January 30, 2006

Deacon Meeting
Jerry Clower told about his Uncle Percy Ledbetter who was a deacon in his church and how as he was getting up in years he didn't go to a lot of the deacon meetings. Uncle Percy figured he'd let the younger fellers, those in their 50's and 60's, have a chance to run things.

One day he heard the deacons were going to meet to discuss buying a new chandelier for the church. So Uncle Percy got his grandson to drive him to the meeting.

At the meeting the chairman of the deacons announced that they had a motion to buy a new chandelier for the church and then someone else seconded the motion and the chairman asked if there was any discussion.

Uncle Percy announced he had something to say.

He said, “First that there isn't anyone in the room who could spell the word "chandelier" to order one from the Sears and Roebuck catalog.

“Second,” he said, “there isn't anyone in the church that could play a chandelier if they had one.”

“And third if they were going to spend any money at all they should spend it on something they really needed, like better lights in the church!”

Joke/humor:
Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, was asked his views on Roe vs. Wade. He said he didn't care how people got back to their houses.

Ashes of loved ones foliate Scotland
January 30, 2006- LONDON -- Mourners who scatter the ashes of their loved ones on the mountaintops of Scotland are being warned that they are playing havoc with the environment. The problem, it seems, is that cremated human remains make a dandy fertilizer.

Critics say the practice is upsetting the foliage by causing plants to grow too fast and too thick.

….The Mountaineering Council of Scotland says nature lovers and other admirers of Scotland's picturesque mountains have taken to requesting in their wills that they want their ashes dumped on the summit of their favorite peak when they die.

The result, the council says, is that a number of the more popular mountaintops are all too frequently being dusted by cremated remains, and the practice is having an unwanted chemical effect on the ecology of the surrounding area.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060130-122859-1398r.htm

Scorpion Survives 15 Months Sealed in Plaster
January 30, 2006- A scorpion lived for 15 months without food or water inside the plaster mold of a dinosaur fossil, breaking free only when a scientist broke open the mold.

Don DeBlieux, a paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey, said he was sawing open the plaster mold when the scorpion wriggled from a crack in a sandstone block.

DeBlieux is still chipping away at the 1,000-pound rock to expose the horned skull of a species of dinosaur he says is new to science.

The scorpion "must have been hanging out in a crack the day we plastered him," DeBlieux said Thursday.

...Scorpions, which eat insects, are capable of surviving for months without feeding or moving in a sleep period known as diapause, said Richard Baumann, a Brigham Young University zoologist.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183034,00.html

Test Balloons for Cellular Service
Jan 30- ...Extend America and Chandler, Ariz.-based Space Data Corp. are developing the technology, which is believed to be the first to use disposable balloons to provide cellular coverage.

..."To cover every square mile of North Dakota, it would take 1,100 cell towers," Schafer said. "We can do the whole state with three balloons."

If successful, the hydrogen-filled balloons could be drifting across the stratosphere above North Dakota this summer, providing cellular coverage at a tiny fraction of the cost of building cellular towers.

...Up to 20 miles above the earth, well above commercial airliner pathways, steady stratospheric winds would push the latex balloons across the state at about 30 mph. Each balloon would deliver voice and data service to an area hundreds of miles in diameter.

"Nine balloons would always be in the air, with some going up, some going down, and some in the middle," Schafer said...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060130/ap_on_hi_te/cellular_balloons

First Inhaler for Diabetes OK'd
Jan. 29, 2006- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved sales of the first insulin inhaler, which could free millions of diabetes patients from frequent injections...
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/29/121812.shtml?s=ic

School dumps conservative speaker
(teachers don’t want diverse ideas that are contrary to their superior diverse ideas).
January 28, 2006 -…D'Souza, a Hoover Institution fellow and former Reagan administration policy analyst, was scheduled to speak in March on U.S. foreign policy and Iraq at Lakeside School, but faculty members objected after reading some of his writings on race-related issues.

… the premise of D'Souza's 1995 book, "The End of Racism," argues the underachievement of blacks has more to do with cultural attitudes and cultural behaviors than white racism…

...The head of the school, Bernie Noe, said he made the "difficult decision" to cancel the invitation after weighing academic freedom versus building a successful, diverse community.

… Lakeside insiders also said some faculty had expressed concerns that a "culture of ignorance" at the school led to inviting someone like D'Souza...

..defenders pointed out D'Souza himself is an immigrant from India...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48541

EU Approves Ban on 'Homophobia'

January 27, 2006- ...The resolution, called "Homophobia in Europe," defines homophobia as "an irrational fear and aversion of homosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people based on prejudice..." It calls for action against member states that do not implement programs directed at fair treatment of homosexuals in employment and occupation. It also seeks to "ensure that same-sex partners enjoy the same respect, dignity and protection as the rest of society."

Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, says although the resolution is not law, it could eventually affect the United States.

"Our Supreme Court seems enamored with citing to foreign sources of law," Crampton observes. And if that mindset continues, he fears that "what happens in the European Union today is going to become the law and policy of America tomorrow."

...The "Homophobia in Europe" resolution was passed by a vote of 468-149; there were 41 abstentions. Christians and conservatives did not protest the resolution, prompting one former member of Britain's Parliament and a homosexual rights advocate to say that the "lunatic fringe" -- Christians and conservatives -- have learned that "it does not pay anymore to shout against gays and lesbians in the Parliament itself."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/1/272006d.asp

U.N. pushing to end nation-states
January 30, 2006-…the plan endorsed by prominent world figures including Nobel laureates, bankers, politicians and economists to end nation-states as we know them is also designed to end health pandemics, poverty and "global warming.”

The U.N. says an unprecedented outbreak of co-operation between countries, applied through six specific financial tools, would serve as pretty much a cure-all for the world's ills and generate an extra $7 trillion in economic growth.

The authors of the ambitious report don't expect nations to fold up and take the hint any time soon. But the idea is to start the ball rolling – and maybe years or decades from now the world will actually be ready to listen.

…If the scheme seems far-fetched, consider that it already has the backing of the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the London Independent…

It's not the first time the U.N. has come out openly to suggest global government is the only solution to the world's problems. "Our Global Neighborhood" was a 410-page final report of the Commission on Global Governance, and was first published in 1995 by Oxford University Press. …Then-U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali endorsed the commission, and the U.N. provided significant funding. The plan calls for dramatically strengthening the United Nations, by implementing a laundry list of recommendations, including these:

Eliminating the veto and permanent member status in the Security Council;
Authorizing global taxation on currency exchange and use of the "global commons;"
Creating an International Criminal Court;
Creating a standing army under the command of the secretary-general;
Creating a new People's Assembly (sounds like communist thing to me)
Regulating multinational corporations;
Regulating the global commons (... the atmosphere, outer space, the oceans beyond national jurisdiction, and the related environment and life-support systems that contribute to the support of human life;)
Controlling the manufacture, sale and distribution of all firearms.

…none of those recommendations were new. All had been proposed in a variety of documents for decades by various groups and individuals…
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48562

Abortion rights groups say battle being lost
In Wichita, Kansas, abortion rights supporters held a "chili for choice" fund-raising dinner…
(now doesn’t that sound scrumptious! I wonder who catered that…)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060129/pl_nm/life_abortion_dc

Iraqi General: Syria Gave Al-Qaida Saddam's WMDs
A former senior military advisor to Saddam Hussein is warning that the chemical weapons used by top al-Qaida terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi in a foiled 2004 plot to attack Amman, Jordan were the same weapons Saddam Hussein transported to Syria before the U.S. invasion.

…Last week, Gen. Sada generated headlines when he told the New York Sun that Saddam had shipped his biological and chemical weapons stockpiles to Syria in the weeks before the U.S. attacked in March 2003…But until yesterday, the former top Iraqi official had said nothing about al-Qaida gaining access to those same weapons…
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/29/133526.shtml?s=ic

Hamas demanding Israel change flag
January 30, 2006- JERUSALEM – Hamas, which catapulted to power in last week's Palestinian elections, might soon offer Israel a long-term cease fire but will not recognize Israel's right to exist, the terror group's chief Mahmoud al-Zahar told WorldNetDaily yesterday after earlier demanding the Jewish state change it's official flag.

…Al-Zahar deflected a question about whether he will modify Hamas' official charter, which calls for jihad against Israel "by assaulting and killing."

Earlier he demanded Israel "remove the two blue stripes from its national flag. The stripes on the flag are symbols of occupation. They signify Israel's borders stretching from the River Euphrates to the River Nile."

Israel's national flag, adopted from a previously used Zionist movement flag, features a star of David within two blue stripes. The stripes signify the Talit, or Jewish prayer shawl, which is traditionally striped.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48555

9/11 Commission: FISA Court Too Slow
Jan. 30, 2006- Bush administration critics continue to insist that the president could have gotten all the wiretap authority he needed from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to intercept terrorist communications as they plotted the next 9/11 attack.

But it turns out, the 9/11 Commission strongly disagreed.

As noted on yesterday's "Meet the Press" by National Review Online reporter Byron York, 9/11 Commission Report clearly states:

"The FISA application process continues to be long and slow. Requests for approvals are overwhelming the ability of the system to process them and to conduct a surveillance.”
In a passage not noted by Mr. York, the Commission blasts the FISA process even more harshly, complaining:

"The 'wall' between criminal and intelligence investigations apparently caused agents to be less aggressive than they might otherwise have been in pursuing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance powers in counterterrorism investigations.

"Moreover, the FISA approval process involved multiple levels of review, which also discouraged agents from using such surveillance. Many agents also told us that the process for getting FISA packages approved at FBI Headquarters and the Department of Justice was incredibly lengthy and inefficient.

"Several FBI agents added that, prior to 9/11, FISA-derived intelligence information was not fully exploited but was collected primarily to justify continuing the surveillance."

Since the media generally regards the 9/11 Commission as the ultimate authority on such matters, we trust reporters will now stop insisting that the FISA process was wholly adequate to keep America safe from terrorists.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/30/90457.shtml?s=ic

David Bennett <><
http://www.freewill-predestination.com