December 12, 2006

This reminds me of the Grinch returning all the Christmas decorations and gifts in 'How the Grincg Stole Christmas'

Christmas trees being returned to SeaTac airport

SEATAC, Wash. (AP) — Christmas trees are going back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Pat Davis, president of the Port of Seattle commission, which directs airport operations, said late Monday that maintenance staff would restore the 14 plastic holiday trees, festooned with red ribbons and bows, that were removed over the weekend because of a rabbi's complaint that holiday decor did not include a menorah...

...Davis added that the rabbi "never asked us to remove the trees; it was the port's decision based on what we knew at the time."...[Said the Rabi] "I am devastated, shocked and appalled at the decision that the Port of Seattle came to," he said Sunday...

...The rabbi has also offered to give the port an electric menorah to display, said his lawyer, Harvey Grad...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-12-12-seatac-christmas_x.htm

Court says New Jersey elementary can't censor future Christian songs

December 12, 2006- A federal court has issued an order that will prevent a New Jersey school from censoring students' Christian musical selections in future talent shows.

The Alliance Defense Fund said the order comes down in favor of an elementary school student who, when she was a second-grader in May 2005, had been chosen to participate in the competition, and then picked "Awesome God," made famous by the late singer-songwriter Rich Mullins, to perform.

Officials at Frenchtown Elementary School denied her permission, a decision endorsed by the board of education, citing not only the song's religious content but its "proselytizing" nature...

...The court ruling, by U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson, rejected arguments from officials at Frenchtown Elementary school that the song was inappropriate because of its "overtly religious message and proselytizing nature."

The ruling, which granted a motion for summary judgment on behalf of the student, said the song chosen and sung "by an individual student … was the private speech of a student and not a message conveyed by the school itself."

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53335

A victory for "Away in a Manger"

Monday, December 11, 2006- Late last week at the Lakeview Elementary School in Wilson County, Tennessee, moms and dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles gathered at the school to watch the performance of the elementary students' Christmas program. Also in attendance were three lawyers, including our Senior Counsel from the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). The Wilson County School System has been sued by the ACLU because last year's program included the singing of the song, "Away in a Manger." The ACLU actually alleged in the complaint that when people joined in to sing "Away in a Manger," it violated the Constitution because the song is "exclusively Christian in nature, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ." They went on to allege that "only the Christian viewpoint of Christmas was recognized and celebrated at this program."

As this case was filed in federal court, the ACLJ (not ACLU) represented school officials. I wanted to make sure that the ACLU's censorship attack would not be successful, and I am happy to report that at the program last week, students sang "Away in a Manger" in the presence of three lawyers and no additional legal action has been taken. But isn't it ridiculous that three lawyers had to monitor what fifth and sixth graders would be singing at the school's event? Have we reached a point in our culture where students singing a song that some might disagree with can now become a basis of censorship? For all the ACLU's talk of championing freedom of speech, they certainly weren't championing the freedom of speech of these students. The good news is that reason prevailed and the song was sung...

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JaySekulow/2006/12/11/a_victory_for_away_in_a_manger

Atheists Sue Over Church Bells

December 12, 2006 GRISWOLD, Conn. --Local officials vow that the bells of a Baptist church will continue to peal above the complaints of atheists.

A sound system owned by the borough of Jewett City and the town of Griswold and housed in a church has prompted the Connecticut chapter of American Atheists Inc. to demand that the governments cut their ties with the bells. The group also wants the volume turned down.

More than 75 residents pushed back Monday, demanding that the borough's Board of Warden and Burgesses not silence the sound system that plays the chimes heard throughout the area....

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/12/12/atheists_demand_removal_of_church_bells_owned_by_municipality/

Pentagon Evangelism Called 'National Security Threat'

December 12, 2006 - Christian military officers who share their faith at work in the Pentagon pose a threat to national security, according to a group that advocates for religious neutrality in the military.

Public displays of faith by high-ranking military officers project an image of a Christian nation waging war on non-Christians, both inside and outside the United States, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said Monday.

This created an "internal national security issue every bit as great as the one we're fighting outwardly," said the organization's president, Mikey Weinstein...

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200612/CUL20061212a.html

I guess General Washington should have been drummed out of the Continental Army...

Expelled Muslim boy's father blames school [Boy urinates on Bible]

December 08, 2006 THE father of a Muslim boy expelled from the East Preston Islamic College for urinating on the Bible, burning pages from it then spitting on it has lashed out at the school, saying it failed to protect and control his son...

...When asked why the boys chose to desecrate the Bible, Ibrahim shrugged his shoulders and said he did not know...

But his father, Omar, was angry at the school [and] has withdrawn all of his five children who attend the college and says they will no longer go to an Islamic school...

...EPIC principal Shaheem Doutie said the school community was shocked by the desecration and said the college placed great emphasis on religious tolerance.

However, as revealed in The Australian yesterday, the school's library contained a video of a banned cleric calling Australian Christians "evil" and non-Muslim schools "sewers". http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20891402-2702,00.html

And so of course the Christians in the community rioted and tried to behead the whole family...right? I mean, that's what Muslims would have done if this had been the Quran.

Engines Lab Teams with Solix Biofuels Inc. to Mass Produce Oil from Algae as Diesel Fuel Alternative

Colorado State University ^ | Dec. 07, 2006 -Solix Biofuels Inc., a startup company based in Boulder, is working with Colorado State University engineers to commercialize technology that can cheaply mass produce oil derived from algae and turn it into biodiesel - an environmentally friendly solution to high gas prices, greenhouse gas emissions and volatile global energy markets.

http://www.newsinfo.colostate.edu/index.asp?url=news_item_display&news_item_id=373795755

Rentech in New Coal-to-Liquids Fuels Project in West Virginia

The Mingo County Redevelopment Authority (MCRA), Williamson, West Virginia and Rentech, Inc. have entered into a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) for the development of a Fischer-Tropsch (FT) Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) fuels plant to be located in Mingo County (the Mingo Project).

Located in the lower portion of southwestern West Virginia, the Mingo Project would utilize Rentech's Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert synthesis gas, a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced from the West Virginia coal, into transportation fuels to be used in the Mingo County region.

The parties intend to cooperate to develop, finance, own and operate the project which could produce approximately 10,000 to 30,000 barrels per day of the ultra-clean fuels...

...Rentech uses a proprietary iron-based catalyst in its Fischer-Tropsch reactors. According to the company, the qualities of the iron-based catalyst make it very flexible, and able to convert economically the synthesis gas made from the widest range of hydrocarbon feedstocks...

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/rentech_in_new_.html

Crop Report: Corn Prices Keep Rising-

12/11/06 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Farmers are getting the best price for corn in more than a decade amid strong demand for ethanol and feed, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

Average corn prices for the year were forecast at $2.90 to $3.30 a bushel, up 10 cents from last month's estimate, according to the monthly crop report.

The last time prices were as good was 1995, when the average was $3.25 a bushel. This year is the fifth time corn prices have risen above $3 a bushel. Last year's average was $2 a bushel.

The production forecast was unchanged at 10.7 billion bushels of corn, down from last year's 11.1 billion bushels. The nation's ethanol fuel plants are expected to use about 20 percent of the corn crop, and exports should consume roughly the same share...

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061211/crop_report.html?.v=4

But, but, but it was to be cheap/replenish able fuel. Wait till ethanol gets going - you'll be paying 2 bucks for an ear of corn...

Day mocks Gore, climate change in article

Dec. 11 2006- Canadian Press- OTTAWA -- A November cold snap prompted Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to dismiss Al Gore's climate change crusade in a website article brimming with mockery...

Day wrote that a recent cold snap had him "begging for Big Al's Glacial Melt when the mercury hit -24.'' (note: that’s “minus” 24)

About 22 towns and cities in British Columbia "had broken all-time records for paralyzing frigid temperatures,'' Day wrote.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061211/day_blog_061211/20061211?hub=QPeriod

UN Report Pours 'Cold Water' on Global Warming, Senator Says

December 12, 2006- A United Nations study due for release early next year will reportedly lower estimates of mankind's impact on the earth's climate by 25 percent, a development a leading climate change skeptic in the U.S. Senate says will pour "cold water" on "global warming alarmism."

"We are all skeptics now," Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, said in response to media leaks on a report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is set to be published next February.

London's Telegraph reported Sunday that the IPCC draft report reduces its overall estimate of the human impact on global warming by one-fourth, and halves its predictions for rises in sea-level by 2100.

The IPCC's new figures are attributed to "a refinement due to better data on how climate works."

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200612/NAT20061212a.html

Yeah, and as they get better data those figures will drop even more...

So basically they still don't know how the climate works, yet they want to make sweeping changes. It's a good thing we didn't follow their recommendations in the 70's when they were peddling global cooling

The Real 'Inconvenient Truth': Greenhouse, global warming - and some FAQ

see: http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/

Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat

Summary Over two decades ago, Idso (1986) published a small item in Nature advancing the idea that the aerial fertilization effect of the CO2 that is liberated by the burning of coal, gas and oil was destined to dramatically enhance the productivity of earth's vegetation. In fact, in a little book he had published four years earlier (Idso, 1982), he had predicted that "CO2 effects on both the managed and unmanaged biosphere will be overwhelmingly positive," if not "mind-boggling." And in a monograph based on a lecture he gave nine years later (Idso, 1995), he said that "we appear to be experiencing the initial stages of what could truly be called a rebirth of the biosphere, the beginnings of a biological rejuvenation that is without precedent in all of human history." Consequently, and in light of the fact that Idso's worldview is the exact opposite of the apocalyptic vision promoted by climate alarmists, it is instructive to periodically check to see what real-world observations reveal about the matter; and in this brief summary we do so for the continent of Africa.

In an article by Fred Pearce that was posted on the website of New Scientist magazine on 16 September 2002 entitled "Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat," we were told the story of vegetation reclaiming great tracts of barren land across the entire southern edge of the Sahara. This information likely came as a bit of a surprise to many, since the United Nations Environment Program had reported to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in August of that year that over 45% of the continent was experiencing severe desertification. The world of nature, however, told a vastly different story...

...Due to the stunning increase in vegetation over the past quarter-century in the Sahel, as reported in our Editorial of 11 Jan 2006, the African region was recently featured in a special issue of the Journal of Arid Environments entitled "The 'Greening' of the Sahel." (at http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V9/N2/EDIT.jsp )...

more at: http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/subject/g/summaries/africagreen.jsp

David Bennett <><

http://www.freewill-predestination.com

http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove