October 9, 2005

Uncle Sam Goes to H&R Block
…imagine if an IRS agent prepared your income-tax returns, too… The concept, called "Return-Free" — where the IRS automatically prepares income-tax returns of those taxpayers with the simplest returns and then sends taxpayers the bill — is being considered by the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform..

One of several Republicans who opposes the concept calls it "flawed" and "dangerous to taxpayers." It "creates a conflict of interest by making the tax collector the tax preparer," warns Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Pence.

...In addition, what are the chances that taxpayers will trust the IRS to find them the most deductions and biggest refund? "[M]any taxpayers will still have to take the time to prepare their taxes in order to verify [what] the IRS sent them," Mr. Pence predicts.

And believe it or not, under the proposal, the individual taxpayer — not the IRS — still will be personally liable for mistakes.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm

Hidden Christian Messages
October 8, 2005 Canada's liberal press has greeted Disney's coming movie version of C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" with a delicate note of caution. "Be alert for hidden Christian messages," warns the Toronto Globe and Mail's movie reviewer Liam Lacey.

No question, this is a man sensitive to religious innuendo. In the opening Narnia episode, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," after all, the lion plainly represents Christ, the witch is Satan, and the whole thing is an allegory of the Christian doctrine of the atonement.

So yes, there could definitely be "hidden Christian messages," perhaps because Lewis wrote the whole series for the express purpose of putting them there…

Nevertheless, the warning is warranted. A devout liberal cannot be too cautious these days. God might jump out at him from the most improbable books, and…movies, too, may become downright dangerous.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46719

Massive earthquake in South Asia kills more than 20,000 people
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/pakistan_quake;_ylt=AkhunwjY3paOGJLdB4dlH0anZiEB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Student secures right to dance to Christian music
Officials backtrack after confronted with threat of legal action
October 8, 2005 After threatening legal action, a California student won the right to perform a dance audition accompanied by Christian music after public school officials barred it.

Lauren Stoudt of West High School in Torrance, near Los Angeles, choreographed a piece to the music "In Your Presence" in anticipation of a dance team concert in January…School officials, however, rejected her song choice based on its religious content.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that schools cannot discriminate against private student expression simply because that expression has religious content," Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defense Fund, a public-interest law firm that assisted Stoudt. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46716

Bill Bennett's Critics Prefer to Misunderstand Him
Oct 7, 2005 … Bennett's remarks on his radio show have already morphed into something of an urban legend in many quarters…

…My first objection is more of a delicious irony. Notice how so many righteously offended liberals keep referring to fetuses as people. In The New York Times, Bob Herbert proclaims that Bennett considers "exterminating blacks would be a most effective crime-fighting tool." Schultz and McAuliffe say Bennett wants to exterminate "babies."

Funny, I thought the bedrock faith of pro-abortion liberals is that fetuses aren't babies. Isn't it interesting how this lynchpin of liberal morality evaporates the moment an opportunity to call Bennett a racist presents itself? Talk about utilitarianism.
…the point missed by so many Bennett detractors, often deliberately…His argument wasn't about race at all. His point was to discourage even pro-lifers from demeaning the cause by making abortion into an acceptable governmental tool for social policy [such as making the case that more abortions equals less social security revenue] …The former philosophy professor picked a hypothetical that he thought would make the horror of such utilitarianism obvious to everybody. Murder a whole generation just to lower the crime rate? Disgusting! …Bennett's real mistake was in thinking people would be mature enough to get it.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/jonahgoldberg/2005/10/07/159694.html

Ronnie Earle Should Not Be a Prosecutor
October 06, 2005 …Earle has partnered up with producers making a movie, called The Big Buy. A movie about a real investigation? Giving filmmakers access to investigative information while a secret grand-jury probe is underway? Allowing them to know who is being investigated and why? To view proposed indictments even before the grand jury does? Allowing them into the sanctuary of the grand jury room, and actually to film grand jurors themselves? Creating a powerful incentive — in conflict with the duty of evenhandedness — to bring charges on flimsy evidence? For a prosecutor, these aren't just major lapses. They are firing offenses. For prosecutors such as those I worked with over the years, from across the political spectrum, I daresay they'd be thought firing-squad offenses.

*Attending partisan fundraisers in order to speak openly about an ongoing grand jury investigation against an uncharged public official. As a moneymaking vehicle.

*Penning a nakedly partisan op-ed (in the New York Times on November 23, 2004) about the political fallout of his grand-jury investigation of DeLay, then uncharged.

*Settling cases by squeezing businesses to make hefty financial contributions to pet personal causes in exchange for exercising the public's power to dismiss charges.

*Secretly shopping for new grand juries when, despite the incalculable advantages the prosecution has in that forum, the earlier grand jurors have found the case too weak to indict.

*Ignoring the commission by members of his own party of the same conduct that he seeks to brand felonious when engaged in by members of the other party.

Such actions and tactics are reprehensible. They constitute inexcusably dishonorable behavior on the part of a public servant, regardless of whether the persons and entities investigated were in the wrong. They warrant universal censure.

If Congressman DeLay did something illegal, he, like anyone else, should be called to account. But he, like anyone else, is entitled to procedural fairness, including a prosecutor who not only is, but also appears to be, fair and impartial.

Ronnie Earle…has disgraced his profession, and done grievous disservice to thousands of federal, state, and local government attorneys. Prosecutors of all persuasions whose common bond is a good faith commitment to the rules — but who will now bear the burden of suspicions fostered by Earle's excesses.

— Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200510060733.asp

predestination vs. free will http://www.freewill-predestination.com/