POLL J:) Gaza: What Should Be Done?

See informed views in articles below, and: Vote! Make your opinion (or lack thereof) count!! Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 113392!!!. (Choices and link also given after articles below.)

From a Arutz Sheva articles:

Carpet Bomb Launch Sites: Former Chief Rabbi Calls to Carpet Bomb Launch Sites:

Former Chief Rabbi Calls to Carpet Bomb Launch Sites [/] 14 Sivan 5767, 31 May 07 04:19

(IsraelNN.com) Former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling on him to carpet bomb sites from which Kassam rockets are launched at Israeli towns. The areas should be bombed regardless of civilian casualties among the local Arab population, Rabbi Eliyahu said, explaining that Israel should do “whatever it takes to make them stop.”

Rabbi Eliyahu quoted biblical sources to show that the civilian population of Gaza is responsible for stopping the launch of Kassam rockets from their territory. As they do nothing to stop the rockets, he said, there is no moral prohibition against attacks that endanger their lives. According to Rabbi Eliyahu, the government has a moral obligation not to endanger the lives of IDF soldiers or Jewish residents of the western Negev in an attempt to avoid Arab casualties in Gaza. [My ellipses and emphasis]

"Cut Off All Connection": [[Avigdor (not Joe)]] Lieberman: Disengage from Gaza:

[[Avigdor (not Joe)]] Lieberman: Disengage from Gaza [/] 14 Sivan 5767, 31 May 07 04:52

(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman will present a plan to the government on Thursday in response to rocket attacks from Gaza terrorists. [/] Lieberman proposes that Israel cut off all connection to Gaza, and begin to treat it as an enemy entity. “Participation in the axis of evil has a heavy price—financially, politically, and militarily,” Lieberman explained.

Among the steps Lieberman proposes are the complete closure of crossings between Gaza and the western Negev [[(Egypt)]], the bombing of Gaza neighborhoods in response to Kassam rocket attacks, and an end to diplomatic contact with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Lieberman also recommends ending the flow of water, electricity, and gas to Gaza and the immediate cessation of visiting rights for family members of terrorist prisoners until the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Be Prepared: Homefront Increases Wartime Preparations:

Homefront Increases Wartime Preparations [/] 14 Sivan 5767, 31 May 07 05:10

(IsraelNN.com) The Homefront Command has begun increasing its preparations for wartime scenarios, while reassuring the public that there is no concrete threat. The preparations include a public campaign telling Israelis what to do in case of an attack. “Our job is to prepare for an all-out war,” Colonel Hilik Sofer explained. [/] The Homefront Command has also begun more specific preparations in the south, and is preparing cities within 15 kilometers of Gaza for potential rocket attacks. Rocket warning systems have been set up in Netivot and Ashkelon, and residents of both cities have received pamphlets describing the proper response to an attack. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Cut and Run: Background: History of PA Shelling Against Israel:

Background: History of PA Shelling Against Israel [/] 14 Sivan 5767, 31 May 07 04:32 [/] by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) On Jan 31, 2001, for the first time in the Oslo War, Arabs shot a mortar shell into Netzarim, a Jewish town in central Gaza. [/] [...] On April 3, in only the 5th or 6th mortar attack on Gush Katif, toddler Ariel Yered was critically wounded by shrapnel to his head. Israel retaliated, the terrorists increased their fire, and mortar shells quickly became a commonplace occurrence and lost their shock value - but not their lethal punch. On Nov. 24, reserve soldier Barak Madmon, 26, was killed outside Kfar Darom when a mortar shell hit his IDF outpost. [/] [...] Two weeks later, on Mar. 5, 2002, Sderot was first targeted: Two Kassam rockets hit a home in the Negev city, wounding three children.

[...] Between the time the first shell hit Gush Katif and the time Sharon made his initial Disengagement announcement, almost three years passed. If it took less than three years of mortar attacks against Jewish Gaza for Israel's government to come up with the idea of running away, how long will it take for the "Convergence Plan" in Judea and Samaria to be taken out of its deep freeze? [My ellipses and emphasis]

Poll Question: Gaza: What Should Be Done? | Poll choices:

1. Follow the Oslo accords. / 2. Follow the Roadmap. / 3. Let the Quartet mediate. / 4. Let the United Nations mediate. / 5. Let the Arab League mediate. / 6. Let Syria mediate. / 7. Let Iran mediate. / 8. Let any or all of 3 thru 7 above mediate. / 9. Redeploy to Okinawa. / 10. Cut and run. / 11. Be prepared. / 12. Hold Bush fully responsible! / 13. Cut off all connection. / 14. Destroy Infrastructure (Like Clinton in Serbia). / 15. Military occupation. / 16. Carpet bombing. / 17. 'Cry "Havoc!", and let slip the dogs of war!' / 18. No opinion. Important issues require much study. / 19. No comment. / 20. No opinion. / 21. This poll is worthless. / 22. This poll is of negative value. / 23. Other.

Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 113392! Vote!! Make your opinion (or lack thereof) count!!!

Saved By Grace Through Faith

{{___ \\There is no justification for sinful men except by faith.//}}

The teaching is usually expressed by the phrase "justification by faith", and Warfield uses the familiar expression. More precise: "Saved by grace (unmerited favor) through faith."

The foundation of individual salvation is the unmerited favor of God.

The instrument of individual salvation is God-given, born-of-God, freely available, miraculous faith.

* God given: Ephesians 2:8-10 KJV For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (9) Not of works, lest any man should boast. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

* Born-of-God: 1 John 5:4-5 KJV For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (5) Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

* Freely available: Revelation 22:17 KJV And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

* Miraculous: Romans 8:16 KJV The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

{{___ Whose faith justifies us, the faith of Jesus Christ or our faith?

{{___ Gal.2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.}}

There is no preposition "of:" in the Greek text. The genitive case of the noun makes the insertion of a preposition necessary for good English. "Of" is often inserted in literal translations as the best general-purpose preposition available. The sense from context in this passage indicates that "in" should be used here. Even some of the most literal translations use "in".

Galatians 2:16 ASV yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Galatians 2:16 LITV knowing that a man is not justified by works of Law, but that it is through faith in Jesus Christ (we also believed into Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of Law, because all flesh will not be justified by works of Law). Psa. 123:2

Note also the prepositions after "believed" in these translations: "on" / "into" rather than "in Christ Jesus". The Greek preposition used here indicates "the point reached or entered" according to Strong.

U.S. Babies Face Big Time Debts!?!

Why should we do anything for posterity?

What has posterity ever done for us?

- Sir Boyle Roche, "father" of Irish bulls, and author of this archetypical example

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a USA Today print edition news article, Liability $516,348 per U.S. household:

Rules 'hiding' trillions in debt [/] Liability $516,348 per U.S. household [/] By Dennis Cauchon [/] USA TODAY

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year — far more than the official $248 billion deficit — when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss — equal to $11,434 per household — is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.

"We're on an unsustainable path and doing a great disservice to future generations," says Chris Chocola, a former Republican member of Congress from Indiana and corporate chief executive who is pushing for more accurate federal accounting.

Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later.

The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don't show up when the government reports its financial condition.

Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.

Unfunded promises made for Medicare, Social Security and federal retirement programs account for 85% of taxpayer liabilities. State and local government retirement plans account for much of the rest.

This hidden debt is the amount taxpayers would have to pay immediately to cover government's financial obligations. Like a mortgage, it will cost more to repay the debt over time. Every U.S. household would have to pay about $31,000 a year to do so in 75 years.

The Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Board, which sets federal accounting standards, is considering requiring the government to adopt accounting rules similar to those for corporations. The change would move Social Security and Medicare onto the government's income statement and balance sheet, instead of keeping them separate.

The White House and the Congressional Budget Office oppose the change, arguing that the programs are not true liabilities because government can cancel or cut them.

Chad Stone, chief economist at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says it can be misleading to focus on the government's unfunded liabilities because Medicare's financial problems overwhelm the analysis.

"There is a shortfall in Medicare and Medicaid that is potentially explosive, but that is related to overall trends in health care spending," he says. [My ellipses and emphasis]

China Tops In Class Action Videos?!?

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

You Tube .com Video Link: the beijing student hit teacher (Hat tip - Drudge)

From a Breitbart .com AFP article, China aghast at video of students abusing teacher:

China aghast at video of students abusing teacher [/] May 29 03:21 AM US/Eastern

A video of two students abusing a 70-year-old teacher has created an Internet controversy in China and brought the morals of the nation's youths into question, state press said Tuesday.

The video, shot by a student at a Beijing school a week ago, shows a boy sporting an earring approach his teacher and slam the man's hat down over his face before returning to his seat, the Beijing News reported.

Later another boy threw a plastic bottle at the teacher as students in the classroom burst out laughing, it said.

The five-minute video was later posted on a blog and picked up by numerous websites, drawing angry outbursts from web surfers shocked at the audacity of the Chinese youths.

Some even went to the school to reprimand the students and express support for the professor, the paper said.

The professor, Sun Xingmao, who teaches history, politics and geography at the vocational school, did not want to discuss the incident, saying the students had already apologised and been excused, it said.

To many Chinese, the incident is likely to act as an uncomfortable reminder of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, which saw similar scenes of students humiliating and beating up their teachers. [My ellipses and emphasis]

More Desecration In Blue States!!!

Memorial Day Veterans' Grave Flag Burning Continues In Blue States!!!

Left Coast "Improvement": Flags Replaced By Swastikas On Veteran's Graves!!!

Thread on earlier incident near Boston: Flag Burners & Solarized Trash?!?

My prescient ("Tune in tomorrow") take on that incident:

A story that asks the question:

Are Flag Burners More Prevalent In the Vicinity of Half-Million-Dollar Solar-Powered Trash Compactors?!?

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Tune in tomorrow (or whenever) for more of the continuing farcical saga of Third Millennium Blue State Tribulations.

Always remembering that there is a Dark Side to The Farce!!!

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a Breitbart .com article, Flags Replaced With Swastikas in Wash.:

Flags Replaced With Swastikas in Wash. [/] May 29 01:54 AM US/Eastern

ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. (AP) - Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

Forty-six flag standards were found empty and another 33 flags were in charred tatters Sunday in the cemetery, authorities said. Swastikas drawn on paper appeared where 14 of the flags had been. [/] Members of the American Legion on this island off Washington's northwest coast replaced the burned flags with new ones Sunday afternoon.

The vandals struck again on Memorial Day after a guard left at dawn, the San Juan County sheriff's office said. This time, the vandals left 33 of the hand-drawn swastikas.

"This is not an act of free speech. This is a crime," Sheriff Bill Cumming said in a statement released Monday afternoon. [/] Investigators believe there's more than one culprit, based on the number of flags that were vandalized, Cumming said in a telephone interview. But authorities have no suspects, he said. [/] The sheriff said deputies were trying to lift fingerprints off what little physical evidence they were able to recover. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Legal Abortion: Kinder, Gentler?!?

Or is it only the cover up that has improved?

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a Breitbart .com article, Top Cannes award for harrowing Romanian abortion film:

Top Cannes award for harrowing Romanian abortion film [/] May 27 02:26 PM US/Eastern

A devastating Romanian film on back-alley abortion and daily despair in the communist era Sunday won the Cannes film festival's top award, the Palme d'Or.

"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" by director Cristian Mungiu was handed the coveted prize at a glittering red-carpet ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the world's paramount filmfest. [/] "It looks a little bit to me like (a) fairytale," a softly spoken Mungui said, adding that the triumph showed "you don't necessarily need big budgets and big stars to make stories."

The film, titled after the age of the aborted [[baby]] in the movie, stunned hardened festival veterans and was a favourite for the prize among the 22 films in the competition.

Film industry bible Variety called the film a revelation.

"Pitch perfect and brilliantly acted, '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' is a stunning achievement, helmed with a purity and honesty that captures not just the illegal abortion story at its core but the constant, unremarked negotiations necessary for survival in the final days of the Soviet bloc," reviewer Jay Weissberg wrote. [/] A low-budget movie produced with less than 600,000 euros (808,000 dollars), it is 39-year-old Mungiu's second feature and also highlights the role of friendship in daily survival in communist Nicolae Ceaucescu's Romania. [/] In the movie Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), a timid student in a small town, is desperate to terminate her mid-term pregnancy at a time when abortion is illegal but almost anything could be bought on the black market.

Mungiu offers a shocking image of the aborted [[baby]], but it is the abortionist's graphic description of the process and his chilling exploitation of the women's dilemma that make for particularly excruciating viewing. [/] Mungiu said he aimed to capture the bleak environs of late 1980s Romania. [/] "Because of the pressure of the regime, women and families were so much concerned about not being caught for making an illegal abortion that they didn't give one minute of thought about the moral issue," he told reporters. [/] "It was either you or them getting you for what you did."

He put the [[aborted baby]] on screen to serve as a reminder to audiences. "It makes a point -- people should be aware of the consequences of their decisions," he said. [My ellipses and emphasis and double bracketed politically incorrect word substitutions.]

Flag Burners & Solarized Trash?!?

A story that asks the question:

Are Flag Burners More Prevalent In the Vicinity of Half-Million-Dollar Solar-Powered Trash Compactors?!?

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Tune in tomorrow (or whenever) for more of the continuing farcical saga of Third Millennium Blue State Tribulations.

Always remembering that there is a Dark Side to The Farce!!!

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a The Boston Channel .com news article, Police Search For Flag Burner:

Police Search For Flag Burner [/] Solar Collector Worth $500,000 [/] POSTED: 1:35 pm EDT May 25, 2007 [/] UPDATED: 6:59 pm EDT May 25, 2007

*** Video: Flags Burned [[(Click on picture, then play button.)]]

BOSTON -- Natick police said they were searching for whomever stuffed decorative American flags in trash receptacles around the town square and set them on fire. [/] Authorities said an off-duty officer noticed a trash receptacle on fire in a Natick park near the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority station at about 4 p.m. on Thursday.
"I will tell you -- I was very, very upset about this. This area, this park, Moran Park, is considered sacred ground by the veterans here in Natick," veteran John MacGillivray said. [/] By Friday afternoon, the 12 flags had been replaced. [/] "I am aware that people have a right to protest, but they don’t have a right to take property that doesn’t belong to them and that's here to honor the veterans. It is a disgrace," MacGillivray said.

The burning flags were in a solar-powered trash compactor, which is valued at about $500,000. [/] "It had to be purposefully set. It is probably not that uncommon to have trash on fire, but it is a little more uncommon to find flags," said Natick Police Lt. Brian Grassey.

Natick veterans said it was especially disrespectful to burn the flags days before Memorial Day weekend. [/] "We decorate this park every Memorial Day. We have never had anything like this happen," said veteran Bob White.

Those responsible for the vandalism face felony charges for destruction of property for destroying the flags and damaging the trash compactors. [/] "Perhaps they should be cleaning up this park or something along that nature. If it is young kids, they need to be made aware of the consequences of their actions," MacGillivray said.

A veterans group said it would properly dispose of the flags. [/] Police are asking for help finding the person responsible for burning the flags. They ask anyone with information to call them at 508-647-9500. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Pot Calling Kettle Sooty*?!?

* Word in ancient adage changed in order to avoid the commission of a hate crime.

N.B. Serious climate scientists have essentially charged Vice President Gore with promoting "trivialities and nonsense" in his expedition** against global warming.

** Word changed in order to avoid the commission of a hate crime against the co-religionists of the adversaries of the great "expeditions"** of the period 1095-1291.

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

Former US vice president Al Gore on Friday criticized the "trivialities and nonsense" of celebrity gossip in the media and called on people to focus instead on issues like Iraq and climate change.

Gore, who is promoting his new book "The Assault on Reason," made the comments at a book signing in New York, where he was treated to a rock star reception by more than 1,300 cheering and screaming fans.

From a Breitbart .com article, Al Gore slams 'trivialities and nonsense' in news media, more follows:

Al Gore slams 'trivialities and nonsense' in news media [/] May 25 05:03 PM US/Eastern

[...] "What is it about our collective decision-making process that has led us to this state of affairs where we spend much more time in the public forum talking about -- or receiving information about -- Britney Spears shaving her head or Paris Hilton going to jail?" Gore asked. [/] He lamented what he described as the "destruction of the boundary between news and entertainment" and said the United States was "vulnerable as a democracy to mass and continuing distraction." [/] His new book draws parallels between the US government's approaches to climate change and the war in Iraq. [/] "Just like the facts available before the invasion of Iraq, these facts about the climate crisis have been repeatedly brushed aside and ignored as inconvenient," he said. "In both cases the facts were ignored."

Since losing the US presidential election in 2000, Gore has become a full-time global warming campaigner -- a path he says he intends to continue treading despite speculation that he could run for the White House in 2008. [/] Gore was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Price for his work in drawing attention to climate change, while the film he helped make of his best-selling global warming book "An Inconvenient Truth" earlier this year won an Oscar. [My ellipses and emphasis]

"Honor Grads, Dis Card"?!?

- Sign held by irate new University of Massachusetts graduate

Faculty and students ask the question:

Why honor a man who spent six years as Chief of Staff to the Most Evil Man (so far) of the Third Millennium?!?

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a Hosted AP dynamic stories article, via Access North G[eorgi]a .com, Former Bush Aide Card Is Booed at UMass:

Former Bush Aide Card Is Booed at UMass [/] May 25, 8:36 PM EDT

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) -- President Bush's former chief of staff Andrew Card was loudly booed by hundreds of students and faculty members as he rose to accept an honorary degree at the University of Massachusetts on Friday.

The boos and catcalls - including those from faculty members who stood onstage with Card - drowned out Provost Charlena Seymour's remarks as she awarded the honorary doctorate in public service. Protesters claim Card lied to the American people in the early days of the Iraq war and should not have been honored at the graduate student commencement.

Card smiled slightly while Seymour spoke and raised his hand in thanks, then sat down without speaking. [/] Afterward he ignored a reporter's question about the protesters. "It was a great honor and a privilege to be here," he said.

The protests were mainly contained to an area in the back of the campus arena, though many of the faculty members onstage joined the three- to four- minute outburst. [/] One faculty member onstage held a sign: "Card - no honor, no degree." Another sign said, "War criminals go home."

Chancellor John Lombardi declined to comment on the protests or Card's honorary degree. [/] Before the commencement ceremony, about 100 faculty members and students sang anti-war songs, handed out leaflets and waved signs outside the arena.

Sigrid Schmalzer, an assistant professor of history, said she believes Card was honored because he's well-connected and UMass thought he could somehow help the school. [/] "For the university to so cynically disregard the question of intellectual integrity when it becomes convenient to pursue money and power is the wrong message to send," she said.

Card, a former Massachusetts lawmaker who received his undergraduate degree at the University of South Carolina, has said he was honored to be selected and is a supporter of UMass. [/] Opponents tried unsuccessfully for days leading up to the ceremony to get the university to change its mind. [/] "Andrew Card was Bush's chief of staff from 2000 to 2006. By about 2004, he should be saying, 'Look, either these policies change, or I'm going to resign,'" said economics instructor John Stifler. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Rights Activists Betraying Civilization?!?

Say it ain't so, Joe Amnesty!

(With profuse apologies to Shoeless Joe Jackson, the Chicago White Socks, and Major League Baseball.)

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a New York Post article, HUMAN WRONGS & THE ACTIVISTS WHO LOVE THEM:

HUMAN WRONGS & THE ACTIVISTS WHO LOVE THEM [/] by Ralph Peters [/] May 25, 2007 -- HOW many "human-rights activists" does it take to betray civilization?

[[Picture Caption:]] [[Pseudo-Sacred North Korean Dictator]] Kim: Not as nasty as U.S., says Amnesty.

After the Fatah al-Islam terrorists holed up in a Palestinian camp carried out a wave of bombings, bank robberies and assassinations, Lebanon's struggling democratic government ordered its army to stop them. The Palestinian refugees themselves applauded the army's efforts, stating that few of the terrorists were local and most were fanatics from other Muslim states. The terrorists ruled with the gun and sought to enforce Sharia law. Their victims want them gone.

The response from Human Rights Watch? Ignore the crimes of the terrorists and criticize the Lebanese army for attacking them "indiscriminately."

That would be travesty enough for one week, but it was only a sideshow. Each year, Amnesty International releases what purports to be an objective global survey of the state of human rights. Sounds like a great idea, but the report has long since degenerated into an effort to protect terrorists and mass murderers from justice - and bash America.

In its latest report, Amnesty International denounces the United States again. This time, it seems we're the foremost global abuser of human rights.

Oh, if you keep reading, rogue states such as Zimbabwe, China, Sudan, Russia and Iran get tut-tut mentions, although North Korea just sounds like a weight-loss spa. Except for our democratic ally, Colombia, only the United Kingdom appears remotely as savage as the United States.

Reading about American heartlessness made me want to move to Saudi Arabia, where women never see their rights abused and believers of every faith are free to worship. And if I want a beer, I can hop over to Venezuela, where everything's free.

The sad truth is that the misnamed "human-rights community" just may be the worst enemy of human rights without a country of its own. There are real human-rights tragedies unfolding every day, from Harare to Havana, but activists don't give a d%m% about the average Joe or Miguel or Ali.

It's all about saving celebrity mass-murderers. And their advocates' Freudian issues with Uncle Sam. Guantanamo is one of the world's best-run prisons, where terrorists are treated all too indulgently. But to hear the human-rights charlatans, you'd think we were the SS at Babi Yar.

And don't forget that wicked-beyond-all-wickedness criminal state, Israel. Thank God we have men and women of conscience to defend the freedom fighters who launch rockets blindly into Israeli cities or massacre children as a legitimate form of protest.

We, the human race, can't afford this nonsense. Human rights matter. But conservatives abandoned the issue to leftist ideologues - and those of us caught in the middle have no public voice to speak for us. Meanwhile, the world is screaming in agony, while the high priests of human-rights just want to spit in Washington's face (knowing we won't spit back).

How can anyone who pretends to have a conscience attack the United States for violating human rights and engaging in "fear-mongering," while looking away as millions of Zimbabweans live on the brink of starvation in a police-state, hundreds of thousands lie dead in Darfur, all of North Korea makes Guantanamo look like Martha's Vineyard - and Islamist fanatics kill tens of thousands of Muslims?

Apart from the fact that there really are things worth fearing in this world, all that matters to the human-rights phonies is that, if you twist things sufficiently, you can blame America for the Muslim victims of Muslim terrorism.

And I keep missing the mass demonstrations against female circumcision, in which little girls and young women endure unspeakable agony as each has her clitoris sliced away. Guess that's just a quaint expression of cultures uncorrupted by the West.

Human rights shouldn't be an issue of the political left or right. We should all be in this fight together. But to make meaningful progress, you have to take on the butchers who prey upon the masses - as we've tried to do in Iraq. Activists prefer protecting the killers.

Don't any of those sanctimonious human-rights advocates pause to consider what they're doing to hundreds of millions of their fellow human beings when they suggest that the paramount threat to human rights comes from the United States? How do they rationalize all the slaughter, rape, real torture and starvation-as-a-policy they ignore to embarrass Washington?

The defense of the human rights of the innocent masses is the single most serious issue of our time, embedded in every other strategic threat. It's just a d%m%ed shame that the human-rights activists aren't serious.

Ralph Peters' latest book is "Never Quit The Fight." [My ellipses and emphasis]

Seat Belts Good; Big Government Bad!?!

Live Free or Die!!! - New Hampshire Official State Motto

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a New Hampshire Union Leader Page 1 Editorial by the Publisher, Seatbelts good; big government force is bad:

Page 1 Editorial: Seatbelts good; big government force is bad [/] By JOSEPH W. MCQUAID [/] New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher [/] Tuesday, Apr. 3, 2007

Adults who don't bother to use a seatbelt each and every time they enter an automobile are either not thinking clearly or don't have the capacity to think at all.

Elected officials who presume to understand and speak for the Live Free or Die state aren't thinking clearly if they vote to have the government force people to buckle up. That vote is scheduled in the House tomorrow and it looks like it may pass.

Seatbelts are good for you. But you are more likely to die from too much fat in your diet. Why isn't the Legislature telling us what we can and cannot eat? Don't laugh. That may be next.

New Hampshire has shown steady improvement in seatbelt usage and still kept Big Government at bay. That will change tomorrow with this bill, which would allow police to pull you over and fine you if they see that you are not belted up.

Is that the New Hampshire way? Do we want our small government to go down the slippery slope that leads to more and more orders and less and less liberty? That's what this vote is really all about. New Hampshire citizens will be watching it closely. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Have We Raised A Generation Of Narcissists???

It's 10 p.m. Do you know how big your child's ego is???

My take is that the hypocritical praise of posterity is the result of actions that demonstrate lack of actual and proper provision for posterity, starting with family planning.

They say that we should pass this bill for the sake of posterity. I say, "Why should we do anything for posterity. What has posterity ever done for us?" - Archetypical (and historical) Irish bull

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a Reason Magazine article, Have We Raised A Generation Of Narcissists?:

Have We Raised A Generation Of Narcissists? [/] It's 10 p.m. Do you know how big your child's ego is? [/] Steve Chapman | May 21, 2007

Growing older has many drawbacks and one unalloyed pleasure: passing judgment on the younger generation. Lately, people have been scrutinizing the members of Generation Y and finding them deficient. [/] What's wrong with the kids? A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported that because they have been told since infancy that they were special, they believe it and expect to keep hearing it. "Bosses, professors and mates are feeling the need to lavish praise on young adults, particularly twenty-somethings, or else see them wither under an unfamiliar compliment deficit," it said.

To critics, this generation is an army of self-absorbed narcissists with a swollen sense of entitlement. In my house, I have tried to prevent this outcome by reminding my kids, "The world does not revolve around you. It revolves around me." But apparently some parents didn't dispense that wisdom. [/] Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, reports that college students increasingly agree with statements indicating oversized egos, such as "I am an important person." Marian Salzman, a senior vice president at the advertising agency JWT, told The Christian Science Monitor, "Gen-Y is the most difficult workforce I've ever encountered," because they "are so self-indulgent."

But before Gen Y-ers start to feel bad about themselves, they should know that worse things were said about their parents. Back in the 1960s and '70s, it was universal wisdom that the kids of that era suffered from too much coddling. Vice President Spiro Agnew blamed student unrest and other problems on "spoiled brats who never had a good spanking."[My ellipses and emphasis]

U.S. Borders: White Flagged?!?

A people who lack the courage to have children!

And who lack the courage to win wars!!

Will also lack the courage ---

To defend themselves against massive alien infiltration!!!

Have all the cheese eating surrender monkeys abandoned France and gotten themselves elected to the U.S. Congress?!?

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

"Every person who has ever risked their life securing our borders is extremely disheartened to see some of our elected representatives once again waving the white flag on the issues of illegal immigration and border security," National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner said. [/] "Rewarding criminal behavior has never induced anyone to abide by the law, and there is no reason to believe the outcome will be any different this time," he said. [My ellipses and emphasis]

From the leadership of all 11,000 nonsupervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents in regard to the current bi-partisan immigration deal. Quoted, by Jerry Seper in a Washington Times article, Border agents hit illegals bill:

Also consider a Mark Steyn Chicago Sun-Times column, Capitulation, from A------ to Z:

Capitulation, from A------ to Z [/] May 20, 2007 [/] MARK STEYN

Are you a fine upstanding member of the Undocumented-American community? That's to say, are you (if you'll forgive the expression) an illegal immigrant?

Great news! Being illegal is now perfectly legal! Just for being one of the circa 12 million people who shouldn't be here, you can now be here indefinitely! If you were living and working in America illegally before Jan. 1, 2007, you're now entitled to one of the new Z-1 "probationary" visas. And your parents and spouses are entitled to one of the new Z-2 visas, and your children to the new Z-3 visas.

Don't worry: It's not an "amnesty." Every politician in America is opposed to amnesty -- if not the concept, then at least the word. That's why the visa starts with the letter that's furthest away from the one "amnesty" begins with. "Z" stands for zellout . . . no, hang on, zurrender or Zapatista, or some other word way up the other end of the alphabet from "amnesty." But the point is, at a stroke there will be no more illegal immigrants. Because being illegal means you're now legal.

Unless, of course, you came to America after Jan. 1, 2007, and thus aren't covered by the zamnesty. But in that case why not apply for the Z-1 anyway? After all, you're here illegally so how would U.S. Immigration know when you arrived? Especially with 12-15-20 million urgent applications tossed in on top of what's already a multi-year backlog. They're not exactly going to be doing a lot of in-depth background checks, especially not for a visa category whose only entry requirement under U.S. law is that you've broken U.S. law when you entered.

By the way, when I said "came to America," if you're visiting Toronto for a weekend break from Yemen or Belarus, don't be deterred by the fact that Canada is not technically in America. Why not just head down to Buffalo and apply for the old Z-1, too? After all, it's not such a stretch to regard every single person on the planet as a Z-1-in-waiting. This being America, pretty soon -- a court decision here, a court decision there -- the presumption of every school district and hospital and welfare administrator will be that they're obliged to treat everyone who walks in through the door as if they were a Z-1. You zee one, you've zeen 'em all.

As for the notion that dumping a population the size of four mid-size European Union nations into the lap of America's arthritic "legal immigration" (please, no tittering; apparently, there is still such a thing) bureaucracy will lead to tougher enforcement and rigorous scrutiny and lots of other butch-sounding stuff, well, if that were the case, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place. You can declare that "illegal" now mean "legal" very easily; to mandate that "incompetent" now means "competent" is a tougher proposition.

But, as John McCain declared, "This is what the legislative process is all about" -- and in the sense that it's a sloppily drafted bottomless pit of unintended consequences on a potentially cosmic scale whose sweeping "reforms" will inevitably require even more sweeping reforms of the reforms in a year or two's time, he's quite right. Also, as Senator McCain says, "This is what bipartisanship is all about."

I'm not a fan of "bipartisanship" for its own sake. This is a very divided political culture in which bipartisanship is all but nonexistent on everything else, starting with war and national security. So, when the political class is in lockstep bipartisan mode, that's sufficiently unusual all by itself. When it's in bipartisan mode on an issue on which the public is diametrically opposed, that looks less like bipartisanship and more like the lockstep myopia of an out-of-touch one-party state.

[...] Those figures would have stunned any Long Island school superintendent of 40 years ago. Derbyshire's numbers suggest that at some point not far away, every school board in America will have to factor in bilingual education programs and ever swelling special ed budgets, making one of the highest cost-per-pupil/lowest scores-per-pupil education systems even more expensive and even less educational.

At some point, it's worth trying to climb over the rubble of the 2007 Z-1s and the 1986 amnesty and the 1965 immigration act, and going back to basics: What is immigration for? In the modern Western world, to question immigration in even the most cautious way is to risk being demonized as a racist. Most of us like to see ourselves as nice people, and so even to raise the subject of immigration -- even illegal immigration -- feels like an assault not on distant foreigners so much as on our self-image. Yet, whatever the virtuousness of immigration for the host society, a dependence on it is a sign of profound structural weakness, and, when all the self-congratulation about celebrating diversity has died down, that weakness ought to be understood as such. The unspoken premise behind this bill is that the socioeconomic order in America is now so dependent on the vast apparatus of a giant shadow state of illegal immigrants that it cannot be dismantled but only legitimized and thereby expanded. If that is true, that is a basic structural defect that should be addressed honestly.

Meanwhile, the reluctance of Washington to be seen to enforce its own borders is very perplexing. From the "Washington sniper" to 9/11, there has been for a generation a clear national-security component to the illegal immigration issue. To present it only as a matter of "the jobs Americans won't do" is lazily reductive. The economists may see the vast human tide as an army of much-needed hotel maids and farm workers and nurses and plumbers, but to assume that everyone on the planet sees themselves as primarily an economic entity is complacent and (post-Sept. 11) obtusely deluded. The political class' urge to capitulate on the integrity of the national border sends as important a message to the world about American will as their urge to capitulate on Iraq. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Falwell Dead: Gayety In 'Frisco

Interesting celebrations.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 KJV Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. (15) For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: (16) To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a Bay Area Reporter Blogs post, Falwell 'anti-memorial' tonight:

Falwell 'anti-memorial' tonight [/] Tuesday, May 15, 2007

LGBT [[Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual]] activists will meet at 18th and Castro streets at 5 p.m. today (Tuesday, May 15) to hold an “anti-memorial” following the death earlier today of anti-gay preacher the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Bring your Tinky Winky dolls. [/] Filed by Cynthia Laird in News [My ellipses and emphasis]

From a Beyond Chron .org article, Good Riddance to Jerry Falwell:

Good Riddance to Jerry Falwell [/] by Tommi Avicolli Mecca‚ May. 16‚ 2007

In the Castro, May 15 was anything but a day to mourn. [/] News that right-wing Christian minister Jerry Falwell had died that morning brought about 30 queers to the corner of 18th and Castro during rush hour to attend an “anti-memorial” that was full of good cheer. Representatives of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of gay male nuns that Falwell had once attacked, were on hand to help exorcise the spirit of the hate-spewing fundamentalist preacher.

On queervision, an internet discussion group, message lines in emails hailed “ding-dong the witch is dead” and “Falwell is dead day.” Entries on the SF Bay Guardian blog, too, expressed no regret about the 73-year-old bigot’s sudden passing in his office at Liberty University in Virginia.

Some may think it’s tasteless to speak ill of the dead, but certainly not in the case of Jerry Falwell. The man made a lucrative career out of bashing the LGBT [[Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual]] community and fighting any gains that women made, such as Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in America. He was also a segregationist who once denounced South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a foe of apartheid, as a phony and not a proper representative of Blacks.

In 1965, Falwell criticized the work of Dr. Martin Luther King and dubbed the civil rights struggle the “civil wrongs movement.” He regularly featured racists such as former Alabama Governor George Wallace on his “Old-Time Gospel Hour” TV Program. His voter registration drive among Christian fundamentalists in the late 70s is credited as having given Ronald Reagan his presidential victory in 1980.

While riding high on that newfound political influence, Falwell suffered a couple of rather humiliating defeats, one at the hands of Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, after the publication ran a spoof of Falwell’s “first time,” a supposedly incestuous relationship with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell sued. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which surprisingly backed Flynt’s right to parody the public figure. It was a great victory for free speech. [/] In 1984, a self-proclaimed gay pagan, Jerry Sloan, sued Falwell after he slammed the gay Metropolitan Community Church during a TV debate. Sloan accused Falwell of characterizing MCC as “brute beasts” and “a vile and satanic system.” Falwell denied that he said those things and told Sloan he’d pay him $5,000 if he produced proof. Sloan produced a tape. Falwell refused to pay, so Sloan sued and won.

Falwell eventually backed down from his stand on segregation, but never relented on his attacks on homosexuality. He not only described gay sexuality as “Satan’s diabolical attack upon the family,” but also believed that AIDS was God’s way of punishing queers, as well as “God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”

In 1999, Falwell caused a huge stir by outing Tinky-Winky, a BBC children’s show character who wore purple and had an inverted triangle on his head. He also carried a magic bag. Producers denied that Tinky-Winky was queer and said that there was nothing wrong with a man carrying a purse. [[N.B. Actually Tinky Winky was admittedly and designedly queer. More on this later, God willing.]]

Perhaps one of Falwell’s most tasteless quips was after 9/11: He blamed the attack on the Twin Towers on “the pagans and the feminists and the gays.” He was later forced to apologize. [/] Falwell’s is a legacy that leaves nothing to be proud of. [/] Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical, southern Italian, working-class, atheist queer performer and writer whose work can be seen at www.avicollimecca.com. [My ellipses and emphasis]

From a Bay Area Reporter article, Anti-gay Reverend Jerry Falwell dies:

Anti-gay Reverend Jerry Falwell dies [/] by Bob Roehr

[...] Falwell came to prominence through the Moral Majority, a conservative religious-political group that he founded in 1979. Opposition to gays and lesbians was a cornerstone of the group's activities. The Moral Majority was disbanded in 1989.

He was perhaps the single person most responsible for making religious conservatives the political force that they are today. The Moral Majority represented a shift among fundamentalists from an inner direction to active engagement in the political process. It is difficult to recall that, given the ubiquitous involvement of conservative religious groups in politics today.

Falwell referred to gays as "deviants" and "sodomites," and played a leading role in the backlash against the first wave of gay rights legislation. He joined Anita Bryant in 1977 to repeal an equal rights law in Dade County, Florida, and participated in a similar effort in California the following year. [/] Over the course of his public life, Falwell devolved from the effective political power who had played a significant role in the election of Ronald Reagan as president, to the absurdity of his 1999 warning to parents that the Teletubby Tinky Winky was a subversive part of the homosexual agenda. [[N.B. Actually Tinky Winky was admittedly and designedly queer. More on this later, God willing.]] "He is purple – the gay pride color, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle – the gay pride symbol," said Falwell.

The Reverend Mel White worked as a ghostwriter for Falwell before coming to terms with his own homosexuality and confronting Falwell on his homophobia through the organization Soulforce. White said, "It breaks my heart to think that Jerry died without ever discovering the truth about God's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children. I sincerely hope that one day his school and his church will have a change of heart."

[...] While expressing condolences to the family, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman said, "Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain, and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation."

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation advised the media of Falwell's "history of denigrative comments" on gays and urged it to "reflect on the outdated attitudes and beliefs he embodied." [/] Much of the mainstream media paid scant attention to the suggestion, glossing over the fact that much of Falwell's success was built upon anti-gay demagoguery.

Many of the rank and file within the LGBT community responded to Falwell's death by circulating online the acerbic comment of Bette Davis on learning of the death of her cinematic rival Joan Crawford: "You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good Joan Crawford is dead. Good!"

The popular blog Wonkette, the D.C. gossip, was positively vitriolic, writing, "At a time like this, people deserve sympathy and good wishes ... except for Falwell, who was an evil sonofabitch. Over his long career as a vile televangelist building an empire of bigotry from the donations of poor people, Falwell has supported South African apartheid, called AIDS an invention of Jesus to punish gays, attacked Martin Luther King and U.S. civil rights, and blamed 9/11 on feminists and homosexuals." [My ellipses and emphasis]

AIDS: Government Responsible?!?

I do believe that the government is largely responsible for the death, suffering, and fear associated with AIDS.

(In first world countries, that is. In the third world, as the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has stated, it is malnutrition and poverty. In the second world of still and newly severely statist governments, it is difficult to get beyond government propaganda.)

But not in the specific theory described below.

If the book is reasonably well written, it sounds like a great read, however.

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From an Amazon .com book description, Iporanga: Up or Anger:

Editorial Reviews [/] Book Description

In nineteen sixty nine, Dr. D.M. McArtor, Deputy Director of Technology for the U.S. Department of Defense went before the Senate Committee for Approbations and requested ten million dollars to design a virus that is "refractory to the immunological systems upon which we depend to keep us relatively free from infectious disease." [...] [My ellipses and emphasis]

Falwell: AP Obituary - Other Links

Autobiography (Amazon Links, note customer reviews):

Latest: Falwell: An Autobiography

Earlier: Strength for the Journey: An Autobiography

Interesting Web Comments: Jerry Falwell ... from TMZ.com, hat tip Drudge.

2 Timothy 3:12 KJV Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a MyWay.com AP article, TV Evangelist Jerry Falwell Dies at 73:

TV Evangelist Jerry Falwell Dies at 73 [/] May 15, 6:01 PM (ET) [/] By SUE LINDSEY

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) - The Rev. Jerry Falwell was stricken at his campus office and died Tuesday after a career in which the evangelist used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty force in American politics. He was 73. [/] The founder of the Moral Majority was discovered without a pulse at Liberty University and pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later. Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell's physician, said he had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality.

Driven into politics by the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established the right to an abortion, Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979. One of the conservative lobbying group's greatest triumphs came just a year later, when Ronald Reagan was elected president. [/] Falwell credited the Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative voters registered, aiding in Reagan's victory and giving Republicans control of the Senate. [/] "I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," he said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.

[...] The rise of Christian conservatism - and the Moral Majority's full-throated condemnation of homosexuality, abortion and pornography - made Falwell perhaps the most recognizable figure on the evangelical right, and one of the most controversial ones, too. [/] Over the years, Falwell waged a landmark libel case against Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt over a raunchy parody ad, and created a furor in 1999 when one of his publications suggested that the purse-carrying "Teletubbies" character Tinky Winky was gay. [[N.B. Actually, Tinky Winky was designedly and admittedly queer. The media always has faith in its first biased and ignorant script.]]

Matt Foreman, executive director of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, extended condolences to those close to Falwell, but added: "Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation."

The 1980s marked the religious conservative movement's high-water mark. In more recent years, Falwell had become a problematic figure for the GOP. His remarks a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, essentially blaming feminists, gays and liberals for bringing on the terrorist attacks drew a rebuke from the White House, and he apologized. [/] Falwell's declining political star seemed apparent when he was quietly led in and out of the Republican Party's 2004 national convention. Just four years earlier, he was invited to pray from the rostrum.

The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started a fundamentalist church in an abandoned bottling plant in Lynchburg in 1956 with just 35 members. He built it into a religious empire that included the 24,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" carried on TV stations around the country and 9,600-student Liberty University, which Falwell founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College. [/] From his living room, he broadcast his message of salvation and raised the donations that helped his ministry grow. [/] "He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to expand his ministry," [[He earlier used local radio and door-to-door visits very effectively to promote Thomas Road Baptist Church]] said Robert Alley, a retired University of Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell's career. Alley died last summer.

Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but changed his views. The Moral Majority grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it supported conservative politicians and railed against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer. [/] Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national magazine covers and on talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America. [/] "Jerry's passions and convictions changed the course of our country for the better over the last 20 years," said James Dobson, founder of the conservative Christian Focus on the Family ministry. "It was Jerry who led an entire wing of Christianity, the fundamentalist wing, away from isolation and into a direct confrontation with the culture."

[...] With Falwell's high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political sermonizing on "non-moral issues."
[/] Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being "a lightning rod" and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism for his remarks.

Falwell was re-energized after family values proved important in the 2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as the "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority," to seek anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and more conservative elected officials.

In 1987, Falwell took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry in South Carolina after the Rev. Jim Bakker got caught in a sex and money scandal. Falwell slid fully clothed down a theme park water slide after donors met his fundraising goal to help rescue the rival ministry. He gave it up seven months later after learning the depth of PTL's financial problems.

Largely because of the sex scandals involving Bakker and fellow evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, donations to Falwell's ministry dropped from $135 million in 1986 to less than $100 million the following year. Hundreds of workers were laid off and viewers of his television show dwindled. [/] Liberty University was $73 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, and his "Old Time Gospel Hour" was $16 million in debt. By the mid-1990s, two local businessmen with long ties to Falwell began overseeing the finances and helped get companies to forgive debts or write them off. [/] Falwell dreamed that Liberty would grow to 50,000 students and be to fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholics and Brigham Young University is to Mormons.

Falwell's father and his grandfather were militant atheists, he wrote in his autobiography. He said his father made a fortune off his businesses - including bootlegging during Prohibition. [/] As a student, Falwell was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred from giving his high school valedictorian's speech after he was caught using counterfeit lunch tickets. [/] He ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a born-again Christian at 19. He turned down an offer to play professional baseball and transferred from Lynchburg College to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.

"My heart was burning to serve Christ," he once said in an interview. "I knew nothing would ever be the same again."

Falwell had made careful preparations for a transition of his leadership to his two sons, Jerry Falwell, Jr., now vice chancellor of Liberty University, and Jonathan Falwell, executive the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. [/] Falwell is survived by his wife, Macel, his two sons and a daughter, Jeannie Falwell Savas. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known. [...] [My ellipses and emphasis]

J :) POLL: Return Remains To Aborigines?

See article below. Vote! Make your opinion (or lack thereof) count!! Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 112612!!!. (Choices and link also given after article below.)

Should we return all human artefacts?

YES [/] • DR IAN Duffield, expert in colonial and aboriginal history, University of Edinburgh.

"I strongly support the remains going back. [/] "These people were exactly the same as us and had done us no harm, but they were regarded as primitive and inferior. [/] "It was a case of 'might is right' and bogus science being used to justify appropriating remains for scientific research. [/] "The basic point is that removing human remains is a completely barbarous thing to do."

NO [/] • MICHAEL Fry, historian.

"Why do we have museums and other such institutions other than to facilitate cultural exchange between nations? [/] "The most striking way to do this is to have artefacts from various countries which we can go and look at. [/] "I don't see any problems with these remains, unless they have been desecrated in some ways. [/] "The only grounds for dispute would be over legal ownership which wouldn't seem to be a problem in this case."

From a Scotsman.com News article, Tasman Aboriginals call for return of skull, more follows:

Tasman Aboriginals call for return of skull [/] TOM CURTIS AND SHÂN ROSS [/] The Scotsman Fri 11 May 2007

CURATORS are considering returning aboriginal remains held in a Scottish museum to Tasmania so that they can be given a ceremonial burial. [/] A skull, dating from the late 1880s, is in storage at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Yesterday Greg Browne, an Aboriginal and representative of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in Hobart and fellow Aboriginal Caroline Spotswood met Jane Carmichael, the museum's director of collections, asking for its return. [/] Mr Browne wants the museum to follow the lead of the Natural History Museum in London, which is conducting a handover ceremony today of 17 sets of remains of Tasmanian Aboriginal remains.

"When we walked into the museum we were sad to think that our ancestor's remains were here and we didn't know what sort of attitude we would be facing," Mr Browne said. [/] "But the discussion we had with Jane Carmichael was warm and friendly and very positive. We are looking forward to a further discussion with a view to repatriation of the remains. There is only one skull, but it is very important to our people."

The campaign to have Aboriginal remains kept in museums and universities returned home started in the mid-1970s. Once returned, they are not subjected to DNA testing but are given a burial. "It is our people's belief that bodies need to be reunited with the land," Mr Browne said. [/] "We will have a cultural ceremony where this is carried out with dignity and respect in the traditional way."

The skull has little provenance, but curators believe it dates from the late 19th century and that it is from a Tasmanian Aboriginal. Mr Browne and Ms Spotswood are also visiting Oxford and Cambridge Universities to ask for skeletal remains to be returned. Campaigners have voiced objections to DNA tests being conducted on remains.

Ms Spotswood said: "What we've done is open a precedent in regards to open dialogue and developing and building up trust. [/] "So that's really good for us to move into other negotiations with other museums and say this is what we're doing, this is what we've done with the Natural History Museum and it's worked out really good."

In 1991, the skulls of nine Tasmanian Aboriginals, from the historic anatomy collection at Edinburgh University, were returned to Australia.

A spokeswoman from the museum said: "Today's meeting was very constructive and we agreed to continue the dialogue. We now expect that there will be a formal request for repatriation of this skull. [/]

"Any formal request will be considered by our board of trustees on a case by case basis, taking into account the UK legislative framework." [...] [My ellipses and emphasis]

Poll Question: Return Remains To Aborigines? | Poll choices:

1. Yes. It is the notions of the victims' possible survivors that counts! / 2. Yes. Do not offend anybody of lesser success! / 3. Yes. All cultures are equal! / 4. Yes. If their group was once oppressed by our group. / 5. Yes. We must pay for the sins of our fathers. / 6. Yes. Down with colonialism! / 7. Yes. Down with capitalism!! / 8. Yes. Let niceness reign!!! / 9. Yes. / 10. Possibly. Check the obscure disease research benefits. / 11. Possibly. But government should conduct a poll of survivors first. / 12. No. But government should fund a program of benefits to survivors. / 13. No. / 14. No. The remains were lost on sound military and economic principles. / 15. No. Do not falsify history. / 16. No. Support scholarship and science. / 17. No. End the silliness of pseudo-penance. / 18. No opinion. Let the dead bury the dead. / 19. No comment. / 20. No opinion. / 21. This poll is worthless. / 22. This poll is of negative value. / 23. Other.

Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 112612! Vote!! Make your opinion (or lack thereof) count!!!

Killer's "Old Man" Dead!?!

Romans 6:6 KJV Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Romans 8:10 KJV And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Colossians 3:9-10 KJV Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; (10) And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Berkowitz seems to be interpreting the above verses better than most.

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

When asked what the David Berkowitz of today would say to the David Berkowitz from 1976, he said, "You're dead. You don't exist anymore. That's the old man who as far as I'm concerned is dead buried and gone, thanks to Jesus Christ."

From a WCBSTV .com [ch. 2, NYC] "topstories" article, World Exclusive: 'Son Of Sam' Speaks, video at link, more text below:

May 8, 2007 6:02 am US/Eastern [/] World Exclusive: 'Son Of Sam' Speaks To CBS 2 HD [/] Part I: David Berkowitz Speaks Of New Born-Again Life [/] Scott Weinberger Reporting

(CBS) FALLSBURG, N.Y. Locked away three decades now, David Berkowitz recalls life as the notorious "Son of Sam," the man who held New Yorkers hostage and in fear. [/] "I was just totally lost in despair, surrendered myself to those powers of darkness," Berkowitz recently told CBS 2 HD from Sullivan Correctional Facility.

It's been 30 years since New York suffered through one of the city's most sizzling hot summers ever, a summer that came to be known as the "Summer of Sam" in which the soaring temperatures that led to city-wide blackouts and destructive looting riots were overshadowed by a terrifying serial killer, the "Son of Sam."

Berkowitz, now 53, was arrested in August of 1977 outside of his Yonkers apartment, where he was said to quickly admit to being the feared gunman that had shot 13 people throughout the city, killing six of them. [/] An eerie paranoia spread across the five boroughs while he was on the loose, as brown-haired women wore blonde wigs, cut their hair, or dyed it another color because it seemed as if the killer, who was first known as the ".44 Caliber Killer" because of the bullets used in the shootings, targeted young women with long, brown hair.

"I dedicated myself to Satan and became a soldier and had the satanic bible and went through stupid rituals. It was just a ... that kind of sealed my fate. After that it was all down hill." [/] This is the Berkowitz of today, a self-professed born-again Christian. [/] "I'm living a whole new life today, even behind prison walls," Berkowitz said. "Because god is not limited by anything. He's not limited by prison walls.” [/] Berkowitz is considered a model prisoner, who spends most of his time-sharing the gospel with other inmates, and Christians all over the globe.

"I'm a man that doesn't even deserve to be alive, but its God who delights to show mercy," Berkowitz said. "He's the one who I believe has chosen me for this time we're living in to let people know that he does forgive sin." [/] When asked if he feels in god's way he can forgive a killer, Berkowitz said, "oh sure, absolutely. "

[...] However, not everyone is buying Berkowitz's transformation. [/] "It's a total con job," Joe Coffey said. "I've never seen one of these people who were sincere in what they did."

Thirty years ago, Coffey, then an NYPD detective sergeant, interrogated the "Son of Sam" and he remembers a disturbed man who he said enjoyed every minute of his detailed confession. [/] "He went through killings like you and I were talking about going out for a cocktail, or going shopping," Coffey said. "He never voiced any remorse whatsoever."

When asked what he wants people to know about who David Berkowitz is now, he said he's taken responsibility for his horrific actions. [/] "... I deeply regret with all my heart the pain and suffering I’ve brought, through my criminal actions," Berkowitz said. "I'd do anything if I could go back in time and change that."

When asked what the David Berkowitz of today would say to the David Berkowitz from 1976, he said, "You're dead. You don't exist anymore. That's the old man who as far as I'm concerned is dead buried and one, thanks to Jesus Christ."

For years many have questioned whether David Berkowitz acted alone. CBS 2 HD asked that question. He surprised us with his answer. We will have a lot more when we continue our exclusive interview with Berkowitz on Tuesday at 11 p.m. [My ellipses and emphasis]

French Revolutionary Co-Habitation Contract

An improvement, perhaps, over some present day arrangements.

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From The Rights of Women by Olympe de Gouges:

[...] Form for a Social Contract Between Man and Woman

We, ________ and _________, moved by our own will, unite ourselves for the duration of our lives, and for the duration of our mutual inclinations, under the following conditions: We intend and wish to make our wealth communal, meanwhile reserving to ourselves the right to divide it in favor of our children and of those toward whom we might have a particular inclination, mutually recognizing that our property belongs directly to our children, from whatever bed they come, and that all of them without distinction have the right to bear the name of the fathers and mothers who have acknowledged them, and we are charged to subscribe to the law which punished the renunciation of one's own blood. We likewise obligate ourselves, in case of separation, to divide our wealth and to set aside in advance the portion the law indicates for our children, and in the event of a perfect union, the one who dies will divest himself of half his property in his children's favor, and if one dies childless, the survivor will inherit by right, unless the dying person has disposed of half the common property in favor of one who he judged deserving.[...] [My ellipses and emphasis]

Rosie O'Donnell Gets It Right!!!

A truth of great value, almost universally eventually learned by adults, that most parents do not teach their children.

I report and link. You decide. - J :)

From a My Way .com / AP article, O'Donnell: You'll Hear My New Plans Soon:

O'Donnell: You'll Hear My New Plans Soon [/] Apr 30, 7:11 PM (ET)

[...] O'Donnell's advice for teenagers who felt pressure from girlfriends or boyfriends: "You will never meet an adult who will say, '[###], I wish I had sex sooner.'"
[My bracketed modification, ellipses and emphasis]

There may be a few seeming exceptions. But those adults who may say otherwise are not, I believe, actually telling the truth. (They may not know themselves well enough to know the truth about themselves.)