News -- April 3, 2006

Court sidesteps war powers challenge - "A divided Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a man held until recently as an enemy combatant without traditional legal rights, in effect sidestepping a challenge to Bush administration wartime detention powers."

The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll - "But if Oswald didn’t kill the president, who did? So 11/22 remains an open case, an open wound. Now here we are again, contemplating the seemingly unthinkable events of September 11. An official explanation has been offered up: The nation was attacked by the forces of radical Islam led by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda jihadists. Again, this narrative has been accepted by many. But not all."

U.S. to create a bird flu virus mutation - "CDC scientists inside an ultra-secure laboratory have started swapping the genes of the H5N1 avian virus with the genes of an H3N2 virus, the strain behind most recent human flu outbreaks. The goal is to substitute the eight genes of each virus, one by one, with the eight genes from the other virus to see which of more than 250 possible combinations create flu viruses that could spread easily among humans."

Growth in federal spending unchecked - "Federal spending is outstripping economic growth at a rate unseen in more than half a century, provoking some conservatives to complain that government under Republican control has gotten too big. The federal government is currently spending 20.8 cents of every $1 the economy generates, up from 18.5 cents in 2001, White House budget documents show. That's the most rapid growth during one administration since Franklin Roosevelt."

Exxon Dethrones Wal-Mart on Fortune 500 - "Fortune compiled its list based on companies' 2005 revenues. Exxon Mobil raked in $340 billion in revenue, a 25.5 percent increase over and had $36.1 billion in profits, the most by any U.S. company in history."

The Dangers of Monotheism in the Age of Globalization - "The great pre-Christian civilizations of Greece and Rome had no religious wars and had a far healthier view of their frolicking gods and goddesses than the intolerant monotheistic Christianity that later came to dominate Europe. Polytheistic religions also tend to have a far more positive and healthier attitude to sex, which is seen as a good thing, than do the monotheistic faiths, where there is a much stronger tendency to equate sex with sin. ... The planet also needs an alternative geopolitical force to the American Christian fundamentalist brand of hegemonic thinking that the Bush Administration has generated — and that is not likely to evaporate even after his departure from office."

What war on Christians? - "Once, conservatives used to deplore the left's cult of victimhood and ridicule the obsession with real or imagined slights toward women, minorities, and other historically oppressed groups. Now, the right is embracing a victimhood cult obsessed with slights toward a group that makes up 85 percent of the American population."

Conservative Christian voters' policy agenda - "Conservative Christian voters say that Republican leaders they helped put in office haven't moved quickly enough on their policy agenda. Here are some of the issues they feel haven't been addressed:"

Conservative Christians losing faith in GOP - ""The nation isn't focused today in a way it was on such issues as abortion, marriage, the nature of the family," said the Rev. Laurence White of Houston. "For us, it's not the economy, stupid. It's the morality, stupid." ... "We're tired of talk. We want action," he said. "It occurs to us that no matter who is in the White House or who says what we want to hear, nothing ever changes." High on the list are a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and a judiciary more sympathetic to religious expression, like permitting the Ten Commandments in government buildings and allowing pastors to endorse candidates from the pulpit. "If these issues are not addressed, you'll see values voters stay home by the millions. And then the Republicans and others who have been the beneficiary of the values vote are going to lose," Mr. Scarborough said."

Heart of the Beholder – The Movie The Religious Right Didn’t Want Made! - "The United States of America is a free country – a country where censorship is censured as being morally wrong, right? Unless, of course, you’re a hard line religious zealot – then it’s okay to charge a video store chain with obscenity, through a blackmailed prosecutor, for renting out titles like “Splash,” or blasphemous movies like “The Last Temptation of Christ.” That’s the story behind “Heart of the Beholder,” a movie by Ken Tipton, who brings his real life experience to the film – only the names have been changed… ... “Heart of the Beholder” is unique among indie movies in a number of crucial ways – it does not follow the standard Hollywood formula for revenge flicks; it certainly doesn’t follow the Hollywood formula for movies that are “based on a true story” [whereas most of these films are between 15-50% accurate, “Beholder” clocks in at about 90-95%]; it does not look like a low-budget indie flick; it looks like a twenty-million dollar movie – not a half-million dollar indie, and it took thirteen years to get made."

Evolution theory on last legs, says seminary teacher - "To William Dembski, all the debate in this country over evolution won't matter in a decade. By then, he says, the theory of evolution put forth by Charles Darwin 150 years ago will be dead. The mathematician turned Darwin critic says there is much to be learned about how life evolved on this planet. And he thinks the model of evolution accepted by the scientific community won't be able to supply the answers. "I see this all disintegrating very quickly," he said."

Testing Darwin's Teachers - "Two decades of political and legal maneuvering on evolution has spilled over into public schools, and biology teachers are struggling to respond. Loyal to the accounts they've learned in church, students are taking it upon themselves to wedge creationism into the classroom, sometimes with snide comments but also with sophisticated questions — and a fervent faith. As sophomore Daniel Read put it: "I'm going to say as much about God as I can in school, even if the teachers can't." Such challenges have become so disruptive that some teachers dread the annual unit on evolution — or skip it altogether."

The foundations of global morality - "Some people believe that this concept of morality derives from religion; others that the great monotheistic religions themselves seek to encapsulate and enshrine, even codify, a pre-existing concept of the right way for human beings to live. It is, in my view, of the greatest importance that, if we seek to conceive of a global ethic, we separate the idea of morality from that of religion. This does not mean abandoning religion, it means only that when we argue about right and wrong we should keep separate arguments based on human morality – the desire of human beings in society to do good rather than harm – from those based on divine law."

Government should stay out of religion - "Apparently people insecure about their place in society and unwilling to adapt to the new religious landscape find this threatening. They seem to want to return to a time (that never existed) when everyone went to church at 11 a.m. on Sunday and, almost in national unison, sang "Jesus Loves Me." As someone who usually is in church at that time on Sundays and who loves that song, I also find myself at least at first attracted to the idea that such a shared national experience wouldn't be a bad thing. But that's never going to happen. And the sooner we get on with the task of learning how to live in harmony in a religiously diverse culture, the better off we'll be and the more we can be a model for other nations struggling with questions of religious freedom."

Should a leader impose belief over reason? - "As a citizen, Patrick Augustus Manning has the right to believe whatever he wants. But, as the Prime Minister, Mr Manning should not have the right to impose his religious beliefs on other citizens."

Smoke and ire - ""If this is such a big health issue," he wonders, pulling out a Pall Mall, "why do we have hundreds of people up in these casinos smoking, while I can't sit here in the VFW hall and have a cigarette and a beer?""

Nicotine interferes with chemotherapy, study finds - "Nicotine can prevent chemotherapy drugs such as taxol from killing lung cancer cells, researchers reported on Sunday in a finding that may help explain why lung cancer is so difficult to treat in smokers."

Gold set to become even scarcer - "Bobby Godsell, chief executive of AngloGold Ashanti, predicted that worldwide gold production would stagnate, then fall in the coming years as large deposits of the precious metal become scarce. He said this would support the rally in the gold price, which last week hit a 25-year high of $588 per ounce."

New York City Losing Blacks, Census Shows - "An accelerating exodus of American-born blacks, coupled with slight declines in birthrates and a slowing influx of Caribbean and African immigrants, have produced a decline in New York City's black population for the first time since the draft riots during the Civil War, according to preliminary census estimates."

Teen pregnancy rates dropping - "But an increased fear of contracting sexually transmitted diseases -- and more teenagers deciding to use birth control or simply waiting to have sex -- has dropped teen pregnancy rates to their lowest levels in 30 years, experts said. The national pregnancy rate fell 24 percent among 15- to 19-year-olds from 1992 through 2000, the most recent data available, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in Washington, D.C."

Erotic thrillers lose steam at box office - ""Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States," said the Dutch native. "Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends.""

At last, movies to keep arrive on Net - "Six major studios on Monday plan to begin selling movies over the Internet that buyers can download and keep for watching at any time. ... For example, "Memoirs of a Geisha," from Sony, will cost $19.99 to download from CinemaNow and $25.99 from Movielink. As a DVD, by contrast, it is priced at $16.87 at Wal-Mart. "King Kong," from Universal, which will cost $19.99 from both download services, is being sold on DVD for $14.96 by Amazon.com and $13.99 by Circuit City." -- Not going to succeed if they continue to do that.




Quote of the Day
"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable."
~ H.L. Mencken