Olbermann: Feeling morally, intellectually confused? - "The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack. Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet. Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American."
Bush: 'We have resolve' - "President Bush yesterday called the war on terror a defining "struggle" against radical Islam that can be lost only if the American people lose their will to fight in Iraq."
Why the U.S. Is Holding Its Fire on Iran - "Iranian officials may think they have a lot to gain and not much to lose by defying the United Nations Security Council order to halt its uranium enrichment by Thursday, open its nuclear programs to international inspectors and return to the negotiating table. And they may be right."
Pentagon Moves Toward Monitoring Media - "The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media." -- Because the truth sheds them in a bad light.
T-Shirt With Arabic Slogan Sparks Airport Feud - "Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi peace activist was forced to conceal his T-shirt, while boarding a JetBlue Airways flight to Oakland, Calif., which the officials told him, was offensive. According to Jarrar, the incident happened on Aug 12 at JFK airport, when four officials approached him and told that he could not board with the shirt saying "We will not be silent," on. One official told him, "Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, 'I'm a robber,"' he said." -- It's a pathetic world we live in.
THE NEW CENSUS: An All-Out Assault On Your Privacy - "The federal government has quietly begun using an incredibly intrusive new census form called "The American Community Survey." Up to 1 million households a year will receive this form. This new "census" form is 24-pages long, and demands that you lay bare every detail of your life, including how much you earn, what your home is worth, details of your health, when you leave for work, previous addresses, pregnancies, monies received from government, and on and on. I say demand because you can be fined up to $1,000 for each of the 72 questions you don't answer or which you answer "incorrectly." However, so far no one has been fined for not answering, nor are they likely to be if public resistance is strong. "
The U.S. Govt’s Secret Colorado Oil Discovery - "Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world — more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. Three companies have been chosen to lead the way. Test drilling has already begun... ... We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth."
Nightmare Mortgages - " Those who took the bait are in for a nasty surprise. While many Americans have started to worry about falling home prices, borrowers who jumped into so-called option ARM loans have another, more urgent problem: payments that are about to skyrocket."
The US housing bubble has popped - what now? - "Things aren’t looking good for the US economy. Even The Times’s generally optimistic American columnist Gerald Baker declared the US house price bubble well and truly over yesterday. And other commentators have been far more negative."
The Great Housing Crash of '07 - "The blame for this rapidly-approaching meltdown lies entirely with the Federal Reserve, the privately-owned collection of 10 central banks who cooked up a way to shift wealth from one class to another through low interest rates. Sound crazy? Well, just as high interest rates cause the economy to slow down; low interest rates have the exact opposite effect by stimulating the economy through increased spending. It's all pretty clear-cut."
The Rise of Christian Nationalism - "If more Americans would read works like Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, the longevity of our democracy, as we know it, would be more assured. I say this because the more people who understand the thinking and agenda of the growing forces of "Christian nationalism," the less likely it will be that these forces will succeed. Not many people want to go where Christian nationalists want to take the country."
Spiritual Atheism and the False Comforts of Faith - "Many religious faiths, including the big three Abrahamic faiths, teach that humans are central to the universe and God’s Plan. It is indoctrinated in us from childhood, so much so that it becomes a mantra: we are special; we are unique; we are created in God’s image; the universe exists solely for us. How can naturalism, with no guarantee of eternal life and no preferred position at the right hand of God, possibly compete with its ego-massaging and death-defying religious counterparts? I believe the answer lies, at least in part, in a sadly unexplored arena: the ability of atheism (scientific naturalism) to be spiritually uplifting. Not "spiritual" in the sense of a religious spirit or soul, but rather in our innate ability to be awed or inspired. I can't speak for the religious, but I cannot imagine anyone feeling a greater sense of the spiritual than I do when I look up at a starry sky on a cloudless night. I've said it before and I'll continue saying it: There is more awe and wonder in one chapter of an introductory astronomy book than in any ten Bibles. No one, though, as far as I am aware, has ever adequately demonstrated in the mainstream that it is possible to live a spiritual, meaningful existence without a belief in God." -- Amen.
Intimate confessions pour out on church Web site - "On a Web site called mysecret.tv, there is the writer who was molested years ago by her baby sitter and who still cannot forgive herself for failing to protect her younger siblings from the same abuse. There is the happy father, businessman and churchgoer who is having a sexual relationship with another man in his church. There is the young woman who shot an abusive boyfriend when she was high on methamphetamine. Then there is this entry: "Years ago I asked my father, 'How does a daddy justify selling his little girl?' He replied, 'I needed to pay the rent, put food on the table and I liked having a few coins to jangle in my pocket.' "About a month ago, LifeChurch, an evangelical network with nine locations and based in Edmond, Okla., set up mysecret.tv as a forum for people to confess anonymously on the Internet."
Majority of South Believes God Gave Israel to the Jews - "Among the surveyed religious groups, white evangelical Protestants stand out with 69 percent supporting the belief that God gave Israel to the Jewish people, according to the survey released by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life last week. Moreover, a full 59 percent subscribe to the belief that Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy."
The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right - "A hilarious new book provides instructions on how to argue the big issues with ultra-conservative fundamentalists."
Reluctant child bride was warned she'd lose 'salvation' - "Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs warned a teenage girl forced into a "spiritual marriage" to submit to sex with her husband or face "losing your salvation," Utah authorities said in an affidavit."
Harry Potter 'satanic': Pope's exorcist - "The Vatican has never been a fan of Harry Potter, but its chief exorcist has gone one step further and condemned J. K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as downright evil." -- Christ.
Spellings: Little change needed in No Child Left Behind - "Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday the No Child Left Behind Act is close to perfect and needs little change as its first major update draws near. ... It is unsurprising that Spellings strongly supports the law. She helped craft it as President Bush's domestic policy chief and now enforces it as the top education official. Yet her view that the law needs little change is notable because it differs so sharply from others with a stake, including many teachers, school administrators and lawmakers."
Blair to target the ASBO babies - "Tony Blair has unveiled a provocative campaign to crack down on future problem children before they are even born. He set out plans for massively increased state intervention in the homes of 'nuisance' families to tackle anti-social behaviour." -- Can you believe the world we are living in?
Video of girls' abuse angers Colombians - "Police officers are being investigated for allegedly shooting a video of two girls being sexually abused by a man, evidence they intended to use against him in court but which instead sparked a public outcry after the tape was released to the media." -- The girls were under the age of 11.
Mosquito-Borne Virus Kills Boston Boy - "A 9-year-old boy from Middleborough, Mass., 35 miles south of Boston, died Thursday from eastern equine encephalitis. The death is the first so far this year in Massachusetts from the mosquito-borne virus."
Semen 'may fuel cervical cancer' - "The growth of cervical and womb cancers may be fuelled by a hormone-like molecule in semen, a study suggests."
Gene therapy successfully treats cancer - "Researchers at the National Cancer Institute have performed the first successful use of gene therapy as a cancer treatment, in a study of 17 patients with advanced melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer that kills almost 8,000 Americans annually."
There is a little Neanderthal in a lot of us - "People who have large noses, a stocky build and a beetle brow may indeed be a little Neanderthal, according to a genetic study. But the good news is that other research concludes that Neanderthals were much more like us than previously thought."
Don't Cheat on This Quiz - "The Question is, of course, "Is cybersex cheating?" ... Let's take a more serious look at The Question by breaking it down into the questions we're really asking:"
Saving Pluto: The fight back begins - "Only a week after Pluto was stripped of its status as a full-fledged planet of the Solar System, rebel astronomers have launched a campaign to have it restored in pomp and glory."
Quote of the Day
"I just think people need to ask themselves who they trust more, terrorists or the government?"
~ Larry Ellison, Chief Executive of Oracle Corp.
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