March 25, 2006

Tomcat Swan Song
The end of an illustrious era.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7069648842128183770

Why bird flu is harder to catch than a cold
23/03/2006- The reason the deadly H5N1 bird influenza virus is hard for people to catch and spread has been found.

Although more than 100 people have been killed by the avian influenza virus, the fact that it does not spread easily to other humans has been a biomedical puzzle. Now, a study of cells in the human respiratory tract reveals a simple anatomical difference in the cells of the system that makes it difficult for the virus to jump from human to human.

The finding, reported today in the journal Nature, is important because it demonstrates a requisite characteristic for the virus to equip itself to easily infect humans, the key development for the virus to become a pandemic.

A group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Prof Yoshihiro Kawaoka, showed that only cells deep within the respiratory system, rather than the nose or throat, have the surface molecule or receptor that is the key that permits the avian flu virus to enter a cell.

"Our findings provide a rational explanation for why H5N1 viruses rarely infect and spread from human to human," the authors report… http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml%3Bjsessionid%3DAI5AKXMYXEZZ1QFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/03/23/nflu23.xml

Study: Changing Medicines May Aid Depressed
Wed Mar 22- Many depressed patients who didn't get better on one medicine were able to overcome their crushing dark spells with another, according to the largest study ever of treatments for America's top mental health problem.

Up to one-third of those who added or changed medicines recovered. When viewed with earlier results, the new findings mean that roughly half the people who suffer from serious, long-term depression can get over it — not just improve their symptoms — with adequate medication.

"The goal here was to find treatments that help people to get well, not just better," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "We have safe and effective treatments."

...The study found little difference among the five drugs tested — Celexa, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Effexor and Buspar — and wasn't designed to compare them. All proved similarly effective and relatively safe. The clear message, doctors said, was that antidepressants should be given a 6-to-12-week chance to work and that if one doesn't help, another should be tried.

"It's important not to give up if the first treatment doesn't work fully," or causes side effects, said one study leader, Dr. John Rush of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Almost as many people were helped the second time around as the first, he said.

Two reports from the study were published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060322/ap_on_he_me/treating_depression

Report: Cosmetics firm using remains of executed Chinese
March 23, 2006 - A Chinese cosmetics company has been using skin taken from the bodies of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, a London newspaper reported.

An agent for the company informed customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they had been shot.

The agent said some of the company‘s products have been exported to Britain, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts was “traditional" and nothing to “make such a big fuss about,“ the Guardian reported.

In addition to ethical concerns, there is the potential risk of infection from the harvested skin products.

The company was not identified by name for legal reasons and it is unclear whether collagen made from the skin of prisoners was in the research stage or in actual production...
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453818.0847222223.html

Afghan prosecutors: Christian may be 'mad'
Nation said to be desperately searching for way to drop controversial case
March 22, 2006- In what appears to be the Afghan government's desperate attempt to find a face-saving way to free Abdul Rahman – who faces a death penalty for converting 16 years ago from Islam to Christianity – Afghan prosecutors are now saying Rahman is insane, and therefore not prosecutable.

The 42-year-old Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under Afghanistan's Shariah-based laws. International outrage over the threat of execution in "liberated" Afghanistan has brought growing pressure on the Afghan government.

"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari told the Associated Press.

According to Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, Rahman will have to undergo a psychological examination.

"Doctors must examine him," he told the AP. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."

Western observers in Afghanistan say the government is looking for a face-saving way to drop the case in light of the international firestorm it has caused.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49396

Kabul may drop case, citing convert's depression
Sources say Christian has suffered mentally but is 'strong' believer in Jesus
March 23, 2006- ...Rahman [returned] to Afghanistan from Germany in 2002 to recover two teenaged daughters who were living with his parents in Kabul... his father resisted, denouncing his son as a convert and reporting him to police. Rahman immediately was arrested and a Bible was found in his possession.

An Afghan Christian in the U.S. who has regular contact with Christians in his home country through his ministry, posted a video clip of...

Rahman says in the clip, according to Andaryas: "The punishment by hanging? I will accept it gladly, but I am not an infidel. I am not a traitor. I am a follower of Jesus."

...The former aide worker in Pakistan who knew Rahman affirmed he has been an encouragement to many Afghan Christians.

"We need strong people like him as an example for others," she said.

Andaryas, who says he has the names of 6,000 Christians in Afghanistan, is receiving e-mails throughout the day from his home country, and most in recent days are about Rahman.

Yesterday, one of his correspondents in the country reported he interviewed Afghans on the street and many, who are Muslims, have sympathy for Rahman, believing he should be allowed to practice his beliefs.

Afghanistan's new constitution declares "followers of other religions (other than Islam) are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law."
But it also says "the religion of the state is the sacred religion of Islam" and that Shariah, or Islamic, Law is the controlling legal authority. Under Shariah, in many Muslim countries, anyone who abandons Islam is subject to the death penalty...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49405

Some things ABC, NBC, CNN, the NYT and others won’t report:

The economy: the good news keeps getting worse
A tale of two very different ways to report the same good news…
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/larryelder/2006/03/23/190914.html

Covering Saddam’s Shenanigans, Not His Crimes http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2006/fax20060320.asp

The humanitarian case for war in Iraq
http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/jeffjacoby/2006/03/23/190908.html

TV pundits vs. history
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/brentbozell/2006/03/22/190782.html

Mother who gave birth after failed abortion 'has no grounds' to sue NHS
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=439532006

David<><
http://freewill-predestination.com
http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove

March 22, 2006

L.A. Bus Worker Retiring on 100th Birthday
Mar 21 LOS ANGELES- After more than three-quarters of a century working for public transit angencies, a bus maintenance worker will retire Wednesday on his 100th birthday.

For decades, Arthur Winston reported to work at a bus yard at the crack of dawn. By 6 a.m. he would be supervising a crew of workers as they cleaned and refueled the region's bus fleet.

But on Tuesday, Winston abandoned his routine and put on a suit, tie and black fedora and headed downtown to meet the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. There, he was lauded for his nearly perfect work record and decades of service with what is currently called the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

...Winston has missed only one day of work in his entire career, transit officials say. That was in 1988, when his wife of 65 years died.

...Winston said he was born in Oklahoma and began picking cotton when he was 10. When droughts and storms ruined several crop seasons, his family headed west and in 1924 he found work with the Pacific Electric Railway Co. He left the company in 1928, and returned six years later. Local transit has operated under various names since then.

Winston credited his father for teaching him a strong work ethic.

"My dad got us out of bed whether it was raining or snowing. We got up at 6 o'clock, no matter what," he said.

...He said he plans to keep busy in his retirement by doing charity work and taking advantage of his free bus pass to explore the city...

He was also offered a new job Monday: to serve as honorary spokesman for the 99 Cents Only stores.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/21/D8GGCVUG6.html

Gladiator, American Style
http://patriotfiles.org/GladiatorAmericanStyle.htm

American Deaths over the Last Three Years Put in Perspective:
• Auto Accidents: 120,000
• Falling Down: 45,000
• Poisoning: 27,000
• Drowning: 12,000
• War in Iraq: 2,300

Islamic Advocacy Group Silent on Afghan Apostasy Trial
March 22, 2006- What does the Council on American-Islamic Relations have to say about the trial of an Afghan Muslim who may get the death penalty for converting to Christianity? Nothing so far, noted a conservative, pro-family group.

"Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations so far has been silent," the Family Research Council said in an email message on Tuesday.

"Hooper is usually quick to decry any anti-Muslim slight. By not speaking out against this outrageous action, CAIR is dealing with the issue," said FRC President Tony Perkins.

CAIR, in an email message of its own on Tuesday, did not mention the case of Abdul Rahman, who converted to Christianity 16 years ago. The judge hearing Rahman's case was quoted as saying that Rahman could face the death penalty if he refused to return to Islam.

Some of CAIR's leaders, along with other Muslims, met on Tuesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes and top officials of the National Security Council. But the meetings focused on outreach efforts to the Muslim world and "how to address growing levels of Islamophobia in the West," CAIR said.

...The apostasy trial of Abdul Rahman has rallied American Christians. The American Family Association is circulating an online petition, urging readers to contact President Bush and request his intervention in the case...

"The judge in Rahman's case soothingly assures us that all will be forgiven if he renounces his Christianity because 'Islam is a religion of tolerance.' Really?" asked Perkins.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200603\CUL20060322a.html

GALLUP POLLING DROPS CNN AFTER 'LOW RATINGS'; FULL MEMO REVEALED
Mar 21 2006- The GALLUP polling company has dropped CNN as its outlet for electronic distribution...

...CNN tells TVNEWSER.COM, which first reported the split: "We want to make it clear that the decision to not renew our polling arrangement had to do with GALLUP's desire to produce their own broadcasts and not about CNN viewership figures. In fact, GALLUP had negotiated with us for four months in an effort to extend the partnership."

In the memo, by Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO of GALLUP:
We have chosen "not" to renew our contract with CNN... [because] the #1 reason:
1) CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted combined with the CNN brand. We have only about 200 thousand viewers during our CNN segments...
http://drudgereport.com/flash2cnn.htm

'Diversity Day' canceled over 'ex-gay' speakers
Homosexual couple didn't want Christian viewpoint represented
March 22, 2006- Amid controversy over a homosexual speaker, a high school in Wisconsin has canceled its "Diversity Day" event scheduled for tomorrow.

Speakers at Viroqua High School in Viroqua, Wisc., for the biannual event were to include Hmong, Jewish, Muslim, American Indian, African American, Latino, Buddhist, physically handicapped and poor people, the La Crosse Tribune reported.

The paper said, however, the event was called off late last week after the Florida-based public-interest legal group Liberty Counsel raised a potential challenge, insisting the program include the viewpoint of a former homosexual...

"By excluding the Christian and ex-gay viewpoints, the (Viroqua) District violates the Establishment Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection," the group said.

Greven, 61, told the paper diversity means, "in our understanding, that the various views are presented, and that was lacking."

Gregg Attleson, a teacher on the Diversity Day planning committee, told the LaCrosse paper the intent is to introduce students to minorities and people with alternative lifestyles.

...Attleson said the homosexual couple scheduled to speak refused to be on the program alongside an "ex-gay" viewpoint, saying they would be uncomfortable...

..."It's ironic, because we're trying to be tolerant and at the same time we might be accused of being intolerant, said Byers, an English teacher.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49386

Pakistani Women Victims of Islamic Ordinances
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200603\FOR20060321b.html

New Orleans spurned offer of cash for cars
March 19, 2006- Katrina turned New Orleans into an auto junkyard and the flooded cars are still everywhere, mementos of the storm and of the city's continuing failure to clean itself up.

Almost seven months after Hurricane Katrina, the Nagin administration still dickers over details of a contract that would gradually rid the cityscape of these vehicular eyesores -- at a cost of $23 million over another six months.

Which makes it of more than passing interest to discover that the largest car crusher east of the Rockies, K&L Auto Crushers of Tyler, Texas, offered in October to do the job in 15 weeks and actually pay the city for the privilege of hauling the junk away. How much? How about $100 per flooded car. With an estimated 50,000 vehicles on the street at that time, the city would have netted $5 million, rather than shelling out four times that sum, as it plans to do now.

K&L's Dan Simpson said he first made his pitch five weeks after Katrina, on a piece of paper that he slipped to Mayor Ray Nagin at one of his boisterous post-flood town hall meetings. Simpson said he'd bring in between five and 10 mobile crushers. Working them six days a week at scattered sites around the city, K&L offered to crumple and haul the vehicles and handle the "remediation," or environmental disposal of gasoline, oil and other hazardous wastes and do all the paperwork.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1142756254289760.xml

What about censure?
Asked about recent calls for his censure, President Bush said during these difficult times, the American people expect the debate to be honest and open - without "needless partisanship."

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, introduced a resolution last week to censure President Bush for allegedly ignoring the Constitution and violating the law with his "domestic spying" program.

On Tuesday, President Bush noted that no one in the Democrat Party has stood up and called for an end to the "terrorist surveillance program." That's what Democrats ought to do, he said:

"They ought to stand up and say the tools we're using to protect the American people shouldn't be used. They ought to take their message to the people - and say 'Vote for me, I promise we're not going to have a terrorist surveillance program. That's what they ought to be doing. That's part of an open and honest debate."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200603\NAT20060321a.html

Ignorance Pervasive in Reporting From Iraq
March 21, 2006- My friend Bill Roggio, an Army veteran and Web logger who was embedded with U.S. Marines in Iraq last fall, was a guest Saturday on a segment of the CNN show "On the Story." The topic was news coverage from Iraq.

...The latest example of what bugs Bill has been the coverage of a U.S.-Iraqi operation which began Thursday with an air assault.

"Operation Swarmer, a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive around the northern Iraqi city of Samarra went into its fourth day Sunday with very little to verify why it has been described as the largest assault operation since the American-led invasion of Iraq three years ago," wrote UPI correspondent Sana Abdallah.

"Contrary to what many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of air power since the start of the war," said Time magazine.

A journalist friend of former paratrooper W. Thomas Smith wanted to know: "Why are we launching a massive bombing campaign in Iraq?"

The dimwits have confused an air assault (where infantry is moved by helicopter into contested territory to conduct an operation) with an air strike (where fighter-bombers blow up something) or a ground assault.

That Operation Swarmer has so far been bloodless by no means indicates it is a failure or "overblown," Smith said. Dozens of suspected terrorists -- including one thought to be a ringleader of the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra last month -- have been captured, and several large caches of weapons have been seized...

"The reporting on Operation Swarmer is a microcosm of the sub-par reporting on the Iraq war," Mr. Roggio said. "Events are immediately placed into a political context. Commentary is often mixed in with reporting. There is little understanding of operational intent or how the military even works. Operations are viewed as individual events, and not placed in a greater context. Failure and faulty assumptions are the baselines for coverage and analysis. Success is arbitrarily determined by a reporter or editor's biases. The actions of the U.S. and Iraqi military are viewed with suspicion and even contempt."

CNN correspondent Abbi Tatton implied that because Bill is a former soldier, his view is biased. "Are you not too close to this to be objective yourself?" she asked.

Consider the implications of this attitude. Would a reporter who is a lawyer (such as Fox News' Megyn Kendall) be considered biased in covering the courts simply because she actually knows something about the law? Would a reporter who is a doctor (such as CNN's Sanjay Gupta) be considered biased simply because he actually knows something about medicine? Yet news organizations consider it proper to have our wars covered by people who are unclear about from which end of the rifle the round comes.

Journalists could overcome some of their massive ignorance of matters military if more would embed with U.S. troops. But apparently they fear being tainted by the association. So they rely on Iraqis like the AP stringer who "reported" an uprising in Ramadi last December which never occurred.

Actor and antiwar activist Richard Belzer said he knows more about the war in Iraq than do U.S. servicemen in Iraq because he "reads 20 newspapers a day." But 20 biased, shallow and incomplete accounts don't add up to the truth.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/ignorance_pervasive_in_iraq_re.html

Surprise: Rainforest Grows When It's Dry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1600375/posts

Who Will Save Abdul Rahman?http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/michellemalkin/2006/03/22/190774.html

David<><
http://freewill-predestination.com/
http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove/

March 21, 2006

Man sues himself for vehicle damage
March 15, 2006- LODI, Calif. - When a dump truck backed into Curtis Gokey's car, he decided to sue the city for damages. Only thing is, he was the one driving the dump truck.

But that minor detail didn't stop Gokey, a Lodi city employee, from filing a $3,600 claim for the December accident, even after admitting the crash was his fault.

After the city denied that claim because Gokey was, in essence, suing himself, he and his wife, Rhonda, decided to file a new claim under her name.

City Attorney Steve Schwabauer said this one also lacks merit because Rhonda Gokey can't sue her own husband.

"You can sue your spouse for divorce, but you can't sue your spouse for negligence," Schwabauer said. "They're a married couple under California law. They're one entity. It's damage to community property."

But Rhonda Gokey insisted she has "the right to sue the city because a city's vehicle damaged my private vehicle."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11847551/

The red-hot power of chillies can kill cancer
The substance in chillies that causes the tongue to burn also drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, according to research that could pave the way for new treatments.

The pepper component capsaicin makes the cells undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis, says a study published in the journal Cancer Research.

…Prostate cancer tumours treated with capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumours in non-treated mice, said a team from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate cancer cells in culture," said Dr Sören Lehmann, team member.

He estimated that the dose of pepper extract fed to the mice was equivalent to giving 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week to a 200-pound man, roughly equivalent to between three and eight fresh habañera peppers.

Britain's Prostate Cancer Charity welcomed the study, but advised men not to eat more hot chillis.

Head of Policy and Research, Chris Hiley, said: "Eventually, it may be possible to extract the capsaicin and make it available as a drug treatment. In the meantime we caution men with prostate cancer in the UK against upping their weekly intake of the hottest known chillies. High intake of hot chillies has been linked with stomach cancers in the populations of India and Mexico."
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/16/wchilli16.xml

Best job market in 5 years for grads: report
Mar 20, 2006 - U.S. college graduates are facing the best job market since 2001, with business, computer, engineering, education and health care grads in highest demand, a report by an employment consulting firm showed on Monday.

"We are approaching full employment and some employers are already dreaming up perks to attract the best talent," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

...The survey also found higher starting salaries this year. Graduates with economic or finance degrees will see the biggest gain with starting salaries up 11 percent to $45,191, while accounting salaries are up 6.2 percent, business management salaries up 3.9 percent and pay for civil engineers 4.3 percent higher.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-03-20T163503Z_01_N20258421_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY-JOBS.xml&rpc=22

Man faces death penalty for becoming Christian
March 19, 2006- Despite the fact the hardline Taliban regime is no longer in power, an Afghan man faces possible execution for allegedly abandoning his Islamic roots and becoming a Christian.

"Yes that's true, a man has converted to Christianity. He's being tried in one of our courts," Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told the Middle East Times.

The case centers on Abdul Rahman, believed to be 41, who converted from Islam to Christianity some 16 years ago. His relatives reportedly notified authorities about the conversion.

The constitution in Afghanistan is based on Shariah law, which states any Muslim who rejects his or her religion should be sentenced to death.

...Prosecutor Abdul Wasi says he offered to drop the charges if Rahman made the switch back to Islam, but the defendant is maintaining his Christian beliefs. The judge is expected to rule within two months...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49345

Christianity on upswing in Japan
March 18, 2006- LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A poll conducted by the Gallup Organization has yielded some surprising statistics on Japanese attitudes toward religion, morality and spirituality.

According to a media advisory obtained by ANS, among the findings from one of the most extensive surveys of the country ever taken was a Christian population of 6 percent, a number much higher than reported in previous surveys.

Researchers were also surprised by high numbers of teens who claimed the Christian faith, while the traditionally dominant religions, Buddhism and Shintoism, though still claimed by many adults, suffered declines among teenagers. Some respondents answered that they belonged to more than one religion.

Of the 30 percent of adults surveyed who claimed to have a religion, 75 percent considered themselves Buddhists, 19 percent Shintoists, while 12 percent considered themselves to be Christians.

Researchers were especially surprised at the large number of Japanese youth who claimed the Christian faith. Of the 20 percent who professed to have a religion, 60 percent called themselves Buddhists, 36 percent Christians and followers of the traditionally dominant Japanese religion, Shinto.

Calling the numbers "stunning," George Gallup Jr. who assisted with the poll, noted of teenagers: "These projections mean that seven percent of the total teenage population say they are Christians."

...Researchers were also surprised by teen attitudes which reflected an especially pessimistic outlook on life. While 22 percent of U.S. teens in previous Gallup surveys often wondered why they existed, the number for Japanese teens was 85 percent. Similarly, while 76 percent of U.S. teens always see a reason for their being on Earth, only 13 percent of Japanese teens agreed with the statement. A surprisingly high 11 percent of Japanese teens wished they had never been born, a figure that comes in at 3 percent for U.S. teens.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49337

Global warming? It's in the stars, says scientist
Blames high-energy rays from distant parts of space smashing into atmosphere
March 18, 2006- A prominent Canadian scientist has defied the conventional wisdom on global warming by proposing stars, not greenhouse gases, as the primary catalyst for climate change.

University of Ottawa science professor Jan Veizer says high-energy cosmic rays, originating from stars across the expanse of space, are hitting Earth's atmosphere in ways that cause the planet to cycle through warm and cold periods.

Veizer's politically loaded theory appeared in "Geoscience Canada" last year and is generating debate on the causes of climate change within the scientific community.

...That cosmic rays strike Earth has long been known – NASA spends considerable effort shielding astronauts in space from them. What's different now is that more researchers are looking at their effect on the atmosphere and asking how they might be influencing the weather.

In 2004, the British science journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society" published a new theory claiming cosmic rays "unambiguously" affect Earth's climate, in particular, by forming clouds. Current research at Florida Tech and the University of Florida is aimed at determining whether cosmic rays trigger the release of lightning from charged thunderclouds. In 2003, NASA and University of Kansas researchers claimed to have traced the effect of cosmic radiation on climate and organisms across millions of years of fossil history.

In explaining the mechanism for a "celestial climate driver," the professor says cosmic rays hit gas molecules in the atmosphere, forming the nucleus of what becomes water vapor. The resulting clouds reflect more of the sun's energy back into space and leave Earth the cooler for it.

During times when more cosmic rays are striking the atmosphere, Earth is cooler. A dearth of rays results in climatic warming.

Veizer argues that Earth has cycled between warm and cold periods many times as our solar system has traveled through different parts of the galaxy. Younger stars give off most of the rays striking Earth's atmosphere.

...He notes the plausibility of the sun's increased intensity, rather than an increase in carbon dioxide, being the primary cause for Earth's warming by one degree over the past century.

...Other scientists are taking issue with the doomsday scenarios being proclaimed by many global-warming alarmists. As WorldNetDaily reported, two Philippine scientists criticized Al Gore for claiming global warming was going to cause flooding of Manila's harbor. They pointed out climate change would only cause sea levels to rise by millimeters while Manila's problems were being caused by rapid subsidence of the land, a local problem created by extraction of groundwater, not greenhouse gases.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49329

Anti-war protesters in Salt Lake City, elsewhere lament apathy
...By the time the war protesters began their march Saturday morning in Salt Lake City, only about 50 people had gathered.

Their numbers had swelled to about 200 by noon - and that was with a little high-tech help from a marcher who text-messaged friends to join him.

...It was a scene repeated across the United States...The protests, like those held to mark each of the two previous anniversaries of the March 2003 invasion, were vigorous and peaceful but far smaller than the large-scale marches that preceded the war, despite polls showing lower public support for the war than in years past and anemic approval ratings for President Bush, himself a focus of many of the protesters.

...In Washington, a relatively small crowd of about 300 gathered at the Naval Observatory, where Vice President Dick Cheney lives, and marched to Dupont Circle. Debbie Boch, 52, a restaurant manager from Denver, said she and two friends bought plane tickets to Washington two months ago, before the demonstration had been planned. It was the fifth protest march she had attended since the war began, she said, and among the smallest.
''It's very disappointing, especially in Washington, D.C.,'' she said. ''You think this is the place where people come to make things happen. I'm just not sure why there aren't more people here today.'' (maybe it's because you're all a bunch of morons, the polls are wrong, and more people fear terrorists than the US)
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3618103

From Iraq's Front Line, it Looks Like the Media Has Lost the Plot
3-18-2006 - A soldier friend stationed in Baghdad for the past two months has been sending me emails with such arresting lines as: "It's late here and I [have] to get the Chief of Staff back to the Palace."

From his office in the fortified military and government area, the Green Zone, he scans the web for news about Iraq and compares it with his reality.

"Baghdad is not burning down around my ears," he wrote last week. "Things were tense a while back, but violence was within limits. Callous thing to say, but that is the reality around here."

The only "quagmire" he sees is "the soft patch of ground out by the rifle range and no civil war in sight".

...with the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion tomorrow, he says, "the only people who seem to have lost both their grip on reality and their nerve are the western media".

His reality is quite different: "I am more and more impressed with the Iraqis every day. There are problems, to be sure, but I do not know of any country that has gone through the sorts of upheavals that this one has without any problems.

"One just has to remember the catastrophes of the French Reign of Terror, or the Russian and Chinese revolutions, not to mention the disasters that were Vietnam and Cambodia."

He also sent me a letter which has been circulating among soldiers for a month, from the mayor of Tal 'Afar, near the Syrian border, praising the "lion hearts" of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment who have changed the city from "ghost town in which terrorists spread death and destruction to a secure city flourishing with life".

The violence of revenge attacks on Sunnis across Iraq, after last month's bombing of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, led many commentators to declare the civil war they have been predicting for three years had arrived. But others point to signs the crisis has spurred Iraq's political leaders to sort out their differences and work to form a national unity government, three months after their third successful election. And as Sunni politicians engage in the process, there are encouraging reports of infighting among Sunni insurgents.

Last Thursday Iraq's new parliament was sworn in and 82-year-old Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi told its first short session: "We have to prove to the world that a civil war is not and will not take place among our people. The danger is still looming and the enemies are ready for us because they do not like to see a united, strong, stable Iraq."

...in The Washington Post, David Ignatius, in Baghdad, wrote that the Samarra mosque crisis was the catalyst that broke a deadlock and brought Iraq's political factions together last week...
http://smh.com.au

U.S. Iraq Casualties Plummet in March
March 20, 2006- The press is marking the third anniversary of the liberation of Iraq with an avalanche of reports that a sectarian "civil war" has broken out, which, reporters say, means U.S. efforts to bring stability to Iraq are on the verge of failure.
But only a few short weeks ago reporters were measuring success [or, in their case, failure] in Iraq by a completely different standard: the number of U.S. troops killed in combat operations.

So why the shift in focus? It turns out that while the so-called Iraqi civil war has been raging, the number of U.S. casualties has plummeted to less than half of what they were over the previous five months.

In fact, if the current trend continues, March will be the second least deadly month for American GIs since the war began.

…Big credit goes to the U.S. military: The soldiers on the ground whose efforts to train Iraqis to do the frontline fighting themselves are getting the job done.

Still, don't look for much coverage of this dramatic turn of events - especially from reporters for whom "good news is no news" in Iraq.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/20/100548.shtml?s=lh

David<><
http://freewill-predestination.com/
http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove/

March 14, 2006

Reminder: April 27 is Bring your child to work day!

Thanks to Bob from Okie Airline


Even the military is encouraged to participate

Archaeologists Find Ancient Israel Tunnels
Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said Monday.

The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home.

Yardenna Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the find shows the ancient Jews planned and prepared for the uprising, contrary to the common perception that the revolt began spontaneously.

"It definitely was not spontaneous," Alexandre said. "The Jews of that time certainly did prepare for it, with underground hideaways here and in other sites we have found."

The underground chambers at the Israeli Arab village of Kfar Kana, north of Nazareth, were built from housing materials common at the time and hidden directly beneath the floors of aboveground homes — giving families direct access to the hideouts. Other refuges found from the time of the revolt are hewn out of rock.

"This construction was very well camouflaged inside one of the houses," Alexandre said. "There are three pits under this house and one tunnel leading to another pit. There are 11 storage jars in that pit."

…The Jewish revolt against Roman rule ended in A.D. 70, when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.

The ancient Jews at the Kfar site built their houses over the ruins of a fortified Iron Age city, reusing some of the stones from the original settlement. Then they dug through 5 feet of debris from the ruins to build their hideaway complex. "It was quite a lot of work," Alexandre said.

The original settlement, which dates from the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., is also a new discovery.

…The excavation of the city's architecture has uncovered fortified walls which still stand 5 feet tall in some places. "It's magnificent," said Alexandre. "You can walk among them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_sc/israel_ancient_hideaways

She's right! Crash is trash. But Brokebutt Mtn is in the same category: trash. She's just upset other trash crashed her party.....
'BROKEBACK' AUTHOR SLAMS OSCARS: 'CRASH' IS 'TRASH'...
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN author ANNIE PROULX has slated the Academy Awards for giving the Best Picture Oscar to CRASH at this year's (06) presentation ceremony. In an essay published by British newspaper The Guardian, Proulx describes voters as "out of touch" and "segregated" from current issues, and insists they were easily influenced by Crash's production company Lions Gate Entertainment. She writes, "Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good. "And rumour has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of 'Trash' - excuse me, Crash - a few weeks before the ballot deadline. "Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver."
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/brokeback%20author%20slates%20oscars_14_03_2006

Woman gets beer from her kitchen faucet
Mar 13,-OSLO, Norway - It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.

Two flights down, employees and customers at the Big Tower Bar were horrified when water poured out of the beer taps.

By an improbable feat of clumsy plumbing, someone at the bar in Kristiandsund, western Norway, had accidentally hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes for Gundersen's apartment.

...Gundersen said the beer was flat and not tempting…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BEER_ON_TAP?SITE=CAVAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Cholesterol drug reverses heart disease
Mar 13- ATLANTA -- High doses of a powerful cholesterol-lowering drug seemed to actually reverse heart disease - not just keep it from getting worse - new research showed.

People in the study got their "bad cholesterol" to the lowest levels ever achieved and saw blockages in their blood vessels shrink as a result. It's too soon to tell whether the shrinkage of artery deposits will mean fewer heart attacks, but doctors were excited by the possibility.

"The holy grail has always been to try to reverse the disease," and this shows a way, said Dr. Steven Nissen, the Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who led the nationwide experiment and reported results at a meeting of heart doctors Monday.

...Two-thirds of the 349 study participants had regression of heart artery buildups when they took the maximum dose of Crestor, the strongest of the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs on the market...

...The study was paid for by AstraZeneca PLC, the maker of Crestor....

...The aim was to see whether people who already had heart disease, not just high cholesterol, could turn back the clock.

Also at the conference:

- Doctors reported encouraging early results with the first totally absorbable stent, a tiny mesh scaffold used to prop open an artery. No deaths, heart attacks or blood clots in the first 63 patients to get the experimental device, made by Berlin, Germany-based Biotronik, said Dr. Raimund Erbel of University Clinic in Essen, Germany.

If further studies prove the stent safe and successful, it could become the first one usable in children, who can't use current metal and drug-coated plastic stents because the devices don't grow as they do.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HEART_DISEASE?SITE=CAVAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

TV taken to task on health news
Local television news airs plenty of health stories, but they're often short on context and sometimes contain harmful errors, a study says.

…In the new study, led by James Pribble, an emergency room doctor at the University of Michigan, and Kenneth Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researchers watched recordings of local newscasts originally used for political analysis to pick apart how local television covers health.

Pribble found that many news stories did not put the health topics in context.

For instance, West Nile virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites, was the subject of 9% of health stories aired, the second most popular health topic behind breast cancer. More attention should have been paid to other infectious diseases with higher fatality rates, he said.

"In contrast (to the West Nile virus), the flu kills tens of thousands of people each year," he said.

...Maria Simbra, a doctor and a medical reporter for KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, said in an e-mail interview that constraints of the broadcast business can make it hard to put stories in context.

...Pribble said he was more alarmed by the errors he found in broadcasts...

Several stations aired a story about the possible use of lemon juice as an effective contraceptive or even in preventing transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The study was done only in vitro, meaning it was tested in a lab but never on a person. But nearly all reports failed to mention that the idea was never tested on humans.

...The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Managed Care. The paper is available online at www.ajmc.com.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-03-12-tv-health-reporting_x.htm

Getting rid of your old cell phone? Don't leave information on it
http://www.komando.com/tips_show.asp?showID=9556

Gain a sixth sense for online threats with SiteAdvisorhttp://www.komando.com/tips_show.asp?showID=9582

David Bennett <>< http://www.freewill-predestination.com/
http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove

March 12, 2006

This has John Kerry written all over it...
Flip-Flop Waffles (real from Kelloggs)
http://www.kelloggs.com/brand/eggo/flipflop/index.shtml

Woman fined for farding while driving
see article at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=379284&in_page_id=1770&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=News&ct=5

fard
Main Entry: fard
Pronunciation: 'färd
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French farder, of Germanic origin;
1 : to paint (the face) with cosmetics
2 archaic : to gloss over
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/fard

New Guide Offered to Help Churches Stay Politically Involved, Law-Abiding
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/82006b.asp

'Mom,' 'dad' to be axed from school textbooks?
Gender-neutralizing bill could also jeopardize prom kings, queens
March 9, 2006- A traditional-values organization in California is warning the state's residents that a bill pending in the Legislature, if approved, could remove all references to gender in public schools – threatening even references to "mom" or "dad" in textbooks.

If the bill, SB 1437, were to become law, warns the Capitol Resource Institute, "it could potentially require gender-neutral bathrooms in our schools and all references to 'husband' and 'wife' or 'mom and dad' removed from school textbooks as the norm."

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl – a lesbian actress best known for playing Zelda in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" in the '60s – the legislation would add "gender" (actual or perceived) and "sexual orientation" to the law that prohibits California public schools from having textbooks, teaching materials, instruction or "school-sponsored activities" that reflect adversely upon people based on characteristics like race, creed and handicap.

… SB 1437 seeks to eliminate all 'stereotypes' of the traditional family so that young children are brainwashed into believing that families with moms and dads are irrelevant. …the bill also applies to school activities, which include cheerleadering, sports and events like the prom.

…Campaign for Children and Families is urging Californians to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the bill should it reach his desk. http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49171

Normally it is the protestors who have to pay for additional police
Pastor Forced to Foot Bill for 'Police Protection' During Pro-Family Rally
Pro-Homosexual Demonstrators Joined by Mayor, Other City Leaders
March 7, 2006- (AgapePress) - A pro-family activist says it's outrageous that a pastor was charged thousands of dollars for a police detail to protect those attending a Christian event from homosexual activists who were demonstrating outside.

Last month Tom Crouse, a pastor in Worcester, Massachusetts, held a pro-family, Christian event that focused on God's design of heterosexuality...various homosexual groups attempted to force the event to be cancelled. When those efforts failed, about 100 pro-homosexual activists congregated in the streets outside the facility where the event was held.

But prior to allowing the Christian rally to take place local law enforcement authorities demanded that Crouse pay $6,200 up front to cover the costs for a police detail, equipment that would be used to search the attendees, and training for staff to operate the equipment. In contrast, according to a Massachusetts-based pro-family group, on the evening of the rally, police permitted the pro-homosexual demonstrators -- who had announced their intentions days beforehand -- to protest without a permit, blocked traffic to allow the demonstration, and did not charge the demonstrators any money for a police detail…
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/72006f.asp

City to seize church by eminent domain
Using Supreme Court ruling to remove Baptist congregation
March 11, 2006- The city of Long Beach, Calif., is using the power of eminent domain bolstered by last summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling to condemn a Baptist congregation's church building to make way for condominiums…

…The Long Beach church's pastor, Roem Agustine, said in a segment on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" March 3 none of the alternative sites proposed by the city are acceptable… "Either they are small in area or they are in the redevelopment area of the city, and we don't want to move to a place where later on we'll be told to move out again," the pastor said.

Attorney John Eastman, who is defending the church, told Fox News the area is not blighted.

We're not talking about a rundown slum that's boarded up with bars on the windows," said Eastman, director of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. "The church is a vibrant church. So we'll challenge whether they're allowed to take it at all."

…Baptist Press noted there are eight other active cases of eminent domain abuse against churches across the country, according to the Institute for Justice, a civil liberties law firm in Arlington, Va.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49215

Battle of the Bests: Oscars Versus Box Office
March 06, 2006- The top-grossing film of 2005 made more money in ticket sales than all five of the year's Best Picture nominees combined, according to data provided by Box Office Mojo.

The five nominees - "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," "Crash," "Munich" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" -- grossed a combined total of $236 million in 2005. "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" grossed $380.5 million alone.

...The five nominated movies averaged $26.3 million in profits after figuring in the average $20.9 million spent on production.

The five top-grossing films of 2005 - "Star Wars;" "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire;" "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe;" "War of the Worlds" and "King Kong" -- grossed $1.41 billion combined. On average, those films cost $156.4 million to produce and netted $125.4 million in profit.

Leslie Unger, a spokesperson for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, declined to comment on the box office differences. "What we do and how our awards are determined has absolutely nothing to do with how a film does in terms of box office."
(so the people who pay admissions to movies don't know a good thing when they see it I suppose, we need the academy to tell us what is great.)http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200603\CUL20060306b.html

The Oscar people are not the only ones becoming more irrelevant everyday, the mainstream media is just as useless except for indoctrination...
Media ignores homegrown Islamic terror trial
Mar 7, 2006- Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal prosecutors opened their case recently in the terrorism trial of a young American who studied under two Taliban-tied imams in California and whose grandfather was Pakistan’s minister of religion in the 1980’s.

The trial of Hamid Hayat, 23, is not taking place in the dark of night nor in a military tribunal from which the media is barred. It is in an open California courtroom, the very kind that has been overrun for trials of the likes of Scott Peterson and O.J. Simpson. Yet in the month of February, the New York Times had exactly one story on the alleged terror cell in Lodi, California. The Washington Post had none. And on the cable news channels, the trial has received scant attention....
http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/joelmowbray/2006/03/07/188849.html

methinks this goes a little further than basic reproduction and the birds and the bees…
Explicit sex ed courses prompt complaints
March 10, 2006- PORTLAND, Ore. - Two incidents at Oregon high schools have many parents wondering who is responsible for overseeing the content discussed by both instructors and students in sexual education classes.

The first incident took place at Lebanon High School after a guest speaker informing students on the dangers of AIDS used pamphlets that many parents found inappropriate for their freshman and sophomore-aged children.

The pamphlets advised students that many things were safer than having sexual intercourse, including dry humping, sharing sexual fantasies, looking at porn with another person, experimenting with sex toys and sleeping naked together.

Another pamphlet showed a stick-figure type drawing of a person with intimate 'pleasure zones' highlighted.

One parent who saw the pamphlets after his child brought them home said the content of the material left him speechless.

…the explicit materials also recommended swapping underwear, lap dances and watching movies topless, among other activities.

…The outcry prompted an emergency meeting with Lebanon High School officials, who issued a statement saying they were not aware of the explicit nature of the materials being given to students by the guest speaker. (the question then is: why didn’t they?)

…One student who received the pamphlets says other students found the material humorous, but added the speaker also volunteered to be a 'sex therapist' for any students needing counseling.

She also said the speaker, who has not been identified, had a naturalistic model of female genitalia in a box, and asked the class to choose a color, either red or blue.

When someone chose the color blue, the speaker produced a blue sex toy in the shape of a male genitalia.

…Another incident that took place in a Reynolds High School sexual education class has parents complaining to school officials.

In that incident, students claim a speaker from the Multnomah County Health Department's STARS program asked young teen students to separate into groups based on whether they enjoyed giving or receiving oral sex.

According to the Multnomah County Health Department, the STARS program is designed to help students postpone sexual activity.

The oral sex question was posed to the students in a group setting. Some of the students were girls as young as 14 years old….
http://www.katu.com/stories/84002.html

'Job Is Getting Done' in Iraq, Despite US Press, Veterans Say
March 10, 2006- A group of veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom said Thursday that U.S.-led coalition forces are getting the job done when it comes to defeating insurgents and helping Iraq establish a democratic government -- despite the U.S. news media's negative portrayal of the conflict.

"I am not here to debate the choices that were made, only to tell you that today, the job is getting done" in Iraq, Marine Corporal Richard Gibson said during a news conference hosted by the conservative group America's Majority at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Gibson based his optimistic assessment of the situation in Iraq on several factors, including the strength of coalition forces. "The old Iraqi army was no match for what we, the Marines, had to offer and neither is the insurgency," he said.

However, "we were not there as conquerors but as liberators," Gibson stated. "That was our mission."

Gibson also pointed to what he called two "tipping points" in the ongoing conflict that took place during 2005. "These junctures are decisive indicators of coalition victories over the insurgency," he said. "Most Iraqis understand them, but most Americans do not."

The first "tipping point" occurred last March, when the number of Iraqi security forces on the ground surpassed those of coalition troops, he said. Then on Dec. 15, Iraqis elected their first national four-year legislature with a turnout that was impressive even in the central and western areas of the country, where rebels are the strongest.

"This obviously strengthened the government, but more subtly, it splintered the insurgency," Gibson asserted, noting that the two primary insurgent groups - leftovers from the Baathist Party of former dictator Saddam Hussein and members of the terrorist al Qaeda network -- have different political goals.

"The Baathist diehards simply want power. They hope to wait the coalition out; then re-assert their traditional dominance over the Shi'a and the Kurds," he said. "But al Qaeda in Iraq wants an Islamic theocracy.

"As long as the coalition remained the primary target, the Baathists and al Qaeda could operate together, but that has changed with the growth in the numbers and confidence of Iraqi security forces," Gibson added. "The insurgents are no longer dealing with an occupation army but with the forces of an elected government -- and these forces are extremely popular."

Gibson found another sign of progress in Iraq in an unlikely place: the daily death toll in that nation.

Human rights organizations that have counted civilian deaths in Iraq since January 2003 estimate that between 25 and 28 people are killed each day, he said. While that total may sound horrific to Americans, it is a huge improvement over the 70 to 125 deaths that took place daily when Saddam Hussein ruled the country.

"A lousy day under the coalition yields a body count far under the Baathists," Gibson stated. "In Baghdad today, terrorists may kill you with an ill-timed IED (Improvised Explosive Device), but the Baathist secret police no longer comes to your door, takes your relatives, puts them in a cell, tortures them, kills them and then bills you for the bullets."

Also, American casualties are declining as U.S. troops are withdrawn and Iraqis step up to defend their country, Gibson said. "According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, U.S. military deaths declined from 714 in 2004 to 673 in 2005. The number of U.S. wounded declined from 7,990 to 5,639. That's a 27 percent decrease in U.S. casualties over a one-year period.

"And this year, U.S. casualties are running 62 percent lower than 2005," he added.

Richard Nadler, president of America's Majority and host of Thursday's news conference, agreed with Gibson's analysis of the Iraq war.

"In both tactical and strategic terms, coalition troops and Iraqi patriots are winning the war," Nadler said. "A terror-sponsoring, totalitarian apparatus state is being replaced, piece by piece, by the elements of civil society -- free speech, free association, democratic elections and a market economy.

"And if the press will not report it, then the men who accomplished it will," he added.

The news media's depiction of events in Iraq was the focus of another speaker at the event -- J. D. Johannes. The Marine sergeant noted that the history of wars is usually told by the victors, but the story of Iraq "is being written by the losers."

Johannes, who has served as both a soldier and a reporter in Iraq, said that the terrorists' main battlefield is America and to win here, they need help from an unusual ally: the U.S. news media.

One method insurgents use to manipulate reporters is to intimidate them into staying in their hotels, he said. Unwilling to risk venturing out into combat, the journalists are forced to rely on local "stringers," who often pass along hearsay or propaganda instead of confirmed facts.

Johannes cited the example of a minor battle that lasted only 30 minutes but was reported as a major conflict that caused high coalition casualties. The general who was involved in the fighting later said that he and his forces had been victorious on the ground, but the terrorists "had won it on CNN."

Nadler said that such instances of lazy or inaccurate reporting are what led his organization to initiate its "War on Words Project" to help veterans get out the message about "the war they, along with Iraqi patriots, were clearly winning," even though it is regularly portrayed by the news media "as a quagmire or another Vietnam."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200603\POL20060310b.html

David Bennett <><
http://www.freewill-predestination.com/
http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove

Stopped engine aerobatics
Watch all the way to the end. The pilot pours iced tea in a glass while doing a roll…http://youtube.com/watch?v=vQpVI_aldB0&search=aircraft

OSCAR Hangover
This Statler Brothers song should be Oscar theme song:
Whatever Happened To Randolph Scott? click here to hear: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/singingman777/WH.htm
Scroll down to view photos

Here's whats wrong with the Oscars and Hollywood in general...
Moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, "I think it's great that the major Oscar nominations have gone to independent films," Lucas added that it's no accident that the "small movies" outclassed the spectaculars in this year's Academy Awards. "Is that good for the business? No — it's bad for the business. But moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art!" (well, that explains why their revenue is down drastically.)

Spanish test out olives as energy sourceMar 05 -More than 300 buildings in Madrid now run on energy extracted from olive cores, raising hopes that olives -- of which Spain is the world's largest producer -- will become an alternative source of cheap power.

An aluminium heating system continuously sucks tonnes of olive cores from a silo to a stove where they are transformed into embers that give off sufficient energy to heat 16 apartments and offices.

"The quality of the heating is higher and more constant than natural gas or carbon, it's less dirty and less ugly than coal, the costs are lower and it is a national product which does not leave us dependent on fuel (price) fluctuations," says Jorge Tudel, chairman of the flat-owners association.

In 2005, the first year heating costs for the whole building came to 17,000 euros, compared with 23,000 euros under the old carbon-based system, a 30 percent saving.

"The energy is 100 percent non-polluting, a kilo (2.2 pounds) of burnt olive cores, in reality wood compressed in a natural fashion, emits the same quantity of carbon gas as they would if you just left them to rot," insists Cabello...
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/05/060305210406.fx71t8vr.html

Scientists are always right... right.
Scientists erroneously predict the demise of New Orleans Termites
Mar 6- NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - ...Scientists had predicted the dirty salt water that flooded New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina would spell the demise of the voracious Formosan subterranean termites that have plagued the city for more than 50 years.

...Six months ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said numerous underground termite colonies had been submerged and were expected to drown.

But those reports were premature.

"That information came from laboratories, not from the field," Bordes said.

In fact, in hard-hit neighborhoods near Lake Pontchartrain, inspectors found live termites in traps that had been submerged in up to 10 feet of water.

...Insect experts say it will take more study to determine how some underground colonies were able to survive the floods... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060306/od_nm/hurricanes_termites1_dc;_ylt=AjsMyr67KVlTg40cz6rlPZPtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
'Da Vinci Code' revives dispute over who Mary Magdalene was
March 05, 2006- Mary Magdalene's image has gone through myriad incarnations over the centuries, and this Lenten season, she's drawing new attention thanks to the upcoming movie version of "The Da Vinci Code," a slew of books and Internet arguments.

But those looking for a salacious side to the biblical figure will be disappointed: Serious religious scholars agree that characterizations that stray from faithful disciple and witness to the Resurrection are bogus.

Despite stage and screen portrayals, they say, the sinful Mary is a matter of mistaken identity. The chief culprit was Pope Gregory the Great, who preached a sermon in A.D. 591 calling Mary a notorious prostitute who repented after encountering Jesus Christ.

The best source of material on Mary is a first-century account, the New Testament itself. There, she stands out as Jesus' most important female disciple, becoming central to the faith on Good Friday and Easter.

Mary is named first among the witnesses to Jesus' Crucifixion, entombment and empty tomb. The less-valiant male apostles deserted Jesus at the cross and refused, at first, to believe the women's "idle tale" about the empty tomb.

For Christians across the centuries, "she is the faithful disciple, and consistently portrayed that way," says Harvard church historian Karen King.

A cottage industry has sprung up around Mary, boosted by "The Da Vinci Code" novel and the film scheduled for release in May.

…All this buzz for a figure who, prior to Golgotha, appears in the Gospels only in Luke 8 -- as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and the apostles and "provided for them out of their means." The phrase indicates that Mary was wealthy, making prostitution an unlikely profession.

Pope Gregory mistakenly identified Mary with an unnamed female "sinner" in the preceding passage, who had a dramatic encounter with Jesus. (This passage never says the woman's sins were sexual.) If Mary had been that sinner, Bible experts surmise, she would have been named there first -- instead of in Luke 8.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06064/664844.stm

Katie Couric Miffed Over Traditional Values Town
March 5, 2006- NBC "Today Show" hostess Katie Couric didn't sound too pleased Friday morning with plans to develop a community that openly espouses traditional values, let alone the fact that it will have a Catholic University at its center.

Plans for Ave Maria, Florida have already drawn praise from Gov. Jeb Bush, who told NBC: "I think it'll be a model for sustainable living not just for Florida, but for the country."

But plaudits from the Florida Republican, who NBC pointedly reminded, is Catholic himself, didn't impress the folks at "Today."

Introducing the segment, reporter Michelle Kosinski lamented that Ave Maria would be a town "without condoms or birth control pills, no porn shops or strip joints, or premarital sex."

But it was Couric herself who seemed most offended, chastising her guests, Domino's Pizza mogul Thomas Monaghan and developer Paul Marinelli, for building a community that "people will see . . . as eschewing diversity and promoting intolerance."

"Does [Ave Maria] follow the tenets pretty much, Mr. Marinelli, of the Catholic church?" Couric worried. "In other words, pharmacies in this community can't sell contraception, correct?"

Not true, the developer responded - explaining that the sale contraceptive materials will be discouraged but not banned.

"You would welcome Jewish residents?" Couric queried, sounding like she expected to get a no for an answer.

"Definitely," Marinelli explained. "We anticipate that there would be synagogues as well as [a] Baptist church."

"What about gay couples?" Couric pressed, appearing confident she'd finally ferreted out the bigoted streak in the traditional values town. Foiled again.

"We will not discriminate against anyone," Marinelli explained. "You know, we respect the Constitution, we're not going to violate the US Constitution or the Florida Constitution."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/5/100538.shtml?s=ic

Bill Clinton Rips Bush Port Security
March 5, 2006- Ex-president Bill Clinton said Sunday that the Bush administration has not done enough to increase port security since the 9/11 attacks, calling the oversight unbelievable.

...The former president made no mention of his own role advising a Dubai company on how to overcome American opposition to its purchase of operations at several U.S. ports - a move Congressional critics, including his wife, have called a national security risk.

...He also said it was "important to continually modernize the military."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/5/224532.shtml?s=ic

Duncan Hunter Rips Clinton on Dubai Deal
March 5, 2006- House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter blasted former President Clinton on Sunday for advising the Dubai government on how to overcome U.S. opposition to its purchase of some operations at U.S. ports.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Hunter told host George Stephanopoulos: "In our hearing just two days ago, your former boss, President Clinton, was referred to by the president of the ports [company] as having made a phone call to the Emir of Dubai."

Hunter noted that the Emir "is the sole stockholder and the director of this company and President Clinton gave him advice on who he should hire to get this deal through."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/5/143719.shtml?s=ic

Ralph Peters: Iraq 'Civil War' a Media Myth
5 March 2006- Reports that Iraq has descended into a civil war are not only not true - they're being promulgated by anti-war journalists eager to see U.S. efforts to establish a stable democracy in the country fail.

So says military analyst Ralph Peters, who just spent a week touring Baghdad with the 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

"I'm looking for the civil war that The New York Times declared. And I just can't find it," Peters declared in his New York Post column on Sunday.

Instead, he reports, "I saw children and teenagers in a Shia slum jumping up and down and cheering our troops as they drove by."

"Cheering our troops," he repeated.
Everywhere the 506th traveled, he said, the reception was warm. "No violence. None. Iraqis went out of their way to tell us we were welcome."

Instead, said Peters, the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra - the alleged catalyst for the so-called civil war - has "caused popular support for the U.S. presence to spike upward."

"In place of the civil war that elements in our media declared, I saw full streets, open shops, traffic jams, donkey carts, Muslim holiday flags - and children everywhere, waving as our Humvees passed," he recalled.

"Even the clouds of dust we stirred up didn't deter them. And the presence of children in the streets is the best possible indicator of a low threat level."

So, why is the U.S. press full of reports that Iraq is spinning into chaos?

Says Peters: Many journalists who pretend to be out on the streets of Baghdad getting the story are instead hiding out in their hotel rooms and getting their news from Iraqi stringers.

"And the Iraqi stringers have cracked the code," he explained. "The Americans don't pay for good news. So they exaggerate the bad."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/5/121111.shtml?s=ic

Erroneous AP Story Cued Liberal Bush-Bashing
Last week's Associated Press report, saying that President Bush had advance warning of a possible levee breach in New Orleans, was incorrect. "The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking," the AP said in a "clarification" issued on Friday.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/14015353.htm?source=rss&channel=thestate_news

Commentary: Liberals Are Either Lying or Ignorant
Liberal politicians, cued by the liberal media, showed their lack of due diligence last week by jumping on the Bush-bashing bandwagon. When the Associated Press reported on a videotape of a conference call involving President Bush and emergency management officials, the A.P. not only misrepresented the contents of the tape, it unleashed another round of predictable hate-speech from the Left. http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=\Commentary\archive\200603\COM20060306a.html

Former Clinton Advisor Dick Morris: Clinton on Dubai Payroll
March 4, 2006- Former President Bill Clinton is up to his eyeballs in dealings with Dubai, his former top political adviser has revealed.

According to Dick Morris Clinton is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai, now involved in a firestorm over its deal to take over some of the operations at six major U.S. ports.

"Bill Clinton is a senior adviser - a paid adviser - to a company called Yucaipa which recently set up a relationship with a group called the Yucaipa Investment group to set up a new company called DIGL," Morris said on "The O'Reilly Factor."

"DIGL Inc. is in charge of managing the investments of the crown prince of Dubai throughout the world. Bill Clinton is paid by Yucaipa a percentage of the profits it makes, and Yucaipa said its profits have exceeded 40 percent in recent years.

"He is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai. That in addition to the roughly million dollars they gave his library, in addition to the probably $600,000 in speaking fees he got, and in addition to the scholarships for Dubai children they endowed through his library.

"I have three points about that. First, when Bill Clinton tells us this port deal is kosher, he ought to disclose that he's being paid by the government. Secondly, he should register as an agent of a foreign principal because he's giving public relations advice to a foreign company. And thirdly, his wife should disclose how much Clinton is being paid and when he's been paid, because it goes into a joint bank account and this is in effect a payment to the husband of a senator.

"And then I would raise another question: Didn't Hillary jump out of the box opposing this port deal because she knew of her husband's vulnerability and wanted to get out ahead of the story? I was talking to a source of mine who's very close to the Clintons about seven or eight months ago and the source said that he's all the time going back and forth to Dubai and getting deeper and deeper into that relationship. She (Hillary) was worried about that and its political impact," Morris said.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/4/141014.shtml?s=lh

Hillary Clinton 'unaware' of Bill's Dubai ties
March 4, 2006- Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World's takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.

But former President Bill Clinton's ties to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates should not have come as a surprise to his New York senator wife.

Mrs Clinton's own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.

Officials from the UAE also donated between $500,000 and $1m to fund Mr Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas.

...The UAE has also contributed $100m to Hurricane Katrina relief funds – which Mr Clinton had a leading role in raising.

...Privately, some Democrats see the revelations about his ties to the UAE as a classic Clinton dilemma. Mrs Clinton told the New York Post on Thursday that she did not know her husband had been contacted by Dubai officials two weeks ago and offered them advice on the deal. Although both Hillary and Bill Clinton say he stands behind her on the issue and there is no direct conflict, his relationship to the UAE has complicated her political stance on the transaction...
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11657573/

March 5, 2006

Ever wonder why the UN is so ineffectual...?
Bolton's UN punctuality drive comes to early end
03/03/2006 -UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An unpopular punctuality drive launched in the U.N. Security Council last month by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton came to an abrupt end on Thursday when Argentina took over the council’s rotating presidency.

Bolton had cracked the whip while presiding over the 15-nation U.N. body in February, starting meetings precisely on time, even with empty chairs in the room, as part of a plan to modernise council operations.

He had also called in ambassadors almost every morning of the month for closed-door briefings by U.N. staff on overnight global political and peacekeeping developments.

But Argentine Ambassador Cesar Mayoral made clear it would be a different story in March... he said. "We aren’t having a daily briefing each day."
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php/news/reuters/2006/03/03/odd/bolton39s-un-punctuality-drive-comes-to-early-end.html&template%3D/news/feeds/odd_story_template.html

Pro-Family Critics Say Academy Ignores Box Office, Putting Reviews Over Revenues
March 3, 2006 (AgapePress) - According to a pro-family activist, Hollywood's agenda will be on display like never before at this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Campaign for Working Families director Gary Bauer says this year's Oscar nominees for Best Picture are controversial message movies that reveal the entertainment industry's true objectives...

...Some analysts are saying the movies vying for top honors at the Oscars this year could be the least-viewed movies in Academy history. Bauer agrees; however, he believes money is not what matters most to many Hollywood executives. In fact, he adds, "I think the Academy Award nominations were determined long before some of these movies ever made it to the big screen."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), is also calling attention to the fact that the movies selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the year's best five were more popular with cinema critics than with cinema crowds. Comparing box office receipts, he notes that recent estimates of U.S. ticket sales put Brokeback Mountain at about $76 million, Crash at $53 million, Munich at $46 million, Good Night and Good Luck at $31 million, and Capote at $23 million.

"All these films stand high in the critics' estimation," Perkins points out. Meanwhile, he notes that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which has earned some $288 million at the box office so far, received an Oscar nomination only for the less prestigious award for makeup.

...Baehr says these movies, besides having the lowest combined box office of any set of top film nominees in 20 years, are "a very obscure group" of films that promote extreme or anti-family ideologies. "Most of them are pushing the envelope – they’re anti-Israel, anti-Christian, pro-homosexual," he adds...
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/32006a.asp

From the "No kidding!" department
Reading skill hallmark of college ability
One major factor separates high school graduates who are ready for college from those who aren't, a new study shows: how well students handle complex reading...

...The trouble is that most states don't even have grade-level reading standards for high schools, and not a single state defines the kind of complexity that high school reading should have... I guess they're too busy making sure little Suzy does pray in the cafeteria before she eats her lunch...
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3556335

US says CO2 injection could quadruple oil reserves
Sat Mar 4, 2006 -NEW YORK - The United States has the potential to boost its oil reserves four-fold through advanced injection of carbon dioxide into depleted oilfields, the Department of Energy said on Friday.

The United States has been successfully pumping small amounts or carbon dioxide into depleted oil and natural gas fields for 30 years to push out hard-to-reach fossil fuels.

The DOE said 89 billion barrels could potentially be added to current proved U.S. oil reserves of 21.9 billion barrels through injection of carbon dioxide.

…Adding billions of barrels in reserves is dependent upon the availability of commercial CO2, the DOE's fossil energy office said.

"Next generation enhanced recovery with carbon dioxide was judged to be a 'game changer' in oil production, one capable of doubling recovery efficiency," DOE said in a release.

Up to 430 billion barrels could be added by pumping the gas into fields that have yet to be discovered, the DOE said.

…Advancements in carbon capturing could be made at power plant called FugureGen. An international consortium of utilities and coal companies will join with the U.S. government to build FutureGen, billed as a "zero-emissions" coal-fired power plant.

It is expected to be operating by 2012. The FutureGen Alliance includes some of the biggest power and mining companies in the world including Huaneng Power International Inc., Peabody Energy, Kennecott Energy, a division of Rio Tinto, American Electric Power, BHP Billiton, Consol Energy Inc., Foundation Coal and Southern Co.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-03-04T012538Z_01_N03284156_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENERGY-CRUDE-INJECTION-DC.XML&archived=False

Venezuelan middle class flees Chávez rule of hate
05/03/2006- Venezuela's once-thriving middle class is packing its bags and fleeing the country, afraid for the future as the socialist president, Hugo Chávez, calls on the slum-dwelling masses to rise up and seize wealth from those better off than themselves.

Growing numbers of professionals, business owners and shopkeepers are fed up with the climate of hostility that the Left-wing president has encouraged in his effort to boost his populist credentials.

…Many Venezuelans complain of the government's increasing control of the media and intimidation of opposition supporters. People report that their middle-class appearance leads to their being robbed, kidnapped or spat at.

The streets of Caracas have always been rife with crime but in recent years the city centre has become seedier, with homeless people sleeping alongside piles of rotting rubbish by blackened walls.

…Since Mr Chávez, a former paratrooper and close ally of Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, was elected promising a 21st-century socialist revolution and making fiery anti-American speeches, the lines outside the foreign consulates have been growing.

Demand for Venezuelan passports is reported to be so high that the Chávez government has rationed the number of requests it can handle per day, pleading a shortage of passport-making materials.

Professionals, businessmen and women and educated office workers are seeking visas for countries such as Australia, Canada, Spain and Britain. Those with emigrant ancestry are asserting their rights to European passports.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/05/wvenez05.xml

Better watch out Scarecrow!!
Lying on résumé could land you in jail
Bill would make it illegal to pass off fake degree as real
March 4, 2006-(Washington state) Not only would it become illegal for people to lie on their résumés about their academic credentials, but according to a bill lawmakers passed Friday, the move could land those liars in jail.

…The term "diploma mill" or "degree mill" is used to describe businesses that purport to be educational institutions, but really only sell consumers a paper degree and a verification service, should potential employers inquire.

…Diploma-mill degrees supposedly from the United States have aided foreign nationals seeking immigration status, which is also a concern for state lawmakers, said state Sen. Mark Schoesler, a Republican from Eastern Washington.

"When they're using them, they're actually perpetrating a fraud," said Schoesler, who previously introduced legislation in the Senate that would criminalize both issuing and using bogus degrees and diplomas…
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/261747_diplomamill04.html

Have you seen anything besides photos/news of all the protestors in India during W's trip?
U.S a land of opportunity for Indians
March 01, 2006 -HUSTON: While the United States’ favorability ratings have plunged in many countries, Indians are significantly more positive about the U.S. now than they were in the summer of 2002, a new opinion poll has said.

The 2005 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that 71 percent of Indians have a favorable view of the U.S. and 54 percent admire President Bush in handling world affairs. What mostly attracts Indians is that America remains a land of opportunity despite its [India's] booming economy today...
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.asp?newsno=31137

We're winning in Iraq. Let's not lose at home.
BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008030

Former high-ranking general in the Iraqi Air Force says the "Bush lied, people died" mantra of the left is just nonsense.
Elder: Fifteen months before we invaded Iraq, the president began talking about what our intentions would be if Saddam would not comply with the U.N. resolutions. During those 15 months . . . did Saddam have WMD, have stockpiles of WMD, and, if so, what type?

Sada: Iraq possessed WMD and they were there, and they were chemical and biological, and nuclear weapons...

Elder: What happened to the chemical and biological weapons?

Sada: The chemical and biological weapons were available in Iraq before liberating the country, but Saddam Hussein took the advantage of a natural disaster that happened in Syria when a dam was collapsed and many villages were flooded. So Saddam Hussein took that cover and declared to the world that he is going to use the civilian aircraft for an air bridge to help Syria with blankets, food and fuel oil, and other humanitarian things, but that was not true. The truth is he converted two regular passenger civilian aircraft, 747 Jumbo and 727 . . . all the weapons of mass destruction were put there by the special Republican Guards in a very secret way, and they were transported to Syria, to Damascus, by flying 56 flights to Damascus. . . . In addition . . . also a truck convoy on the ground to take whatever has to do with WMD to Syria.

...Your intelligence said that Saddam Hussein had WMD. . . . I agree with them. They were there in Iraq. But they didn't find them after liberation of Iraq, because they were searching not in the right place. These things were transported by air and by ground.

Elder: General, why would Saddam, knowing we were about ready to invade, transfer WMD out of the country instead of using it on American and coalition troops?

Sada: Because he knew that the power of America to liberate the country is more than what he can do. And maybe not all WMD were ready to use then. And that's why he transported to Syria and he thought that he's going to maintain in the power as he was maintained in 1991 and then he was going to get it back again and then proceed to complete the whole project of WMD... http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/larryelder/2006/03/02/188299.html

Blanco assured Washington that the levees had not failed
According to a video obtained by the media, Blanco assured Washington that the levees had not failed...when in fact they had. Now...the media, in this case the Associated Press, reports that the governor was "mistaken." See a pattern? Yup...when it's a Democratic governor running against the facts, it's a mistake. When it's a Republican president getting something wrong, he's a liar.
see http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/3/2/214220.shtml?s=lh

Media Exaggerate Warning of Levee Breaches
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200603\NAT20060303a.html

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/3/120101.shtml?s=ic

Bush Didn’t Lie About Levee Breaching
News sources have reported that President Bush lied when he said he wasn’t warned that the levees in New Orleans could be breached during Hurricane Katrina.

But a videotape of a key meeting between Bush and hurricane officials supports the president’s contention that the breaching of the levees was unanticipated.

On September 1, four days after Katrina struck, Bush said: "I don’t think anybody anticipated a breach of the levees.”

The Associated Press on Wednesday claimed that "federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees.”

...However, the tape shows that what Mayfield actually told Bush was: "I don’t think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that’s obviously a very, very grave concern.”

Mayfield told NBC News on Thursday that he warned only that the levees might be topped – that is, the storm surge could push water over the top of the levees – not breached, and that on the many conference calls he monitored, "Nobody talked about the possibility of a levee breach or failure until after it happened.”

Mayfield even told Bush: "The forecast now suggests that there will be minimal flooding in the City of New Orleans itself.”

The Washington Times, commenting on what it called a "hit job” on the president, opined: "If it were true that Mr. Bush heard predictions of levee breaches before the storm hit, then that makes a despicable and costly lie of his statement four days after the hurricane.
"The truth, instead, is that no adviser warned the president of the possibility that the levees could fail. Of course, it makes a juicier story to suggest that the president was warned.”
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/3/120101.shtml?s=lh

David Bennett <>< http://www.freewill-predestination.com
http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove