US severs all ties with Hamas - "The United States cut all diplomatic ties with the newly-sworn in Hamas government this evening as it pushed the Palestinian Authority further towards isolation."
Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation - "Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly and will soon meet with Venezuelan President himself Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11."
Race Riots Could Lead to Camps For Americans and Illegals - ""For English-speaking America, the mass protests in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities over the past few days have been surprising for their size and seeming spontaneity." "But they were organized, promoted or publicized for weeks by Spanish-language radio hosts and TV anchors as a demonstration of Hispanic pride and power.""
Drone aircraft may prowl U.S. skies - "Unmanned aerial vehicles have soared the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq for years, spotting enemy encampments, protecting military bases, and even launching missile attacks against suspected terrorists. Now UAVs may be landing in the United States. A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday heard testimony from police agencies that envision using UAVs for everything from border security to domestic surveillance high above American cities. Private companies also hope to use UAVs for tasks such as aerial photography and pipeline monitoring. ... In a scene that could have been inspired by the movie "Minority Report," one North Carolina county is using a UAV equipped with low-light and infrared cameras to keep watch on its citizens. The aircraft has been dispatched to monitor gatherings of motorcycle riders at the Gaston County fairgrounds from just a few hundred feet in the air--close enough to identify faces--and many more uses, such as the aerial detection of marijuana fields, are planned."
Murderers, Video and Academic Freedom - "Video of Pat Robertson and a new report out of Florida have set off the latest skirmishes over the Academic Bill of Rights. ... On the 700 Club this week, Pat Robertson said that the 101 professors in Horowitz’s new book are only a “short list” of the 30 to 40 thousand” professors whom he called “termites that have worked into the woodwork of our academic society.” Robertson referred to professors as “murderers” (as well as sexual deviants and terrorist supporters) and later said that some of them are “killers.”"
Community stands up for students' rights - "When the Young Democrats at South Whidbey High School wore T-shirts last week to mark the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, the club's adviser told a student she had to cover up a few words and symbols on her shirt if she wanted to participate. So she put blue tape over the following items on her shirt: a peace symbol, the word "war" with a slash through it, "$247,000,000,000" (one estimate of U.S. expenditures on the war), and the question "How many more?" With those four strips of tape, what started as a school-sanctioned effort to raise awareness of the war's toll backfired in a First Amendment controversy. The flap culminated Monday when more than 100 angry parents and Vietnam-era peace activists packed a South Whidbey School Board meeting to denounce what they viewed as a challenge to students' civil rights."
Iraqi girl tells of US attack - "If Iman's story is true - and it has been disputed by the US military - human rights workers say it is the worst massacre of civilians by US troops in the country. Iman tells of screaming soldiers entering her house in the Iraqi town of Haditha spraying bullets in every direction. Fifteen people in all were killed, including her parents and grandparents. Her account has been corroborated by other eyewitnesses who say it was a revenge attack after a roadside bomb killed a marine."
War deserter tells of atrocities - "A "trigger-happy" U.S. army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a U.S. war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday. Joshua Key, the first U.S. deserter with combat experience in Iraq to apply for refugee status in Canada, told the board he witnessed numerous atrocities committed by U.S. forces while serving eight months as a combat engineer. Key, 27, said he was never trained on the Geneva Convention and was told in Iraq by superior officers that the international law guiding humanitarian standards was just a "guideline." "It's shoot first, ask questions later," Key said of his squad's guiding principles. "Everything's justified." Key is one of five members of the U.S. armed forces asking for asylum in Canada."
Insulating Bush - "Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews."
Photographer: Herald got it right - "Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.” Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”" -- Check out the picture.
Is the Mainstream Media finally getting half the rigged voting machine story? - "The fact that electronic voting machines don't work may finally be sinking into a segment of the mainstream media. The fact that e-voting machines can, have been, and will be used to steal elections, continues to go unreported."
Mississippi abortion bill dies this session - "A bill to ban most abortions in Mississippi died tonight after House and Senate negotiators failed to reach a compromise before a deadline. The lawmakers were trying to reach common ground on a House-passed bill that would ban abortions in the state except when a woman's life is at risk or she is the victim of rape or incest."
Evolutionary theory, science needed to vaccinate irrational beliefs - " Why do creationists fight to inject their religious beliefs into public school evolution curriculum? They claim they're interested in "teaching the controversy." However, within the scientific community, there is no controversy over the reality of Darwin's brilliant insight; evolutionary theory has never been stronger and more demonstrably obvious than it is today. In reality, their fight against evolution, instead of the equally unbiblical sciences of geology or astronomy, is merely a strategic choice in a bigger battle against science in general."
Survey: U.S. trust lowest for atheists - "Based on a telephone survey of more than 2,000 households and in-depth interviews with more than 140 people, researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups as “sharing their vision of American society.” Americans are also least willing to let their children marry atheists." -- You have got to love that Godly tolerance now, don't you?
TV networks reject ad from church Say spot welcoming gays is controversial - "The nation's major television networks have rejected an ad that shows a gay couple and others being banished from a church, saying it violates their rules against controversial or religious advertising. ... Text on the screen reads, "God doesn't reject people. Neither do we," and a voiceover says, "The United Church of Christ. No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here.""
MANN TALK: The Mess the Myth Has Made - "Once upon a time in the dawn of civilization somewhere at the crossroads of his world, a human with a poetic imagination decided to describe fancifully how he and all his brethren and sisters and all organic and inorganic things came to be. A God, he imagined, created man in His image and woman from a rib of man and enjoined man to multiply and subdue the earth and have dominion over it and every living thing that moved on it. The poet had no notion of what an impact his poetry would have on following generations and on God’s creation. Centuries later a human who suspected that the poetic myth wasn’t what really happened took ship and sailed to many lands with his notebook; and after years of scientific scrutiny of nature concluded that man wasn’t created in a day but that man evolved over millions of years from a simple-celled something to a complex animal with sense and conscience. And that he was not created in the image of a God but in the image of nature. The scientist had a notion of the impact of his study and the controversy it would engender. But he told the truth as he saw it. Today, more people believe the poet’s myth than believe the scientist’s evolutionary theory. And thus more people believe that the earth was made primarily for man’s consumption and convenience regardless of whether such a belief is to the detriment of all else or not. As a result one species, namely, man has made and is making a mess out of the good earth that God put him on or on which he evolved. He is not only jeopardizing his very existence by carving out of the earth what he wants instead of just what he needs but endangering the existence of all other species most of which are content to get just what they need from earth and are circumspect in the quantities that they store up."
THE GOD PROJECT - "Scientists have championed an astonishing variety of views on religion, ranging from the outright hostile to the deeply devout. Even among evolutionary biologists, whose views might seem the most predictable, matters have been surprisingly complex. Richard Dawkins, the author of “The Selfish Gene” and many other popular books on evolution, has in recent years become something of a professional atheist, arguing that “faith is one of the world’s great evils.” The late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, on the other hand, argued in his book “Rocks of Ages” that science and religion can and should coexist. Science has its proper domain of activity, religion has its domain, and each must refrain from interfering with the other."
American Theocracy Here We Come? - "An ignorant, ill-willed and intimidating resolution endorsing Christianity as a state religion, recently approved by the Missouri House Rules Committee, shows the willingness of some American religious extremists to embrace theocracy. Introduced by State Rep. David Sater, R-Cassville, House Concurrent Resolution 13 falsely claims that U.S. founders "recognized a Christian God and used the principles afforded to us by Him as the founding principles of our nation." The resolution ominously states that elected officials should "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs." In a self-contradictory afterthought, it adds that officials should show "respect for those who object.""
Second Quote of the Day
"Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were, of course, exterminated."
~ Voltaire
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