23 April, 2007

Sheryl Crow's touring requirements

When it comes to Sheryl Crow's touring requirements...when the gorebal warming warrior hits the road, her touring entourage (and equipment) travels in three tractor trailers, four buses, and six cars. Now that's a carbon footprint!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/scrow/scrow1.html

Sheryl Crow's Solutions to Gorebal Warming: Use 1 square of toilet paper only per visit

April 23, 2007

Americans may be using less toilet paper, if Sheryl Crow has her way.

The singer, who is crossing the country on a biodiesel bus with producer Laurie David, proposes limiting toilet paper use as one solution to gorebal warming, according to a Washington Post report.

"I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to gorebal warming," she wrote April 19 on the Biodiesel Bus blog, according to a report by the Washington Post. "Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating."

Her toilet paper manifesto would limit how many squares of toilet paper Americans use in a sitting.

"Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required," she wrote. (I don’t think I want to shake hands with her)

Crow also floated the idea of a removable "dining sleeve" that could replace the use of paper napkins. (what the heck is a dining sleeve??)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267783,00.html

Tell Al Gorebal-warming I will be buying my “toilet paper offset credits” so I can continue to wipe until I’m done.

Dow gains in 15 of last 16 sessions

Winning streak is among longest in index's history

— In its quest to scale 13,000, the streaking Dow Jones industrial average has posted gains in 15 of the last 16 sessions, a feat accomplished only three times and last achieved 15 years ago.

There has been only one longer winning stretch interrupted by a single down day: a 20 out of 21 bull run that ended on Aug. 2, 1927, Dow Jones Indexes says.

This comes less than eight weeks after stocks seemed on the verge of a meltdown. The Dow plunged 416 points Feb. 27 in response to an 8.8% stock decline in China that fanned fears of global financial contagion.

Janna Sampson, portfolio manager at OakBrook Investments, credits the ability of U.S. companies to top first-quarter profit forecasts as a prime reason for the rally. It suggests the economy, hobbled by a housing slump, is not in as bad of shape as people think....

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070423/1b_dowstreak23.art.htm

From a Marine ticked off at Senator Reid

http://patdollard.com/2007/04/23/marine-corporal-from-a-bunker-in-ramadi-i-got-a-message-for-that-douche-harry-reid/

'HIV chasing' a trend in gay community
April 21, 2007 - A Melbourne man who fantasised (sic) about contracting HIV before actually being infected by the virus has spoken of a gay subculture in which infection is seen as "desirable".

The 20-year-old man, who does not want to be named, told Fairfax newspapers both complacency about the virus and the wish to have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man he was in love with led him to become infected...

...The young professional is the first to speak out about "bug chasing", a behaviour in the gay community in which men seek to become infected with HIV.

The phenomenon was highlighted at the recent committal hearing for Melbourne man Michael Neal.

Mr Neal was accused of deliberately spreading the virus.

A HIV-positive man said in court that "bug chasing" was "a big thing out there" and that he had been pursued on the internet by a man wanting the bug...

...The HIV-positive man said some men going to group-sex parties with HIV-positive men might want to "join the club" and have unprotected sex more freely...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/HIV-chasing-a-trend-in-gay-community/2007/04/21/1176697124607.html

Newsom pledges to make SF a sanctuary for illegal immigrants
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Mayor Gavin Newsom vowed Sunday to maintain San Francisco as a sanctuary for immigrants and do everything he can to discourage federal authorities from conducting immigration raids.

The mayor cannot stop federal authorities from making arrests, Newsom told about 300 mostly Latino members of St. Peter's Church and other religious groups supporting immigrants. But no San Francisco employee will help with immigration enforcement.

"I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way shape or form with these raids," Newsom declared. "We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it."

The Board of Supervisors first declared San Francisco a "sanctuary city" in 1989. The designation, which many U.S. cities across the country took on during the 1980s, has no legal meaning...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/22/BAGADPDGNF18.DTL

Ethanol is a waste of energy

Denver Post 23 apr 07

Despite mounting evidence that ethanol is about as useful as a flux capacitor, Gov. Bill Ritter is ensuring that Colorado will become dependent on this "alternative" energy.

No need for debate. No need to heed the market. No need to explore viability or consequences.

Executive orders will do the trick.

It seems elected officials need only insert dreamy words like "green" or "renewable" into a sentence and the electorate swoons.

A new study by Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University atmospheric scientist, will, hopefully, get us thinking, not only about the feasibility of ethanol but the health consequences.

"Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution," wrote Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage"

more at http://origin.denverpost.com/news/ci_5728436

Tidal Turbines Help Light Up Manhattan

Technology Review (MIT) April 23, 2007

Turbines are being submerged in the East River to generate electricity from rapid tidal currents.

Working from barges and tugboats off New York City's Roosevelt Island, engineers are battling northeasters and this month's heavy spring tides to install the first major tidal-power project in the United States. The project involves a set of six submerged turbines that are designed to capture energy from the East River's tidal currents. The three-bladed turbines, which are five meters in diameter and resemble wind turbines, are made by Verdant Power of Arlington, VA.

Thanks to lessons learned by wind turbine designers, tidal power is already economically competitive, producing electricity at prices similar to wind power, according to feasibility studies by the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry R&D consortium. And it offers a big advantage over wind and other renewables: a precisely predictable source of energy. As a result, developers in the United States have laid claim to the best sites up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In the past four years the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC, has issued preliminary permits for tidal installations at 25 sites, and it is considering another 31 applications.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18567/

I'm sure the Greenies will be howling when they get wind of this that this will cause elevation of the water temperature, massive die-off of plankton, chopped up fish or some other nonsense.

How a British jihadi saw the light

"Many Muslims enjoyed a better lifestyle in non-Muslim Britain than they did in Muslim Saudi Arabia...Racism was an integral part of Saudi society. My students often used the word “nigger” to describe black people. Even dark-skinned Arabs were considered inferior to their lighter-skinned cousins. I was living in the world’s most avowedly Muslim country, yet I found it anything but. I was appalled by the imposition of Wahhabism in the public realm, something I had implicitly sought as an Islamist."

(good article describes the plight of moderate Muslims at the hand of other Muslims and not the westerners...)

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article1685726.ece

Student Government Asks Reporters to Leave by Monday
Blacksburg, VA - Sunday April 22, 200

You've seen the news coverage from Blacksburg, complete with prominent network anchors reporting from the scene.

And now, the student government at Virginia Tech is asking for all of that to end. It's calling on hundreds of reporters to leave campus by Monday morning, when students are supposed to return toclasses...
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0407/416648.html

The Wall Street Journal explains why the Virginia Tech killer wasn't committed.

Bedlam Revisited

Why the Virginia Tech shooter was not committed.

BY JONATHAN KELLERMAN

Monday, April 23, 2007

I was in graduate school, studying clinical psychology when they began shutting down the asylums. The place was California, the time was the early 1970s, and "they" were an unprecedented confederation of progressives, libertarians and fiscal conservatives...

He makes some good points, complete article at http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009977

More Cant And Cowardice From NBC
Thursday, April 19, 2007

NBC ("Not Bothered by Conscience" one e-mailer opines) released this statement:

NBC News issued the following statement Thursday in regard to the materials it received from the gunman in the Virginia Tech shootings:
read at: http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/g/16395423-3975-48c6-9965-c0ce7e39187d

Are gun-free nations or "zones" safer?
Sunday, April 22, 2007

Gun-free nations are safer -- at least for folks like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Castro, Pol Pot and Saddam, all of whom disarmed their detractors before slaughtering them by the tens of millions.

History records the consequences of disarming people, both in terms of protection, in their person and property, from tyrannical governments and from criminals. Regarding the latter, "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

Thomas Jefferson understood that maxim. In his Commonplace Book, Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

In 2002, at the Appalachian School of Law just up the road from Virginia Tech, a Nigerian student, who had flunked out, returned to campus, murdered three people and wounded three others. Fortunately, his killing spree was interrupted by two students who had retrieved handguns from their vehicles and held the murderer at gunpoint until police arrived.

In 1997, an assistant principal in Pearl, Mississippi, retrieved a handgun from his car and apprehended a murderer. A few days later, a copycat assault in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, ended after a nearby merchant wielding a shotgun forced the attacker to surrender. Off campus, it is estimated conservatively that gun owners use their weapons defensively more than 1.3 million times each year... Read rest of article at:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MarkMAlexander/2007/04/22/are_gun-free_nations_or_zones_safer

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MarkMAlexander/2007/04/22/are_gun-free_nations_or_zones_safer

Worker fired after posting picture of Jesus
4/21/2007

A call center employee says he has been dismissed from his job for posting an artist's rendition of the crucifixion during Easter week, even though other employees were allowed to post pictures and art as they chose in their cubicles.

Chris Romansky, a former employee of Barclays, told WND he was told there had been a complaint about the picture he put up to remind himself of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, a foundational belief in Christianity...

...Then during the Easter season, he said, "I hung a picture of the crucifixion, actually it was before Easter. It was of the crucifixion of Jesus and it showed the Resurrection and it said 'Happy Easter.'"

"I came in on the following Tuesday, and it was face down on my desk, so I put it back up," he said. Then a team manager came and told him there had been a complaint that it was "offensive" and he had to take it back down...

...The manager called him into her office. "She told me people were offended, and she told me anything with Jesus and God can't be up," Romansky told WND...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55313

Was Cho taught to hate?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/04/was_cho_taught_to_hate.html

This guy took some weird courses in college...
VATech gunman eBayer
[AMong oththings Seung-Hui Cho sold books titled] "Men, Women, and Chainsaws" by Carol J. Clover, a book that explores gender in the modern horror film; the publisher's note reads: "Do the pleasures of horror movies really begin and end in sadism?"

Others include "The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre," by H.P. Lovecraft; and "The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense" by Joyce Carol Oates — a book in which the publisher writes: "In these and other gripping and disturbing tales, women are confronted by the evil around them and surprised by the evil they find within themselves."

Books by those three authors were taught in his Contemporary Horror class, meaning he could have been merely selling the used books at the end of the semester....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070421/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Losing the War in Congress, Not in Iraq

Dr. Walid Phares

April 23, 2007

http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/w_phares/04232007.htm

David Bennett <><

http://www.freewill-predestination.com

21 April 2007

Farewell to “Lucy”
by Dr. David Menton
April 18, 2007
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/04/18/farewell-lucy

82-Year-Old Ex-Beauty Queen Stops Intruder by Shooting Out Tires
April 21, 2007
Venus Ramsey was crowned Miss America in 1944. Photo at http://www.foxnews.com/images/278400/1_61_042007_VenusRamey1944.jpg

WAYNESBURG, Ky. — Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder.

Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.

Ramey said the man told her he would leave. "I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave," Ramey said.

She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.

"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it," she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."

Ramey then flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911...

...After winning the pageant with her singing, dancing and comedic talents, Ramey sold war bonds and her picture was adorned on a B-17 that made missions over Germany in World War II, according to the Miss America Web site…

"I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another," she said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267540,00.html


$5000 Fine Sought For Christian Marriage Commissioner Who Declined Gay Couple
SASKATOON, April 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Canadian Christian civil marriage commissioner in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Orville Nichols, could face up to $5000 in fines for having referred a homosexual couple to a different commissioner.

Human Rights Commission lawyer Janice Gingell asked the tribunal to find that Nichols contravened the code and order him to pay $5,000 in compensation to the complainant.

The 70 year-old Mr. Nichols used a clearly religious-based conscience argument for his refusal, saying his faith guides his daily life, that he prays and reads the Bible every day. He told the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal that his faith “takes first place” in his life. He said, “I couldn't sleep or live with myself if I were to perform same-sex marriages.”

The other commissioner to whom the two men were referred performed the ceremony on the same date they requested of Mr. Nichols...
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07041905.html

25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA'
Crime rate plummeted after law required firearms for residents
April 19, 2007
As the nation debates whether more guns or fewer can prevent tragedies like the Virginia Tech Massacre, a notable anniversary passed last month in a Georgia town that witnessed a dramatic plunge in crime and violence after mandating residents to own firearms.

In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw – responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. – unanimously passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, despite dire predictions of "Wild West" showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender.

The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.

Prior to enactment of the law, Kennesaw had a population of just 5,242 but a crime rate significantly higher (4,332 per 100,000) than the national average (3,899 per 100,000). The latest statistics available – for the year 2005 – show the rate at 2,027 per 100,000. Meanwhile, the population has skyrocketed to 28,189.

By comparison, the population of Morton Grove, the first city in Illinois to adopt a gun ban for anyone other than police officers, has actually dropped slightly and stands at 22,202, according to 2005 statistics. More significantly, perhaps, the city's crime rate increased by 15.7 percent immediately after the gun ban, even though the overall crime rate in Cook County rose only 3 percent. Today, by comparison, the township's crime rate stands at 2,268 per 100,000.

This was not what some predicted.

In a column titled "Gun Town USA," Art Buchwald suggested Kennesaw would soon become a place where routine disagreements between neighbors would be settled in shootouts. The Washington Post mocked Kennesaw as "the brave little city … soon to be pistol-packing capital of the world." Phil Donahue invited the mayor on his show...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55288

(Tenn) House vote permits guns in more places
April 19, 2007
NASHVILLE - In a surprise move, a House panel voted Wednesday to repeal a state law that forbids the carrying of handguns on property and buildings owned by state, county and city governments - including parks and playgrounds.

"I think the recent Virginia disaster - or catastrophe or nightmare or whatever you want to call it - has woken up a lot of people to the need for having guns available to law-abiding citizens," said Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains. "I hope that is what this vote reflects."


As amended, the legislation still wouldn't allow guns on school property, however.

Niceley's bill aimed to let people holding handgun carry permits take their weapons onto state park property, which is now forbidden.

Tennessee's handgun carry law includes a listing of places where permit holders are forbidden to take their weapons. Briley has proposed an amendment that repeals a provision prohibiting guns "in or on the grounds of any public park, playground, civic center or other building facility, area or property owned, used or operated by any municipal, county or state government, or instrumentality thereof."

With very little debate, the amendment was quickly approved on a voice vote with only Rep. Janis Sontany, D-Nashville, chairman of the subcommittee, audibly shouting, "No!"
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0%2C1406%2CKNS_348_5492294%2C00.html

"Defeat" featured in Iranian newspaper...Iranian eyes are smiling...
US has lost war in Iraq: US Democrat
Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:12:57
Leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, has said the US has lost the Iraq war, and Bush's troop surge has failed.

"I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid stated...
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=6705§ionid=3510202
Yeah, this'll help...

we're bending over backwards for these people... preferential treatment for Muslims over Christians

Minn. college under fire over tax-funded Muslim foot baths
April 19, 2007…Columnist Katherine Kersten of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reports that the Minneapolis Community and Technical College "is making plans to use taxpayer funds to install facilities for ritual foot-washing" since many Muslim students have been using restroom sinks to wash their feet before prayer. However, Kersten says the same school that is going out of its way to accommodate Muslim students has in the past banned various religious practices related to Christmas, including Christmas music.

Bill Otis, director of legal affairs at the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) and a former special counsel to President George H.W. Bush, says if the school is going to respect the rituals of one religion, it should at least be tolerating Christmas music.

…The ACRU spokesman says he finds it "terribly inconsistent and wrong-headed" to permit Muslims to use the school facilities for their religious rituals while at the same time prohibiting Christians to use those same facilities for such things as prayer.

"If we're going to have one, let's have the other; if we can't both, then have neither," he states. "But it's wrong to have one and not the other."
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/04/minn_college_under_fire_over_t.php

One-Third of Religious Visas Fraudulent
4/21/2007
Homeland Security Department officials have discovered widespread fraud in a religious worker visa program that allows thousands of foreigners a year to enter the U.S. and remain here.

Last year, the officials found that 33 percent of the visas that investigators examined were granted based on fraudulent information, USA Today reports.

"We found that the program had been compromised and the fraud rate was excessively high," Emilio Gonzalez, head of Citizen and Immigration Services at Homeland Security, told USA Today.

The visa program was established in 1990 to allow churches, synagogues and mosques to hire qualified foreigners to fill open jobs. Applicants for a religious visa must have a sponsor in the U.S.

Now Homeland Security plans to implement new regulations in an effort to prevent radical groups from using the visa program to get terrorists into the U.S...
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/4/20/150945.shtml

Turkish media report torture of Christian murder victims
April 20, 2007
Three Christian murder victims were brutally tortured for hours before their death, Turkish media reports reveal.

The Islamic zealots who attacked a Christian publishing house in the city of Malatya on April 18 prolonged the suffering of their victims by stabbing them repeatedly with dull knives, the media report. A Sabah newspaper story notes that one victim, the German missionary Tilman Geske, suffered 156 knife wounds...

The leading Islamic figure in Turkey-- who met with Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) during his visit there last November-- condemned the killings. "Murder cannot be justified by religion," said Grand Mufti Ali Bardakoglu. "Such heinous murders are a most grave sin. This is a betrayal of Islam." (Actually not according to the Koran...)
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=50641

Accuracy of study on abstinence-only programs questionedhttp://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/04/accuracy_of_study_on_abstinenc.php

Police 'disappointed' campus killer's message broadcastApril 19,2007Police Thursday lamented the fact that a university killer's hate-filled video manifesto was aired by US media. "I was disappointed in the editorial decision to broadcast these disturbing images," said Virginia police superintendent Steve Flaherty, noting that until recently, only law enforcement professionals would have seen such footage…

...After first informing the police about package, NBC later aired it ensuring Cho's disturbing diatribe was immediately shown on evening news broadcasts across the country...http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070419141759.npldayrd&show_article=1

Grandad's anger at uni murderer
20/04/2007
…Kim Hyang-Sik, 82, said he had a doom-laden dream of Cho's parents the night of his murderous rampage - and woke to hear the news of the massacre and his grandson's death...

...repeatedly referred to the killer as "son of a bitch" or "a***hole" and said his mother Kim Hyang-Yim had problems with him from infancy...

...ang-Sun revealed the eight-year-old was diagnosed as autistic soon after his family emigrated to the US.

She said: "He was very quiet and only followed his mother and father around and when others called his name he just answered yes or no but never showed any feelings or motions.

"We started to worry that he was autistic - that was the big concern of his mother. He was even a loner as a child.

"Soon after they got to America his mother was so worried about his inability to talk she took him to hospital and he was diagnosed as autistic."

Yang-Sun spoke at her tiny one roomed shack inside a vinyl farm shelter in the Gohyang area of South Korea's capital Seoul...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_headline%3Dwe-are-glad-he-is-dead-by-cho-s-family--&method%3Dfull&objectid%3D18931479&siteid%3D89520-name_page.html

Copycat: Killer Re-Enacted Violent Film
April 19, 2007
Police investigating the Virginia Tech killings are looking at whether Cho Seung-Hui was copying parts of a violent film when he murdered 32 people. Officers believe he repeatedly watched Oldboy as part of his preparation for the killing spree.

The film, which won the Grand Prix award at the 2004 Cannes film festival, has been described as "an ultra-violent movie of obsession and revenge"...

...The video, which Cho posted to an American TV network while carrying out his murderous rampage, appears to include photographs of Cho re-enacting scenes from the film.

He is shown holding a gun to his head and wielding a hammer, images that appear in the movie...

...Cho's video diary, along with his collection of movies, writings and that fact that he bought a gun last month reveal that, rather than the killing spree being a spontaneous event, he had planned the massacre in advance.http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1261563,00.html

Scientist: Warming not caused by humans
April 19, 2007MADISON - Roy Spencer is speaking up about his belief that Earth is not headed toward a global warming disaster.
Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and former NASA scientist, said he knows he's in the minority with his opinions, but he doesn't believe manmade influences are causing catastrophic climate changes...

...Developing new energy technology is the only way to know for sure, he said, because he believes the existing climate models are too sensitive.

He said everything about the climate is tied to precipitation systems. But the climate models don't consider precipitation efficiency. However, he said the little evidence that exists shows precipitation systems act as a natural thermostat to reduce warming.

"The air you're breathing right now was, in the last few days, part of a precipitation system," he said.

Spencer said the fears about global warming have people wondering whether something should be done now to stop it.

"That's the precautionary principle, and it makes no sense because we don't live our lives that way," Spencer said. "Everything in life has risks and benefits; we could die from eating food."

Energy is needed by humanity, Spencer said while poking fun at Al Gore and other environmentalists who talk about conservation.

"Most of us are already doing what we can to conserve, but it won't have any impact on global warming," Spencer said.

Two weeks ago, he testified in a congressional hearing on global warming. Next month, he'll make presentations at the White House and to top evangelical leaders on his research.

"It's a busy field and keeps me awake," Spencer said. http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1176974192195090.xml&coll=1

Mexican archeologists discover evidence of child sacrificehttp://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2007/04/17/4055151-ap.html

Europe Shariatized: Wife-Beating Legitimized by German Court
March 26, 2007
The husband routinely beat his 26-year-old German-born wife, mother of their two young children, and threatened to kill her when the court ordered him to move out of their apartment in Hamburg. The police were called repeatedly to intervene. The wife wanted a quick divorce—without waiting a year after separation, as mandated by German law—arguing that that the abuse and death threats she suffered easily fulfilled the “hardship” criteria required for an accelerated decree absolute. The judge—a woman by the name of Christa Datz-Winter—refused, however, arguing that the Kuran allows the husband to beat his wife and that the couple’s Moroccan origin must be taken into account in the case. ..
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/newsviews.cgi/Islam/Europe_Shariatized_.html?seemore=y

The Virginia Tech shooter’s problem with America
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JerryBowyer/2007/04/19/the_virginia_tech_shooter%e2%80%99s_problem_with_americ a

False Lessons from an Atrocity
By Steve Chapman
Thursday, April 19, 2007

the first error is taking a freakishly horrible event as a basis for anything except mourning. The carnage at Virginia Tech was as bad as gun crimes get, but it was also as rare as they get...

...Nationally, your chance of being a murder victim has plunged by 44 percent since 1991. University students, as a rule, have even less cause for worry. All the colleges in the country have some 17 million students, but in an average year, they suffer fewer than 20 on-campus homicides...

...In the aftermath of the killing spree in Blacksburg, the Violence Policy Center rushed to ascribe it to "the easy access to increasingly lethal firearms that make most killings possible." But when auto fatalities occur, we don't take them as evidence of the need to cut down on the number of people allowed to drive, or on the horsepower of cars...

...These weapons are not getting more lethal but less -- because an increasing proportion are handguns, which are typically not as powerful as rifles and shotguns. In this case, the shooter used one of the least deadly firearms in existence, a .22-caliber pistol...Cho Seung-Hui's other pistol was a 9mm, an established weapon that is far from being the most powerful handgun around. "Increasingly lethal firearms" had nothing to do with this crime.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2007/04/19/false_lessons_from_an_atrocity

You can reach out to persecuted Christians
Program allows letters of encouragement to those in prison
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55297

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

19 April 2007

Tyrannosaurus rex: a big chicken?
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/04/13/t-rex-big-chicken

Las Vegas Stardust Demolition
That is one extravagant demolition,
http://www.zanyvideos.com/videos/las_vegas_stardust_demolition

Cremation causes Gorebal Warming
4/18/2007
An Australian scientist called Wednesday for an end to the age-old tradition of cremation, saying the practice contributed to gorebal warming.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070418/lf_afp/lifestylewarmingdeath_070418143046

Average Canadian family spending more money on taxes than on food, clothing and housing combined
[And they have horrible health care and come to the US for treatment & surgery]
April 16, 2007
Average Canadian family spending more money on taxes than on food, clothing and housing combined

VANCOUVER, April 16 /CNW/ - The average Canadian family spends more money on taxes than on necessities of life such as food, clothing, and housing, according to a study from The Fraser Institute, an independent research organization with offices across Canada.

The Canadian Consumer Tax Index, 2007, shows that even though the income of the average Canadian family has increased significantly since 1961, their total tax bill has increased at a much higher rate…

"The tax burden we face is made up of much more than just income tax. When you add up all the taxes we have to pay to all levels of government, the average Canadian family is paying more of its income to governments in the form of taxes than they spend feeding, clothing and housing themselves," said Niels Veldhuis, the study's co-author and Director of the Centre for Tax Studies with the Fraser Institute…

... Since 1961, the total tax bill for the average Canadian family has increased 1,590 per cent. By comparison, the cost of housing has increased 1,019 per cent, the cost of food 487 per cent and the cost of clothing has increased 447 per cent since 1961…
Complete article at:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2007/16/c5234.html

Va. Tech gunman sent material to NBC
4/18/2007
(The press has got to stop broadcasting and printing this stuff because these sick people are media hounds and crave the attention. If the press didn’t give these evil people a platform the nuts wouldn’t have any incentive to do what they do. We print their sick letters and broadcast their videos. That is exactly what they want. We have got to stop enabling these people!)

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC headquarters in New York containing photos of him brandishing guns and video of him delivering an angry, profanity-laced tirade about rich kids and hedonism.
(how did he have time for that?)

...NBC said the package contained an 1,800-word diatribe and 29 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera. Much of the rant is incoherent and filled with obscenities. He rails against Christianity and the rich...

...The package, which arrived at NBC two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, bore a Postal Service stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire.

That would explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: Where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom building...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

There seems to be a link to Islam with this psycho. First of all, he stated his hatred of Christianity. Second, the word “Ismail” on his sleeve....a reporter last night stated that in the year 1510, the ruler of Persia, now Iran, was named Ismail and he introduced
the Shiite version of Islam to Persia at that time.

Ismail Ax: The Shooter Was Another 'Son of Sacrifice'
4/18/07
First it was Johnny Muhammad, now it was Cho Sueng Hui aka Ismail Ax. Precisely how many mass shooters have to turn out to have adopted Muslim names before we get it? Islam has become the tribe of choice of those who hate American society. I'm not talking about people who grew up as Muslims, confident and secure in their faith, good fathers, sons and neighbors. I'm talking about the angry, malignant, narcissist loners who want to reject their community utterly, to throw off their 'slave name' and represent the downtrodden of the earth by shooting their friends and neighbors.

This morning I read that the Virginia Tech shooter died with the name Ismail Ax written in red ink on his arm. The mainstream press doesn't seem to have a clue as to what this might mean. To quote Indiana Jones, "Didn't any of you guys go to Sunday School?"

The story starts with a man named Abraham. He is the father of the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians. He was born in Iraq, the son of a wealthy idol manufacturer. He came to believe that there was only one true God and, according to tradition, took up his ax and destroyed his father's idols.

Eventually he left Iraq and moved to what is now known as Israel. He had a son with his concubine whom she named Ishmael. The Muslim world prefers the Arabic spelling of the name: Ismail. Eventually Abraham had a son by his rightful wife and named the son Isaac. Ishmael and his mother were disinherited and sent out into what is now Saudi Arabia. Isaac became the heir...

...The Jews are the descendants of Isaac, the Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael.

In the 7th Century, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, re-wrote the story, claiming that Ismail was the true faithful descendant of Abraham and that it was he, not Isaac, who God told Abraham to sacrifice. Ismail was the one saved. For Muslims, Ismail (not Isaac) was the true 'Son of Sacrifice.' In the original version of the story, Abraham used a knife, in some of the later Muslim versions, he used an Ax.

Flash forward 1,400 years: a sullen, angry young man who rages against rich people and apparently against Christians, writes a play in which a mother and son try to kill his step-father, but in the end the boy (age about 13, the age many think Ismail was when he was exiled) is murdered by the step-father with 'a deadly blow'. Father issues? Yeah, I think so.

Cho Sueng-hui cum Ismail Ax hated the American society to which he had been brought 15 years earlier. His play McBeef (a poor pun from an English Lit major on Macbeth) is one endless screed against the corruption of American culture. A cheesy re-telling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, it involves a young man abused by his step-father, a former NFL football player. The son, throws epithets at his father calling him a 'Catholic priest'. And makes derisive comments about McDonalds. It seems that none of the foundational structures of Western Civilization, Christianity, capitalism, family, are spared his rage. In other words, he really meant what he said in his last words: "you (that is us, America) made me do this."
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=041807B

Va. gunman had 2 past stalking cases
4/18/2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman blamed for the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history had previously been accused of stalking two female students at Virginia Tech and had been taken to a mental health facility in 2005 after an acquaintance worried he might be suicidal, police said Wednesday.

Cho Seung-Hui had concerned one woman enough with his calls and e-mail in 2005 that police were called in, said Police Chief Wendell Flinchum.

He said the woman declined to press charges, and neither woman was among the victims of Monday's massacre on the Virginia Tech campus.

During the stalking second incident, also in late 2005, the department received a call from an acquaintance of Cho's who was concerned that he might be suicidal, and Cho was taken to a mental health facility, Flinchum said. About the same time, in fall 2005, Cho's professor informally shared some concerns about the young man's writing but no official report was filed, he said...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Students feared gunman for 18 months many skipped class because of him
04/18/2007
...The Virginia Tech gunman was taken to a mental health facility in 2005, it has been revealed...

...Cho Seung-Hui was evaluated by mental health professionals after female students complained to police about him and his parents became afraid he was suicidal....

...It emerged today that at one stage students were so scared of his behavior that only seven out of 70 turned up for class, forcing lecturers to give him one-to-one tuition....

...One teacher even suggested today he was given A grades because he was so "intimidating and staff wanted to keep him happy".
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23393119-details/article.do
More proof that the gov't can not protect you. You have to protect yourself.
Blame the ACLU not the NRA. I'm sure nothing was done because the perp was Asian and they were afraid of being sued. 32 kids possibly died due to political correctness.

Penn State Bans Jewish Student´s Anti-Terrorism Exhibit
Arutz Sheva/IMRA ^ 4-18-07
The ten-piece exhibit, by student Josh Stulman, was the result of years of preparation. It was called "Portraits of Terror" and focused on images of Palestinian terrorism, hate-propaganda cartoons printed in PA newspapers and photos of Jewish holy sites destroyed by Muslims.

Just three days before the exhibition was to take place, Stulman received an email from the School of Visual Arts saying that his exhibit on images of terrorism "did not promote cultural diversity" or "opportunities for democratic dialogue" and the display would be canceled, according to the PSU Collegian newspaper…

…The school's director, Charles Garoian, responded by saying the images "did not mesh with the university's educational mission." He said the decision was made after reviewing the university's policy on "Nondiscrimination and Harassment and Penn State's Zero Tolerance Policy for Hate."

…Stulman said that the director of the school has refused to meet with him. He told the Collegian that advertisements for the event were defaced, with at least one sporting a large swastika that someone had drawn on it.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/102371
I guess the I-slammers got wind of it. Of course if it had been anti-Christian that would be a whole different story.

Ethanol may cause more smog, deaths
Apr 18,
WASHINGTON - Switching from gasoline to ethanol — touted as a green alternative at the pump — may create dirtier air, causing slightly more smog-related deaths, a new study says.

Nearly 200 more people would die yearly from respiratory problems if all vehicles in the United States ran on a mostly ethanol fuel blend by 2020, the research concludes...

...Each year, about 4,700 people, according to the study's author, die from respiratory problems from ozone, the unseen component of smog along with small particles. Ethanol would raise ozone levels, particularly in certain regions of the country, including the Northeast and Los Angeles.

"It's not green in terms of air pollution," said study author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University civil and environmental engineering professor. "If you want to use ethanol, fine, but don't do it based on health grounds. It's no better than gasoline, apparently slightly worse."

His study, based on a computer model, is published in Wednesday's online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology and adds to the messy debate over ethanol...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_he_me/ethanol_health_risks

Why We Serve: Marine Says Iraqis Appreciate U.S. Military
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2007 – A Marine who served two tours in Iraq, and is now speaking in American communities about his experiences, said that today’s Iraqi Army soldiers prefer their current system to life in Saddam Hussein’s military.

“It wasn’t the same structure that we have,” Marine 1st Lt. Matthew H. Hilton, 28, said of the old Iraqi military. Hilton served as the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance company advisor to the 7th Iraqi Army Division, among other duties, during his tours in Iraq.

In the old Iraqi army, soldiers, NCOs and officers were treated as servants and were often forced to perform degrading tasks for superiors, Hilton noted. It’s therefore understandable, he said, that today’s Iraqi troops favor the American military’s more democratic system...

...In Iraq, Hilton taught basic combat patrol techniques and other military skills to Iraqi army officers, noncommissioned officers, and junior enlisted soldiers assigned to the Iraqi army’s 7th Division. Many Iraqi servicemembers had prior experience in Saddam’s military, he noted, and thereby learned rapidly.

The Iraqis quickly warmed to the U.S. military’s egalitarian system, Hilton said, where mutual respect of all servicemembers regardless of rank is employed up and down the chain of command...

...The Marine lieutenant performed other duties during his 2004-2005 and 2006 tours in Iraq. He conducted cordon-and-knock and combat patrols alongside Iraqi troops to find weapons caches from Ramadi to al Qaim along the Euphrates River Valley and also trained up a platoon of Iraqi military police...
more at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32841

Are the Rich Really Getting Richer?
CATO Daily Dispatch ^ 4/18/2007 Alan Reynolds, et al
"The number of U.S. households with a net worth of more than $5 million, excluding their primary residence, surged 23 percent to surpass one million for the first time in 2006, according to a survey released on Tuesday," Reuters reports. "The survey by Chicago-based Spectrem Group found that the number of U.S. households with more than $5 million rose from 930,000 in 2005. In 1996, there were only 250,000 U.S. households in the 'ultra-rich' category, Spectrem said. ... [T]he surge in household growth is underpinned by economic growth in recent years, which has fueled both stock market gains and also the market for private companies. [The study] also ascribed gains to rising real estate valuations and favorable tax policies."

In the policy analysis "Has U.S. Income Inequality Really Increased?" Cato senior fellow Alan Reynolds writes: "There are frequent complaints that U.S. income inequality has increased in recent decades. Estimates of rising inequality that are widely cited in the media are often based on federal income tax return data. Those data appear to show that the share of U.S. income going to the top 1 percent (those people with the highest incomes) has increased substantially since the 1970s. ... Studies based on tax return data provide highly misleading comparisons of changes to the U.S. income distribution because of dramatic changes in tax rules and tax reporting in recent decades. Aside from stock option windfalls during the late-1990s stock-market boom, there is little evidence of a significant or sustained increase in the inequality of U.S. incomes, wages, consumption, or wealth over the past 20 years."
more at http://www.cato.org/view_ddispatch.php?viewdate=20070418

PETER PAUL AND HILLARY
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1819478/posts

18 April 2007

Aspirin reduces overall cancer and mortality rates
Apr 17
The regular use of aspirin, but not other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), is associated with a reduced incidence of cancer and cancer-related death, particularly among former smokers and those who never smoked…

The findings were reported Monday at the 100th annual gathering of the American Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles by Dr. Aditya Bardia of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota.

"The take-home message is that aspirin might have anti-cancer effects, but can also have adverse effects such as gastric bleeding. One should speak to his or her doctor about the risks and benefits of aspirin use," Bardia told Reuters Health...

...The inverse association between aspirin use and the risk of cancer and cancer-related death was strongest among former smokers and those who never smoked compared with current smokers, although this fell short of statistical significance.

Aspirin use also appeared to protect patients against coronary heart disease and the overall mortality rate...

This study provides "provocative evidence that regular aspirin use may play a role in preventing the most common chronic diseases in western countries, namely cancer and heart disease," Bardia said in a statement.
Complete article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070417/hl_nm/aspirin_cancer_dc

Warning is sounded on ethanol use
LATimes April 18, 2007

The fuel would create more ground-level ozone than gasoline if used heavily, a study finds. Critics disagree on the overall risk.

Ethanol, widely touted as a greenhouse-gas-cutting fuel, would have serious health effects if heavily used in cars, producing more ground-level ozone than gasoline, particularly in the Los Angeles Basin, according to a Stanford University study out today.

"Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution," said Mark Z. Jacobson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and author of the study in the online edition of Environmental Science and Technology. "But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage."

Ozone is a key ingredient in smog, and when inhaled even at low levels it can harm lungs, aggravate asthma and impair immune systems.

The health effects from ethanol use are the same whether it is made from corn or other plant products, Jacobson found.

The study determined that a 9% increase in ozone-related deaths would occur in Greater Los Angeles, and a 4% increase nationally, by 2020 if a form of ethanol called E85, were used instead of gasoline. In the Southeast, by contrast, mortality rates would decrease slightly.

The type of fuel used in the study — 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline — emits less greenhouse gases than other types, some researchers say.

"Today, there is a lot of investment in ethanol," Jacobson said. "The question is, if we're not getting any health benefits, then why continue to promote ethanol?"
more at
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ethanol18apr18,0,7852828.story?coll=la-home-headlines

'Jail grandma' hate speech debate begins
April 17, 2007
Debate is to begin today in a congressional subcommittee on a federal "hate speech" proposal similar to a state law that already has been used to send grandmothers to jail for their "crime" of sharing the Gospel of Jesus on a Philadelphia public sidewalk......

The proposal, on its face, purports to create bans on "hate crimes," but Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition said it more accurately is "an attempt by the ultra liberals and the homosexuals to force Americans to accept homosexuality and gender disturbance as equal to God's Created Order of heterosexuality."

..."This bill says that hordes of homosexuals are being forced to flee their home states because they are routinely denied access to goods, services and employment," he said. "This explains the mystery of the crowded highways and airports in San Francisco and New York.

… The reasons for the bill are completely unsupported."He said states already have the resources to deal with crimes of bodily harm or assault, and the plan is simply not needed. Worse yet, he said, it creates a crime of "thought."

..."The 'Hate Crimes' bill is better named 'Hate Grandma' or "hate Free Speech' bill as it poses a serious threat to the freedom of speech for every American," Folger said. "We must stop it before they send your grandma, your pastor, or you to jail for sharing your faith or speaking the truth about an agenda that seeks to silence us."

The television ad campaign by Faith2Action will feature Philadelphia grandmothers who already were thrown in jail in Pennsylvania under that state's "hate crimes" law – and faced the possibility of 47 years in jail – for testifying in public about their Christian faith.

see ad at http://www.stophatecrimesnow.com/?host_id=WND

That ads can be viewed at www.StopHateCrimesNow.com ...

...in Canada pastors are fearful of reading biblical injunctions against homosexuality, and in Australia where two pastors were convicted of "vilifying" Islam...

..in Canada and France both, legislators have been fined for publicly criticizing homosexuality.

....a Swedish hate crimes law was used to put Pastor Ake Green, who preached that homosexuality is a sin, in jail for a month..

..a British couple told how they were denied the chance to adopt because it was determined that their Christian faith might 'prejudice' them against a homosexual child put in their care...

...in the United States, Catholic Charities of Boston halted all adoption operations in the state after being told under Massachusetts' pro-'gay' nondiscrimination law, only agencies that placed children in homosexual-led households would get licensed by the state...http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55240

VA Tech convocation told of Allah, Buddha and Dalai Lama, but not Jesus
April 17, 2007
Speakers at the Virginia Tech convocation yesterday called on Allah and Buddha in their efforts to minister to the survivors, family and friends of victims of the shooting massacre at the school – but Jesus wasn't mentioned by name... [a] WND reader cited the speakers, in order:

* "1st Speaker: A Muslim cleric invoking the name of Allah and quoting the Quran."

* "2nd Speaker: A Buddhist Community Leader preaching that mankind is basically 'good.'"

* "3rd Speaker: A Female speaker from the Jewish Community quoting Ecclesiastes: 'There is a time for everything.'"

* "4th Speaker: A Liberal Lutheran Minister talking about 'healing,' etc. and how everyone needs to come together (blah, blah, blah…)."

"BUT NOT ONE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN PASTOR/PREACHER. NO INVOCATION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST JESUS," the reader said...

...t was up to the president to deliver references to Christianity.

"People who have never met you are praying for you," Bush said. "They're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and the guidance of a loving God."

Most of the other official statements of condolence released also ignored the savior of the Christian faith...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55252

Prof warned officials about Cho Seung-Hui
April 17, 2007
A professor warned authorities about Virginia Tech mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui after the student turned in violent creative writing pieces and exhibited troubling behavior, but she was told intervention would require overcoming too many legal hurdles...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55255

State quashed bill allowing handguns on campuses and at VA Tech VA Tech College spokesman celebrated the 2006 defeat because it would help make campus safe
April 16, 2007
More than one year before today's unprecedented shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the state's General Assembly quashed a bill that would have given qualified college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus.

At the time, Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said he was happy to hear of the bill's defeat, according to the Roanoke Times.

"I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus," the Virginia Tech spokesman said......

Backers of the bill wanted to prohibit public universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."

...While advocates of gun control often believe they are improving safety, they are depriving law-abiding citizens from defending themselves in dangerous situations, he contended."Had I been on campus today, and otherwise been entitled to carry firearms for protection and been deprived of that, I don't think words can describe how I would have felt, knowing I could have stopped something like this," Gilbert said...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55226

WARNING CAME TOO LATE TO SAVE LIVES
April 17, 2007
A single question stands out from the massacre at Virginia Tech: Would more students be alive if the university in Blacksburg, Va., had not allowed them to go to class after a shooting had occurred in a campus dorm?

The nation's deadliest campus shooting rampage began at 7:15 a.m. in West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory, where police found two people fatally shot. But the first e-mail message to students from the Virginia Tech administration did not go out until more than two hours later, at 9:26 a.m., stating that a shooting had occurred but with no mention of staying indoors or staying off-campus or canceling classes.

Sometime after 9:30 a.m., a second round of shooting began in Norris Hall, an engineering building on the other end of the sprawling 2,600-acre campus. Police said the gunman killed 30 people at Norris and wounded 15 before killing himself...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/17/MNGFCP9UL21.DTL

Va. Tech gunman writings raised concerns
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted, violence-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note in his dorm room raging against women and rich kids. A chilling picture emerged Tuesday of Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old senior majoring in English — a day after the bloodbath that left 33 people dead...

"When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of," former classmate Ian McFarlane, now an AOL employee, wrote in a blog posted on an AOL Web site. He said he and other students "were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."

"We always joked we were just waiting for him to do something, waiting to hear about something he did," said another classmate, Stephanie Derry...

...Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune also said Cho had recently set a fire in a dorm room and had stalked some women...

...Some said that on the first day of a British literature class last year, the 30 or so students went around and introduced themselves. When it was Cho's turn, he didn't speak.

On the sign-in sheet where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. "Is your name, `Question mark?'" classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little response...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting
Ever notice how these things always seem to happen in “gun free zones”? More gun laws will do nothing to stop evil like this.
Also, how could someone stay in college with an attitude like this? How could you pass with nonparticipation? Oh, yeah, "Pay your fee, get your B."

Rush made a good point today. He noted how after there is a mass-shooting like at Va Tech or Columbine everyone rushes to have prayer services. We turn to God after the fact. Even the politicians and press get into the act and separation of church and state take a back seat to the liberals normal fear of God. As Rush points out maybe we should let God into the classroom before there is a massacre, not after. Maybe some of these people who go off the deep end wouldn't feel so hopeless or pent up with anger...

Could We Blame Lack of Religion?
April 17, 2007
[Rush Limbaugh] “...I want to throw a little thought out there, folks. We're all talking now about -- well, some people are -- we need more gun control laws. We need make sure that people can't get guns and so forth. There's going to be a convocation at two o'clock, 46 minutes from now, and there will be prayers, and there have been prayers ever since the first word of this was reported yesterday morning and all through the day...perhaps we could have done a little of that prior to the incident as well. The [Liberal Media] want to go back and take a look at the gun control laws and say, "Well, that's where the problem exists."

...Maybe there needs to be more religion and prayer at our universities, folks. Maybe there needs to be a sense on college campuses that there's something bigger than the individual. Maybe there's something larger than the professor. Maybe they're not too young to learn that there are many things in life larger than self, and maybe being able to take comfort in a relationship with that which is larger than self ( i.e., God) would have a calming effect on some of these people who go absolutely nuts and lose their sanity. But that's even arguable. But can you imagine the leftists hearing me say this now: More prayer, more religion at our university? "Separation of church and state!" would be the template there. "What are you trying to do? You're trying to force a religion on people!" No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no! You don't understand. You can't possibly because you're irreligious. But it's no different than going out and saying, "Hey, we need gun control," after the fact...”
more at
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041707/content/01125107.guest.html

Monday Morning Quarterbacking
David Bennett

What this tragedy at VA Tech illustrates is when the gov't takes away you right & ability to protect yourself the gov't is then responsible for protecting you. But it can't.

The police officers I know all tell me that with very few exceptions the only thing the police can do is show up after the fact and right up the police report...

If some of the instructors had been armed...
If some of the students had been armed (many of whom are in the National Guard and reserves and ex-military)...
If the school hadn't failed to notify the students for two hours after the first incident...
If the school hadn't failed to lock down the campus at the beginning...
If the school hadn't assumed the gunman had finished and fled the scene when he wasn't and hadn't...
The gov't should never be allowed to be the sole source of your God given right of self preservation.

The other thing that our society must change is the idea of being helpless victims. This gunman at VA Tech lined some of the people up and shot them. They stood there. If at the first people gang tackled this guy and beat the snot out of him only one or two, if any, would have died. We must take a lesson from the folks from Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 and stop these evil people before more damage is done. If you're going to die, go down fighting, like a man.

I know it's easy for me to say that after the fact and not being there. I pray that if I'm ever in a similar situation that I'll do the right thing and not spend my last moments cowering in fear...

When the police don't come
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55249

The grave danger of 'gun-free zones'
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55246

Why You Should Own a Gun
By Alan Caruba
CNSNews.com Commentary from the National Anxiety Center April 17, 2007
read the article at
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200704/COM20070417a.html

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

16 April 2007

Virtual Knee Surgery
http://www.edheads.org/activities/knee/

Virtual Hip Replacement
http://www.edheads.org/activities/hip/

Military Divorce Rate Same As In Peacetime
April 13, 2007
Military families are not breaking up at a rate any higher after four years of war than in peacetime a decade earlier, a Pentagon-sponsored research and development center reported. The Rand Corp. National Defense Research Institute found that divorce, separation and annulments across all branches of service was 3% in 2005, the same annual rate as in 1996 when servicemembers did not routinely face the battlefield deployments that are common today.

"We are not seeing what everyone thought we were going to see," said lead researcher Benjamin Karney. "The genuine stress isn't necessarily leading to elevations in divorce," he said.

Karney said the study showed that troops that had been deployed longer had a lower risk of divorce, an unexpected finding that he couldn't explain.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/12/ap3607897.html

Jesus Tomb Film Scholars Backtrack (Discovery's "Lost Tomb of Jesus")
The Jerusalem Post
4/11/07
Several prominent scholars who were interviewed in a bitterly contested documentary that suggests that Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript ancient Jerusalem burial cave have now revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth, a new study on the fallout from the popular documentary shows.

The dramatic clarifications, compiled by epigrapher Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem in a paper titled "Cracks in the Foundation: How the Lost Tomb of Jesus story is losing its scholarly support," come two months after the screening of The Lost Tomb of Christ that attracted widespread public interest, despite the concomitant scholarly ridicule.

The film, made by Oscar-winning director James Cameron and Emmy-winning Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, prompted major criticism from both a leading Israeli archeologist involved in the original dig at the site as well as Christian leaders, who were angered over the documentary's contradictions of main tenets of Christianity.

But now, even some of the scholars who were interviewed for and appeared in the film are questioning some of its basic claims.

The most startling change of opinion featured in the 16-page paper is that of University of Toronto statistician Professor Andrey Feuerverger, who stated those 600 to one odds in the film. Feuerverger now says that these referred to the probability of a cluster of such names appearing together….
More at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1176152766396&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Of course now that Easter is over this can come out and Discovery updates their web page...

New dog food promises 1-poop-a-week
13 Apr 2007
IT IS the invention which could virtually consign the poop scoop to the dustbin of history.

A firm in Holland claim to have invented a dog food which dramatically reduces the number of times the animals have to defecate...

...Jos van der Linden, and his partner Nanette Waldorp invented the revolutionary food and claim it reduces the amount of times a dog needs to defecate from up to three times a day to just once a week.

But yesterday, dog experts expressed their concerns about the food, which they said could prove extremely harmful to the animals' digestive system...
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=565122007

'Pagan morality' on way to becoming law
State aims to 'eliminate attitudes' that oppose homosexuality
April 11, 2007
A legislative plan to "eliminate attitudes" opposing homosexuality is moving forward in Oregon, even though opponents claim it threatens churches and establishes pagan morality as a benchmark for their operations...

...In the House Rules Committee, an amendment was offered that would have provided an exemption for Christian churches and Christian groups in the proposal to grant broad new powers to the homosexual community by designating them as members of a protected minority class.

However, the amendment was rejected in favor of a plan to continue to allow homosexuals to demand Christian churches hire them when there are job openings – among other issues.

"This is still an intrusion of the state into religious liberty, and makes [Christian organizations] subject to state control," David Crowe, of Restore America, told WND.

"It favors the homosexual community and puts the church in a defensive posture, having to defend itself and its beliefs, policies, doctrines and employment," he said...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55145

U.N. Disarmament Body Taps Iran as Vice Chairman
April 11, 2007
This week, the U.N. Disarmament Commission re-elected Iran as its vice-chair, reports the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security on its official web site.

A majority of U.N. member states decided to allow Iran to remain in this position despite the fact the U.N. Security Council declared Iran has violated the non-proliferation resolutions the Commission is charged to promote, laments the subcommittee.

At the same time, another state sponsor of terrorism, Syria, was selected to be the Commission’s rapporteur to record and document the Commission’s work..
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/4/11/220623.shtml?s=ic

Federal Deficit Down 14.8 Percent from Last Year
The federal budget deficit is running at a lower rate through the first six months of this budget year even though spending in March hit an all-time high.
http://newsmax.com/money/signup.cfm?goto=/money/archives/articles/2007/4/11/144006.cfm&PROMO_CODE=0&s=lh

More Trees, Less Global Warming, Right? -- Not Exactly
A 150-year simulation of worldwide deforestation finds that tropical forests are carbon sinks and boreal forests contribute to warming
Scientific American, April 10, 2007

A new study, however, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that forests' other climatic effects can cancel out their carbon cleaning advantage in some parts of the world. Using a three-dimensional climate model, the research team mimicked full global deforestation and also studied the effects of clear-cutting in different regions of latitude, such as the tropics and boreal zones. Apparently, these natural carbon sinks only do their job effectively in tropical regions; in other areas, they have either no impact or actually contribute to warming the planet. In fact, according to this model, by the year 2100, if all the forests were cut and left to rot, the annual global mean temperature would decrease by more than 0.5 degree Fahrenheit....
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanId=sa013&articleID=DCA231BA-E7F2-99DF-3105874539B83ECB&modsrc=most_popular

Music lyrics take spotlight following Imus controversy
April 13, 2007
ORANGEBURG, SC - If people found radio host Don Imus' comments about the Rutger's women's basketball team offensive, why are people at South Carolina State University lining up to hear similar words from rap artists?

In one song from a performer at Friday's concert, the n-word is used more than 100 times...

...WIS asked students at on campus about the concert and the lyrics. One student, Kendra Johnson, says, "The radio host was out of line when he said it. Some rap artists may be out of line, but they don't mean no harm." (Apparently you ain’t got to speak good English fer college)

...Students tell us, "It's just music. It's all how you take it."
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6368690&nav=menu36_3

Consumers in dark over risks of new light bulbs
April 16, 2007
Brandy Bridges heard the claims of government officials, environmentalists and retailers like Wal-Mart all pushing the idea of replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving and money-saving compact fluorescent lamps.

So, last month, the Prospect, Maine, resident went out and bought two dozen CFLs and began installing them in her home. One broke. A month later, her daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic like the site of a hazardous materials accident, while Bridges works on a way to pay off a $2,000 estimate by a company specializing in environmentally sound cleanups of the mercury inside the bulb...

...Elizabeth Doermann of Vanderbilt, Tenn., had a similar experience. After her CFL bulb broke – because the cat knocked over a lamp – she didn't call Home Depot. Instead, she did what she had always done when old-fashioned incandescent bulbs had broken. She vacuumed up the mess.

Only then did she learn about the mercury hazard.

"If I had known it had mercury in it, I would have been a lot more careful," she told the Tennessean. "I wouldn't have vacuumed it up. That blew the mercury probably all through the house."

...Charmain Miles of Toronto, Canada, had another frightening experience with a CFL bulb.
Last month she smelled smoke on the second floor of her home, only to discover it was emanating from a new energy-efficient bulb.

"I was horrified," she told a local TV station. "I went through every place upstairs and took out every bulb."

The bulb had been placed in a track-lighting fixture. Though the bulb contained no warning about such fixtures, it turns out CFLs are not for use in track, recessed or dimmer fixtures...

...practically the whole world – fearing global warming – is getting ready to ban the incandescent light bulb. It started in Cuba, moved to Venezuela, then Australia, Canada and the European Union. Now individual states in the U.S., including California, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island, are all in the process of legislating an end to Edison's greatest invention. Even local towns and cities are getting into the act. ..
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55213

Politicians' Power Bills Spark Debate on Global Warming Integrity
April 16, 2007
As Sen. John Kerry promotes his new book on the dangers of global warming, he's been running up an average electric bill of $1,100 a month at his federal-style red-brick townhouse on Louisburg Square in the Beacon Hill area of Boston... (I think he has something like 5 homes so his usage is actually much higher)

...Other members of Congress who have made a point of speaking out about climate change -- either for or against taking drastic action -- have also run up sizeable power bills...

...By contrast, global warming skeptic Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) -- the ranking minority member of the House energy and commerce committee -- appears to be a relatively light electricity consumer.

Barton released his electric bill for February at a March 20 hearing -- he paid $79.47 in total for both his Texas Utilities bill in Ennis, Texas, home and his Dominion Electric bill for his Arlington, Va., apartment...
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200704/POL20070416a.html
And Kerry is the one who worked with Ed Kennedy to kill a wind farm because it might spoil their view...

Here’s a candidate the common man can relate to...
The Hair's Still Perfect
April 16, 2007
...John Edwards' campaign for president spent $400 on February 20, and another $400 on (2 weeks later) March 7, at a top Beverly Hills men's stylist, Torrenueva Hair Designs...
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0407/The_Hairs_Still_Perfect.html
Maybe he buys haircut credits

DNC stands by Christ-less Easter statement
April 16, 2007
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is defending an Easter statement it released that made no mention of Jesus Christ or His resurrection.

Some evangelicals are calling on DNC chairman Howard Dean to apologize for issuing a press release that described Easter Sunday as a "holiday [that] represents peace, redemption and renewal, a theme which brings hope to people of all faiths." They say Dean's politically correct definition of Easter is an affront to Christians... (Especially since all other faiths deny the the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ)

...Mississippi Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Arthur Eaves says "the failure of the DNC to put Jesus at the center of the Easter statement was a mistake." And Democrats, he adds, "need to stop allowing fringe groups to cow us into a fear of openly proclaiming what we believe and where our beliefs come from."

According to Eaves, "the DNC needs to recognize that for most Democrats there are no sweeter words than 'He is Risen!'" (Then quit letting the freaks run the party! That’s why good people like Zell Miller have left.)
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/04/dnc_stands_by_christless_easte.php

Radical Environmentalism Revealed: Ending Sovereignty and Private Property
04/16/2007
Scratch a radical environmentalist, find a radical, full stop. Case in point: Boston Globe columnist James Carroll. In his New thinking to save the earth [is that all?], Carroll calls for nothing less than the end of the United States as we know it, and a yours-is-mine socialism.

Carroll claims that "if the earth is to survive as a human habitat," the meaning of four subjects "must be transformed." Among the things Carroll wants to redefine are "nation" and "property." Ominous enough, but getting down into the details is even more chilling…

…Thanks go to Carroll for his candor. He confirms what so many have suspected: that radical environmentalism is little more than a cloak for socialism and not mere anti-Americanism but quite literally the abolition of the United States of America….
Read the entire article at http://newsbusters.org/node/12058

Fuzzy Climate Math
George Will April 12, 2007
In a campaign without peacetime precedent, the media-entertainment-environmental complex is warning about global warming. Never, other than during the two world wars, has there been such a concerted effort by opinion-forming institutions to indoctrinate Americans, 83 percent of whom now call global warming a " serious problem." Indoctrination is supposed to be a predicate for action commensurate with professions of seriousness.

For example, Democrats could demand that the president send the Kyoto Protocol to the Senate so they can embrace it. In 1997, the Senate voted 95 to 0 in opposition to any agreement that would, like the protocol, require significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in America and some other developed nations but that would involve no "specific scheduled commitments" for 129 "developing" countries, including the second-, fourth-, 10th-, 11th-, 13th- and 15th-largest economies (China, India, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Indonesia). Forty-two of the senators serving in 1997 are gone. Let's find out if the new senators disagree with the 1997 vote.

Do they also disagree with Bjorn Lomborg, author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist"? He says: Compliance with Kyoto would reduce global warming by an amount too small to measure. But the cost of compliance just to the United States would be higher than the cost of providing the entire world with clean drinking water and sanitation, which would prevent 2 million deaths (from diseases such as infant diarrhea) a year and prevent half a billion people from becoming seriously ill each year… more at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102109.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

UK: Don't punish bad pupils or they will feel left out, schools told
Schools should not “over discipline” persistently unruly pupils for fear of alienating them and should instead hand out praise five times more often than punishments, the Government has said...

New guidance on school discipline published … suggesting that rewards also be given to persistent miscreants who show an improvement in behaviour, however small. It cites research recommending a “rewards/sanctions ratio of at least 5:1”. Rewards might include “good news” postcards sent home, “special privileges” or “prizes”.

...It also advises teachers to take account of pupils’ race and culture when telling them off, suggesting that they go easy on those insubordinate youngsters for whom being “loud” or “overfamiliar” may be a cultural norm or “social style”. (so if they come from an Islamic country it's ok for a student to strike off the head of an infidel...)

Teachers should understand the importance of showing respect to children from racial or religious backgrounds for whom public humiliation is seen as particularly shameful...

...critics described the guidance as “soft”, stating that most teachers already knew how to use positive reinforcement techniques.

...David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, said that the new guidance could be resented by pupils if it implied that bad behaviour brought rewards. He said that if school children could see badly behaved pupils being praised “then the school’s policy would lose all credibility”.

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, said the move could encourage perverse behaviour. “Children and parents will be quick to pick up on false praise. That simply devalues the use of encouraging words. The key thing is that it has to be honest feedback. As a soft approach it won’t work because children and their parents will soon pick up that it’s false.

“If you reward the children who have been poorly behaved for behaving well you might actually be getting children who have been perfectly happy behaving well to behave badly in order to pick up the rewards.”

Robert Whelan, deputy director of the thinktank Civitas, said: “The idea that teachers have to take account of a child’s ethnicity when disciplining them is racist. It’s telling teachers they have to treat children differently according to their skin colour.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article1637532.ece

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