn

re: Hugh Hewitt: "Canada's descent into self-mockery opened today with the start of trial of Mark Steyn on allegations of human rights violations by the British Columbia Human Rights Commission. /It is being live-blogged by Maclean's Andrew Coyne..."

Mere Comments: Skeptical Inquirer & Rejoinders

re: James M. Kushiner: "This article by Mary Eberstadt at National Review On-Line is worth a look, if you're interested in responses to the recent spate of atheist evangelical tomes. /But I especially recommend the new article in the June issue of Touchstone, The Skeptical Inquirer: If Only Atheists Were the Skeptics They Think They Are, by Edward Tingely, of Augustine College in Ottawa..."...

Mere Comments: Transracial Adoption and the Gospel

re: Russell D. Moore: "...Right now, there are untold numbers of children, many of them racial minorities, languishing in the foster care system in the United States. Would the social workers really have us believe that it is better for an African-American child to grow up bounced from home to home in this bureaucratic limbo than to be a child to parents whose skin is paler than his? Do they really believe that a white Russian child would do better to live in an orphanage until she is dismissed at eighteen to a life of suicide or homelessness than to grow up with loving African-American parents? /This approach loves the abstract notion of humanity more than actual humans. It neatly categorizes persons according to their racial lineages rather than according to their need for love, for acceptance, for families. Our love for neighbor means we ought to prioritize the need for families for the fatherless -- regardless of how they're skin colors or languages line up with one another. /But there's an even bigger issue here: the gospel of Jesus Christ. /I'm not surprised that a group of secular social workers believe racial identity is more important than familial love. The Scripture tells us we always, if left to ourselves, want to categorize ourselves "according to the flesh." Whether it is the Athenians clinging to their myth of superior origins or Judaizers insisting on circumcision or Peter refusing to eat with pig-devouring Gentiles, we love to see ourselves first and foremost in fleshly categories -- because it keeps us from seeing ourselves in Christ. /The gospel, though, drives us away from our identity in the flesh, and toward a new identity, indeed a new family, defined by the Spirit..."...

Townhall.com::Environmentalists Pick Up Where Communists Left Off::By Charles Krauthammer

re: "...Yet on the basis of this speculation, environmental activists, attended by compliant scientists and opportunistic politicians, are advocating radical economic and social regulation. "The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity," warns Czech President Vaclav Klaus, "is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism." / ... [snip]... / For a century, an ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous knowledge class -- social planners, scientists, intellectuals, experts and their left-wing political allies -- arrogated to themselves the right to rule either in the name of the oppressed working class (communism) or, in its more benign form, by virtue of their superior expertise in achieving the highest social progress by means of state planning (socialism). /Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history. /Just as the ash heap of history beckoned, the intellectual left was handed the ultimate salvation: environmentalism. Now the experts will regulate your life not in the name of the proletariat or Fabian socialism but -- even better -- in the name of Earth itself..."...

Townhall.com::Media Shove Boy Scout Story Under a Tent::By Robert Knight

re: Robert Knight: "...The Scouts are fighting what amounts to an attempt at extortion. Given that tens of millions of American men have been in the Boy Scouts and that this story brims with David and Goliath drama, why is it being ignored?..."...

Townhall.com::When You Fill Up the Tank Thank Congress for High Gas Prices::By David Strom

re: "Americans have been treated to a lot of whining by our elected officials about the high cost of oil and gas these days, but as usual the fingers are being pointed by rather than at the guilty parties..."...

Traffic fatalities fall to lowest state level since 1970 holiday: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.

re: "After the deadliest Memorial Day weekend in 25 years in 2007, the number of fatal traffic collisions over this year’s holiday weekend dropped to the lowest since 1970, Oregon State Police said Tuesday. /The weekend’s one known traffic death occurred Friday night near Lebanon when a 51-year-old woman died after the car she was riding in left Santiam Highway and crashed into a tree. Police said alcohol was a possible contributing factor in the crash, which seriously injured the woman’s 47-year-old husband, who was driving the car. / The official holiday period began at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at midnight Monday. /Nine people died on Oregon roads last year, making it the state’s deadliest Memorial Day weekend since 1982..."...

Legal aid group: Texas officials offer 'diversionary reasons' to keep FLDS kids - Salt Lake Tribune

re: "SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Texas RioGrande Legal Aid today filed a response to the state Supreme Court saying the Department of Families and Protective Services offers only "diversionary reasons" for why it would be impractical and wrong to return FLDS children to their parents. / "The department cannot scatter hundreds of children -- including infants and toddlers -- to the four winds and then complain that it cannot put the pieces of the puzzle back together again," TRLA wrote. / The legal aid firm represents 38 FLDS mothers whose children are in state custody. It filed the 17-page document in response to the high court's request that it counter the state's effort to overturn an appeals court ruling that some if not all of the more than 450 children taken into custody last month should be sent home..."...

The Archbishop and the Embryo

re: "Archbishop Rowan Williams, Primate of the Church of England and leader of the Anglican Communion was once a human embryo. So was I. So were you. So also were those who would now reduce human embryos to the status of a commodity to be used and destroyed in the name of medical progress. /This archbishop is known for taking tepid and confusing positions on any number of issues. But in response to a proposal to create human-animal hybrid embryos in Great Britain, Rowan Williams has staked out a position that at least protests the subversion of human dignity..."...

Life Without Father

re: "Britain's Labour-led government has unleashed the hounds of biomedical and cultural revolution in recent days, voting to allow expanded research using and destroying human embryonic research, the development of animal-human hybrid embryos, the development of "savior siblings," and now equal access to IVF technology regardless of sexual orientation. /Until this week, British law required IVF clinics to take a child's need for a father into consideration when IVF services were sought. Now, this requirement has been removed and the new language simply requires attention to the child's "need for supportive parenting." This opens the door..."...

Mommy Life: Parental Rights - organizing to protect them

re: "One could say that there are plenty of signs around us that the government is encroaching more and more into the once-secure area of parental rights. While we may not agree with the polygamist practices of some far-out sect, seeing the government come in an arbitrarily remove 400+ children to disburse them over the state of Texas into foster care - breaking up families and sibling groups - is beyond imagination. /And I've been hearing tales - including one close to home of a family with a special needs child whose wandering has gotten them in trouble with CPS. Imagine having a file started on you as a parent because your child did something that is actually quite normal for even normal kids to do! And be careful what you share with your child's teacher - if she thinks it's abuse, you may have CPS knocking on your door, too. /In anticipation that recent efforts to exert the rights of the state over the rights of parents (remember the California judge who arbitrarily decided that parents had no right to homeschool?), some may want to investigate ParentalRights.org..."...

World On the Web » An inconvenient (and reasonable) debate

re: Harrison Scott Key: "Skeptic features a cogent debate about climate change with these two great essays that seem rather reasonable in their presentation: “The Climate of Belief” (which argues that we just don’t have the science to confirm that humans have caused global warming) versus “How We Know Global Warming is Real” (which argues exactly what it says)."...

No Left Turns: Zakaria’s book

re: Peter Schramm: "Josef Joffe reviews Farred Zakaria’s The Post-American World and explains that in fact it is not another exercise in declinism. His point is not the demise of Gulliver, but the "rise of the rest." Joffe calls it intelligent. I have started reading it and, so far, I agree..."...

No Left Turns: Anti-Green Britain

re: Peter Schramm: "This is good news: More than seven in ten British voters "insist that they would not be willing to pay higher taxes in order to fund projects to combat climate change, according to a new poll. The survey also reveals that most Britons believe ’green’ taxes on 4x4s, plastic bags and other consumer goods have been imposed to raise cash rather than change our behaviour, while two-thirds of Britons think the entire green agenda has been hijacked as a ploy to increase taxes."

TOB for Teens

re: information on the Theology of the Body for Teens program...

To Follow Jesus - Prison Fellowship

re: T. M. Moore: "...We’ve been seeking crowds, not disciples. We’ve considered every possible means of getting the most people into our buildings and keeping them there, and we’ve attracted people on the basis of mere self-interest, so that what we have are congregations ecstatic to belong to some place that, in the name of the Lord, takes their self-interest as seriously as they do. /I wonder what would happen if we ever began seeking disciples? Would the crowds turn on us with as much vehemence and vengeance as they did on Jesus? /Or might we be surprised to see some, perhaps many, step forward, like convicted Isaiahs, saying, “Here am I; send me”? My own sense is that church people are weary of status quo Christianity, whether that status quo is of the traditional church, dying on the vine, or the contemporary church that is merely contemporary and not much church. People want to be challenged to lay down their lives, to nurture passionate, exclusive love for Jesus through prayer and devotion to His Word. The world is all superficial and self-centered. Shouldn’t the church be something else? Something solid, profound, deeply mystical, altogether other-worldly, and devoted to loving God and neighbor no matter the cost?..."...

Radical Rantings - Prison Fellowship

re: Chuck Colson: "...Among Cone’s more radical teachings: God is against white people. My friend Mike Gerson, the columnist, quotes Cone as saying, “Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.” Jesus, Cone declares, did not come for all, but only for the poor and the oppressed. /Clearly, these beliefs are inconsistent with biblical teaching. Jesus was concerned, of course, about the rights of the oppressed, but He also made it clear that the Good News is for everybody—male and female, Jew and Gentile, and even the Roman soldiers who nailed Him to the cross. /I had always written off black liberation theology as a movement embraced only by isolated radicals. You can imagine how surprised I was to read in the New York Times this week that perhaps a quarter of all black pastors are followers of this movement. /Black liberation theology parallels the liberation theology within the Catholic Church. A few years ago, many believed that the impoverished masses of Latin America would embrace liberation theology with its Marxist promises of justice and redistribution of wealth. But the people wanted none of it. Why not? Because their governments had become so corrupt that they would not put their trust in them. /What South Americans chose instead, as I write in my new book The Faith, was a reinvigorated faith in Christ, orthodox Bible-preaching churches. Women love this because they saw the results: Their husbands came home to be with their families at night instead of hanging out in bars. The Church spread. /It is hard for me to believe the New York Times is correct about all this. But if it is, I hope African-American leaders will recognize liberation theology for what it is: Marxism that failed everywhere it has been tried; and a theology that brings about not reconciliation, but further alienation..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » ADF announces new initiative to reclaim pastors’ First Amendment rights

re: "SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Alliance Defense Fund announced a new initiative Friday that will challenge the tactics of groups that use the Internal Revenue Service to intimidate churches and pastors into silence on important issues of the day..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Oregon threatens over statutes copyright?

re: "David Post has this post on the Volokh Conspiracy indicating that the state of Oregon is threatening some web vendors who have post the state statutes on their website. Apparently, Oregon is trying to claim copyright. Post writes: //What burns me up is that the State of Oregon would choose to assert its rather fanciful copyright claim for the purpose of making public access to the authoritative version of its laws more, rather than less, difficult. It is completely outrageous that in 2008 we do not have a complete and authoritative compendium of all of the laws of the 50 States, and the federal government, available at no cost on the net..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Rutherford Institute Intervenes After School Officials Allegedly Order Students to Cease Wearing ‘Virginity Rocks’ Abstinence T-Shirts

re: "The Rutherford Institute has issued this press release: //Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have come to the defense of high school students who were allegedly warned by school officials to cease wearing t-shirts to school that proclaim an abstinence message. In a letter to the Superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools, John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, informed school officials that they could face possible legal action if they do not take steps to ensure that students who wear “Virginity Rocks” t-shirts as part of a campaign to promote abstinence are allowed to do so without threat of punishment . . ."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Lauren Richardson Case Eerily Similar To Schiavo

re: "June Maxam reports in the North County Gazette: // The clock is ticking away the life of Lauren Marie Richardson, a 23-year-old woman who suffered an anoxic brain injury as the result of a heroin overdose in August 2006. A decision is due any day whether Lauren lives or dies. She has been sentenced to death by dehydration and starvation by Delaware Court of Chancery Master Sam Glasscock III by granting guardianship to her mother who wants to remove Lauren’s feeding tube which will result in her painful and agonizing death, in the same manner as Terri Schiavo. /Lauren’s father, Randy Richardson of Newark wishes to take her home from the Arbors Nursing Home in New Castle and care for her. He is seeking legal recourse to appeal the Jan. 24 court order that will allow the removal of Lauren’s feeding tube. / While Lauren is disabled, she is not terminal. She is not on life support and according to her father and family members, reacts to stimulation and is steadily improving . . . /
Randy has appealed this decision which has in effect stayed Glasscock’s decision and joint guardianship is still currently in effect. He is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund based in Scottsdale, Arizona.“ADF continues to aggressively defend Lauren’s life”, Greg Scott, ADF director of National Media Relations told The North Country Gazette . . ."...

ADF Alliance Alert » UK: “Gay concern bans mum and dad in classroom”

re: "The Daily Telegraph reports: /TEACHERS are being urged to stop using terms such as husband and wife when addressing students or families... /The terms boyfriend, girlfriend and spouse are also on the banned list - to be replaced by the generic “partner” - in changes sought by the gay lobby... /Schools are coming under pressure to provide lessons ... and stack their libraries with books and videos covering their issues. . ."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Child Abuse in the Name of Protecting Children: The Texas Polygamy raid

re: from April 23, 2008, "David Bernstein has this post on the Volokh Conspiracy questioning Texas’ methods in prosecuting FLDS members and seizing hundreds of children. Numerous comments are posted below the post..."...

CitizenLink: Most Doctors in Italy Refuse to Perform Abortions

re: "Nearly 70 percent of gynecologists in Italy have refused to perform abortions based on moral grounds, according to the Health Ministry, which has resulted in a 3 percent drop in abortions. /Abortion was legalized in Italy in 1978. The Vatican’s involvement has allowed doctors to refuse to participate based on conscientious objections. /“Gynecologists in Italy are privileged to have the right to follow their consciences,” said Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action. “This should be a model for other countries to pass laws that protect health-care professionals' rights of conscience.”..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » 7th Circuit: Illinois school must allow “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-shirt

re: "CHICAGO — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed a lower court’s ruling against an Illinois student Wednesday, saying the district court must order a Naperville high school to suspend its ban on a T-shirt that reads “Be Happy, Not Gay” while the student’s lawsuit proceeds. School officials prohibited student Alex Nuxoll, who is represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, from wearing the clothing. /“Christian students shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum. “Public school officials cannot censor a message expressing one viewpoint on homosexual behavior and then at the same time allow messages that express another viewpoint. The court’s ruling is a victory for all students seeking to protect their First Amendment rights on a school campus.” /...[snip]... / ADF attorneys appealed to the 7th Circuit after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, refused to stop school officials from silencing Nuxoll while the lawsuit proceeds (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4349). ADF attorneys had originally filed the lawsuit on behalf of another student, Heidi Zamecnik. /In its opinion, the 7th Circuit stated that “people do not have a legal right to prevent criticism of their beliefs or for that matter their way of life.” The court also said the school district does not appear to be justified in suppressing Nuxoll’s message on the grounds it might provoke “incidents of harassment.” /“It is highly speculative that allowing the plaintiff to wear a T-shirt that says ‘Be Happy, Not Gay’ would have even a slight tendency to provoke such incidents, or for that matter to poison the educational atmosphere,” the court wrote..."...

Jacques Coeur: Merchant Prince of the Middle Ages by Albert Boardman Kerr at Questia Online Library

re: "Read the complete book Jacques Coeur: Merchant Prince of the Middle Ages by becoming a questia.com member. Choose a membership plan to an academic-level library with more than 67,000 full-text books, 1.5 million articles, an entire reference set with a dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus plus a collection of digital tools to organize your information..."...

More than 5,000 free books available at http://www.questia.com/publicdomainindex.

The Window in the Garden Wall--A C.S. Lewis Blog: Childhood's End

re: "Dear Joy, / As far as I can remember you were non-committal about Childhood's End*: I suppose you were afraid that you might raise my expectations too high and lead to disappointment. If that was your aim, it has succeeded, for I came to it expecting nothing in particular and have been thoroughly bowled over. It is quite out of range of the common space-and-time writers; away up near Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus and Well's First Men in the Moon..."...

The Divorce Industrial Complex

re: "Americans are generally aware that our Divorce Culture is a documented tragedy, but most seem to think that the availability of so-called "no fault" divorce is just a permanent reality. Few Americans seem to understand that marriage is being undermined by what can be called a "Divorce Industrial Complex" that includes lawyers, counselors, court personnel, and various others. /In other words, divorce is something of a market reality in America, and millions of persons are involved in this business. As a matter of fact, the income of these persons -- and the future of the divorce "market" -- depends on numerical growth in the number of divorces that occur each year. /Stephen Baskerville, Assistant Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College is the author of an excellent analysis of this problem, giving special attention to the fact that our current divorce laws -- and what he calls the "divorce industry" tears apart families and discriminates against fathers. / In his new book, Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family, Baskerville reveals the divorce industry for what it is -- and for what it means to this nation and its families..."...

What's Different This Passover? No Margarine - WSJ.com

re: from April 18, 2008, by Ann Zimmerman, "...A shortage of special kosher-for-Passover margarine is causing dismay in Jewish households across the nation as family cooks discover they can't make many of their traditional Passover meals without it. /Particularly irksome is the absence of kosher-for-Passover stick margarine, an essential ingredient in baking for the weeklong holiday starting at sundown Saturday. / ...[snip]... / Some stores in the New York area have been rationing kosher-for-Passover margarine, letting customers buy only a single package. Others are using it as a marketing tool, selling only to those who agree to buy a certain amount of other items too. / ...[snip].../ Margarine is crucial to kosher cooking because the dietary rules don't allow mixing meat and milk products, such as butter, at a meal. Margarine, made of vegetable oil, can be eaten with either meat or milk, and it can be kosher if rabbis oversee production to be sure no dairy products touch the machinery. /That's not good enough for Passover, though. Stricter kosher rules for the holiday forbid corn and legumes such as soy. So Passover margarine is made only from cottonseed oil or palm oil./But it's a once-a-year product, and a hassle to make. Machinery needs to be broken down and cleaned before the margarine is made, to prevent contamination with non-kosher food. /Further discouraging production is a shortage of cottonseed oil that has driven its price way up. Some U.S. farmers deserted cotton to plant corn last year when ethanol production sent corn's price higher, industry officials say..."...

hat tip: The Shining City

Inside Scoop on Shout to the Lord & American Idol (Josh Harris)

re: "...A Christian woman named Beverly posted what I thought was a helpful inside perspective from Fox. It helped me to see that, for Christians who work at Fox, having the song played was a triumph. It's easy for me to be cynical as I watch and forget that there are believers working at this network who are looking for any chance to shine the light of the gospel. She goes on to share that positive feedback from Christians would be helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post, Beverly. // start Beverly's comment //I work on one of the "sister shows" of American Idol...so picture an office, with all of the producers, crew, etc. gathered in watching the live feed at our CBS offices, then this song comes on...an office filled with a few Christians....atheists and agnostic Jews. You could hear a pin drop....it was awesome.....the power that came through....nothing had to be said...no debates....just people being touched more than they realized...producers, writers...crew that had never darkened a church door in their lives, or their only experience with Christians was a negative one. You don't always see the workings of us Christians that are behind the scenes...you don't know how much prayer went into getting a song with that message on a, let us not forget, a SECULAR show. So, from someone behind the scenes, the best thing you can do is write to the producer of Am. Idol and simply state how much you appreciate the diversity they showed in having an very inspirational song in their program. Period. No criticizing. This will go farther than you realize. Also, pray, pray, pray for us Christians that have chosen Hollywood as our vocation, career and our mission field."...

Free People Are Happy People by Arthur C. Brooks, City Journal Spring 2008

re: "The earliest American definition of liberty—stated frequently by the Founding Fathers—is about constraints on personal actions: if I don’t hurt anybody else, I should be free to pursue my own will. As Thomas Jefferson put it in his first inaugural address, “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” Despite more recent attempts to expand our understanding of freedom to include claims on one another or on government—FDR’s 1941 State of the Union speech, for example, which mentioned “freedom from want”—about two-thirds of Americans still define freedom in terms of doing what they want, being able to make their own choices, or having liberty in speech and religion. / Understanding freedom is a matter of no small importance. The Founders believed that it was one of at least three fundamental rights from God, along with life and the pursuit of happiness. These three rights are interrelated: not only does liberty, of course, depend on life, but the pursuit of happiness depends on liberty. In fact, evidence shows that freedom and happiness are strongly linked. But what kind of freedom makes Americans happiest? And what can government best do to promote freedom and help us pursue happiness, as is our inalienable right?..."...

A Human Person, Actually by Peter Lawler, City Journal 18 April 2008

re: "In their bold new book, Embryo, philosophers Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen defend the proposition that the embryo—the organism that comes into being as the result of fertilization, the union of sperm with oocyte—is in fact a human being. And that means that an embryo has “absolute rights.” An embryo should never be used as a means to pursue someone else’s ends, however laudable or life-saving, they say. Certainly, embryos shouldn’t be killed to assist frustrated parents attempting in vitro fertilization (IVF), or even to further pathbreaking medical research. The authors stop well short of recommending all of the potential changes in law that would necessarily follow from their argument. All they ask is that scientific research that involves the killing of embryos be outlawed—or, at the very least, that it be denied public funding, and that future IVF procedures be practiced in such a way that they do not produce surplus embryos that are ultimately discarded. The authors oppose what they see as brutality motivated in part by good intentions—brutality they hope to correct with moral reasoning based in scientific knowledge. Open-minded readers should find their case powerful..."...

No Left Turns: Just In Time for Earth Day

re: Steven Hayward: "Earth Day (also Lenin’s birthday--coincidence???) is Tuesday, and you may have noticed a little bit of attention in the news media on global warming and all things green. Just in time, I’ve done a 7-minute video update to my film from last year, An Inconvenient Truth--or Convenient Fiction?, that answers the all important question: Which shrank most last fall--the arctic ice cap, or my waistline? (Hint: I’ve got some calorie offsets I’m willing to sell to Al Gore.)..."...

Anglican Mainstream » Sermon: Why we must Stand Firm

re: "By Matt Kennedy for StandFirminFaith /...Homosexual behavior is considered so offensive to God that those who engage in it and do not repent will not enter his kingdom. Well, you might say, what about the other sins listed here, slander, greed, thievery, drunkenness, why do we focus exclusively on homosexuality? Trust me. I’d rather focus on anything else. The reason we focus on this particular sin is because it is the one sin that the Episcopal Church has presumed to bless. If the Episcopal Church would’ve passed a resolution blessing thievery or drunkenness or greed, then our response would have to be the very same. If, before every robbery, a thief were given the invitation to attend his or her local Episcopal parish to receive a rite of blessing for holy thievery, or before every drink an alcoholic might receive the rite of Holy Inebriation from his resident Episcopal priest, then you can bet that our focus would shift because sin, whether sexual or otherwise, is deadly to body and soul..."...

Cinnamon Stillwell: Hunger on the Rise Worldwide; Biofuels to Blame

re: "As I noted in a recent column on the perils of ethanol and other biofuels, using food for fuel is wrought with difficulties. One of them is hunger, which is on the rise throughout the Third World, largely due to biofuel production. As a result, discontent is brewing, food riots and hoarding are becoming the norm, and governments are finding themselves facing an increasingly hostile and hungry populace. / An International Herald Tribune article (linked at Drudge) spells out the looming disaster in startling detail..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Cal. Catholic bishops to support marriage and parental notification initiatives

re: "The Tidings reports: /California bishops will endorse parental notification and marriage protection initiatives for the November state ballot if the proposed measures qualify, said California Catholic Conference officials this week after the bishops’ spring teleconference April 14 . . . /If the two initiatives gain placement on the ballot, it’s expected the bishops will issue a statement of support in early summer. The CCC will then be instructed to provide educational materials on the initiatives for distribution..."...

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