News Releases: OREGON TO GET WORLD'S LARGEST WIND FARM

re: "The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC) today approved a site certificate for the 909 megawatt (MW) Shepherds Flat Wind Farm. Located in Gilliam and Morrow counties, Shepherds Flat will double Oregon’s current wind operating capacity of about 889 MW.../ ...[snip]... / The project is being developed by Caithness Shepherds Flat, LLC of Sacramento, Calif., which proposes 303 wind turbines with a peak capacity of 909 MW. Caithness says Shepherds Flat will be the largest single wind farm in the world. The project area is between Highway 19 and Highway 74 on privately-owned land, about five miles southeast of Arlington. The power output of the facility would enter the Federal Columbia River Transmission System through Bonneville Power Administration’s Slatt Substation..."...

Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: Spiritual Alzheimers

re: "Virtue On-line has this report from England about Cardinal Ivan Dias's speech to Anglican bishops at Lambeth. warning them of Spiritual Alzheimers. Indeed: Alzheimers seems to be competing with an acquired immune deficiency syndrome in many churches to destroy Christian memory and infect the body with heresy..."...

The Dawn Patrol: Something 'WIC'-ked this way comes

re: "Visit the USDA's WIC Learning Center, the official Web site for the U.S. government's Women, Infants and Children program, and you will find a link to the home page of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. / That's because a hefty chunk of the $5 billion in taxpayer funds for the program designed to help feed and provide health care for low-income pregnant women, new moms, and young children go to Margaret Sanger's organization./ ...[snip].../ Granted, the federal money that pays Planned Parenthood to serve WIC clients technically does not go towards abortions. But any money given to Planned Parenthood by the federal government keeps the organization's lights on and its paychecks coming, enabling it to spend its $115 million surplus on expanding its abortion business. And does anyone doubt that Planned Parenthood will attempt to impress upon a pregnant WIC client that it can make her un-pregnant if she wishes? Especially when the client walking into its clinic is greeted with posters like this ..."...

hat tip: The Point

Randy Pausch, Author Of 'Last Lecture,' Dies at 47 - WSJ.com

re: "Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an international sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday..."...

hat tip: The Point

ADF Alliance Alert » Court rules to preserve life of Calif. woman deprived of food, water

re: "ADF-allied attorney successful in ensuring nutrition is restored after 11 days without food or water; trial to be held July 29..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » 10th Circuit: Colorado scholarship restrictions to students at “pervasively sectarian” schools held unconstitutional

re: "...We find the exclusion unconstitutional for two reasons: the program expressly discriminates among religions without constitutional justification, and its criteria for doing so involve unconstitutionally intrusive scrutiny of religious belief and practice. We reverse, and order that summary judgment be granted in favor of the university..."...

Global Warming Consensus Alert: Flame On! - Acton Institute PowerBlog

re: "...wouldn’t you know it - just when Gore gets his sweltering summertime platform to trumpet the need to act on the basis of the Global Warming Consensus, a big fight breaks out in a scientific organization that makes said Consensus look more like a sham than ever..."...

Challies.com: Review of "The Shack" by William P. Young

re: "...So let’s look at this book together, doing the task God requires of us when he tells us to be men and women of discernment—Christians who heed God’s admonition to “test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” We’ll simply compare what Young teaches to the Bible..."...

About the Book - Atheism Remix

re: "Something has changed in our culture. Atheism—for centuries a little-regarded belief system—has gained a large hearing through the writings of new atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. Indeed, atheism is now more culturally acceptable than ever and its proponents are more fervent. /Providing the Christian response to the new challenge to theism, Dr. Albert Mohler equips Christians to respond with Atheism Remix. Here he explores the environment that has bred the New Atheism while also introducing readers to the movement’s four leading thinkers and their arguments. With keen insight, Mohler pinpoints eight major distinctives that make the New Atheism new and helps Christians understand, challenge, and counter it..."...

ADF Alliance Alert » Atheists’ Lawsuit against Dakota Boys Ranch dismissed

re: "The AP reports: //A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the nation’s largest group of atheists and agnostics over referrals by North Dakota government agencies to a church-affiliated nonprofit that treats and educates troubled children. /U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland said the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and five North Dakota taxpayers who are members of the group have no right to sue..."...

Privately published Christian novel a surprise best-seller: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.

re: "...It is the most compelling recent example of how word-of-mouth can create a phenomenal blockbuster. /It was originally published late last spring as a paperback by two former pastors near Los Angeles, who knew the author and set up a company expressly to publish “The Shack.” The manuscript already had been turned down by a number of mainstream and Christian publishers. A little more than a year later, on June 8, the book debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times paperback fiction best-seller list. It has stayed there ever since..."...

hat tip: Rick Dancer

Mixed bag on the Betancourt coverage » GetReligion

re: "...Anyway, if you had been held hostage for six years, what would you do upon your release? Betancourt thanked God repeatedly, knelt and prayed as soon as she hit solid ground, showed off the rosary she’d made during her captivity and talked about how her faith helped sustain her during her horrific time with the terrorists. It must have made the media uncomfortable to hear her speak so much about the Virgin Mary, angels, miracles and God because even though she was being quite blatant about it, most early reports ignored it or glossed over it..."...

Doctors vote against ‘pro-life register’ | The Christian Institute

re: "A national doctors’ conference has rejected a proposal to force GPs to make their views on abortion known to patients. /The plan could have forced doctors with conscientious objections to abortion to publicise their views, so that women seeking terminations would be unlikely to see them. /Leading pro-abortion campaigner Dr Evan Harris MP tabled the motion at the conference of the British Medical Association. /However, delegates at the conference voted against his proposals. /It is thought that around one in five doctors will not sign abortion referral forms. One Christian doctor, Tammie Downes, was recently cleared of any wrong-doing, after accusations were made that she had broken guidelines by discussing alternative options with women seeking abortion. /Recent research by the Christian Medical Fellowship suggests that in countries where the law requires women seeking terminations to have counselling or a ‘cooling-off’ period, the abortion rate is significantly lower than countries where it is available ‘on demand’."...

ADF Alliance Alert » UK: Victory for Christian registrar who refused to carry out same-sex ceremonies

re: "The Times Online reports: //A Christian registrar who was harassed and discriminated against after she refused to carry out same-sex civil partnership ceremonies has won a key legal battle . . . The decision outraged gay rights campaigners, who said that it “sanctions the right of religious people to discriminate”. //The Christian Institute offers more coverage and links to the ruling..."...

Change we should worry about (OneNewsNow.com)

re: Star Parker: "...What's going on is not an ideological crack-up but a branding crack-up. Rejection of the Republican Party today is not a rejection of limited government and traditional values. It is a rejection of what the Republican Party morphed into. / The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has remained true to its principles of big government and moral relativism. And it's not registering more enthusiasm among voters. / It just doesn't take rocket science or an expensive political consultant to appreciate that voters are, for darned good reason, unhappy..."...

Canada to send American deserters back home (OneNewsNow.com)

re: "A Pentagon advisor says he's encouraged by the recent decision by the Conservative Canadian government to send American deserters back to the U.S. for possible court-martial and dishonorable discharge..."...

The Point: Time to lose the s-word

re: "I've gotten good and sick of the term swift boating being used to mean lying. It's inaccurate and unfair. And finally, someone is calling for it to stop..."...

Alaska Governor Discusses Congressional Energy Inaction - Acton Institute PowerBlog

re: Ray Nothstine: "Following up on my commentary “Washington’s Unpopular War on Energy,” Alaska Governor Sarah Palin talks about her own frustration with Washington energy policies in an interview with Investor’s Business Daily. Governor Palin is of course in favor of drilling for more oil in Alaska, and she believes development can be done in a safe and clean manner..."...

Cafe Hayek: Incentives, incentives

re: "Justin Bowen comments at EconTalk and points readers to an analysis of special education showing the power of incentives. Forster and Greene argue (see here, here and here) that in states where there is a per pupil subsidy to kids with disabilities, schools in such states find a lot more disabilities. I am not surprised..."...

Baptist Press - Big Bang on the Bayou

re: Ken Connor: "LEESBURG, Va. (BP)--Secularists have exploded over the passage of the "Louisiana Science and Education Act." / The bill recently was signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal after having been passed by an overwhelming majority of the Louisiana legislature. According to its text it protects the freedom of "teachers, principals, and other school administrators" in elementary and secondary schools to promote "critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of a variety of scientific theories including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." / In other words, the act provides for the freedom and support of teachers and school boards to present varied analyses on these and other scientific issues. So why are the denizens of blogs like the Huffington Post in such a huff? Because "science" is their "truth," and it is blasphemous to question their beliefs. / Secularists are unwilling to have their orthodoxy challenged. Just as Galileo had to fight against the church and government of his day, those who dare to question today's "settled" theories are banished by scientific and political Inquisitors..."...