Too funny, got it through a fortean list. IMHO, Church should rather be concerned with the current rapid islamization of Europe and the marxist-masonic leanings of its euro-hierarchy, before pondering on the baptism of ET, but then again, I'm just a non-churchgoer bigot...
A pocket-sized book published by the Catholic Truth Society in the UK addresses Catholic attitudes to extra-terrestrial life.
Independent Catholic News reports that with increasing numbers of people believing not only in the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, but even claiming encounters with aliens, it is not surprising that the Catholic Church is beginning to explore what effect the discovery of sentient ETs might have on Christian theology.
In: Intelligent Life in the Universe? Catholic belief and the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life, author Guido Sarduchi Guy Consolmagno SJ, asks:
⢠Would humans recognise intelligent life if we saw it?
⢠Could we communicate with it? Should we even try?
⢠Is Original Sin something that affects all intelligent beings?
⢠Is Jesus Christ's redemption valid for intelligent beings throughout the universe?
⢠or would other worlds have their own version of Jesus?
⢠Would the Church send missionaries to ET planets?
Guy Consolmagno SJ, a Jesuit religious brother and astronomer, divides his year between the Vatican's observatory in Arizona and its older observatory at the Pope's summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, in the hills outside of Rome.
Brother Guy has advanced degrees in planetary science from MIT and the University of Arizona. He spends his time observing comets and asteroids, and does experiments with the Vatican's vast collection of meteorites one of the largest in the world. He is one of a dozen Jesuit astronomers doing this work. The order been engaged in astronomy since before Galileo.
#5
If they figure it out now, that'll destroy the role of a key character in "The Mote in God's Eye".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/12/2005 12:44 Comments ||
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#6
Chuck, I'm not sure what you mean by "plan of salvation." Do you mean that each intelligent race would go about attaining salvation in a different way, one we might not recognize, or do you mean that God would arrange for each race to attain salvation in a different way? (Bear with me -- I'm not very learned about theology.)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
10/12/2005 12:46 Comments ||
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#7
.com you got a copy of Larsons UFO with the 3 eyed fish magnet thingy attached?
#8
"Is Original Sin something that affects all intelligent beings?"
C. S. Lewis asked this question a slightly different way in an essay (I think in the collection "God in the Dock"). Lewis's question: Would we recognize an unfallen race if we met one?
Jonathan, try Lewis's book "Mere Christianity" for a coherent introduction to theology.
#11
Lol. Re: dawgs - so true. I found out, looking for the one you described, that I needed to reorg a bit. Discovered I have about 75 Larsons, lol. Not the best quality (sigh) but it's the thought that counts, right?
#12
I recommend "A Case of Conscience," by James Blish.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/12/2005 16:09 Comments ||
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#13
Jonathan, technicly God's plan for us, as documented in the Bible, is His plan to redeem us and save us. Jesus was the fulfillment of that plan and all humans now have the ability to be saved. Humans require salvation because of our acts of free will in opposition to God since the beginning.
There is nothing in the whole scheme to suggest that other races need saving, or that their means of salvation would be the same as ours. Based on Catholic theology, another race could be saved and be as mild as the dodo birds or as fierce as a mother bear defending her young. In other words, totally non-violent, or fiercely defensive.
And, theology would tell us that it's not our problem. The plan we are familiar with does not admit other races. It is designed by the Great Designer solely for us. It would be presumptive of us to force this plan on the Martians or those green dancing girls.
#16
with all the anal-probing the aliens supposedly do, I think we Catholics don't need that, seeing as we've turned the corner on pedophile priests....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2005 20:04 Comments ||
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MANAMA â Bahrainâs parliament yesterday rejected a decision by the government to lift a ban on Israeli goods as part of a trade deal with the United States. The legislative body also adopted a law to reopen an office responsible for monitoring local markets against Israeli goods. The office was recently closed by the government after US pressures.
The parliamentâs decision still has to go to the countryâs upper house, the shoura council, and must be approved by the king before it goes into effect.
Last month, former foreign minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak announced Bahrain had officially ended its boycott of Israeli goods, a shocking decision to many Bahrainis who, like many ordinary Arabs, are angry at Israelâs occupation of Arab land and its treatment of Palestinians. âOur normalisation with Israel means if we buy their goods, they will use the returns to buy weapons to kill our Palestinian brothers,â lawmaker Isa Al Motawaâ said.
Newly appointed Foreign Minister Shaikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said on Monday that the decision to lift the ban did not mean the government planned to normalise relations with Israel.
Government officials said the parliamentâs proposal would probably not affect the free-trade agreement (FTA) which Bahrain signed last year with the United States, the first between Washington and a Gulf Arab country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2005 01:12 ||
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A Saudi court has sentenced two Pakistanis to prison and lashing in public for cultivating hashish. The Daily al-Madina said that the court sentenced one to five years in prison and 4,000 lashes, and the other to four years and 3,000 lashes. The two Pakistanis planted 270 seedlings of hashish without the knowledge of their Saudi employer.
Can't behave anywhere they go, can they?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
4,000 lashes! That is like making puree out of someone. ACLU suit coming? **cue in the crickets**
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/12/2005 0:29 Comments ||
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#2
Again this strange non-linear stuff. The wording leads me to believe it might have been ok to grow the mj if they told their boss (master). Is that the case?
Employees of currency exchange points in Moldova have been instructed not to talk or make eye contact with their customers after a string of mysterious robberies, Russiaâs NTV television reports. According to Moldovan police, a criminal has stolen about $30,000 from several exchange points in the space of a week. The initial investigation has shown that most probably the thief hypnotized the clerks as they talked to him and they voluntarily handed over all the cash they had at hand.
The search for the hypnotist continues. Police say that the prime suspect is a resident of the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. Moldova is a former Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/12/2005 09:38 ||
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#1
Da. Hypnotism. That's got to be it, Sergei.
Da, Sarge. When they cluck like chickens, it was dead giveaway...
Posted by: CSI: Moldova ||
10/12/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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#2
Are they sure that's not MORONICA!!!!!Inbetween the Bay of Rum and the Ican Sea??????
#3
The initial investigation has shown that most probably the thief hypnotized the clerks as they talked to him and they voluntarily handed over all the cash they had at hand.
How in the hell did these countries ever make it into the 21st Century??
Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten has been forced to hire security guard to protect employees from angry Muslims, after it printed a series of cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed
Death threats have forced daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten to hire security guards to protect its employees, after printing twelve cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.
The newspaper has been accused of deliberately provoking and insulting Muslims by publishing the cartoons. The newspaper urged cartoonists to send in drawings of the prophet, after an author complained that nobody dared to illustrate his book on Mohammed. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Mohammed.
Twelve illustrators heeded the newspaper's call, and sent in cartoons of the prophet, which were published in the newspaper earlier this month.
Muslim spokesmen demanded that Jyllands-Posten retracted the cartoons and apologised.
'We have taken a few necessary measures in the situation, as some people seem to have taken offence and are sending threats of different kinds,' the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Carsten Juste, told national broadcaster DR.
The same day as the newspaper published the cartoons, it received a threatening telephone call against 'one of the twelve illustrators', as the caller said. Shortly afterwards, police arrested a 17-year-old, who admitted to phoning in the threat.
Since then, journalists and editors alike have received threats by email and the telephone. The newspaper told its staff to remain alert, but then decided to hire security guards to protect its Copenhagen office.
'Up until now, we have only had receptionists in the lobby. But we don't feel that they should sit down there by themselves, so we posted a guard there as well,' Juste said.
Muslim organisations, like the Islamic Religious Community, have demanded an apology, but Juste rejected the idea. He said the cartoons had been a journalistic project to find out how many cartoonists refrained from drawing the prophet out of fear.
'We live in a democracy,' he said. 'That's why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn't set any barriers on that sort of expression. This doesn't mean that we wish to insult any Muslims.'
Juste's opinion was not shared by à rhus imam Raed Hlayhel, who gave an interview to the internet edition of Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera to protest the newspaper's cartoons.
Hlayhel told al-Jazeera's reporter that he considered the cartoons derisive of Islam, and described one of the drawings as showing Mohammed wearing a turban-like bomb, and another as brandishing a sabre, with two burka-clad women behind him.
Hlayhel said he did not understand how such illustrations could be printed with reference to freedom of expression, when Denmark did not tolerate the slightest sign of anti-Semitism.
Al-Jazeera concluded that the drawings seemed bizarre.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has led Germany since 1998, said for the first time on Wednesday he would not play a role in the next government, in an emotional farewell including broadsides at the United States and Britain. "I will not be a part of the next government -- definitely not be part of it," a tearful looking Schroeder told a rapt audience of union members in his home city of Hanover.
He quickly composed himself, hitting his stride in a passionate defense of a strong German state and lashing out at "Anglo-Saxon" economic policies favoured in Britain and the United States, which he said had "no chance" in Europe.
In an apparent reference to Hurricane Katrina, Schroeder castigated Washington for liberal, hands-off policies that left it exposed in times of crisis. The Bush administration was widely criticised for its response to the devastating storm.
"I do not want to name any catastrophes where you can see what happens if organised state action is absent. I could name countries, but the position I still hold forbids it, but everyone knows I mean America," he said to loud applause.
Schroeder was speaking two days after his Social Democrats (SPD) said he was ready to step down to allow conservative leader Angela Merkel to front a power-sharing government of their two parties.
Her conservatives narrowly beat Schroeder's SPD in a September 18 general election, but failed to win enough seats to build a majority with their preferred coalition partners.
Schroeder, who has been urged by some members of his party to stay on as vice-chancellor in a new government, hinted on Tuesday evening he would not stay on but had not ruled it out publicly before.
CLASHES OVER IRAQ
Schroeder clashed with Britain and Washington in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion and has been at odds with British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the direction of European economic policy.
Blair has urged European Union countries to cut back state influence on the economy, running into fierce opposition from both Schroeder and his ally, French President Jacques Chirac.
Schroeder stressed the importance of the Franco-German link in his speech, saying it was crucial for the defense of Europe's social model.
Merkel, who advocated far-reaching reforms of the German labor market and tax system during the election campaign, has vowed to take a more even-handed approach with France and is seen to be closer to Blair.
But as she will rule in a coalition with Schroeder's party, her plans are expected to be watered down.
The SPD has won many of the important cabinet positions in the next government, including the foreign and finance ministries. The party plans to decide who will fill those posts on Thursday, SPD sources told Reuters.
Peer Steinbrueck, former state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, is a "clear favorite" to take the key role of Finance Minister, sources said.
The SPD and the conservatives are due to start formal coalition talks from next Monday. Schroeder will participate in those negotiations, which are due to conclude by November 12.
His withdrawal, while not unexpected, is nevertheless a blow to the SPD, which is likely to struggle to fill the void their most charismatic figure leaves behind him.
Schroeder has not given any signs of what he could do next, although companies could be keen to make use of his connections and deal-making skills, which he used as chancellor to secure lucrative deals for German industry.
#7
TGA, I hope you're part of the new management team -- they could use some common sense over there.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/12/2005 17:03 Comments ||
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#8
Many years ago there was a young boy whose name was Billy Sheffelbein. He had a younger sister who had learned to play a violin, after a fashion.
One day his parents threw a big party for their friends. Billy, used to being the center of attention, was mortified when his parents asked his sister to play her violin for the grown-ups. She did, and all the adults lavished her with praise. This was more than little Billy could bear.
Turning bright red, crying and screaming, he ran through the house smashing things, as adults tried to catch him, then crawled under the kitchen table and screamed loud enough for all to hear, "QUIT THAT!, GODDAMN YOU!" over and over again, until they dragged him out and poured ice water on his head, "For fear that he would give himself a stroke." (Though few thought it had any practical medical value.)
But since that time, at least in my family, the name of Billy Sheffelbein has survived through 75 or more years to describe such a miserable temper tantrum.
#10
Good Job the media hasn't cottoned onto the fact that the "warmongers" just keep winning elections and the commited neo-slavists (socialist) keep losing.
The European Commission is to announce a major "listening exercise" in a bid to curry favour with citizens who have become disillusioned with the EU. The commissionâs "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate", obtained by the EUobserver, will be presented on Thursday (13 October) by communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom.
The plan is part of the commissionâs contribution to the "period of reflection" called by EU leaders in June, following the French and Dutch rejections of the EU constitution. But key parts of the proposal put the ball firmly in the member statesâ court, by urging governments to start a series of national debates on the political role of the EU.
It calls on the 25 national governments to "take the necessary steps to structure a national debate as soon as possible" and agree on a "feedback process". The commission stresses that Plan D should not be seen "as a rescue operation for the constitution", but it does suggest the debates should focus on the economy, the EU's competencies and the EU's role in the world. Opening up its own polices for questioning, the commission says proper feedback from the debates should ensure that there will be "a direct impact on the policy agenda of the European Union."
In its plan, the commission also commits itself to a better communication with citizens... Why does this sound like they've elected Bill Clinton president?
#2
Typical top down Euro approach to the serfspeasants citizens. Here too many of us worry that we're sheeple. There the leaders depend on it. And the sheeple supply it. Until this changes, they Euros will get the government they deserve.
Typical top down Euro approach to the serfs peasants citizens. Here too many of us worry that we're sheeple. There the leaders depend on it. And the sheeple supply it. Until this changes, they Euros will get the government they deserve
It's your search query ... choose which search engine you want to patronize.
Posted by: too true ||
10/12/2005 13:37 ||
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#1
Google gave the first details yesterday of how it would carry out its commitment to devote a share of its lucrative public stock offering to charity and social causes.
Charity, for the needy, I can see. But I'd be curious to know what "social causes" they think is worthy of pouring money into.
#2
It's simple. They are going to be pouring money into the pockets of their 'friends' such as the Democrats, their little pet groups, etc. I rather doubt they'll be able to manage being as efficient as the US govt even, getting a whole 22 cents out of every dollar to the people supposed to get it.
It's too bad as a pubically traded company, the working papers of their yearly outside audit won't fall into the 'wrong' hands. It'd be interesting reading I'm sure.
#4
Right wing Neo? Nothing of the sort, nor are we pissed. We simply don't believe their money will actually help anyone, just like the War on Poverty didn't.
Just for future reference. I'm not a Neo-con, nor am I 'right-wing'. I belong to the Imperialist Warmonger Party. The 'right-wing' are no more than fuzzy, warm hearted liberals to us. Try to be more correct in the future.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again. But he does intend to run out for another triple bacon cheeburger with fries.
That's actually a fair indicator for a man running for high public office: when they quit working out on the treadmill and start blimping up, they're not running.
"I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again," said Gore, who lost the 2000 election to President Bush. Thank the Lord for small favors. Now, if he can only control himself and keep that promise to the American people.
However, Gore did not completely shut the door to political endeavors. The thought of all that free food is just too much for him.
"I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that," he said during a visit to Sweden. Al's just having too much fun with that money-making, prize winning news network...not to mention Tipper.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/12/2005 10:30 Comments ||
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#2
This is going to really upset all the Arianna Huffenpuffs. They've had an extreme case of the Vapors about the possibility of Howlin' Al running against Hillary. They think Hillary is too conservative.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/12/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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#3
I was really looking forward to the McCain/Hillary/Gore debate for the Democratic Ticket. Now that would be quality TV!
#6
All Socialists and Commies are indir "fiscal Conservatives" because they know there isn't enough $$$ in all Capitalism, Socialism, andor the world to support perennial Govt.-intensive welfarist-subsidist agendas. Right now both the Dems and Radical Islamists are weirdly and mysteriously intensifying their criticisms and threats of new violence against Dubya, America, andor Amer interests - the only thing Hillary and the Dems have is MSM-verified, alleged "Fascist"-caused or induced fractionalisms, anarchies, and new 9-11's, includ but not limited to direct attacks on Washington and Dubya. There is as yet no strong evidencias that Hillary will be satisfied/content remaining a mere le femme Congressperson instead of POTUS. I'LL BELIEVE IT ON GORE-HILLARY WHEN I SEE IT - thanx to the Blogosphere/verse, dedicated waffling dialectical policrats=politicos and apparatchiks can longer hide behind Super-PC to disguise their intentions or ambitions.
Natural disasters and environmental degradation may displace 50 million people by 2010 creating a new category of refugees, United Nations experts said Tuesday.
"There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change and other phenomena," said Janos Bogarti, director of the United Nations University's Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn, Germany.
"This new category of 'refugee' needs to find a place in international agreements," Bogardi said. "We need to better anticipate support requirements, similar to those of people fleeing other unviable situations."
So-called environmental refugees have yet to be included in international agreements that defend the rights of political and war refugees and grant them access to money, food, shelter and health care.
Hans van Ginkel, rector of the United Nations University, urged world leaders to prepare for future disasters and to define and incorporate the new breed of environmental refugees into the international framework.
Van Ginkel said political and war refugees are recognized by international treaties and that environmental refugees present a more complex problem. He added that such refugees need to be considered separately from economic migrants, who leave their native countries to seek a better life elsewhere.
The Bonn experts said environmental disasters include the rise of sea levels, the expansion of deserts and catastrophic weather-induced flooding, which this year alone has caused massive destruction and displaced millions of people worldwide.
Environmental migration is already an acute problem in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Expanding deserts have also displaced millions of people in the Middle East, China and North Africa, the Bonn experts said.
Governments usually provide temporary assistance to victims of natural disasters.
#2
"He added that such refugees need to be considered separately from economic migrants, who leave their native countries to seek a better life elsewhere."
#3
"The train whistle is too loud here--it must be environmental "sound pollution." Can the UN support me as a refugee to a nicer neighborhood?
No?
I'm Kofi's younger cousin, does that help?"
Posted by: James ||
10/12/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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#5
do ZimBobWeans qualify? Farmin B Hard may not want to stick around...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2005 19:36 Comments ||
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#6
This might not be such a bad thing if Bolton can get them to massage the details a bit. E.g., the thought of one-way trips for libs from the polluted wasteland of post-industrial America to nice clean farms in Zimbabwe strikes me as an excellent concept.
#7
Yep, time to form a UN Committee to study the problem. First order of business, locate a exotic locale (far away from refugees and environmental problems) with good restaurants and five star hotels to host the committee.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Tuesday criticised a US plan to cut US and European agriculture subsidies, advanced in the latest round of world trade talks, as containing "unrealistic demands".
"These declarations by our US partners must not in any way be conditioned by unrealistic demands on others, especially on the very sensitive issue of access to the agriculture market," Douste-Blazy told journalists in Paris.
The 148 nations in the WTO are edging towards a December treaty-drafting meeting in Hong Kong with crucial issues still unresolved after four years of foundering talks.
Agricultural subsidies have long been the target of critics, who say they enable producers in rich countries to offload goods cheaply, meaning unfair competition for poor farmers.
The United States and the EU have been pushing each other for concessions on agricultural trade and have been under pressure from developing countries to do more to open their markets.
On Monday, US trade chief Rob Portman and his European Union counterpart Peter Mandelson released new plans to cut support for their farmers.
They billed their porposals as a means of breaking a deadlock in the WTO's Doha Round talks, amid gloom over efforts to draft a multilateral accord cutting subsidies, customs duties and other barriers to world trade.
But both Japan and France immediately slammed the US proposal.
The US delegation at World Trade Organization talks Monday in Zurich put forward a proposal for cuts in agricultural subsidies that would slash 60 percent from the subsidies it pays its farmers -- but only if the European Union and Japan cut their own support by 83 percent.
Under the US plan, rich nations would end farm subsidies by 2023, after a phase-out starting in 2008.
"The United States has made announcements through the press yesterday (Monday) in the agriculture area. These announcements have to be accompanied by concrete reforms as the European Union has done," Douste-Blazy responded.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has put forward a rival proposal that would reduce the EU subsidy by 70 percent and reduce trade tariffs in the sector by up to 60 percent.
The variant proposed by Mandelson foresees a 70 percent reduction, plus a cut of up 60 percent in EU customs duties on farm goods, another bone of contention.
Douste-Blazy was also critical of European trade commissioner Mandelson, who he said should "abide" by a set of restrictions EU member states had placed on the European Commission before the latest talks.
France is especially interested in the developments at the negotiations because its farmers are among the leading beneficiaries of the European subsidies. It was instrumental in having the other EU countries impose limits on the European Commission in terms of how far it could negotiate on the subsidies.
Japan is also determined to protect its farmers from far-reaching liberalisation in the WTO talks.
Key developing nations in the World Trade Organisation said Tuesday they would unveil their own plan to jump-start talks.
The G20, which groups WTO heavyweights such as Brazil, China, India and South Africa, said Tuesday it was honing its counter-proposal for release in coming days.
"The numbers that the G20 will be putting on the table will imply real cuts" in payouts to farmers in rich countries, said Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister.
The G20 ministers said the US and EU proposals were a good first step but the US plan has also come in for criticism for focusing on permitted, rather than real, spending.
If rich countries continue generous subsidies for their farmers then parallel moves to remove tariff and other trade barriers mean little because prices would still be artifically low, said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.
"Market access with artificial prices is not the level playing field which is the bedrock of the WTO," Nath said.
"The proposal of the US doesn't lead to real cuts. It's a postdated cheque that will reduce water, not real budgetary outlays," Nath said. In WTO-speak, "water" refers to flexibility in permitted spending.
But US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns rejected that argument.
"These are very real cuts, they have a real impact in dollars," he told reporters.
Portman added that the US plan could be negotiable.
"The United States is willing to look at any proposal, consider any alternatives. We are willing to be entirely open minded to get the Doha round moving," Portman.
A failure in the negotiations this week could jeopardise the WTO's crucial gathering in Hong Kong in just over 60 days' time, which is meant to approve the outlines of a multilateral accord cutting subsidies, customs duties and other barriers to world trade.
The 148 trading nations in the WTO are desperate to avoid a replay of their 2003 bust-up at a summit in Cancun, Mexico, which mired their talks for more than a year.
#1
As much as I hate subsidies of any kind, I have to say that it's not bad policy to maintain self-sufficiency in agriculture, no matter what the cost. Outsourcing our call centers is one thing, outsourcing our FOOD PRODUCTION is quite another. Give ourselves another Achilles heel equivalent to our imported oil addiction.
#3
So we're calling their bluff? We make an offer they have to refuse and let them take the heat? Are we that smart?
Posted by: colin macdougall ||
10/12/2005 20:07 Comments ||
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#4
The major nations of the "EU" are having tremendous difficulties affording their domestic [mostly Socialist] systems, as evident this week by new that France can only afford two of its newest class of tekky Destroyers, while the specifs of the all-Euro/EU nuke CV, espec between Britain and France, is still being argued out, plus news from Birtain that it wasn't for 9-11 and the threat from Radical islam, Britain may had put up its TRIDENT sub nukes on the chopping block - read, depend on the US, the USN/USAF, and NATO for its national nuclear deterrence in the entirety.
A grass-roots group is mobilizing more than 100,000 Americans to urge Congress to pass a bill that would curb the ACLU by denying plaintiff attorneys the right to collect attorneys fees in lawsuits targeting religion in the public square.
The petition by the Center for Reclaiming America calls for âa stand against the ACLUâs radical agenda, which undermines our nationâs moral and religious heritage.â
The group says it already has 100,000 signatures and hopes to garner another 30,000.
The petition reads:
As a concerned citizen, I am taking a stand against the ACLUâs radical agenda, which undermines our nationâs moral and religious heritage. I join with citizens across the nation in protest of ACLU policies and actions to strip faith in God from the public square while promoting anti-family and pro-homosexual initiatives. I am calling on leaders in government and media to tell the truth about the ACLUâs radical agenda. Furthermore, I demand lawmakers take the necessary steps to eliminate the monetary motives behind the ACLUâs campaign to remove all mention of God from the public square. The ACLU does not represent me nor the vast majority of American citizens.
The legislation by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., would amend the Civil Rights Attorneyâs Fees Act of 1976 to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorneys fee in religious establishment cases but not in other civil rights filings.
Hostettler introduced a bill with identical language in 2003 to permit only injunctive relief in cases filed under the religious-establishment clause of the Constitution and to deny attorneys fees.
Although that bill failed in subcommittee, supporters are optimistic that the current offering will pass this session because of the more conservative makeup of the current Congress and escalating calls to curb an activist judiciary, particularly on religious matters.
With U.N. tanks and troops standing guard, Liberians waited in long lines Tuesday to vote for the country's first postwar president, who many hope will bring stability to one of Africa's most turbulent countries. Turnout appeared to be strong, with some voters lining up hours before the polls opened in churches, schools and long-shuttered banks. Many sat on benches or huddled under umbrellas to shelter them from the broiling tropical sun. Some 1.3 million Liberians had registered to vote at more than 3,000 polling stations.
"I'm voting for a better life, a better leader that can bring peace," said Willie Miller, a 58-year-old unemployed man. "Years ago, the country was good ... it was beautiful. Now we're bad off, barely able to feed ourselves." Twenty-two candidates are vying for the top job in Liberia, in tatters after 14 years of nearly continuous civil war that ended with a peace deal in 2003. A transitional government has arranged the vote and 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers are keeping the calm.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
That's still one of my favorite pictures. So much sociology, so little time ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2005 11:55 Comments ||
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Amazing to watch a continent size Coriolis effect
#3
Last I heard the vote was peaceful, which is something, anyway. We'll probably be hearing shortly about lots of people who couldn't vote because of impassable roads, though.
Posted by: James ||
10/12/2005 14:44 Comments ||
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#4
I for one welcome our child transvestite overlords.
MULTAN: Police booked an imam for creating panic by making hoax earthquake announcements on Monday night. The Lohari Gate station house officer (SHO) told reporters on Tuesday that he was patrolling in Bawa Safra neighbourhood when he heard Imam Hafiz Muhammad Ashraf making announcements on the loudspeaker of another earthquake likely to hit and that people should leave their homes. SHO Muhammad Iqbal said the announcements caused panic in the neighbourhood. The imam was booked under 16 MPO, but he managed to escape arrest, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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Someday I'll be able to park here.
Posted by: asshole of the week ||
10/12/2005 0:16 Comments ||
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The death toll in earthquake-hit areas is on the rise said Asif Iqbal Daudzai, the NWFP Information Minister, putting the confirmed deaths at 4,748. Briefing newsmen about rescue activities in earthquake-affected areas, the provincial minister said that so far 8,970 people were reported injured.
The majority of the victims belong to different parts of Mansehra, where 3,000 people were killed. The minister added that 3,005 out of 8,970 injured belong to the various villages and towns of the Mansehra district. The minister said that so far 800 casualties have been confirmed at Batagram, whereas 4,500 people were injured. In Shangla district, 289 people were killed and 327 were injured, in Abbottabad 515 were killed and 830 injured and in Kohistan, the number of casualties was 131 and 161 people were injured. He added that six people had been killed in Swat, three in Peshawar and Buner and one in Mardan. The number of injured in Swat was counted at 699 in Peshawar, 20 in Buner, 22 in Charsada, 25 in Mardan and two in Nowshehra.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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PM says 51,000 injured and about 2.5 million homeless
Domestic donations Rs 600m
Roads to Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Balakot open
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday that 23,000 people had died in Saturdayâs earthquake and that the death toll would increase after rescuers reached far-off areas. Speaking at a press conference, he said 51,000 people had been injured and about 2.5 million had been rendered homeless. However, according to unofficial reports the death toll might exceed 100,000. The prime minister said that more than $300 million had been pledged by foreign companies and international donor agencies while donations from domestic sources had reached Rs 600 million within the first 48 hours of the earthquake.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry has launched an investigation against officials of the Immigration and Passport Department for allegedly charging visa fees from foreign rescue workers. The foreign workers arrived in Pakistan to help the local agencies in rescue operations after a devastating earthquake hit the country on October 8. On the instructions of the Interior Ministry, the director general for immigration has summoned four officials of the department.
Syed Kaleem Imam, the FIA 's immigration cell deputy director, said the cell was authorised to give landing permit to foreign aid workers on the directives of the Interior Ministry, while the Immigration and Passport Department had issued visas according to standard government policies by charging $45. Four officials of the department have allegedly received visa fee from German aid workers. Imam said a control room had been set up at Islamabad International Airport to monitor relief activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
grazie, grazie... meter..way kool
Foreign rescuers charged visa fees
Just wait till the get the bill for breathing Muzzy air.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/12/2005 0:31 Comments ||
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#2
Ok the first paragraph was linear and made sense. The second is non-linear. Are they still authorised to collect visa fees or not. If I parse it one way the result is that they are noting the fees but still collecting them. Do I read that right?
Its a problem I see in many Pak articles. Can they write totally linear reports?
QUETTA: A 5.1-magnitude quake rattled Balochistan and a 4.0-magnitude quake was felt in Karachi on Tuesday, causing people to rush out of their homes in panic. No casualties were reported. Tremors were felt in the remote towns of Khuzdar and Surab at 8pm, said Met Office. In Karachi, the termors were recorded late at night.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned on Tuesday there was a risk of an epidemic of water-borne disease in Muzaffarabad, the quake-devastated capital of Azad Kashmir. The Paris-based aid groupâs chief in Islamabad, Isabelle Simpson, said water supplies could become contaminated because of quake damage, âwhich is why we worry that that could lead then to outbreaks of other water-borne diseasesâ. âEspecially as very few people have shelter up there, theyâre crowding into homes and camp-type situations, so thereâs a lot of potential for health risks,â she said.
Aid has begun to trickle into Muzaffarabad after the only roads linking it with the outside world were opened late Monday but the city where at least 11,000 are confirmed dead is still in chaos. MSF workers who reached the city were still assessing the situation but âMuzaffarabad itself they consider to be much more destroyed than anticipated,â Simpson said. âItâs early days yet but we have to be very aware that they need at least clean water for drinking purposes,â she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Muzaffarabad facing epidemic outbreak
Thank God we've invested billions of dollars into the UN, just for events like this.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/12/2005 0:34 Comments ||
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#2
Thank god the USA has billions of dollars, so it is ready for events like New Orleans...
It's easy to UN bash and US bash isn't it
Nice one George
There is only one way to solve problems, we will learn one day...
#3
Thank god the USA has billions of dollars, so it is ready for events like New Orleans...
It's easy to UN bash and US bash isn't it
Nice one George
There is only one way to solve problems, we will learn one day...
Thanks norm for adding to the billions of pretentiously crytic comments.
Posted by: Abby Normal ||
10/12/2005 12:26 Comments ||
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#4
Thank god the USA has billions of dollars, so it is ready for events like New Orleans...
You got it norm, 250 billion dollars is chicken feed - 2% of 1 yrs US gnp spread over 6 years. Nothing. Hell, we can also aford to liberate several more koran captive countries before 2010.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Saudi court has sentenced two Pakistanis to prison and lashing in public for cultivating hashish. The Daily al-Madina said that the court sentenced one to five years in prison and 4,000 lashes, and the other to four years and 3,000 lashes. The two Pakistanis planted 270 seedlings of hashish without the knowledge of their Saudi employer.
Employees of currency exchange points in Moldova have been instructed not to talk or make eye contact with their customers after a string of mysterious robberies, Russiaâs NTV television reports. According to Moldovan police, a criminal has stolen about $30,000 from several exchange points in the space of a week. The initial investigation has shown that most probably the thief hypnotized the clerks as they talked to him and they voluntarily handed over all the cash they had at hand. 
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has led Germany since 1998, said for the first time on Wednesday he would not play a role in the next government, in an emotional farewell including broadsides at the United States and Britain. "I will not be a part of the next government -- definitely not be part of it," a tearful looking Schroeder told a rapt audience of union members in his home city of Hanover. 
The European Commission is to announce a major "listening exercise" in a bid to curry favour with citizens who have become disillusioned with the EU. The commissionâs "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate", obtained by the EUobserver, will be presented on Thursday (13 October) by communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom.
With U.N. tanks and troops standing guard, Liberians waited in long lines Tuesday to vote for the country's first postwar president, who many hope will bring stability to one of Africa's most turbulent countries. Turnout appeared to be strong, with some voters lining up hours before the polls opened in churches, schools and long-shuttered banks. Many sat on benches or huddled under umbrellas to shelter them from the broiling tropical sun. Some 1.3 million Liberians had registered to vote at more than 3,000 polling stations.
MULTAN: Police booked an imam for creating panic by making hoax earthquake announcements on Monday night. The Lohari Gate station house officer (SHO) told reporters on Tuesday that he was patrolling in Bawa Safra neighbourhood when he heard Imam Hafiz Muhammad Ashraf making announcements on the loudspeaker of another earthquake likely to hit and that people should leave their homes. SHO Muhammad Iqbal said the announcements caused panic in the neighbourhood. The imam was booked under 16 MPO, but he managed to escape arrest, he added.
The death toll in earthquake-hit areas is on the rise said Asif Iqbal Daudzai, the NWFP Information Minister, putting the confirmed deaths at 4,748. Briefing newsmen about rescue activities in earthquake-affected areas, the provincial minister said that so far 8,970 people were reported injured.
ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry has launched an investigation against officials of the Immigration and Passport Department for allegedly charging visa fees from foreign rescue workers. The foreign workers arrived in Pakistan to help the local agencies in rescue operations after a devastating earthquake hit the country on October 8. On the instructions of the Interior Ministry, the director general for immigration has summoned four officials of the department.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned on Tuesday there was a risk of an epidemic of water-borne disease in Muzaffarabad, the quake-devastated capital of Azad Kashmir. The Paris-based aid groupâs chief in Islamabad, Isabelle Simpson, said water supplies could become contaminated because of quake damage, âwhich is why we worry that that could lead then to outbreaks of other water-borne diseasesâ. âEspecially as very few people have shelter up there, theyâre crowding into homes and camp-type situations, so thereâs a lot of potential for health risks,â she said.
