China's Death Toll 71,000 And Rising
Earthquake shatters China's countryside.

Labels: China, earthquake, natural disasters, Sichuan
Quidnunc for current world events, politics, news, history, culture, trivia, religion, and the quirky
"LAND OF THE FREE, BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE"

Labels: China, earthquake, natural disasters, Sichuan
A new scientific study places the burial linen cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Shroud of Turin, eight hundred years later and well into the Middle Ages. The 14th century revered relic is a keystone within Catholic history not without controversial skepticism.John Jackson, a physics lecturer at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, has convinced scientists who performed the age tests on the cloth housed in Turin, Italy, since in the 1500s to consider his suggestion that those tests may have been faulty, according to a report in the Denver Post.
The cloth long has posed mysteries because of its age and its negative image of a bloodstained and battered man who had been crucified. Believers claim it to be the miraculous image of Jesus, formed as he rose from the dead.
That theory, however, took a serious blow in the late 1980s when scientists including those at an Oxford University laboratory performed the age-dating process on a fragment of the material and came up with the results that it was no older than the 13th or 14th century, more than a millennium after New Testament times.
The Catholic Encyclopedia notes:
An animated controversy followed and it must be admitted that though the immense preponderance of opinion among learned Catholics (see the statement by P.M. Baumgarten in the "Historiches Jahrbuch", 1903, pp. 319-43) was adverse to the authenticity of the relic, still the violence of many of its assailants prejudiced their own cause. In particular the suggestion made of blundering or bad faith on the part of those who photographed were quite without excuse. From the scientific point of view, however, the difficulty of the "negative" impression on the cloth is not so serious as it seems. This Shroud like the others was probably painted without fraudulent intent to aid the dramatic setting of the Easter sequence:
Dic nobis Maria, quid vidisti in via
Angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes.As the word sudarium suggested, it was painted to represent the impression made by the sweat of Christ, i.e. probably in a yellowish tint upon unbrilliant red. This yellow stain would turn brown in the course of centuries, the darkening process being aided by the effects of fire and sun. Thus, the lights of the original picture would become the shadow of Paleotto's reproduction of the images on the shroud is printed in two colours, pale yellow and red. As for the good proportions and æsthetic effect, two things may be noted. First, that it is highly probable that the artist used a model to determine the length and position of the limbs, etc.; the representation no doubt was made exactly life size. Secondly, the impressions are only known to us in photographs so reduced, as compared with the original, that the crudenesses, aided by the softening effects of time, entirely disappear.
Lastly, the difficulty must be noticed that while the witnesses of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries speak of the image as being then so vivid that the blood seemed freshly shed, it is now darkened and hardly recognizable without minute attention. On the supposition that this is an authentic relic dating from the year A.D. 30, why should it have retained its brilliance through countless journeys and changes of climate for fifteen centuries, and then in four centuries more have become almost invisible? On the other hand if it be a fabrication of the fifteenth century this is exactly what we should expect.
Labels: Catholic Church, Catholic Encyclopedia, forensics, Jesus of Nazareth, John Jackson, Relics, science, Shroud of Turin, University of Colorado
Labels: American Science and Technology Corp, Dana Perino, Environmentalism, global warming, President Bush, White House
"People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception but it is really an important thing for women because one of the things about the book is about how women's lives have changed," Mrs Blair told Ms Kelly.The WWII song "How You Going To Keep 'Em Down On The Farm, After They've Seen Paree" comes to mind. How is the Catholic Church going to stop the blatant worldwide use of birth control?
"One of the reasons women's lives have changed is that they have been able to control their fertility, it is an important issue."
Mrs Blair's remarks came after she spoke of the 10 "fantastic" years she had enjoyed in Downing Street, a time when she had met the Queen and two Popes.
She said meeting two Popes was a "huge thing" for a "good Catholic girl".
Mrs Blair's remarks on contraception come after Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month strongly defended the 1968 Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, the controversial Papal document against artificial birth control.
Labels: birth control, Catholic Church, Cherie Blair, contraception, fertility, Humanae Vitae, Prime Minister, Tony Blair, United Kingdom
Asylum is no longer a nice word... In Britain, a nicer word is "sanctuary." Please change your p.c. dicitionary to reflect more "niceness." Just another under the radar tactic by a Muslim organization to infiltrate Western society. A poll for the Independent Asylum Commission found that only 28% of people viewed "asylum" positively, and 33% viewed it negatively.
In comparison, more than 81% thought "sanctuary" had positive connotations. Slightly more people - 31.3% - most associated the word "asylum" with a place for the mentally ill rather than with safety for the persecuted, the poll said.
Ahead of the launch of the report today, a spokesman said there was "grave misunderstanding" among the public which threatened to undermine Britain's long tradition of offering help to those fleeing persecution.
"The commissioners advise those wishing to communicate effectively with the public to avoid using the term 'asylum' or 'asylum seeker' if they wish to convey messages about people seeking sanctuary from persecution," he said.
Ifath Nawaz, president of the Association of Muslim Lawyers and co-chair of the Independent Asylum Commission, said: "The public have to understand and support sanctuary and the system that provides it for those fleeing persecution.
Labels: asylum, dictionary, political correctness, sanctuary cities
The measure forms the centrepiece of a Government blueprint for overhauling the 'forgotten service' of 450 pupil referral units - so-called sin bins - for the country's most disruptive youngsters.
Mr Balls also raised the prospect of private firms running the units for profit, a development certain to infuriate many within his party and the teaching unions. The minister also gave his backing to '"studio schools'" where pupils will be treated like employees from the age of 14 and learn in a business-based environment.
Mr Balls said a "radical transformation'" of the education of the 135,000 children every year who cannot be taught in ordinary schools would see more sent to refertensionral units - but for a shorter time.
"We would like to be intervening at a much earlier stage and using alternative provision before you get into the world of exclusions at all," he added.
"If you are going to spot early young people who are at risk of going down the wrong track and intervene to give them support, then starting that in primary school is absolutely the right way to go."
Pupils could be sent to the units fulltime or spend only part of the week there.
Could the reason be no fathers in the home administering discipline and a sense of stability? At the same time that 135,000 children can not behave in the classroom, could the reason be a lack of family identity? Lack of a father in the home? Lack of discipline? An abundance of moral turpitude?
Women Win Right To Not Have Fathers In The Home. That's right, in Britain who needs men? How do you think boys feel growing up in a society that no longer values a man?
Can you hear the screeching now to an undisciplined testesterone crazed child? "Just wait till your sperm donor sees how you turned out!" Oh yeah, that'll get him to behave.
Socialism does not work. Government is not the answer.
A family with a loving mother and father is the answer.
Labels: Great Britain, juvenile delinquents, lesbians, MP, sin bins, students, testosterone
A raft of statistics released by Whitehall revealed 164,635 foreign nationals were granted UK passports in 2007 - the equivalent of one every three minutes.The illegals are overstaying their passports and sneaking into the country.
"But we will not tolerate law breakers, which is why we will prioritise their expulsion from Britain. We are continuing to remove one person every eight minutes, last year that included a record number of foreign prisoners."
Labels: British, Great Britain, Illegal Immigration, immigrants, Whitehall
Obama said in a speech Sunday that "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries."
"That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev," he said, adding, "I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet."'
Obama said Iran was a threat partly because it had been emboldened by a war in Iraq backed by Bush and McCain. "Iran is the biggest single beneficiary of the war in Iraq," he said.
But after being lambasted by John McCain for being weak and empowering the enemy, Obama had this to say:
Obama has responded forcefully to the criticisms. "Let me be absolutely clear," he said Monday in Billings, Montana, "Iran is a grave threat." But it was not, he said, in a league with the former Soviet Union.So which is it Obama? Does Iran pose a threat or not? Memories of Kerry's top ten flip-flopping statements including "I voted against the bill before I voted for it."
Labels: 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama, International Herald Tribune, Iran, John McCain, threat, YouTube
Proponents of the idea say that Mr. Lieberman, an independent Democrat, would attract not only independents but the lunchpail blue-collar Democratic voters who have been averse to Senator Obama. It would signal that Mr. McCain aims to unite the country with his actions rather than just Obama-style rhetoric. It could help with Jewish voters in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, and maybe even New York and California.As if Republicans will then vote for Obama or Hillary? Or stay home and not vote? Not this election, Republicans are too mad about McCain's nomination to stay home. They don't want to vote for McCain but they WILL vote locally and vote against Obama and Hillary.Skeptics of the idea say that the choice wouldn’t help Mr. McCain, and might even hurt him, particularly in respect of the party’s conservative base, which is already dangerously lukewarm toward the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Labels: 2008 Presidential election, Jewish, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Republicans, Vice President, voters
Gordon Brown last night faced a direct challenge from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales over his refusal to let Labour MPs vote with their conscience over laws on genetic research.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said Catholic MPs must be granted a free vote on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
Former cabinet minister Stephen Byers also warned that the public would "look on in disbelief" if MPs could not follow their convictions.
Downing Street and the whips' office maintained that they would not allow Catholic MPs to vote against the legislation when it returns to the House of Commons next month.
At least one cabinet minister is believed to be preparing to quit rather than support the Bill, or take the compromise option of abstaining offered by the Chief Whip, Geoff Hoon. The Bill would allow the creation of hybrid human-animal embryos for research into diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
In his Easter Sunday sermon, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of Scottish Catholics, will describe the plans as "monstrous" and urge Mr Brown to allow a free vote.The Bill would allow scientists to transfer nuclei from human cells, such as skin cells, into animal egg cells that have had almost all of their genetic information removed.
The resulting "hybrid" embryos, which would be more than 99 per cent human, would be grown for a maximum of 14 days, then harvested for stem cells – immature cells than can become many types of tissue.
Maybe that's why two million Britons have left their homeland in the last ten years?
Record numbers of Britons are leaving - many of them doctors, teachers and engineers - in the biggest exodus for almost 50 years.
Over a quarter of qualified professionals who have moved abroad had health or education qualifications
There are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly-skilled university graduates, say the researchers.More than three quarters of these professionals have settled abroad for more than 10 years, according to the study by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).No other nation is losing so many qualified people, it points out. Britain has now lost more than one in 10 of its most skilled citizens, while overall only Mexico has had more people emigrate.
The figures, based on official records from more than 220 countries, will alarm Gordon Brown as tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money is spent on educating graduates. The cost of training a junior doctor, for example, is £250,000.
The most popular destinations are English-speaking countries such as Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand and holiday areas including France and Spain.
Almost 60 per cent of those leaving take jobs, although hundreds of thousands of retired people live abroad.
But then there's this socialist perspective: Let all the professionals leave - we'll just replace them with non-English speaking "skilled" immigrants.
Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration expert at the IPPR think-tank, said: "There is a long-term trend of British people lured abroad by a slightly better lifestyle. They are actively targeted by countries such as Australia and New Zealand."
The emigration was leading to a rapid change in British society as large numbers of highly-skilled immigrants moved to this country to replace those leaving, he said.
"Britain has been lucky - although it has lost substantial numbers of people, it has attracted more than a million skilled immigrants to replace them. If they stop coming then that would be a problem."
Figures from the Office for National Statistics last year, suggested that 207,000 Britons - one every three minutes - left in 2006. The emigration rate is at its highest since just after the Second World War.
The term brain drain was coined in the 1950s following the mass emigration of scientists and other experts to America. Tens of thousands of people also left the country to escape the industrial unrest and high taxes of the 1970s.
Gives a whole new meaning to bare-back riding.
Archaelogists may have found 660-year old glass window of Lady Godiva.
Labels: Big Brother, Catholic Church, email, embryonics, Frankenstein, Genetics, Gordon Brown, immigration, Internet, Lady Godiva, Scottish Labour, text messaging, United Kingdom

Labels: Environmentalism, global cooling, global warming, science
A statement released by the Diocese of St. Cloud said the church filed the petition "as a last resort out of a growing concern for the safety of parishioners and other community members due to disruptive and violent behavior on the part of that child."
Walz, the church's pastor for three years, said in an affidavit that as Adam has grown, the situation has worsened, and the boy has been "extremely disruptive and dangerous" since last summer.
Walz alleges that Adam struck a child during mass and has nearly knocked elderly people over when he abruptly bolts from church. He also spits and sometimes urinates in church and fights efforts to restrain him, Walz wrote.
The pastor wrote that Adam's parents often sit on him during mass to restrain him, and sometimes bind his hands and feet, pulling a rope under the pew so his father can control the line from behind.
Walz wrote that Adam once pulled an adolescent girl -- an exchange student staying with the family -- on top of him, grabbing her thighs and buttocks. And, at Easter, Walz alleged, Adam ran from the church, got into the family van and started it, then got into someone else's car, started it and revved up the engine.
"There were people directly in front of the car who could have been injured or killed if he had put the car in gear" Walz wrote.
Carol offered a different perspective. She said her son once brushed against a parishioner who almost lost balance. Adam makes spitting faces but doesn't actually spit, she said, and he has an occasional incontinence problem.
She and John sometimes sit on him because their weight is calming to him, she said. He pulled the exchange student onto his lap for that reason, she said, and wasn't grabbing at her.
They also use soft fleece strips to sometimes bind Adam's hands and occasionally his feet because it calms him, she said.
The Easter incident occurred when Adam got into the driver's seat of a car that had already been started and revved the engine because he's drawn to engines, she said.
The family's request for certain accommodations -- such as clearing aisles when the family leaves church -- have gone unfulfilled, she said.Tim Kasemodel of Wayzata, who met the Race family through joint autism advocacy efforts, went with his wife and their autistic son to join the Races at church on Mother's Day.
"What are we supposed to do, literally lock our kids away so no one has to see this for the rest of their lives?" Kasemodel said. "Adam's a big boy and he is intimidating because they don't understand him. Adam makes sounds like any kid, but there were babies making a heck of a lot more ruckus than Adam was."
Brad Trahan, founder of the RT Autism Awareness Foundation in Rochester, has asked the bishop in St. Cloud to rescind the restraining order and the citation "because it isn't going to resolve the situation.''
"It's unfathomable and concerns me that we've taken a situation with special needs and we're making it into the criminal matter," Trahan said. Carol, meanwhile, said she hopes the controversy doesn't reflect badly on her church.
"The church isn't bad. But it's what some individuals do within the church," she said.
In 2005, the St. Cloud diocese gave her an award for her efforts to encourage families with disabled children to attend mass, she said. The award cited her "untiring efforts ... to educate and advocate for others who have children with disruptive disabilities such as autism and seek to participate as a total family at Sunday mass."
Another case of political correctness forcing the majority to bow to the minority and you're a horrible person if you don't agree with the minority.
Paraphrasing Christ's words "Let the children come unto me" may be appropriate for children but this is not the situation. This perennial child has the weight and strength of a grown adult.
Growing up in a large family with six children under the age of nine, I understand that children especially wee ones can be disruptive in mass. And even though churches have had crying rooms in them for 40 years and parents should use them, I understand the occasional hyperactivity and crying in having to be quiet and sit still for an hour.
Autism is a tragic situation, one that I've been involved with but to be unconcerned about the safety of others or disrespecting others by ignoring the fact that your child is causing a disruption is selfish. The parents believe that their son not going to mass is a sin.
Having to physically sit on a grown nearly adult child to make them behave is the real tragic situation. How uncomfortable would the normal parishoner be in mass knowing that one or two adults were sitting on top of a person who has their hands bound tightly so that it would calm them? Sometimes parents have to stay home with a child and/or use the crying rooms for those who can't or don't have the ability to behave.
The other factor is a parishoner getting hurt in this day and age of lawsuits leaving the Church of St. Joseph's liable for mass attendees. There were a number of complaints to the parish by the parishoners in the last eleven months. The Race family would not try to compromise in any way. That's selfishness.
This is a reasonable instance of taking advantage of the home visitations for communion and the appropriately used crying rooms, not forcing the parish into a corner of restraint legalities because of inner ulterior motives and inner desires and denials that their son will one day behave.
Labels: autism, Carol Race, Catholic Church, Church of St. Joseph, restraining order, Walz
Thank you, President Bush for nominating conservative judges, like Judges Scalia, Alito and Roberts, who don't make the law but enforce laws and protect the Constitution.
Past history: ACLU Claims Victory In Getting Free Speech Rights For Child PornographersLabels: ACLU, child pornography, Child Protect Act, Congress, Constitution, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
I received my weekly AgBioWorld newsletter this week which helps promote the issues of GMO's and use of biogenetically modified foods throughout the world. Reading to the bottom of the scientifically sound newsletter was a post from an article in The Onion about a tomato genetically modified to be 31% more expensive and will wipe out four species of ladybugs. Somebody is going to believe this as factual. How many thousands of environmental whackso will read this and start a mission to banish this non-existing tomato from the earth?
Before the panic starts, before Sean Penn starts his week long fast, folks it's The Onion! Back off, people, it's a satire.
Labels: AgBioWorld, agriculture, biogenetic foods, Environment, GMO's, The Onion
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister popular with the religious right, told NBC television: "There's no one I would rather be on a ticket with than John McCain."
He said that during his unsuccessful primary campaign against McCain, "there was no one who was more complimentary of him publicly and privately" than himself."But whether or not I do the best for him, that's something that only he can decide," added Huckabee, 52. "I'm going to support him because I think he's the right person for America. I think he has the kind of seasoning and maturity that this country needs."
Labels: 2008 Presidential election, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, politics, Republicans, Vice President
Be afraid. Be very afraid of this wolf-in-sheep's clothing pseudo-saviour, who's nothing but a friend of our enemies who want to destroy the United States.It's a legitimate attack, because Obama's kumbaya foreign policy is dangerous. And his name, including the Hussein part, is fair game because Obama has declared it an international advantage.
He can want it both ways, but he can't have it.
The trouble started when Hamas adviser Ahmed Yousef said, "We like Mr. Obama" and added, "we hope he wins the election."
That's an endorsement, plain and simple. When John McCain jumped in, promising to be Hamas' "worst enemy," Obama got huffy and accused McCain of "divisive fear-mongering."
That's par for the Obama course. Michelle Obama once said anyone using her husband's full name is throwing the "ultimate fear bomb. When all else fails, be afraid of his name."
Maybe we should be afraid. Consider what Obama says in an interview in the current Atlantic magazine.
Asked by writer Jeffrey Goldberg if he was "flummoxed" by the Hamas support, Obama responds no and says: "It's conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, 'This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he's not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,' and that's something they're hopeful about."
Labels: 2008 Presidential election, anti-Semitism, Barack Obama, Hamas, Hussein, Israel, Muslims, President George W. Bush
It's easy for Obama to mistake himself for Jimmy Carter - the worse President in American history , Obama has the same delusional policies.Labels: 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama, cartoon, Humor, Investors Business Daily, Michael Ramirez
Doctors say it wasn't a stroke and Kennedy should be out of the hospital in a few days. A complete biographical recap was provided in the article, but not one word of Mary Jo Kopechne, the person Ted Kennedy murdered at Chappaquiddick. Interesting how details get left out by the leftist media.Labels: Democrat, Drowning, Health care, Mary Jo Kopechne, Mostly Cajun, Seizure, Senate, Stroke, Ted Kennedy
This is no yolk. I usually crack my eggs into a separate glass bowl before mixing, scrambling, of baking, but I have to start looking for lizards now? How would a whole baby gecko get inside an uncracked egg? If you can't decipher how this Australian freak of survival of the fittest happened, read the article. Need help cooking? How To Crack An Egg
Labels: Australia, Chicken, egg, freak of nature, gecko
Today is Armed Forces Day. If you are a Veteran or have a loved one in the military - tell them thank you for their service and for your sacrifice. Ronald Reagan's Radio Address on Armed Forces Day, 1982.
Radio Address to the Nation on Armed Forces Day
May 15th, 1982
My fellow Americans:
Today marks the United States' 33d observance of Armed Forces Day, a tradition begun by President Truman to honor the men and women who serve our country in uniform. I want to take this occasion to reflect on the job they're doing and what it means to us.
One of the oldest truths in the world is that nothing worth having is cheap. And many times, the greater the good, the higher its cost. Keeping America free has cost us dearly over the centuries. Since 1776 we as a nation have lost thousands of lives and suffered thousands of injuries to guarantee our freedom. Preserving the peace also requires the daily toil of millions of men and women who, without fanfare and glory, serve to protect our freedom and security.
The men and women in our armed services are our final protection against those who wish us ill. The soldier, the sailor, the airman, and the marine in the United States and around the world are the ultimate guardians of our freedom to say what we think, go where we will, choose who we want for our leaders, and pray as we wish.
It is sad that these rights, which should belong to all people, are not fully enjoyed by most of the human family. It is sadder still that some in the world view such freedom as a threat to their right to rule over their fellow citizens, and so long as that's true, we can't afford to take our freedom for granted. It cannot survive without protection. And for their role in protecting our freedoms, we honor the members of our volunteer Armed Forces today.
Their jobs are difficult, requiring judgment, technical know-how, endurance, and in many cases exposure to danger. We ask them to put in long hours under trying conditions. Many serve far from their homes and families, prepared, if need be, to make the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. In short, they give us their all.
So, I would like to thank them today: the Army tank crew member in Germany or Korea, responsible for maintaining a 55-ton machine so that it's ready at a moment's notice; the sailor in the Indian Ocean who's been away from home for 4 months and is working 18 hours a day in a hot engine room or carrying chocks for returning aircraft; the Air Force security policeman guarding our nuclear alert aircraft in the Texas heat or the North Dakota winter; the Marine squad leader on Okinawa working with his men to provide the most efficient combat team in the world. All these people and the rest of their comrades in arms we thank today.
There is another group which deserves special thanks—the wives of our servicemen, wives who take care of the families and raise the children while their husbands are at sea or stationed far away, and wives who have left our shores to be in a faraway land with their husbands..
I had a letter the other day from one young wife describing what life was like where they were stationed. I could read homesickness between the lines, but not one word of complaint—only great pride in what her husband is doing. Their contribution is critical; the separation, the long hours, the hard work, and, up until recently, the low pay—all these have been burdens to them as well. The understanding and encouragement they give our servicemen is something we must all be grateful for.
So, on behalf of all you listening, I want to take these few minutes today to thank our men and women in uniform and their families and to ensure them their government and their fellow citizens are determined to provide them with the equipment, training, and, just as importantly, the respect they have so richly earned. With their help, the United States remains at peace.
Our allies enjoy the same benefit. Our national determination to defend freedom at the borders where it's threatened is fully matched by the quality and spirit of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who proudly wear the American uniform.
I received another letter from one of our ambassadors in Europe. He wrote that a 19-year-old trooper in our armored cavalry had asked that he send me a message. It was: "Tell the President we're proud to be here, and we ain't scared of nothing."
In James Michener's book "The Bridges at Toko-Ri," he writes of an officer waiting through the night for the return of planes to a carrier as dawn is coming on. And he asks, "Where do we find such men?" Well, we find them where we've always found them. They are the product of the freest society man has ever known. They make a commitment to the military—make it freely, because the birthright we share as Americans is worth defending. God bless America.
Thanks for tuning in. I'll be with you again next Saturday. Until then, God bless you.
God bless all our troops around the world and keep them safe. Thank a soldier today for your freedom. I am.
Labels: Armed Forces Day, Army, Coast Guard, Dick Cheney, Marines, Military, Navy, Ronald Reagan, United States, US Air Force
Professor Doug Kmiec, Pepperdine University faculty on constitutional law, was denied the Eucharist over his public support of Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential election. Obama's decision to have a Catholic advisory committee is outrageous considering his belief that human life - babies - are a punishment for sexually active teenagers but even more surprising is that there are Catholics who want to see him elected and want to be on a committee of a candidate that has the support of NARAL. Canon lawyer Edward Peters says Professor Kmiec is due an apology from the Church . Read his explanation here.
Labels: abortion, apology, Barack Obama, Catholic Advisory, Catholic Church, communion, Doug Kmiec, Edward Peters, NARAL, Pepperdine University, pro-life, sentiae latae
Read Schussel's entire eye-opening article.The principal of Fordson Hezbollah High, Imad Fadlallah, is a cousin of Hezbollah spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah--who is on the State Department Terrorist List and who issued the fatwa to Hezbollah terrorists to murder over 300 U.S. Marines and U.S. Embassy officials (among countless other terrorist acts he's okayed).
Imad Fadlallah's wife, Susan, is the daughter of Hezbollah-backed Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who was Hezbollah's negotiator during the 1985 TWA flight 847 hijacking during which Hezbollah tortured to death Navy Diver Robert Dean Stethem. Before that, he was the head of the Shi'ite Amal Militia, which has been absorbed into Hezbollah.
As I also noted, Fadlallah--a supporter of Hezbollah, like many in his student body--gave students the day off in 2005 and "extra credit" if they campaigned at the polls on election day for candidates endorsed by the extremist Muslim group, Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC). AAPAC is headed by Hezbollah agent Osama Siblani, whose brother works for Al-Manara (Hezbollah TV) in Lebanon. Students from Fordson who took the deal were seen campaigning against Christian candidates at the polls, including Christian Arabs.
And then, there's Fadlallah's many extended trips to Lebanon on school time, with the Dearborn school district's full knowledge and approval--including the one close to the time of the Hezbollah-Israel War. Just who was he visiting and what was he doing there?
Well, the Imad Fadlallah saga continues. And it gets worse.
A few weeks ago, I attended a Dearborn School Board meeting. Not much happened, but at the beginning of the meeting, board members were given what was described as "a confidential investigation of a complaint by a Fordson student."
I knew what the complaint was about. It was the reason I was at the meeting. But the complaint wasn't discussed. That might have something to do with the fact that the man who handed out confidential copies of the complaint is John Artis, the man who is retiring as Dearborn Schools Superintendent and who has made a career out of being beholden to extremist Muslims.
The complaint is that Fordson Principal Fadlallah hit one of his students. And it's reportedly not the first time. Apparently, corporal punishment at Hezbollah High is a common behavior. Like the last time he allegedly hit a student, Fadlallah might have gotten away with it. But there was a witness in the room--reportedly another student--and a teacher walking buy his office heard the smack of his hand at the point of contact with the student body. The teacher is not backing down, despite pressure from the Dearborn Schools administration.
And Fadlallah and members of the Islamic community are pressuring the student who was hit and his family. Sources say Fadlallah sent four employees, including allegedly an Arabic translator, to tell the parents to keep quiet or bad things would happen to them and it "wouldn't be good for the (Arab Muslim) Community." Despite repeated behavior like this and an alleged grade-altering scam, which Fadlallah reportedly oversaw in order to inflate his school's performance), Fadlallah was allowed to keep his job. Dearborn is little Bint Jbeil (the Hezbollah stronghold in South Lebanon), after all.
But that's not the whole story.
Labels: Al-Manara, Arab American Political Action Committee, CAIR, Dearborn, Debbie Schussel, Detroit, education, Fordson, Hezbollah, Imad Fadlallah, Islamic militants, Lebanon, Muslims, School board
On the 60th anniversary of Israel's statehood, a tape of Osama Bin Laden has surfaced which attacks the West's support.The al Qaeda leader, who has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said it was at the heart of the Muslim battle with the West and an inspiration to the 19 bombers who carried out the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001.
"We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on Earth," he said in the message, posted on an Islamist website on Friday.
Bin Laden said Israel's anniversary celebrations were a reminder that it did not exist 60 years ago, and had been established on land seized from Palestinians by force. "This is evidence that Palestine is our land, and the Israelis are invaders and occupiers who should be fought," he said in the tape, which was addressed to the Western public.
The Saudi-born militant also said that decades of peace initiatives had failed to establish a Palestinian state, and the West had proved time and again that it sided with Israel.
"The participation of Western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms that the West backs this Jewish occupation of our land, and that they stand in the Israeli corner against us," he said. "They proved this in practice by sending their forces to southern Lebanon."
He also said Western media had over the years painted Israelis as victims, and the Palestinians who had been displaced from their land as terrorists.
Labels: Al-Qaeda, Israel, Osama Bin Laden, Palestine, tape, West