October 25,2005

JACK'S TELEPHONE NUMBER
Blonde Caller: "Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?"

Operator: "I'm sorry, I don't understand who you are talking about".

Blonde Caller: "On page 1, section 5 of the user guide it clearly states that I need to unplug the fax machine from the AC wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You just knew this had to be coming...
Piggy banks 'offend English Muslims'
October 24, 2005 British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.

Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here.

Muslims do not eat pork, as Islamic culture deems the pig to be an impure animal.
Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move. "This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers," he said. (Hey! I find Islam offensive...)

"The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs (mangers) and the logical result of that process is a bland uniformity," the Dean of Blackburn, Reverend Christopher Armstrong, said. (Psst! We already are...)

http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Piggy-banks-offend-UK-Muslims/2005/10/24/1130006056771.html

Take 'em to court, PM tells offended Muslims
24 October 2005 -Denmark-The Prime Minister rejects calls to stop public criticism of Muslims in the media. Offended groups can seek justice in the courts.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected on Friday Muslim ambassadors' request that he get personally involved to tone down debate about Muslims.

The eleven ambassadors sent a letter to Rasmussen on Wednesday, requesting that he step in to stop 'the current smear campaign being carried out by the public and the media against Islam and Muslims'.

On Friday, Fogh rejected their call, saying that 'freedom of expression is the very foundation of Denmark's democratic tradition'.

'Freedom of expression has wide boundaries, and the Danish government has no means to influence the press,' said Rasmussen in his reply. 'Danish laws do forbid blasphemous statements or discriminating acts, and the offended party can bring such statements or acts before the court.'

...The ambassadors' request comes after heated debate over newspaper Jyllands-Posten's decision to run drawings of the prophet Mohammed, which is frowned upon by Islam... some of the drawings depicted Mohammed in a negative light, which only added to Muslims' ire.

http://denmark.dk/portal/page?_pageid=374,610572&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&ic_itemid=880447

Cuba's Religion Minister Calls Gospel Printing Operation 'Dangerous'

October 24, 2005 (AgapePress) - Cuba's Minister of Religion claims a Christian pastor in that country was engaged in subversive and dangerous actions. The church leader's alleged crime, apparently, was printing the Gospel of John.

Earlier this month, five plain-clothes police officers raided the home of Pastor Eliseo Rodriguez Matos in the Cuban city of Colon. The officers confiscated a printing press and printed Gospels of John, and the Assembly of God church pastor was taken to the local police station for interrogation.

Todd Nettleton is with Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry to persecuted Christians worldwide. He says the Minister of Religion had harsh words for Matos. The Havana-based official, an atheist named Caridad Diego, said the printing press was "very dangerous," a characterization the VOM representative sees as very ironic.

"It's just a small [device], almost like a mimeograph machine," Nettleton points out, "and yet the minister of religion for the whole country of Cuba considers it to be very dangerous." Of course, he notes, the Cuban government has recently stepped up its campaign against unregistered house churches. In that environment, printing and disseminating the gospel is an activity that would prove dangerous indeed -- dangerous for the believer involved.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/242005e.asp

Satanists and Witches see an opportunity in new hate bill
The Sunday Times – Britain October 23, 2005
THE government faces new embarrassment over the religious hatred bill with a warning that witches and satanists could use it to trigger police investigations of their critics.

The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, now passing through parliament, has been used by Labour to bolster support among Muslims. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, says the bill is of “vital importance” to protect Muslims and other groups from “religious hatred”.

Opponents of the bill — including Rowan Atkinson, the comedian, and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury...warned that it could also be abused by members of religious cults who could complain to the police about anyone who insulted their beliefs. A similar law in Australia was used by a jailed witch to launch a criminal prosecution of the Salvation Army after it criticised witchcraft.

…Under the act satanists and witches would be able to complain about priests vilifying their beliefs. The stirring up of hatred against people of any religious faith will carry a maximum seven-year jail sentence.

…Atkinson, who is considering writing a sketch to provoke a prosecution, said the problem with the bill was its scope: “The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended.”

Last week peers opposed to the bill proposed amending it to apply only to threatening behaviour. Ridiculing or insulting religious groups would still be allowed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2087-1838578%2C00.html

Ousted Leader Says Habitat Hides Christianity
Ousted Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller says he and the group's current leaders have disagreed about how much Habitat should embrace its Christian heritage.

The Alabama native says he's pleased that Habitat is getting news coverage for building homes for Gulf Coast hurricane victims, but is troubled that most reports seem to depict it as a secular organization.

At a ceremony in Washington, where he and his wife were honored for their volunteer efforts, Fuller said, "We get our motivation from the Bible."

He added, "In my opinion, you need to be faithful to who you are and not have a flexible agenda in saying to one group you're one thing and saying to another group you're something else."
http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=3988876&nav=8fap

I left my heart…but not my children in San Francisco… The article doesn’t mention the city’s pro-gay mentality, but I have to wonder if that is more of a factor than the ones the article sites… Maybe not though, perhaps all those folks left a long time ago?
Many with children planning to leave San Francisco
October 22, 2005 Nearly half the families in San Francisco with preschool children stated in a newly released survey their intent to move out of the city in the next three years, citing the lack of affordable housing, concern over public safety and the state of the public schools as their primary motivators.

The survey findings, contained in a report issued Friday by the mayor's office that looks at the declining population of children in San Francisco, confirms what many have known for a long time: The city has had a hard time attracting and retaining young families.

People under the age of 18 make up 15 percent of San Francisco's population of nearly 700,000 -- the lowest per-capita population of children among major cities in the United States. From 1990 to 2000, the proportion of San Francisco households with children decreased from 21 percent to 19 percent, according to U.S census data.

…Mayor Gavin Newsom said there's already a lot the city is doing to make San Francisco friendly to families, such as beefed-up funding for subsidized child care and health insurance for young people, the upgrading of neighborhood libraries, more money for park improvements and a growing commitment from City Hall to help fund the public schools.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/22/BAGS3FCBF41.DTL

Average U.S. Gas Price Drops 25 Cents
Retail gas prices across the nation fell an average of 25 cents in the past two weeks as refineries in the Gulf Coast steadily resumed production, according to a survey released Sunday.

Several factors contributed to the recent decline, including a seasonal decrease in demand and the resumption of production at many refineries knocked off-line by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"The supply and demand were grossly out of balance and remain somewhat out of balance in the gas market," Lundberg said. "But that balance is normalizing as refining capacity is brought back up."

Lundberg said she expected the cost-cutting to continue in the coming weeks unless an extreme winter drives up heating oil demand and affects the price of crude oil and its derivatives.

The lowest average price in the nation for regular unleaded among the stations surveyed was $2.20 a gallon in Tulsa, Okla. The highest price was $3.01 in Honolulu.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051023/ap_on_bi_ge/gas_prices