Archive for December, 2009
“A suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday inside an Afghan military base used by the CIA, killing at least eight Americans in what is believed to be the deadliest single attack on U.S. intelligence personnel in the eight-year-long war, U.S. officials said.
The bomber managed to slip past security at Forward Operating Base Chapman in the eastern province of Khost before detonating an explosive belt in what one U.S. official described as a room used as a fitness center. The blast also wounded eight people, several of them seriously, U.S. government officials said.
It was not immediately clear how the assailant was able to infiltrate the U.S.-run post, which serves as an operations and surveillance center for the CIA near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. U.S. sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were civilians, adding that most of them were probably CIA employees or contractors. At least one Afghan civilian was also killed, the sources said. … Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/30/AR2009123000201.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
“Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water and pipes in poetry from phone speakers. The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law.
Immigration hardliners argue the activists are aiding illegal entry to the United States, a felony. Even migrants and their sympathizers question whether the device will make the treacherous journeys easier. “It’s about giving water to somebody who’s dying in the desert of dehydration,” said Micha Cardenas, 32, a UCSD lecturer. The effort is being done on the government’s dime – an irony not lost on the designers whose salaries are paid by the state of California. …” Read More: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=831722
“A legal scholar says the Senate healthcare bill is not only stuffed full of racial quotas and preferences, but it also gives the disgraced liberal activist group ACORN opportunities to receive funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) “manager’s amendment” in the Senate healthcare bill requires that six federal agencies each establish an “Office of Minority Health.” Under that requirement, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is supposed to award grants and contracts to organizations that are “indigenous human resource providers in communities of color” and engage in “community outreach activities” — the type of work ACORN says it has been doing for years.
hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, says scandal-plagued ACORN — the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now — is exactly the kind of organization that will be applying for and receiving these federal funds. …” Read More: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=826068
“LOS ANGELES (Dec. 22) – Home sales increased 4.7 percent in November in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home rose 5.8 percent, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS� (C.A.R.) reported today.
“Efforts by lenders and the government to assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure have led to fewer homes available for sale, and an increase in the state’s median home price. California’s median home price increased year over year in November for the first time since August 2007,” added Goddard.
The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during November 2009 was $304,520, a 5.8 percent increase from the revised $287,880 median for November 2008, C.A.R. reported. The November 2009 median price rose 2.4 percent compared with October’s $297,500 median price. “With sales bottoming out more than two years ago, and the median home price reaching its trough in February 2009, California remains ahead of the nation in market recovery,” said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie-Appleton-Young. …” Read More: http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/novsalesandprice/
“A woman, driving her vehicle, was pulled over by a few squad cars, and, when the police came out, they had their guns drawn. The woman was shocked. What had she done?
‘You were weaving in and out of traffic,’ one officer said, ‘making obscene gestures to other drivers and cursing them.’
‘For that,’ she replied, ‘you pulled out your guns’?
‘Well,’ the officer said, ‘we saw the bumper sticker, which said you were a Christian, and we just assumed the car had been stolen.’”
Read More: http://absg.adventist.org/2010/1Q/SE/PDFs/EAQ110_00.pdf
Once upon a time there was a boy living in a remote village in a foreign country where poverty was so prevalent that even policemen went barefooted, and so did children from poor families. Little Daniel’s father was having a hard time providing for his wife and child, for which reason he decided to cross the border to a neighboring country with the hope of securing employment. He promised his wife that he would send her money as soon as possible. Time went by, and a month later the woman received the bad news that her husband had been involved in an accident and was in a government hospital recovering from his injuries.
Then came Christmas Eve, and the local church had scheduled a Christmas program for the village dwellers. Danny’s mother was not feeling well, so he asked his mom permission to go to the Christmas program with a neighbor family, and she agreed. Danny took with him a little toy truck which he had inherited from a friend the previous Christmas season. It had seen better days, one wheel was missing, the original shiny paint had faded, and the dirt was showing where the paint was missing; nevertheless, it was the only toy little Danny had, and it went whenever he went.
The Christmas program went quite well, and everybody was in good spirits. Towards the end of the religious service, the pastor made an appeal. He reminded his parishioners that they were celebrating Jesus’ birthday and encouraged the people to offer a gift for the baby that had been born in Bethlehem two thousand years before. As the deacons started collecting the offering, Danny wanted to show somehow that he was grateful for what Jesus had done for him, but he had no money, not even a dime. His only possession was his old, dilapidated and dirty little toy truck. It took a real struggle, but as the plate came near where he was seated he made the resolve to give to Jesus his cherished possession.
When the deacons got together to count the money, they noticed the little toy truck, and one of them remarked: “I wonder who did this! I don’t understand how in the world someone attempted to desecrate this offering by putting in the offering basket this old, broken and dirty toy truck. Didn’t the person know where the trash can is? Nevertheless, another deacon who had seen the boy placing the toy in the offering basket responded: “That offering was from Danny. I visited the family a few days ago. They live in a thatched roof hut with a dirt floor. Her husband is ill in a foreign country. As far as I am concerned this is the most valuable offering we have received this evening.”
“I know what I will do: I will write up the story of what transpired here this evening, send it to the local paper, and put the little toy truck on E-bay for sale.” He did, and a rich man, who had read the newspaper Christmas story, purchased the item for the equivalent of around one thousand dollars. Thus, the dirty, broken, and dilapidated toy truck became the most valuable offering collected said Christmas Eve.
“In the Bible there are examples of lying for altruistic reasons. In relation to the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), Shemesh (2002) offers some examples of lies that seem to be acceptable:
David lies to Ahimelech (1 Sam. 21:3) and misleads King Achish of Gath (1 Sam. 21:14) in order to save his own life. Saul�s daughter Michal lies to her father�s messengers in order to save her husband David�s life (1 Sam. 19:11�16), and then lies to her father in order to escape his rage (1 Sam. 19:17). Jonathan, too, lies to his father to save his friend David�s life (1 Sam. 20:28�29), and the woman from Bahurim lies to Absalom�s servants to save David�s spies Ahimaaz and Jonathan, hidden in the well in her courtyard (2 Sam. 17:18�20). Proof that God may actually approve of such lies may be derived from His rewarding of the midwives in Egypt, who lied to Pharaoh out of compassion for the lives of the male children born to the Hebrew women (Exod. 1:15�21). A further indication to that effect is the narrator�s comment concerning Hushai�s deception of Absalom by pretending to support him: �The Lord had decreed that Ahithophel�s sound advice be nullified, in order that the Lord might bring ruin upon Absalom� (2 Sam. 17:14). …” Read More: http://www.spectrummagazine.org/reviews/film_reviews/2009/12/18/honesty_really_best_policy
“Germany’s highest court has ruled that Sunday should be kept as a day of rest and has overturned a Berlin law easing restrictions on Sunday shopping. Most German newspapers on Wednesday greet the ruling, some for reasons of religion and tradition, others out of a concern for workers’ rights.
Many visitors to Germany can find themselves standing outside a closed department store, perplexed to find that they cannot do a bit of shopping during their weekend trip. This is a result of Germany’s long-held resistance to Sunday shopping even in the face of growing consumerism.
Yet many of Germany’s 16 states have already made some exceptions, allowing stores to open a few Sundays a year. And in Berlin the city government had gone the furthest in chipping away at the ban on Sunday trading. In 2006 the German capital gave the green light for retailers to open on 10 Sundays a year, including the four Advent Sundays preceding Christmas. …” Read More:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,664754,00.html
“This isn’t exactly hard-hitting news, but it is quite interesting. Archeologists have uncovered a house in Nazareth dating back to the days of Jesus. Archeology is continually proving the veracity of the bible. Little by little, the bible is being proved by modern day discoveries. This finding doesn’t hold any biblical value, but it’s a wonderful thought that when Jesus was a boy, he played in a house like this.
Just in time for Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus’ childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood.
Archaeologists and present-day residents of Nazareth imagined Jesus as a youngster, playing with other children in the isolated village, not far from the spot where the Archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the boy. …” Read More: http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147490450
Norbert Rosing ‘ s striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada ‘ s Hudson Bay.
The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in. It ‘ s hard to believe that this polar bear only needed to hug someone!
The Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs.
“The Mojave Desert Cross, as it has become known, was first erected as a simple wooden cross in 1934 by the Death Valley Chapter of the VFW to commemorate the men and women who died fighting for freedom in World War I. For six decades, a wooden cross of one kind or another stood until in the late 1990s, when it was replaced with a more permanent metal one that is now obscured with plywood by court order. The land upon which the cross has stood for over 75 years only became federal land in 1994 as part of the Mojave National Preserve. Efforts to transfer the small parcel of land where the cross is located to private ownership failed on the grounds that it would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
I had to wonder, why is this cross in the middle of millions of acres of natural wilderness such a threat to our civil liberties that it is currently at the center of a Supreme Court battle? And if it is a threat, what form of religious expression will survive this decision?
The Constitution seems plain enough, it simply says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” How does a cross that has been there for 75 years (and 50 years prior to the land upon which it is located became federal land) literally in the middle of the desert constitute the establishment of a religion? The answer of course is, it doesn’t. … Newt Gingrich.” Read More: http://dallasbasketballdotcom.yuku.com/topic/35518/t/The-Light-Shineth-in-the-Darkness.html
“Washington has certainly reached a new low by forcing American citizens who oppose abortion to pay for them via their taxes in this massively comprehensive way. Is it intentionally trying to spark the next Boston Tea Party? (Washington’s wild spending and abandonment of the American people and our founder’s vision is what prompted me to add a 64-page expansion to the new paperback version of my New York Times best-seller, “Black Belt Patriotism,” being released in Jan. 2010 through Fidelis Books. See the new website.)
Congress’ latest pro-abortion strategy is a radical divergence from ” and sheer contradiction of ” Obama’s promise just given back on Sept. 9, “Under our [health care reform] plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” Looks like Congress will assist him after all in fulfilling his campaign promise to Planned Parenthood to “turn the page” on the abortion debate.
Let there be no doubt about this: Obama is still hell-bent to fulfill his campaign promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, or FOCA, which is a sweeping bill that would abolish all pro-life regulations across the nation, from parental notification laws to bans on all federal funding of abortion. …” Read More: http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147490369
“A new report reveals a British scientist and Wikipedia administrator rewrote climate history, editing more than 5,000 unique articles in the online encyclopedia to cover traces of a medieval warming period something Climategate scientists saw as a major
roadblock in the effort to spread the global warming message.
Recently hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit expose a plot to eliminate the Medieval Warm Period, a 400-year era that began around A.D. 1000, the Financial Post’s Lawrence Solomon reports. The warming period is said to have improved agriculture and increased life spans, but scientists at the center of the Climategate e-mail scandal believed the era undermined their goal of spreading concern about global warming as it pertains to today’s climate.
A 1995 e-mail predating the recent Climate Research Unit scandal was sent to geophysicist David Deming. A major climate-change researcher told Deming, “We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period.” “But the U.N.’s official verdict that the Medieval Warm Period had not existed did not erase the countless schoolbooks, encyclopedias, and other scholarly sources that claimed it had,” Solomon wrote. “Rewriting those would take decades, time that the band members didn’t have if they were to save the globe from warming.” …” Read More: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=119745
“New Jersey dad David Goldman won a court fight today when the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that the Brazilian family of his deceased ex-wife must hand over custody of his 9-year-old son. It is unclear, however, whether the court’s ruling will end the five-year custody battle over Sean Goldman. His Brazilian family has threatened to appeal the court’s ruling.
The family could take the case to Brazil’s top appeals court, but some have doubted whether that court would be willing to review the case if the Supreme Court backs a lower federal court ruling awarding custody to Goldman. The boy went to Brazil with his mother when he was 4, but the mother never returned to the U.S. She divorced Goldman and remarried, but died giving birth to a daughter she had with her second husband.
The ruling came as the Brazilian grandmother of Sean Goldman wrote a passionate letter to the president of Brazil today pleading with him to intervene and prevent the boy from being taken away on the eve of Christmas. “Our moral foundation values the mother’s role. In the absence of the mother, the raising should be done by the grandmothers. This is custom in Brazil from north to south,” she wrote, calling the custom “authentically Brazilian.”
New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg has blocked the renewal of a $2.75 billion trade deal that would lift tariffs on some Brazilian exports. … Read More: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/david-goldman-wins-court-custody-fight-son/story?id=9404151
“NDIANAPOLIS, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) � Half of urban teenage girls may acquire at least one of three common sexually transmitted infections (STI) within two years of becoming sexually active, according to an Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute study. The study appears in the December 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The researchers followed 381 girls enrolled at ages 14 to 17 years and found that repeated infection with the organisms that cause chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis also was very common. “Depending on the organism, within four to six months after treatment of the previous infection, a quarter of the women were re-infected with the same organism,” said Wanzhu Tu, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute investigator.
Within two years, about three-quarters of participants with an initial sexually transmitted STI were diagnosed with a second STI, although not necessarily of the same type. Within four years of an initial STI, virtually all (92 percent) of the participants had a subsequent STI. …” Read More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09121502.html