IMHO VBG

IMHO=In My Humble Opinion VBG=Very Big Grin

This blog is devoted to topics that interest me and perhaps I'll post information that "the mainstream media" chooses to ignore or deemphasize. The point here is not to debate what I post, just consider it another point of view if you disagree with it, you know, be "open minded" and "tolerant."

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

April 25, 2006

Flying on Water!
http://www.flightzone.co.za/media/harvards.wmv

LIPSTICK IN SCHOOL (oldie but goldie)
A certain school in faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the washroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night, the custodian would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. He called all the girls to the washroom and met them there with the janitor. He explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, he asked the custodian to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

Earth Day Founder's Daughter Says Gas Prices Not Too High
April 22, 2006- MADSION, Wis. -- The daughter of the founder of Earth Day says she doesn't think gasoline prices are too high.

Tia Nelson, the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, said "we pay less for a gallon of gas than anywhere else in the world...http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/8904306/detail.html

Moussaoui jury denied use of a dictionary
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Jurors in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui asked for but were denied a dictionary Tuesday for use during their deliberations on whether the Sept. 11 conspirator should receive a death sentence or life in prison.

...Judge Leonie Brinkema to told them that sending a dictionary in would be like adding additional evidence in the case (so she would rather the jury be confused and uncertain), but she invited them to come back if they had questions about specific definitions. And she warned them against doing their own research, including looking up definitions....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_re_us/moussaoui_28;_ylt=AtpZmR0EZerzv9.GdCmgpSMTv5UB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Lethal injection may cause agony: rights group (we sure don’t want those murderers to be discomforted…)
Article: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-04-24T041715Z_01_N21199074_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-EXECUTION.xml
Remember, we were told last year when Terri Shiavo was starved to death that death by starvation produces euphoria and is a peaceful way to die so maybe that is an option...

So just who does the good Senator think really pays corporate taxes...? Ultimately the consumer does.
Sen. Specter: Tax Oil Co. Windfall Profits
April 23, 2006 The government should consider a tax on oil companies if they make excessive profits amid rising gasoline prices, a leading Republican senator said Sunday.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a windfall profits tax, along with measures to stem concentration of market power among a few select oil companies, could offer eventual relief to consumers hurting at the gas pump.

"I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," Specter said.

"They get together, reduce the supply of oil, and that drives up prices," he said. (Actually it's almost always government intervention that reduces the supply of oil/gas. Just recall the price controls of the 70's, and all the flavors of gas EPA requires in different regions and the reduced refining capacity we have thanks to the extreme environmentalists.)http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/23/231739.shtml?s=ic

Hamas officials contradict selves in media
Advocate destruction of Israel to Arabic audiences,
April 24, 2006JERUSALEM – Since officially forming its government earlier this month, Hamas has been making a series of contradictory statements to the media, supporting terrorism and promoting the destruction of Israel in Arabic-language interviews while espousing moderate ideology and the possibility of coexistence when speaking to Western audiences, according to a recent study....
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49870

Court Tells Christian Club Its Mission Not Harmed by Non-Believing Leaders
April 24, 2006 -The University of California's Hastings College of the Law is located just off Market Street in the heart of San Francisco. Last week a federal judge ruled that the school can deny funding as well as official recognition to a Christian student club that requires its members and leadership to sign a statement of faith. Hastings claimed that statement violated the school's anti-discrimination policy. The club, in return, argued that the law school had violated its rights of free speech, free exercise, free association, due process, and equal protection.

The club also claimed it could not comply with the school's anti-discrimination policy without abandoning its Christian mission. But U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White did not see it that way, finding instead that the club did "not demonstrate how admitting [as members] [unrepentant and/or practicing] lesbian, gay, bisexual, or non-orthodox Christian students would impair its mission."

Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney with the AFA Center for Law & Policy, says Judge White's ruling was astonishing and troubling.

"The court had said that there was no evidence that the Christian mission of the club would be impaired by the admission of voting members who were practicing homosexuals or members of different faiths," Fahling summarizes -- then offers this observation: "The court took upon itself the role of determining for a particular religion what is important to it in terms of those who subscribe to it or those who are in fact a part of that faith."

...According to Fahling, the club permitted anyone to attend meetings and to participate in club events -- but in order to preserve its "distinctly Christian mission and character," felt it necessary to limit membership and leadership roles to professed Christians....
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/242006a.asp

U.S. confidence hits 4-yr high in April (in case the media ignores it)
Defies expected downward pull of high gas pricesApr 25, 2006- U.S. consumer confidence confounded expectations and hit its highest level in almost four years in April, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

The consumer confidence index rose 2.1 points to 109.6 in April from a revised 107.5 in March.

The increase was unexpected. Economists forecast[ed] a decrease to about 106.3 in April from the initial estimate for March of 107.2, largely because of higher prices at the gasoline pump, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch...

"Recent improvements in the labor market have been a major driver behind the rise in confidence in early 2006," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

Consumers' overall assessment of the economy remains favorable...Consumers saying jobs are "plentiful" rose...while those claiming jobs are "hard to get" edged down...The outlook for the next six months also improved... the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales inched higher in March.
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid={EABBACA3-15EE-454F-9B62-C5BDCFE1899E}&dist=bnb

Decalogue trumps ACLU again
6th Circuit rules 9-5 in favor of county's Commandments display
April 24, 2006- The American Civil Liberties Union suffered another defeat in its quest to bar the Ten Commandments from the public square today as the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a display of the Decalogue in Kentucky is constitutional.

...The display includes the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Charta, the Star-Spangled Banner, the National Motto, the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, and a picture of Lady Justice.

...The original, three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the display, saying the ACLU's "repeated reference to 'the separation of church and state' … [had] grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state."

The ACLU then requested the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case, and the panel rejected the civil-liberties group's arguments once more.

Mathew D. Staver is president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, "Whether the ACLU likes it or not, history is crystal clear that each one of the Ten Commandments played an important role in the founding of our system of law and government. Federal courts are beginning to rightfully reject extreme notions of 'separation of church and state.' It's about time that courts begin interpreting the Constitution consistent with its original purpose. With the changing of personnel at the U.S. Supreme Court, the trend toward a more historical approach to the First Amendment is well under way."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49883

Pro-choice atheist Researcher: No Denying, Abortion Harms Women
April 24, 2006- A self-described pro-choice atheist and rationalist set out to prove that abortion does not have any psychological consequences. He found the opposite, and the results were so profound that they cannot be ignored in the scientific field or the political arena.

Professor David Fergusson, New Zealand researcher at Christchurch School of Medicine and Health, said, "[F]rom a personal point of view, I would have rather seen the results come out the other way -- but they didn't. And as a scientist you have to report the facts, not what you'd like to report."

..."Those having an abortion had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors and substance use disorders," according to the research published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology.

Numerous journals refused to publish the research, but Fergusson defended its relevance saying it would be "scientifically irresponsible" to overlook the findings. "To provide a parallel to this situation, if we were to find evidence of an adverse reaction to medication, we would be obligated ethically to publish that fact," he explained..."If we were talking about an antibiotic or an asthma risk, and someone reported adverse reactions, people would be advocating further research to evaluate risk," Fergusson explained. "I can see no good reason why the same rules don't apply to abortion."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/242006e.asp

Freshman diversity education
Mandatory 'diversity seminar' at university where profs 'banned' 'Marketing of Evil'
April 24, 2006 ...the only "difference" not tolerated on campus is the belief that there is anything wrong with homosexuality...

Students at OSU-Mansfield are required to take a "diversity seminar" soon after they begin their freshman year.

To prepare for the seminar, students are invited to search online a "dictionary of terms related to diversity," to "Test your knowledge of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT)" and to "Take a test at Project Implicit’s website."

"Even though we believe we see and treat people as equals, hidden biases may still influence our perceptions and actions," explains the OSU website. "Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created 'Project Implicit' to develop Hidden Bias Tests. After taking a test, read Tolerance.org’s tutorial to learn more about stereotypes and prejudice and the societal effects of bias."

One current freshman, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons, attended OSU-Mansfield's mandatory diversity seminar last fall. After he told his father about it, the father sat in as an observer for a subsequent seminar session.

"It is required that incoming freshman must attend a diversity seminar," he told WND, "where the homosexual lifestyle is celebrated, and the students are put on a 'guilt trip' for having negative feelings and/or moral judgments about the behavior of these people."

…"Sometimes if students are hanging out with two or three friends, they might feel their attitudes are not so readily challenged," MSOE Director of Student Activities Rick Gagliano told World. "This way they're in a different environment, forced to expose themselves to somebody else … This is done without parents around – sort of in a 'safer' environment." The strategy is not new: Mao Tse-Tung used it "re-educate" Chinese university students and pry them loose from their parents' political moorings....
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49877

Librarians debate Boy Scouts affiliation
Pending resolution would sever all ties with group due to 'discrimination'
April 25, 2006- The resurrection of on old issue in the American Library Association with respect to libraries' relationships with the Boy Scouts of America has set off a vigorous new debate among librarians about sexual politics, First Amendment rights and "discrimination" based on sexual preference.

…The fact that the primary mover behind this latest effort to censure the Scouts, ALA Council member Mark Rosenzweig, is a proponent of sexual liberation for children is likely to spark even more heated discussions.

In an internal e-mail published by WorldNetDaily in 2000, Rosenzweig wrote that "The worst thing in life, even for a kid, is NOT exposure to the image of naked people, or even people screwing, blowing, licking, humping (or) having sex with animals, etc. …"

...At the time of first ALA resolution, in 1999, the case of Boy Scouts v. Dale was still in the courts, but soon after that the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the First Amendment "right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious and cultural ends."

...In a 1999 letter to the BSA, a copy of which was provided by the ALA, the group reaffirmed the "responsibility librarians have to provide library services equitably to all children regardless of their affiliation," but it also said that the "ALA considers homophobia and religious intolerance" to be among the "critical problems" the library group had a "social responsibility to help ameliorate."

...Stated Werner A. Lind, assistant library director at Virginia's Bluefield College: "Look, if 'discrimination' were really the issue, the ALA should also be demanding that American Atheists put theists in leadership positions, and that NAMBLA admit heterosexual critics of homosexual activity to membership."

"If those condemning the Boy Scouts for 'discrimination' have problems extending their supposed principle of 'openness' to people they themselves disagree with," he said, "perhaps it's time for them to re-evaluate the logic behind the principle."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49886

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

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

April 19, 2006

Here's why men don't like to ask for directions...
Man Asks for Directions, Gets Carjacked
Apr 18 -COLUMBUS, Ga.-A Columbus man asked for directions early Monday, but the two pedestrians from whom he sought help stole his car instead...http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/18/D8H2PBNO0.html

What other countries are paying for gasoline:
Weekly Retail Premium Gasoline Prices (Including Taxes)
(U.S. Dollars per Gallon)
Date Belgium France Germany Italy Holland England U.S.
4/10/06 6.10 5.80 5.96 5.91 6.73 6.13 2.88
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html

The skinny on fat oil company profits
* Local taxes per a gallon of gas generally run from .5 to 5 cents/gal.

* State Taxes on a gallon of gas is between 18-30 cents/gal.

* Federal tax is 18.4 cents/gallon
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

* Local, State and Federal Gas Taxes Consume 45.9 Cents Per Gallon on Averagehttp://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1054.html

(Note: this doesn't take into account the severance tax most States impose when oil (or gas or another natural resource) is produced from property within their territory.)http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/oil_market_basics/Price_taxes.htm

* compared to 9 cents a gallon the oil companies make.

Maybe the question we should be asking is why is the government profiting from the misery of the people as they deal with high gas prices. Makes “Big Oil” look like the nice guys…

Annual Average Crude Oil PricesU.S. Average (in $/bbl.)
Ave Annual
Year Nominal Inflation Adj.
Price Price
1979 $25.10 $67.42
1980 $37.42 $89.48
1981 $35.75 $77.49
1982 $31.83 $64.96
1983 $29.08 $57.48
1984 $28.75 $54.48
1985 $26.92 $49.25
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Table.asp

Book-banning 'gay' profs forced to drop allegations
April 19, 2006- Ohio State University- After the entire faculty voted, with no dissenters, to brand their head librarian as a sexual harasser because he recommended the bestselling book "The Marketing of Evil" as required reading for freshmen, Ohio State University has finally dropped its controversial charges in the glare of national media attention.

…As a member of the university's First Year Reading Experience Committee, Savage had suggested four books be considered as required reading for incoming freshmen: "The Marketing of Evil" by David Kupelian, "The Professors" by David Horowitz, "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis" by Bat Ye'or, and "It Takes a Family" by Sen. Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

However, three professors – two of them openly homosexual – filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment, contending Kupelian's book was "hate literature" which "threatened" them and made them feel "unsafe" on campus. After a 21-0 faculty vote (with 9 abstentions) on March 13, the school's Office of Human Resources put Savage under "investigation." The full-faculty vote was rescinded two days later for legal reasons, and the three offended professors filed the harassment complaint.

The professors who filed the complaint against Savage are Hannibal Hamlin, Norman Jones and J.K. Buckley. Jones teaches courses in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature, and according to his bio, "his current research focuses on sexuality and spirituality, particularly exploring the phenomenon of the 'post-secular queer' in contemporary literature." Buckley has written "The Social Critic: The Rise of Queer Performance Within the Demise of Transcendentalism" as well as "articles on sexual orientation in Hemingway and Melville."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49809

Kentucky Literature Prof Removed for Vandalizing Pro-life Display
Prof was head of NKU Women's Studies Program
April 18, 2006- Sally Jacobsen, a professor of language and literature at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) has been dismissed from her post after she incited a group of students to destroy an approved pro-life display erected by a campus pro-life student group.

Jacobsen, who also headed the NKU women’s studies program for three years, told the Kentucky Enquirer she had become so emotional at the sight of a field of white crosses planted as a symbolic cemetery for aborted children, that her strong feelings justified her action.

“Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it. Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged,” Jacobsen said.

...Jacobsen admitted to inciting students: “I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to.”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06041804.html

Dutch Proposal to Penalize Stay-At-Home Moms
April 19, 2006- (AgapePress) - ...The Institute's vice president of communications, Joseph D'Agostino, says a prominent female Dutch Parliament member has proposed fining college-educated women for opting to stay at home and take care of their children rather than to get jobs. Apparently, Member of Parliament Sharon Dijksma considers that choice a waste of a government-sponsored education.

...But D'Agostino feels the Dutch legislature would be sending the wrong message by approving the MP's proposal. He says the Dutch government should be rewarding women -- not punishing them -- for choosing to stay home with their children because, for one thing, those women are more likely to have more than [one] child.

Currently, the Institute spokesman notes, the birthrate of the Netherlands is plummeting. ...not even high enough to replace the country's current population. Since housewives are more likely to have larger families than career-oriented women, he believes a better policy for the Dutch government would be to encourage women who choose stay-at-home parenting.

Also, D'Agostino contends, the government should realize there is nothing wasteful about women with college educations staying home with their kids. "I think that children can very much benefit from having an educated person with them all day every day," he says, "and if that person is their mother, all the better. I don't really understand how that would be a waste."

That is especially true at the present time, "when home schooling has become so common and so popular because our schools are so awful," the population research official notes. "And so it's really important that whoever is taking care of the children should really have that kind of education, because the schools themselves are so bad that people just can't send their kids there."

..."In the Netherlands people are very heavily taxed," he explains, "and then people get some of their money back in the form of certain benefits, like free college tuition."

... this kind of socialist system that the Netherlands employs, with its offers of "free" services and benefits, unfortunately allows the government and its agents "to then try to take over your life."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/192006d.asp

Retired general told Congress Saddam likely had nuke program
April 18, 2006 - The most prominent of the retired generals calling for the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appears to have reversed his estimation of the former Saddam regime's threat to the world.

Anthony Zinni, former CENTCOM commander in the Clinton administration, says now that in the Iraq, "What bothered me ... [was that] I was hearing a depiction of the intelligence that didn't fit what I knew. There was no solid proof, that I ever saw, that Saddam had WMD."

But as noted by Fox News Channel host Brit Hume, Zinni told Congress in 2000, "Iraq remains the most significant near-term threat to U.S. interests in the Arabian Gulf region."

The general told lawmakers that Iraq "probably is continuing clandestine nuclear research, [and] retains stocks of chemical and biological munitions."

Even if Baghdad "reversed its course and surrendered all WMD capabilities," Zinni said in 2000, "it retains scientific, technical, and industrial infrastructure to replace agents and munitions within weeks or months."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49796

Gen. Anthony Zinni: USS Cole Blunder Is My Fault
April 18, 2006- Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of Rumsfeld's alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the USS Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al-Qaida terrorists.

Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape...

...Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers.

Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.

In what may be an even more troubling development, a report indicates that the leading Rumsfeld critic may have inadvertently played a role in tipping off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack two years before the Cole episode.

Two days after President Clinton ordered the attack on bin Laden's encampment in Khost Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported:

"Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, quoting unidentified sources in London today, reported that Pakistan leaked to bin Laden news about an impending U.S. strike. The sources said the leak was aimed at limiting casualties, so that bin Laden would have less justification for a counterattack.

"A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials.

"Other Pakistani sources said Zinni came with a team of U.S. intelligence experts whose task was to pinpoint the camps and determine bin Laden's exact whereabouts." http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/18/121216.shtml?s=ic

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

April 18, 2006

What's for dinner Grandpa? From one of the people in Hollywood that wants to lecture us on politics, the War on Terror, gun control, mental health, and religion...
Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise vows to eat placenta after birth
Tom Cruise yesterday revealed his latest bizarre mission..to eat his new baby's placenta.

Cruise vowed he would tuck in straight after girlfriend Katie Holmes gives birth, saying he thought it would be "very nutritious".

The Mission Impossible star, 43, said: "I'm gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I'm gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there." It is the latest in a series of increasingly strange outbursts from Cruise in the run-up to the birth.

He has claimed the baby, due any day, will be delivered in total silence.

...Silent birth is one of the rules of the cult of Scientology, which Cruise is devoted to.

...Cruise, who has two adopted children with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, will not be the first star to make a meal out of his baby's placenta.

Rod Stewart and girlfriend Penny Lancaster took home their baby's placenta, sprinkled it with tee tree oil and buried it in the garden.

In 1998, Channel 4 chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall fried a placenta with shallots and garlic and served it up to 20 guests, including the baby's mum and dad.

...But placenta-eating is considered normal in some cultures. Various recipes include one for placenta lasagne. Some say eating it helps avoid post-natal depression...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16958010%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=exclusive--tom-chews-name_page.html
I guess that's what makes Scientology so apeppetizing...

Texas School District Caves to Parents' Call to Shut Down Bible Club
April 17, 2006- (AgapePress) - ...The Grapevine/Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD) recently told Students Standing Strong, a student-led Bible study club, that it would have to pay fees to hold a previously approved club meeting on school grounds, sign a rental agreement, and obtain a one-million-dollar insurance policy. Administrators also informed the club it would be banned as a non-curricular student group. Notice of these requirements was given to the club on the Friday before a Monday meeting (April 10) of the club...

...According to the Liberty Legal spokesman, the district does not impose fees and rental agreements on other student clubs. But because Students Standing Strong is a religious group, he says, the district is "just hunting and looking for some way to throw hurdles in their way."

Shackelford ...noting that the group became an issue with administrators after several parents complained about the Christian club.

"The small group of parents is complaining because this group is so successful and it's a Christian group," he explains. "And they're asking the school district to stop them, which is against the law."

...Shackelford says it is unfortunate, but apparently district officials are more worried about a small group of parents than they are about protecting the rights of the student-led club.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/172006a.asp

Black business owners on rise
April 18, 2006--Black Americans are becoming entrepreneurs at a rapidly increasing rate and Pittsburgh is following the trend, a new report issued by the Census Bureau suggests.

...Doris Carson Williams, president of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania, found the Census Bureau figures encouraging but not surprising.

As blacks join the numbers of those being downsized by corporations, she said, "more and more have found that entrepreneurship is a viable option for them. They don't want to go through the corporate menagerie again."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06108/682889-28.stm

US, Polish troops did not damage Babylonian site: Iraq minister
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/January/focusoniraq_January169.xml§ion=focusoniraq&col=

Overselling Climate Change
20 April 2006 -Simon Cox reports on how scientists are becoming worried by the quality of research used to back up the most extreme climate predictions.

Every week we are assailed by scare stories about the climate. Malaria in Africa, hurricanes in Florida, even the death of frogs in Latin America - all are being linked to global warming. But does the science behind these claims really stand up, or are the risks of climate change being oversold to win the battle for influence?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/thebattleforinfluence/pip/abkim/

Old panic now stories
The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970's and 1980's hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.
- Paul Ehrlich in the beginning of his 1968 ``The Population Bomb''

This vast tragedy, however, is nothing compared to the nutritional disaster that seems likely to overtake humanity in the 1970s (or, at the latest, the 1980s) ... A situation has been created that could lead to a billion or more people starving to death.- Paul Ehrlich, "The End of Affluence" (1974), p.21

Hundreds of millions of people will soon perish in smog disasters in New York and Los Angeles...the oceans will die of DDT poisoning by 1979...the U.S. life expectancy will drop to 42 years by 1980 due to cancer epidemics.- Paul Ehrlich, 1969 in Ramparts.

Ex-professor pleads guilty in Florida Jihad case
4/17/06- Former Florida university professor Sami al-Arian has pleaded guilty to aiding the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and agreed to be deported, U.S. officials said on Monday...

...Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed nine people and wounded 60 outside a restaurant in Tel Aviv on Monday...

The former University of South Florida professor admitted that he "... conspired to make and receive contributions of funds, goods and services to or for the benefit of specially designated terrorists," according to court documents.

...He was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and grew up in Egypt before coming to the United States. He is married with five children, who were all born in the United States, making them American citizens...

...The case against al-Arian and the others was based largely on thousands of hours of wiretapped phone calls, intercepted e-mails, faxes and bank records gathered over a decade. It was considered a key test of the government's surveillance powers, which were strengthened by the USA Patriot Act...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060417/ts_nm/security_professor_dc

Peres to new Knesset: Don't push Palestinians towards extremism
Apr. 17, 2006- The 17th parliament in Israel's history was sworn in Monday at the Knesset in Jerusalem. The ceremony took place several hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in Tel Aviv, killing nine people.

In his opening speech, President Moshe Katsav sent his condolences to the families of those killed in the attack. He called on the government to fight for equality for Israeli Arab citizens and advance the peace process, while at the same time continuing the fight against terror and secure Israel's borders...

"We bear no responsibility for the division on the Palestinian side, but we must refrain from pushing the Palestinian people towards extremism. The times of terror are not eternal and negotiations will not fail to arrive. We must arrive at an agreement between both sides because the alternative is a unilateral move." He added that "the well-being of the Palestinian population is an Israeli security interest." (did someone clone Neville Chamberlain?)http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/706825.html

Palestinians: Tel Aviv Bombing Justified
A Palestinian suicide bomber struck a packed fast-food restaurant during Passover on Monday, killing nine other people and wounding dozens in the deadliest attack in more than a year.

In a sharp departure from the previous Palestinian government's condemnations of bombings, the Hamas-led administration said the attack resulted from Israel's "brutal aggression." The bloodshed and the hard-line stance could set the stage for harsh Israeli reprisals and endanger Palestinian efforts to secure desperately needed international aid.

...The attack occurred just two hours before Israel's newly elected parliament was sworn into office, and Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert said Israel would react to the bombing with appropriate means...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060417/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians;_ylt=Atz9bPNukCM4vH3vmAzh9F.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ

Iran to Give Hamas $50 Million in Aid
Iran said Sunday it would give the Palestinian Authority $50 million in aid, moving in for the first time with money after the United States and Europe cut off funding to the Hamas-led government.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/16/214039.shtml?s=lh

Who said this?
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5414

Media Darling on 'Global Warming' Assailed by Colleagues
April 17, 2006- NASA scientist James Hansen, profiled by the New York Times, "60 Minutes" and other media titans as a renowned scientist with unassailable credibility on the issue of "global warming" and a victim of White House censorship, is actually a loose cannon at NASA who lied about the alleged censorship, according to one of Hansen's former colleagues as well as a current co-worker.

George Deutsch, a former NASA public relations employee... provided Cybercast News Service with agency internal documents and e-mails detailing the frustration among NASA public affairs officials over Hansen's refusal to follow protocol when it came to granting media interviews.

On Dec. 14, 2005, Hansen released to ABC News a letter to the editor, which he had originally sent to the research journal Science. Hansen was also featured in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," during which he declared that 2005 had tied 1998 as the warmest year on record...Hansen, director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told ABC News his scientific conclusions before he told his fellow NASA scientists and the NASA public affairs department, according to a memo dated Dec. 15, 2005, and entitled "PAO (Public Affairs Officer) Point Paper."

...Hansen's appearance on ABC News and his release of unapproved data caused internal anxiety at NASA, Deutsch said. "None of his [scientific] peers had agreed with [2005] being the warmest year on record yet, and knew about the findings saying that it was.

"Why don't you tell the rest of NASA it is the warmest year on record before you tell ABC?" Deutsch asked. "This is one of those things that really, if you do it enough, it is a fire-able offense."

It was the subsequent effort by the NASA public affairs office to require Hansen to follow proper protocol when talking to the media that led the scientist to tell the New York Times in January that he was being "censored," according to Deutsch. .http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=/SpecialReports/archive/200604/SPE20060417a.html

Ex-Joint Chiefs Gen. Myers Defends Rumsfeld
April 16, 2006 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld did not intimidate members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during planning of the Iraq war as some retired generals have charged, a former chairman said Sunday.

With Rumsfeld described by his critics as a micromanager who did not listen to military leaders, the Pentagon circulated a one-page memo late last week detailing the defense secretary's frequent contacts with numerous military and civilian advisers.
Richard B. Myers, the Air Force general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 2001 until last fall, dismissed criticism that military leaders failed to stand up to Rumsfeld and President Bush when they disagreed with those civilian officials.

"We gave him our best military advice and I think that's what we're obligated to do," Myers said on "This Week" on ABC. "If we don't do that, we should be shot...You'd have to believe that everybody in the chain of command is intimidated, and I don't believe that," Myers said. He added that Rumsfeld allowed "tremendous access" for presenting arguments.

"In our system, when it's all said and done ... the civilians make the decisions," he said. "And we live by those decisions."

...The Pentagon memo [said] ...Senior military leaders "are involved to an unprecedented degree in every decision-making process" in the Defense Department, according to the memo. Rumsfeld, it said, had met 139 times with members of the joint chiefs and 208 times with combat commanders from 2005 to the present....
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/16/205527.shtml?s=ic

Gen. Richard Myers: Criticizing Rumsfeld Wrong
April 16, 2006- Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers is blasting the six ex-military men who have called in recent days on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign...

...Gen. Myers rejected complaints that Rumsfeld was arrogant an imperious, taking particular issue with retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who said last week that the defense chief was someone who "was abusive, who was arrogant and who didn't build a strong team."

...the former joint chiefs chair said, Rumsfeld bent over backwards to take into account the advice of his military team

"I don't think people understand how collaborative he is when we are working tough issues and trying to come to how we feel about this," Myers explained. "Most of the meetings he comes to he does not have a preconceived notion of what the answer is. He is very collaborative, I think almost to a fault."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/16/110951.shtml?s=ic

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

Monday, April 17, 2006

April 17, 2006

Eilat Mazar: Uncovering King David's Palace
http://www.momentmag.com/olam/Apr06/MOM-2006-04_mazar.html

Vatican reopens debate over Crusades
March 25, 2006 excellent article:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49432

Local cat nearly triples nine lives Feline turns 26, isn't slowing down
Friday, April 14, 2006 -If someone told Cathy May 10 years ago that her cat, Dinker, would be alive today, she would have thought he was crazy.

…Dinker turns 26 this month… and he has most of the spunk and energy he always had.

The oldest living cat is a 36-year-old Tabby in Texas, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

…Ron Kruczek, a veterinarian at High Country Veterinary Clinic, said for a cat to live to 26 is similar to a person living to be about 105.

…In 1999, May thought Dinker had cancer and wouldn't survive….A veterinarian pulled an abscessed tooth from Dinker and told May that the cat might have oral cancer.

At 19, May figured the cat had lived a good life, and she was ready to put him down if he had the disease… The vet told her to bring Dinker in when he stopped eating and that the cat would be put to sleep. Now, seven years after the only medical scare in the cat's life, Dinker is still eating.

…Once in a blue moon, Dinker still will sprint around the house and jump on the furniture, May said.

Even in his old age, the cat isn't scared to tussle with other animals. Dinker plays with May's 5-month-old pit bull, Rocky, and isn't scared to fight with the puppy if he has to.

The cat isn't scared to rumble with neighborhood cats, either, May said. "He cannot stand the strays," she said.
http://www.craigdailypress.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/21451

Kyoto is pointless, say 60 leading scientists
09/04/2006- Canada's new Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, has been urged by more than 60 leading international climate change experts to review the global warming policies he inherited from his centre-Left predecessor.

In an open letter that includes five British scientists among the signatories, the experts praise his recent commitment to review the controversial Kyoto protocol on reducing emissions harmful to the environment.

"Much of the billions of dollars earmarked for implementation of the protocol in Canada will be squandered without a proper assessment of recent developments in climate science," they wrote in the Canadian Financial Post last week.

They emphasised that the study of global climate change is, in Mr Harper's own words, an "emerging science" and added: "If, back in the mid 1990s, we knew what we know today about climate, Kyoto would almost certainly not exist, because we would have concluded it was not necessary." Despite claims to the contrary, there is no consensus among climate scientists on the relative importance of the various causes of global climate change, they wrote.

"'Climate change is real' is a meaningless phrase used repeatedly by activists to convince the public that a climate catastrophe is looming and humanity is the cause. Neither of these fears is justified.

"Global climate changes all the time due to natural causes and the human impact still remains impossible to distinguish from this natural 'noise'."

The letter is the latest effort by climate change sceptics to counter claims that there is a consensus that human activity is causing global warming.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2006/04/11/ecnkyoto11.xml&sSheet=/connected/2006/04/11/ixconn.html

Ten Years of Junk Science
April 7, 2006 http://junkscience.com/fox/milloy040706.htm

Mexico's Immigration Law: Let's Try it Here at Home
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/Mexicos_Immigration_Law.pdf#search='Mexico%27s%20Immigration%20Law%3A%20Let%27s%20Try%20it%20Here%20at%20Home'

In Mexico, 'nothing gringo on May 1'
Activists plan one-day boycott of U.S. businesses
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/04/14/mexico.boycott.ap/index.html
Not that I think one day boycotts do anything, maybe, just to make a point, we should reciprocate on Cinco de Mayo?

In order to make better laws maybe lawmakers should be required to prepare their own taxes...
Tax Law Authors Have Pros Do Their Returns
WASHINGTON - Many lawmakers who sit on the tax-writing committees in Congress hire professional preparers to fill out their tax returns, rather than try to decipher by themselves the laws they've written.

Three of the four senior lawmakers on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, the panels in charge of writing tax laws, turn to paid professionals to file their annual returns.

...According to IRS statistics, that makes these members of Congress much like the rest of the nation. More than 60 percent of taxpayers use professionals to have their returns prepared and filed. The number typically increases a little each year.

...a few prepare their tax returns themselves, including Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who said he does it "just so I can go through the process." Ryan, however, does ask an accountant to check the return for accuracy.

...Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., doesn't, but he agreed it might be a good idea to try. "I think it is important that we operate in the real world," Ramstad said...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060416/ap_on_go_co/tax_writers_returns

Librarian attacked by profs for promoting 'Marketing of Evil'
College employee accused of 'sexual harassment' for recommending Kupelian's best-selling book
April 15, 2006- In what is being called an "astonishing" and "shameful" case of campus persecution, Ohio State University's head librarian is being formally accused of "sexual harassment." His crime? Recommending that the school's freshman class be required to read WND Managing Editor David Kupelian's controversial best seller, "The Marketing of Evil."

Scott Savage is head of Reference and Instructional Services at the Bromfield Library on Ohio State University's Mansfield campus.

The school's Office of Human Resources put Savage under "investigation" after three professors – Hannibal Hamlin, Norman Jones and J.K. Buckley – filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment, saying Kupelian's book made them feel "unsafe."

In his role as a member of OSU Mansfield's First Year Reading Experience Committee, Savage had suggested new students read "The Marketing of Evil," as well as three other books – "The Professors" by David Horowitz, "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis" by Bat Ye'or, and "It Takes a Family" by Sen. Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

The attacks on Savage stem directly from faculty members' reaction to "The Marketing of Evil," according to the Arizona-based public-interest group Alliance Defense Fund, which is defending the librarian.

"Universities are one of the most hostile places for Christians and conservatives in America," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, who heads the group's Center for Academic Freedom. "It's shameful that OSU would investigate a Christian librarian for simply recommending books that are at odds with the prevailing politics of the university."
more at:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49761

Anthony Zinni Flashback: Saddam the Biggest Threat
April 15, 2006 - Retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, who now complains that President Bush cherry-picked pre-war Iraq weapons intelligence and misled the country into going to war, warned six years ago that Saddam Hussein's WMD program was the biggest threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East.

"Iraq remains the most significant near-term threat to U.S. interests in the Arabian Gulf region," Zinni told Congress on March 15, 2000.

"Despite claims that WMD efforts have ceased," the general-turned-war critic said, "Iraq probably is continuing clandestine nuclear research, retains stocks of chemical and biological munitions, and is concealing extended-range SCUD missiles, possibly equipped with CBW [chem-bio-weapons] payloads," Zinni said, in quotes unearthed Friday by the American Thinker blog.

Gen. Zinni is currently leading to charge to get Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign - a campaign he began two weeks ago on NBC's "Meet the Press."

… Zinni's flip-flop was so acute he should be suffering from a case of rhetorical whiplash. Here's more from the old Zinni - here telling Congress that Saddam would remain a threat even if he gave up his WMDs:

"Even if Baghdad reversed its course and surrendered all WMD capabilities, it retains the scientific, technical, and industrial infrastructure to replace agents and munitions within weeks or months."

The old Zinni even warned of a potential collaboration between Osama bin Laden and Iraq, telling Congress:

"Extremists like Osama bin Laden and his World Islamic Front network benefit from the global nature of communications that permits recruitment, fund raising, and direct connections to sub-elements worldwide . . .

"Terrorists are seeking more lethal weaponry to include: chemical, biological, radiological, and even nuclear components with which to perpetrate more sensational attacks . . . Three [Iraq, Iran and Sudan] of the seven recognized state-sponsors of terrorism are within this potentially volatile area, and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council for its harboring of Osama bin Laden."

Now Zinni wants Bush to apologize and Rumsfeld to resign for taking his advice in the first place. http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/15/115347.shtml?s=ic

There goes my idea for a bean mobile…
Problems Plague Natural Gas Police Cruisers
http://www.nbc5i.com/news/8693171/detail.html

Bill Clinton gave Iran bomb planN.Y. Times reporter says
harebrained scheme to foil Tehran likely helped advance program
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49744

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

Sunday, April 16, 2006

from Jewish people who believe Jesus is the Messiah

Here's some info from Jewish people who believe Jesus is the Messiah that was prophesied.

Finding Peace In A Troubled WorldIn the Beginning...
http://www.chosenpeople.com/docs/Curious/AboutUs2/Articles/FindingPeace/index.html

The Gospel According to Isaiah
http://www.chosenpeople.com/docs/Curious/AboutUs2/Articles/FindingPeace/Isaiah.html

The Coming Messiah
http://www.chosenpeople.com/docs/Curious/AboutUs2/00-10NL1/isaiah.html

How to Recognize the Messiah
http://www.chosenpeople.com/docs/Curious/AboutUs2/00-10NL1/recognize.html

If Only You Knew the Hebrew
http://www.chosenpeople.com/docs/Curious/AboutUs2/Articles/FindingPeace/KnewtheHebrew.html

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

Some excellent Passover/Easter Info

Ray Vander Laan is a pastor and Bible historian who has a wonderful way of showing how everyday things in the Bible have meaning for us today. Here are some of his links that are related to the Passover/Easter season:

Timing of Jesus’ Death http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=1597

Crucifixion Prophecies http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=1667

A Covenant Guarantee http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=3343

Jewish Feasts http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=1641

Palm Sunday http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=1596

Gethsemane and the Olive Press http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=1535

A New Tomb http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=2720

He Is Risen!

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

Thursday, April 13, 2006

April 13, 2006

World War II Secret Weapon: the Prune
Apr 11 -LONDON -The humble prune is set to be recognized as one of the secret weapons of World War II. A London auction house, Spink, is selling two grizzled prunes that it says were destined to be stuffed with maps or other documents and smuggled to prisoners of war. The prunes were part of the memorabilia collection of a British spy.

"They are very dry and hard and it's amazing that they have survived," Spink spokeswoman Emily Johnston said Tuesday.

The prunes are part of a collection of World War II memorabilia collected by a British woman, the late Doreen Mulot, a former member of Britain's Special Operations Executive, which was set up to carry out operations behind enemy lines.

Sometimes referred to as "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes' fictional group of spies, the executive was set up by Winston Churchill and Hugh Dalton to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement.

Mulot was one of as many as a million operatives. Her collection is being sold as one lot by her great-nephew Richard Marshall from the town of Crook in northern England and is expected to raise more than 1,000 pounds ($1,800).

Interviewed by telephone by The Associated Press, Marshall said his great-aunt had lived in a large house in the north London neighborhood of Hampstead "with a large bathroom where they prepared the prunes."

The dried fruit were softened in water, then de-pitted to allow carefully rolled documents covered in waxed paper to be inserted. The fruit was then re-dried and packed into food parcels for the prisoners, who used the information to escape and find their way home…
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/11/D8GU56R00.html

Bill Gates secretly paid for Gaza greenhouses
Deal to 'enhance peace process,' but Palestinians stripped, looted facilities
April 13, 2006-- JERUSALEM – In a revelation that surprised many here associated with the deal, it emerged this week the charitable foundation of Microsoft founder Bill Gates largely was responsible for transferring to the Palestinians the high-tech Jewish greenhouses of the Gaza Strip prior to Israel's evacuation of the area.

The greenhouses, passed in a private charity deal last summer, reportedly have been stripped and looted by Palestinian gangs and Palestinian security officers hired to protect the structures.

Prior to Israel's August withdrawal, the residents of Gaza's Gush Katif slate of Jewish communities ran greenhouses known for producing high-quality insect-free vegetables. The Gush Katif gardens featured some of the most technologically advanced agricultural equipment and accounted for more than $100 million per year in exports to Europe. The greenhouses also supplied Israel with 75 percent of its own produce.

The hothouses, worth several hundred million dollars, were passed to the Palestinians in September in a $14 million deal brokered by former World Bank President James Wolfenson. According to reports, Wolfenson personally contributed $500,000 of his own money and the rest was ponied up mostly by American Jews, including billionaires Mortimer Zuckerman and Leonard Stern.

But an article in Forbes Magazine stated the $29 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's biggest charity, provided most of the money – $10 million – to purchase the greenhouses.

...But Gates may not have got his money's worth. According to reports, the greenhouses were looted by gunmen following Israel's withdrawal. Computer equipment and, in some cases, entire greenhouses were stolen. The theft has put out of action about 70 acres of the roughly 1,000 acres left by the Jewish communities, according to Al-Masri.

"The looters took their time to dismantle the greenhouses and to uproot entire greenhouses and carry them away," Amid al-Masri previously told reporters.

Another round of looting struck the greenhouses in February when Fatah gunmen hired to protect the greenhouses abandoned their posts because they had not been paid. Witnesses reported some of the security guards themselves participated in the looting.

As WND reported, Palestinian farmers have had trouble reproducing the bug-free produce previously generated by the Jewish owners. The Palestinian owners reportedly asked the U.S. governmental development group USAID to hire former Jewish Gaza greenhouse owners as consultants for their declining vegetable businesses.

Al-Masri yesterday said the Gaza greenhouses are fully functioning and are producing at full capacity. He also said most of the stolen greenhouse equipment has been recovered by the Palestinian Authority police. His claims could not be independently verified before press time. (did he also say "Islam is a religion of peace"?) http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49710

Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008220

Potato gunman convicted in Sweden
Apr 12 12:11 - A man in central Sweden was convicted of shooting potatoes from an apartment window with a home-made gun, Swedish press reported.

A court in Falun, central Sweden, fined him 80 days' earnings for firearms offences.

In August 2005, inspired by seeing a potato thrower on television, the 25-year-old man bought parts for the gun in a local supermarket, Soedra Dalarnes Tidning wrote.

The man and a group of friends met in a flat in Bojsenburg, in the heart of Sweden, loaded the weapon with potatoes and began firing from the balcony into the car park below, the paper Wednesday.

Authorities confiscated his gun as well as two sacks of potatoes found in the apartment.

Police tests showed the tuber cannon had a more potent firing power than a revolver.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/060412161125.udqe0ag2.html
You mean even if guns are banned people can figure out how to make their own from parts from a supermarket? Wow! I guess the solution is to ban supermarkets!! Remember, if spuds are outlawed only outlaws will have spuds.

Castro could drill off Florida coast
Apr. 06, 2006- U.S. lawmakers aren't the only ones who, because of spiraling oil and gas prices and an unstable commodities market, have been studying the possibility of producing more domestic energy. Fidel Castro has also taken an interest, and his ambitions will, in a surprisingly short period of time, bring the Cuban drilling program much closer to the Florida coast.

...Cuba has neither the capacity nor the technical capability to produce this energy by itself. Castro has called in contractors from Canada, Spain, Norway -- even China -- to do it for him.

And not only has Cuba convened its own little United Nations to help get at vital and abundant supplies of offshore energy, it has chosen tracts of real estate in the Gulf of Mexico as close as 45 miles from Florida...

Imagine what Castro is thinking as we spend our time quarreling over whether we should produce American energy 100, 150 or 250 miles from the Florida coast while he makes arrangements to set up shop hundreds of miles closer. He must love that we've allowed emotion to win out over reason, facts to be dwarfed by fear and our nation's energy policy to be driven by unreasonable environmental concerns.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14273915.htm
(Of course the environmentalists in the US won't let us (so how much are you paying for gas?))

Rumsfeld to Reporter: “I Have a Real Daytime Job”
April 11, 2006 -- At today’s Pentagon press briefing, a reporter said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld didn’t dispute or address a claim from a book about the run-up to the War in Iraq.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, November of '01, the president, according to several books that you haven't disputed, said start planning --

RUMSFELD: You think I'm going to stand around reading your books and disputing things in them or validating or not validating? I've got a real daytime job. I mean, you'd do nothing else but that if you did that. The fact that I haven't disputed something, I mean, if I disputed all the mythology that comes out of this group and the books of the world, I wouldn't have any time to do anything else.
http://newsbusters.org/node/4871

A recent Washington Post column (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101078.html), states:

"Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, makes a similar argument about Iran. 'I think of war with Iran as the ending of America's present role in the world,' he told me this week. 'Iraq may have been a preview of that, but it's still redeemable if we get out fast. In a war with Iran, we'll get dragged down for 20 or 30 years. The world will condemn us. We will lose our position in the world.' Brzezinski urges President Bush to slow down and think carefully about his options -- rather than rushing to stop Iran's nuclear program, which by most estimates is five to 10 years away from building a bomb, even after yesterday's announcement."

As you'll recall Zbigniew Brzezinski worked in the failed Carter administration, both who had a less than a stellar track record regarding Iran. On February 2, 1979, Brzezinski wrote to Jimmy Carter in what he called his "weekly reports" on the topic of Islamic fundamentalism, "The conclusion from several studies done in the intelligence community is that we should be careful not to overgeneralize from the Iranian case. Islamic revivalist movements are not sweeping the Middle East. They are not likely to be the wave of the future. If we emphasize moral as well as material values, our support for diversity, and a commitment to social justice, our dialogue with the Muslim world will be helped."

If he was that wrong 25 years ago, when he was in a position to know, why sould he have any credibility with the press now, other than he is just someone else to trot out to criticize President Bush and undermine our foreign policy?

I guess the readers are on to the garbage the mainstream press gives them and is looking elsewhere... hahahahahaha!!!
Earnings fall at three major newspaper publishers
Thu Apr 13, 2006 New York Times Co., McClatchy Co. and (Chicago & Los Angeles Times) Tribune Co. on Thursday posted sharply lower quarterly earnings on high newsprint costs and depressed advertising sales (which is tied to readership).

The results from the three large publishers underscored the troubles faced by the industry, including circulation declines, high costs and competition for advertising money from the Internet and other new media.

For the first quarter, net income fell 14 percent at McClatchy, 28 percent at (Chicago & Los Angeles Times) Tribune and 69 percent at New York Times Co
.http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-04-13T160833Z_01_N13225763_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-NEWSPAPERS-EARNS.xml&rpc=23

Gannett quarterly earnings drop; newspapers struggle
April 12, 2006- Gannett Co. Inc. on Wednesday said quarterly earnings fell 11 percent as advertising revenue dropped at its newspapers, including the flagship USA Today, while high newsprint costs rose further.

Gannett owns about 90 daily newspapers (including USA Today) and runs 21 television stations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060412/bs_nm/media_gannett_earns_dc_6&printer=1

Other headlines along the same line:

BOSTON AD SKID CHILLS TIMES (12% revenue decline the worst of major newspaper groups) - 03/23/2006
GALLUP POLLING DROPS CNN AFTER 'LOW RATINGS'; FULL MEMO REVEALED - 03/21/2006
'Washington Post' To Cut 80 Newsroom Jobs, Sources Say - 03/10/2006
E.W. Scripps Reports 4Q Loss of $603,000 - 02/02/2006
Knight Ridder profit declines 22% - 01/31/2006
TIMES BOMBS ("paper of record" 2001-04 daily circulation off 19%) - 01/11/2006

Don’t Impose Foreign Law on Americans By Antonin Scalia
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.19116/article_detail.asp

The Coat
by Ruth Bell Graham
http://www.billygraham.org/DMag_article.asp?ArticleID=680

in case your local media ignored this...
U.S. Trade Deficit Improves More Than Anticipated
April 12, 2006- America's trade deficit showed a bigger-than-expected improvement in February as the politically sensitive imbalance with China dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

...For February, the deficit with China narrowed by 22.7 percent to $13.8 billion, the smallest imbalance since March 2005. The improvement reflected a sizable 19.9 percent jump in U.S. exports to China to $4.1 billion, the second highest level on record, led by big gains in exports of American cotton, soybeans and semiconductors.

Chinese imports to this country fell by 16.2 percent, led by declines in shipments of cell phones and computers...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191440,00.html

Immigration vs. gate-crashing
Apr 12, 2006 by Walter E. Williams
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2006/04/12/193238.html

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

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

April 11, 2006

Vatican reopens debate over Crusades
March 25, 2006 excellent article:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49432

Fake Cop Pulls Over Real Cop
07 April 2006 GURNEE, Ill. A suburban Chicago man has been charged with impersonating a police officer -- and he was caught after he allegedly pulled over a real Gurnee cop....
http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/22882.php?

Why you should hope for a bad economy…
Strong economy equals more heart attacks: study
Thu Apr 6, 2006
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-04-06T192159Z_01_N06311595_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY-HEART.xml&archived=False

Cleaner Air 'amplifying' warming
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website, in Vienna
Reduced air pollution and increased water evaporation appear to be adding to man-made global warming.... see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4880328.stm

Note date:
Scientists blame sun for global warming
February 13, 1998- The Sun is more active than it has ever been in the last 300 years
Climate changes such as global warming may be due to changes in the sun rather than to the release of greenhouse gases on Earth.

Climatologists and astronomers speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Philadelphia say the present warming may be unusual - but a mini ice age could soon follow....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/56456.stm

What if they had global warming and nobody came...
There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998
Prof Bob Carter is a geologist at James Cook University, Queensland, engaged in paleoclimate research
09/04/2006- For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem. In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco. Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).

Yes, you did read that right. And also, yes, this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society's continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

In response to these facts, a global warming devotee will chuckle and say "how silly to judge climate change over such a short period". Yet in the next breath, the same person will assure you that the 28-year-long period of warming which occurred between 1970 and 1998 constitutes a dangerous (and man-made) warming. Tosh. Our devotee will also pass by the curious additional facts that a period of similar warming occurred between 1918 and 1940, well prior to the greatest phase of world industrialisation, and that cooling occurred between 1940 and 1965, at precisely the time that human emissions were increasing at their greatest rate.

Does something not strike you as odd here? That industrial carbon dioxide is not the primary cause of earth's recent decadal-scale temperature changes doesn't seem at all odd to many thousands of independent scientists. They have long appreciated that such short-term climate fluctuations are chiefly of natural origin. Yet the public appears to be largely convinced otherwise. How is this possible?

Since the early 1990s, the columns of many leading newspapers and magazines, worldwide, have carried an increasing stream of alarmist letters and articles on hypothetical, human-caused climate change. Each such alarmist article is larded with words such as "if", "might", "could", "probably", "perhaps", "expected", "projected" or "modelled" - and many involve such deep dreaming, or ignorance of scientific facts and principles, that they are akin to nonsense....

...Marketed under the imprimatur of the IPCC, the bladder-trembling and now infamous hockey-stick diagram that shows accelerating warming during the 20th century - a statistical construct by scientist Michael Mann and co-workers from mostly tree ring records - has been a seminal image of the climate scaremongering campaign. Thanks to the work of a Canadian statistician, Stephen McIntyre, and others, this graph is now known to be deeply flawed...

...The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/09/do0907.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/09/ixworld.html

Global Warming Hysteria Has Arrived
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=040406C

U.S.-Born Latinos Oppose Illegal Immigration
April 10, 2006 - Contrary to scenes of hundreds of thousands of united Latinos marching across the country in support of immigration reform, a sizable number of the ethnic group opposes the marches and strongly objects to illegal immigration.

Their voices have largely been muffled by the massive protests, however, which continued Monday as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of cities nationwide.

"That's the objective of the marches — to give the impression that all Latinos are for allowing the illegals to become citizens," said Phoenix resident Lionel De La Rosa. "Well, I'm not."

...A 2005 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Latinos in general have favorable attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. But when it comes to illegal immigration, significant numbers have negative views of undocumented immigrants.

..."There are a lot of Hispanics that are upset about the undocumented just the same way as the Anglo population," said Barrios, a third-generation Mexican-American who traces his family's roots in Arizona to the 1870s. "That group is larger than many people would believe."
http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/4/10/144315.shtml?s=lh

In England don't you dare punch someone who is trying to harm you...
4/10/2006 -American and British criminologists have long been puzzled and angered by the fact that Britain seems to have learnt nothing from the experience of New York in successfully reducing crime.

The big drop in virtually all types of crime in New York has generally been attributed to the zero-tolerance policy associated with Mayor Guiliani. Now Britain, far from adopting zero-tolerance, looks like it's adopting a policy of not prosecuting many serious crimes at all. This is the subject of an official Home Office directive to all British police forces. British police have now been told that instead of arresting a range of serious criminals, they can be let off with a caution.

The Home Office says offenses that may now be dealt with by a caution include burglary of a shop or office, threatening to kill, actual bodily harm, and possession of Class A drugs such as heroin or cocaine if police decide a caution would be the best approach.

Other crimes including common assault, threatening behavior, sex with an underage girl or boy, and car theft should normally be dealt with by a caution, if the offenders admit their guilt but have no criminal record.

London and British crime rates have been increasing for years. Recently total crime rates for London have been estimated at about seven times those of New York for a slightly smaller population and some authorities suggest these figures have been minimized. England and Wales are now accounted by some estimates as the most dangerous places for crime in the developed world. (that can't be!!!! They banned guns!!)

New York and London have populations of 8 million and 7 million respectively and comparable police budgets, though New York has about 40 percent more police actually on the beat. British papers retail many incidents of British police, rather than preventing crime, being kept busy "celebrating diversity" and prosecuting politically incorrect remarks and behavior (large amounts of money and court time have been spent by the Crown Prosecution Service on cases of children who have made politically incorrect remarks in school playground fights, for instance).

...There have also been numerous and well-publicized cases of people being prosecuted and jailed for defending themselves from criminal attacks. A storekeeper was knifed in the back as he tackled a gang of youths stealing wine from his Norwich store. He was arrested on two charges of assault.

Shirley Best, owner of the Rolander Fashion Boutique, was ironing some garments when two youths broke in. They pressed the hot iron into her side and stole her watch, leaving her badly burnt. "I was frightened to defend myself," said Miss Best, "I thought if I did anything I would be arrested." In July 2002, a shopkeeper, Richard Barnes, hit a teenage thief whom he had confronted with a single blow. The thief had previously thrown a punch at him. Mr. Barnes was arrested, tried before a jury, and eventually acquitted after a three-day trial in the Hull Crown Court.

There have been doubts expressed that a right to self-defense still exists in British law. Following one homicidal home burglary Dr. Ian Stephen, an Honorary Lecturer (Forensic Psychology) at Glasgow Caledonian University, told householders:

"If you attack the burglar, or react in an 'over-the-top' manner... you will inevitably end up on the receiving end of a prison sentence that will far outstrip that imposed on the intruder in your own home.... [W]hen individuals are confronted by intruders there are some actions they should follow. Direct contact should be avoided whenever possible. If unavoidable, the victim should adopt a state of active passivity..."

In 2002 a study found that 11 million crimes had been left out of British government figures, including hundreds of thousands of serious crimes involving woundings, robberies, assaults and even murders as well as thefts. Dr. David Green of the Civitas research institute said: "When you check the small print, it turns out the Home Office itself thinks that there were far more than the 13 million crimes discovered by the [official] British Crime Survey, perhaps four times as many." Dr Green said the Office of National Statistics was subject to political interference and a genuinely independent statistical service was needed.

...IN MARCH 2005, THE CHIEF Constable of Nottinghamshire, Steve Green, said his force was overwhelmed with violent crime, and "could no longer cope." He said police were smothered in bureaucratic duties. Gun-related crimes had hit record levels across England and Wales in the preceding year, rising by about 11 percent in a single year (sexual offenses rose by 18 percent), to more than double their rate when Labor took power. At that time the Home Office had promised a renewed drive against crime in various areas. Home Office Minister Caroline Flint admitted that having a gun pointed at one was a "frightening experience." However, she continued, in many cases the triggers were not actually pulled.

A study by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research in June 2005 found that violence from teenage thugs had a major impact on the lives of one in five of the population. According to a 2005 survey of 200,000 National Health Service workers, one third of ambulance staff and more than one half of paramedics had been subjected to violence in the course of their work. Civitas said previously that the rise in British crime-rates was "so spectacular" that it was "difficult to comprehend." Britain was "a seriously crime-infected and disintegrating society." http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9641

How EU edict could kill off the Irish wake
04/10/2006 The strange mixture of joy and grief that marks a traditional Irish funeral, with its week-long drink-fuelled wake, is under threat from a European directive.

The Irish custom that sees corpses kept in an open coffin so the deceased can be viewed during the wake has been endangered by an edict issued by Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.

He wants chemicals used by embalmers to preserve the cadaver withdrawn under a new biocides directive.

Such a move would see the end of the age-old ritual of "laying out" the body while games are played and food and drink are consumed to the accompaniment of dancing and fiddle music.

Typically the body is bathed, dressed in a white garment and then laid on a bed or table. From that time on it is not to be left alone until the funeral, while relatives celebrate a life well lived.

Once it is laid out, the women start "keening" - a mournful lamentation sung by the women of the house.

...The Irish Association of Funeral Directors has written to politicians warning that the directive would change the way embalmers prepare bodies for viewing and burial.

The association said: "Viewing the deceased is part of Irish culture and it is recognised that such practice is an important part of bringing closure to bereavement, and ample evidence from psychologists exists to back this up."

The directive, which would come into effect in September, aims to withdraw embalming ingredients such as formaldehyde, which are capable of destroying living organisms.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/10/wake10.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/10/ixworld.html

what part of "war is hell" don't they understand...?
VC winner branded a war criminal
10/04/2006 A ruse that helped to win a soldier the Victoria Cross during the Second World War was a "war crime" and New Zealand should apologise to the families of the snipers he killed, it was claimed yesterday.

Alfred Clive Hulme, the father of Denny Hulme, the late world motor racing champion, was awarded the VC for bravery in killing 33 German snipers over eight days during the Battle of Crete in 1941. He returned home a hero to the town of Nelson.

But a new book by two military historians says that, in winning his VC, Sgt Hulme committed "acts of perfidy" under international law.

Lt Col Glyn Harper, a professor at the New Zealand army's Military Studies Institute, who co-authored the book, In the Face of the Enemy, said that on one occasion Sgt Hulme donned a German paratrooper's smock, climbed up behind a nest of enemy snipers, and pretended to be part of their group.

"He shot the leader first, and as the other four snipers looked around to see where the shot had come from, Hulme also turned his head as if searching for the shooter," the book says.

"Then he shot and killed two more." He shot the other two as they tried to leave.

"Hulme deserved the VC for his outstanding bravery, but he shouldn't have done what he did in disguising himself."

Other academics have supported the book's claims. Peter Wills, the deputy director of the Centre for Peace Studies at Auckland University, said Sgt Hulme's actions were "unsanctioned murder". (never mind the fact that the Germans he shot were probably trying to kill Allied troops…, that’s different…)

He told the Sunday Star-Times that the New Zealand government should apologise to the families of the Germans he killed. Bill Hodge, associate professor of law at Auckland University, said killing enemy soldiers while wearing their uniform was "prima facie a war crime".

Sgt Hulme died in 1982. His daughter, Anita, said accusing him of war crimes was "a terrible thing to bring up".

His VC is on display in the army's national museum at its headquarters in Waiouru.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml

DUBYA CAN'T LEAK http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/62024.htm

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