Right Mind

Moscow big-box ordinance still without a size cap -- Part 1

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

There still is no size cap for so-called big-box stores that plan to build in Moscow.

A subcommittee presented recommendations regarding changes to the Large Retail Establishment Ordinance to the Moscow Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday night.

The law, passed in February, requires big-box stores to go through a conditional use permit process before locating in Moscow.

The City Council asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to recommend amendments to the ordinance, including size-cap and dark-store provisions.

The committee made a number of recommendations but couldn’t come to an agreement on the size cap issue.

Committee chairman Wayne Krauss said there was no size cap recommendation because committee members could not reach a consensus on the issue.

“The cap was the toughest issue we talked about; we had so many different opinions,” he said. “It was tough to keep personal biases out of the picture.”

Airport board outlines plans for expansion; Project would increase benefits to commercial, corporate, charter users

A pilot over at the Moscow-Pullman airport tells me that this move will allow more charter flights — brining sports teams, etc, to Pullman and Moscow. We won’t likely see more commercial flights in and out of the airport.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

  The Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport Board outlined a preliminary plan Wednesday to expand and realign the airstrip and landing approaches to bolster the airport’s viability to commercial, corporate and charter users.

The proposed improvements would bring the airport under new federal guidelines and allow larger aircraft, such as Boeing 737s, to land in Pullman without special waivers.

At its Wednesday meeting, the board — which is made up of representatives from the Pullman and Moscow city councils, Latah and Whitman counties, the University of Idaho and Washington State University, and the Port of Whitman County — heard a report on the progress of the plan that was launched six months ago.

The airstrip realignment is one of multiple phases that aim to make the airport a Palouse transportation hub and compete with airports in Lewiston and Spokane.

“An airport indirectly influences everyone in every small town,” said Joe Poire, executive director of the Port of Whitman County and a member of the airport board. “It’s critical to the area.”

The airport has operated on a temporary waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration since this summer to allow the Q400, a 70-seat HorizonAir plane, and other larger planes to land on its strip. The proposed improvements would allow the airport to land the larger aircraft on a permanent basis.

The new approach would give the airport more options and accommodate more aircraft. The airstrip would be lengthened and the safety area around it would be expanded.

Latah Health Services will cease operations Dec. 30

As reported in the online edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Latah Health Services will cease to exist at the end of December.

The Latah Health Services board of directors voted Thursday to end its partnership with St. Maries, Idaho-based Valley Vista Care Center and terminate its $1-per-year lease with Latah County after a long history of financial difficulties.

The board itself also will dissolve on Dec. 30, when the partnership with Valley Vista Care Center and lease with Latah County end.

Latah Health Services’ skilled nursing facility and therapy services were shut down Sept. 7 after the organization decided to focus its attention on providing assisted living services.

Gritman Medical Center assumed operations of the facility’s therapy pool Nov. 15, and the hospital is in talks with Latah County to take over the entire facility at the same $1-per-year rate Valley Vista was paying. Latah County Commissioner Jack Nelson said Gritman and the county still need to work out the details of the lease.

The future of the facility’s 26 assisted living residents is yet to be determined. Gritman Medical Center has not indicated whether it plans to operate that part of the facility, Nelson said.

“My recommendation is to close the whole thing down,” Valley Vista CEO Scott Burpee said.

The Latah Health Services facility has been operating without one of its two boilers for the past week.

“If another one goes down, these people will have no heat; I’m not going to spend another dime on the facility,” Burpee said.

The Latah Health Services board and Valley Vista have managed to pay back half of the debts incurred over the past 10 years, but the facility is still $390,000 in the red, Burpee said.

More debt looms in the form of unemployment claims that Latah Health is legally responsible for.

“As of December 30, everything will be turned over to the county,” Burpee said.

Democrats Pledge to Make Stem-Cell Bill Top Priority

From Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink:

Move comes as no surprise to pro-lifers.

One of the first things House Democrats will do when they take command of Congress in January is reintroduce H.R. 810, the same embryonic stem-cell research bill President Bush vetoed earlier this year.

House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she wants the bill passed in the first 100 hours of business. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. -- the next Senate majority leader -- has pledged to have the Senate act on the bill before January is over.

The bill, originally sponsored by Reps. Dianna DeGette, D-Colo., and Michael Castle, R-Del., is not one pro-lifers can support.

Embryonic stem-cell research always requires the destruction of human life to harvest the cells, and, to date, has produced no cures. Noncontroversial adult stem-cells are already being used to treat more than 70 diseases.

"What they are hoping to achieve is an expansion of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research," said Matthew Eppinette, associate director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.

As always, the Dems are pushing thru the moral envelope and into the abyss.

CIA's Hayden characterizes Iraq violence as "satanic"

See http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15632.htm

Listen here: http://www.videos1.informationclearinghouse.info/audio/satiniciraq.ram 

HT: Bill J.

Mexico's Lopez Obrador 'sworn in':

Does this remind you of what the Democrats did after Al Gore lost the 2004 election? Many of them still claim that he’s the actual President in Exile.

From the BBC:

The defeated left-wing candidate in Mexico's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has held an unofficial swearing-in ceremony.

During his "inauguration" in Mexico City, Mr Lopez Obrador said he was launching a "parallel government".

He claims he was the victim of fraud in July's election - a view shared by millions of Mexicans.

But some of his supporters think his alternative inauguration is ill-advised and politically irresponsible.

In the presidential election, Mr Lopez Obrador was defeated by less than a percentage point by Felipe Calderon of the governing National Action Party (PAN).

HT: Bill J.

Preschoolers and penguins: Propaganda pawns

I’ve heard reviews of this movie. The script reads like it was written by Algore.

From USA Today by Michael Medved:

On the eve of our annual holiday season, Warner Bros. released the lavish animated extravaganza Happy Feet, featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Elijah Wood in a PG-rated story about a tap-dancing penguin. The studio promoted the picture as a feel-good frolic for the whole family, featuring an endorsement quote that promised, "Adults and kids alike will be dancing in the aisles."

Unfortunately, the marketing never acknowledged the movie's unmistakably alarming, discomfiting and politically potent elements - enraging no small number of unprepared parents. The endearing creatures on screen face the deadly menace of leopard seals, killer whales and, most of all, human pollution, overconsumption and exploitation. In the advance screening I attended, one worried mother of a 5-year-old took her anxious, fretful, anguished little boy from the theater during the film's relentless scenes of cute and cuddly penguins in intense pain and deadly peril. The next week, a correspondent who called himself "MikeP29p" wrote on my website: "Unfortunately I read Michael's movie review a day too late. We took our kids ages 6 and 4 last night because they wanted to go because they saw the commercials. I thought an animated movie about penguins would be OK. One of the darkest most disturbing movies I have ever seen. Needless to say, my 4-year-old was terrified."

Even some of the premier critical advocates for Happy Feet acknowledged its nightmarish aspects, but praised them as appropriate because of the film's powerful pro-environmental messages.

Spare the kids

In The New York Times, film critic Manohla Dargis described this animated offering as "a piercingly sad story about the devastation being visited on the natural world." She allows that director George Miller "plunges his hapless hero into a nightmare worthy of Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor. As politically pointed as it is disturbing, it is a view of hell as seen through the eyes and ears of creatures we foolishly, tragically call dumb."

Of course, many parents might not relish the idea of exposing their kiddies to a "view of hell," no matter how much they agree with a movie's propagandistic purposes - nor would they necessarily welcome a picture book for 4-year-olds that has plunged an Illinois school into the bitter debate over same-sex marriage.

I’ll pass.

I hope Warner Brothers learns the same lesson that Disney has learned.

Keely's Rednecks

Dedicated to Keely Mix: who has a special place in her heart just for rednecks.

From my brother

A burka fit for a speaker

From Craig McMillan:

To: The Honorablest Nancy Pelosi

From: Scheherazade's Fine Burkas (makers since Medieval Times)

Many congratulations on your soon-to-be assent to power upon the seat of the Great Satan!

As I am sure you are aware, there are among your new constituency of subjects growing numbers of Muslim women. As a most-prominent woman who has achieved great things in her life, many of these devout women will look to you, Speaker Pelosi, as an example.

That is, alas, why I write to you. It is to make you an offer of a gift! Insomuch as the Great Satan is in the process of becoming a Muslim nation, you occupy an important position of example unto all women.

Therefore, may your Speakership desire (and we most humbly pray that you will), we wish to make for you alone, a custom-fitted burka suitable for a woman who has attained your fine position.

While it is true that certain intimate measurements will have to be taken, rest assured that these will be performed by our most respected burka-tailors, eunuchs who were once ... oh, but I do digress. The important point is that you need have no fear of our tailors having any concern when exposed to your intimacies other than a royal fit for the leadership burka that we wish to present to you.

In addition to commanding the respect of all Muslim women, the burka will protect you, Madam Speaker. As I'm sure you have had occasion to read, if not to be exposed to (please do not take my meaning wrongly), Muslim men in particular may be driven into a state of excitement from which they can no longer contain themselves when exposed to women who are, well, exposing themselves in customary Western dress.

It is almost unheard of for a properly burka-clad woman to draw any but the most worthy of attentions for her most excellent character and equally brilliant mind, whilst wearing most especially one of our custom-tailored burkas. This means that elevator-gropings and other public perversions in the Great Satan's Capitol building shall never happen to you, most Madam Speaker, whilst your very excellent form is protectively covered in one of our fine, tailored burkas.

While a Muslim man's passions are always calmed by the sight of a burka (those who assault a woman clad in a burka will rightfully be killed by her husband or own family members), alas, the same cannot be said for the legions of heathen males who still roam the streets of the unwashed Great Satan.

Accordingly, our finest, custom-designed burkas made especially for women forced to reside in non-Muslim countries will include certain provisions for carrying a somewhat smaller, feminine-sized beheading sword. This can be wielded with surprising speed, being easily withdrawn from its concealment within the burka and used to remove the head – or, if you wish to exercise compassion on the offender and spare his life – only another part of the offender's anatomy. (Such clarity of purpose, I would humbly point out, could also be useful in moving the Great Satan forward and down your legislative path, Madam Speaker.)

I trust that this offer will be received by your madamship in the spirit in which it is intended. We here at Scheherazade's Fine Burkas have only your best interests in mind, Madam Speaker. Do not pay attention at all to the naysayers who point out that women will be removed from leadership roles once America becomes a more Muslim nation. There will always be a place of leadership in the Muslim world for a woman dressed in one of our fine burkas.

I await only your word, Madam Speaker. For such an honor I pray, and will oversee the making of your burka with myself. So do telephone me, and Scheherazade's best eunuch-tailors will be immediately dispatched into your presence.

Yours in most sincere and humble service,

Naim Scheherazade III
Fine Burka Makers since the Middle Ages

Christians must 'let go' some beliefs for sake of peace, theologian says

From the Tennessean:

To live peacefully with Muslims and Jews, Christians must put aside the notion that their faith requires the creation of a Christian kingdom on Earth, a Lipscomb University theologian told an interfaith gathering at the university.

"We are not going to get very far in our relationship with Jews or Muslims if we do not let go of this idea," Lipscomb professor Lee Camp said at Tuesday's conference.

The unusual gathering of several dozen clergy and lay people was devoted to resolving religious conflict in Nashville and around the world.

"We need to forsake the Christendom model," Camp said. "The most basic Christian commitment … is that we say we believe in the Lordship of Jesus. But, if we claim that, how can a Muslim or Jew trust us, if we say Jesus is the Lord of all Lords?"

HT: Dave G. and RFB.

Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history

Here is an antidote to the Nick Gier blathering.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

In recent months, a spate of atheist books have argued that religion represents, as "End of Faith" author Sam Harris puts it, "the most potent source of human conflict, past and present."

Columnist Robert Kuttner gives the familiar litany. "The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries."

In his bestseller "The God Delusion," Richard Dawkins contends that most of the world's recent conflicts - in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in Northern Ireland, in Kashmir, and in Sri Lanka - show the vitality of religion's murderous impulse.

The problem with this critique is that it exaggerates the crimes attributed to religion, while ignoring the greater crimes of secular fanaticism. The best example of religious persecution in America is the Salem witch trials. How many people were killed in those trials? Thousands? Hundreds? Actually, fewer than 25. Yet the event still haunts the liberal imagination.

It is strange to witness the passion with which some secular figures rail against the misdeeds of the Crusaders and Inquisitors more than 500 years ago. The number sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition appears to be about 10,000. Some historians contend that an additional 100,000 died in jail due to malnutrition or illness.

These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people.

The typcial liberal reasoning: the 25 killed during the Salem witch trials is a catastrophe. The 100 million killed by Stalin, Mao, etc, is the cost of societal evolution.

HT: Bill J.

Two-Thirds Of Federal Government: Legalized Theft

Townhall.com—Why we love government, by Walter E. Williams

From the Idaho Values Alliance:

Economist Walter Williams writes a perceptive column today on why Americans are fond of bigger government. It is essentially because we like it when Congress forces other Americans to serve us whether they want to or not.

He points out that a full two-thirds of the federal budget uses taxation to compel one American - at risk of imprisonment for refusing - to subsidize another American. "Younger workers are forced to pay for the prescriptions of older Americans; people who are not farmers are forced to serve those who are; non-poor people are forced to serve poor people," and so on.

 

His point quite simply is that once Congress crossed the threshold of deciding that one American can live at the expense of another, there really is no logical place to stop, as it now pays for everyone to try to stick their nose in the trough. Williams points out that helping our fellow man should be a voluntary matter of reaching into our own pockets, not reaching into another man's pocket, a practice which is "despicable and worthy of condemnation."

 

The bottom line for Williams?

"We love government because it enables us to accomplish things that if done privately would lead to arrest and imprisonment. For example, if I saw a person in need, and I took your money to help him, I'd be arrested and convicted of theft. If I get Congress to do the same thing, I am seen as compassionate . . . When God gave Moses the commandment, 'Thou shalt not steal,' I'm sure He didn't mean thou shalt not steal unless you got a majority vote in Congress."

 

 

 

Text of Iran president’s letter to the U.S.

The Bush Administration is going to have a really tough time spinning this one.

From MSNBC:

Noble Americans,

Were we not faced with the activities of the US administration in this part of the world and the negative ramifications of those activities on the daily lives of our peoples, coupled with the many wars and calamities caused by the US administration as well as the tragic consequences of US interference in other countries;

Were the American people not God-fearing, truth-loving, and justice-seeking, while the US administration actively conceals the truth and impedes any objective portrayal of current realities;

And if we did not share a common responsibility to promote and protect freedom and human dignity and integrity;

Then, there would have been little urgency to have a dialogue with you.

Yikes.

Read the whole letter. It’s not pretty.

HT: Bill J.

An apology wish list

This is a great one by Larry Elder.

These are apologies we wish we would hear from the Left.

How come they always get a pass on these?

Dear Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton:

Please accept my apology for launching into a racist tirade against two black hecklers at my comedy show. Because I attacked two blacks in particular, I know this means I harbor deep-seated racist feelings about all blacks. While, in return, I heard words like "f---ing white boy" and "cracker-a-- motherf---er," I know those epithets were directed toward me, as an individual, and not at the entire white race.

Again, please accept my deepest apologies.

Michael Richards, aka "Kramer" of "Seinfeld"

Dear Anti-Defamation League:

Once again, please accept my apology for calling Jews "Hymies" and referring to New York City as "Hymie-town." As I said at the time, "Charge it to my head ... not to my heart."

Sincerely, Rev. Jesse Jackson

Dear Anti-Defamation League:

Please accept my apology. I lost my temper during my husband's unsuccessful 1974 congressional campaign. Bill's campaign adviser, Paul Fray, and his wife publicly claim that I called Fray a "f---ing Jew ***." I don't recall this, but assuming I did, what was I thinking? It wasn't my heart.

Sincerely yours, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

He goes on. There are some real doozies.

Judge Moore files brief supporting 'In God We Trust': Says Constitution never meant neutrality between religion and non-religion

From World Net Daily:

The Foundation for Moral Law has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the United States' motto "In God We Trust," saying "neutrality between religion and non-religion … is a myth lacking both logical and historical underpinnings."

The foundation, launched by former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice and now WND columnist Judge Roy Moore, was set up by Moore after he was removed from his state judicial position for refusing to follow a federal order he believed unconstitutional – to remove a Ten Commandments representation from state property.

It exists to argue for and support the recognition of God in America, and that's why it entered the California case filed by Dr. Michael Newdow, who is suing because he claims the motto is an unconstitutional "establishment" of religion.

Moore's brief in the case notes that, "complete neutrality concerning religion in the public square does not exist and was never intended in our law." Neutrality between religions? Yes. But not neutrality between religion and non-religion.

"The primary author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, observed that, 'No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be,'" the foundation document said.

Why did the chicken cross the road? New answers

Forwarded from Bill J.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on "THIS" side of the road before it goes after the problem on the "OTHER SIDE" of the road.  What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his "CURRENT" problems before adding "NEW" problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road.  So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DONALD RUMSFELD: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

ANDERSON COOPER/CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it!  It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions.  I am for it now, and will remain against it.

JUDGE JUDY: That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY!  You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going.  I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road?  Did he cross it with a toad?  Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain.  Alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay!  Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face?  The chicken was going to the "other side."  That's why they call it the "other side" of the road.  Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too.  I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side."  That chicken should not be free to cross the road.  It's as plain and simple as that!

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road.  Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WA LTERS: Isn't that interesting?  In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how     it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together - in peace.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2006, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet explorer is an integral part of eChicken. The Platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^( C \..... reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken.  What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Did it ever occur to anyone that MAYBE that's where the rooster was?

Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes

From the U.K. Telegraph:

Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims.

Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain.

	The Koran is one of the sources that Sharia derives from

However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Aydarus Yusuf, 29, a youth worker from Somalia, recalled a stabbing case that was decided by an unofficial Somali "court" sitting in Woolwich, south-east London.

Mr Yusuf said a group of Somali youths were arrested on suspicion of stabbing another Somali teenager. The victim's family told the police it would be settled out of court and the suspects were released on bail.

A hearing was convened and elders ordered the assailants to compensate their victim. "All their uncles and their fathers were there," said Mr Yusuf. "So they all put something towards that and apologised for the wrongdoing."

 

 

HT: Dave G.

What $33,246 will get you in the education marketplace?

Wild sex 101 S&M clubs, nude parties, porn, X-rated romps rule at Columbia, etc.

This is what passes for higher education? And we wonder why America cannot compete in the global marketplace?

From the New York Daily News:

Famed as a hotbed of debate over academic freedom, New York's most elite school is also a playpen for sexual hijinks, sophomoric antics and the wacky indulgences of the children of the rich.

While their parents shell out $33,246 a year in tuition, Columbia University students doff their clothes at naked parties, flock to sex toys workshops, broadcast porn on campus TV, bake anatomically correct pies for the "Erotic Cake-Baking Contest" and heat up the steps of the Low Library in a mass makeout session called the "Big Kiss."

And of course, there's always the stimulating game, "Guess the Number of Condoms in the Jelly-Bean Jar."

Others volunteer for the bullwhip at Conversio Virium, the university-sanctioned S&M club that means "exchange of power" in Latin. It calls itself a "discussion group" that provides "education and peer support" and promotes "safe, sane and consensual play." But the club doesn't just talk.

Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.

As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and two dozen Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her repeatedly with leather whips, rubber hoses - and a cat-o'-nine-tails.

"I'm Dov, and these are my toys," he said, and for the next 14 minutes he demonstrated lashing techniques. The activity was consensual, but the squeals of delight mingled with the occasional yelps of pain. 

Great use of school resources.

HT: Chris W.

Outrage as Church backs calls for severely disabled babies to be killed at birth

From the U.K. Daily Mail:

The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.

Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.

 

And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.
…
The church's surprise call comes just a week after the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology sparked fury by calling for a debate on the mercy killing of disabled infants.

But it has been made in a carefully thought out official Church of England paper written by Bishop Butler for a public inquiry into the ethical issues surrounding the care of long premature or desperately ill newborn babies.

The inquiry, by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, began two years ago and its findings are due to be published in London - but the church's contribution to the debate has been leaked in advance.

The Nuffield Council, an independent body which issues ethical guidelines for doctors, began the inquiry to take account of scientific advances which mean increasingly disabled and premature babies can technically be kept alive.

Bishop Tom Butler takes socialized medicine as an unassailable given and then works backwards from there — landing on an anti-Christian decision of euthanasia.

HT: Chris W.

Romney Files Suit to Support Marriage Amendment

From Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink:

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made good on a pledge he made before Thanksgiving to press lawmakers in his state to vote on placing a marriage amendment on the 2008 state ballot.

Romney joined a lawsuit Friday alongside 10 of the signers of the original citizen's petition seeking the amendment to define marriage as one man and one woman.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the suit seeks to force the Legislature to do its duty. Bay State lawmakers voted 109-87 on Nov. 9 to recess a Constitutional Convention without taking a vote on the marriage amendment.

"We have a Legislature which is in violation of the state constitution," Mineau said. "The constitution of Massachusetts gives citizens the right to petition -- and lawmakers are obligated to vote on that petition. They are refusing to do so."

In a speech at the Massachusetts Capitol one week after lawmakers left town, Romney explained why he was taking his stance.

"As I listened to the debate in the legislative session, I was struck by the irony and the hypocrisy," he said. "Legislators so energized to protect the newly discovered gay right to marry had no compunction about trammeling the long established, constitutional right of the people to vote."

The Left: Moving "Rights" Along -- Seeking pan-sexual genderlessness

From the FRC:

If radical liberals have their way, the world is in for another sexual revolution. Despite soundbites to the contrary, the feminists' new objective is not rights for women but equality for the "genderless." Until recently, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a largely irrelevant piece of feminist propaganda dating back to the early 1970s. Now members of the new Democratic majority say the country should jump on the extremist bandwagon and ratify the amendment, which seeks to end not discrimination, injustice, or chauvinism but motherhood, sane sexuality, and innate sex differences. Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) said, "I think a great way to commemorate the elevation of the first woman speaker would be to elevate all women in the Constitution." Citing equal pay and reproductive rights, fringe liberals are demanding that Congress resurrect the amendment. However, as true women's activists like Phyllis Schlafly can attest, the real motivation is less about parity and more about pushing a pansexual agenda. If the debate were truly about women's rights, then the amendment would say so. As it stands, the old ERA specifically states that people cannot discriminate based on "sex." Schlafly fought the campaign to its death, predicting that the word "sex" in the legislation would be an excuse for legalized same-sex marriage and other harms. She was right. For years, courts like those in Maryland and Hawaii have interpreted the state's ERA provisions as a mandate for gay marriage. Now the Left, desperate to find some way around the public's opposition to homosexual unions, is hoping to revive the amendment under the guise of "female oppression." Conservatives are already facing a tide of gender bending. Making androgyny a constitutionally protected right would turn that tide into a tsunami.

Kafkaesque Kristmas

From MyWay:

'Nativity' Booted From Ill. Holiday Fair

CHICAGO (AP) - A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.

New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.

"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ," said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Ill.-based Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. "It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."

He also said that there is a nativity scene in Daley Plaza - and that some vendors at the festival sell items related to the nativity.

HT: Chris W.

Feds halt Idaho's nuclear shipments

From the Associated Press:

CARLSBAD, N.M. — The U.S. Department of Energy has halted some radioactive shipments to its underground nuclear waste dump near Carlsbad after liquid was found in a drum of what was supposed to be dry waste.

The DOE on Sunday shut down shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory, which is trying to send 23,000 drums of waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The DOE's Carlsbad office gave officials in Idaho until Dec. 27 to report how the mistake occurred and how it will be fixed.

The problem was discovered while waste drums were being prepared for shipment from Idaho to Carlsbad.

WIPP is not allowed to accept any liquid waste because of the risks of leaks or potentially explosive materials.
…
WIPP, which opened in March 1999, buries plutonium-contaminated waste from the nation's defense industry more than 2,100 feet underground in ancient salt beds.

Watson said he's confident no other liquids inadvertently made it through before workers began double-checking X-rays of shipments.

"This just appears to be an isolated occurrence," Watson said.

The drums originally came from the Rocky Flats plant near Denver and were sent to the Idaho National Laboratory for storage.

Gritman's 40th annual fundraiser is Friday

Gritman Medical Center Auxiliary will sponsor their 40th annual Holiday Delights fundraiser at 6 p.m. Friday at the Latah County Fairgrounds.

The event will include dancing, a silent auction, wine tasting and a variety of hors d'oeuvres.

Tickets are $25 each and available for purchase in the gift shop at the hospital.

Lecture on intelligent design set for Friday at UI

MOSCOW -- In an effort to provide balanced information on controversial topics, the Scipher Institute is sponsoring a lecture entitled "Intelligent Design: What it is and what it is not," by Scott Minnich, Ph.D. at 7 p.m. Friday in the College of Law Courtroom Auditorium at the University of Idaho in Moscow.

The lecture will cover the origin of life and dissect the mechanisms accounting for its diversity and will include a discussion period.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

$12 million gift to aid North Idaho

Does anyone know if that 6th county is Latah or Clearwater? Typically Inland Northwest Community Foundation helps the 10 northern Idaho counties. I’m not clear which county made the cutoff in this article.

From the Associated Press:

SPOKANE — A $12 million gift to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation announced Wednesday — the largest donation in the 32-year history of the group — will be used for projects in the six counties of northern Idaho.

The gift came through a bequest from Margaret F. Galbraith of Spokane. She was the daughter of Albert H. Featherstone, who moved from Minnesota to Wallace in 1892 to open a law practice.

How the imams terrorized an airliner

Here is more information on the Imam incident. Notice the seating arraignment. This is not the state persecuting a religion issue. It is religion persecuting the USofA.

From the Washington Times.

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted "Allah" when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.

"I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

"That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane."

A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."

HT: Dave G.

Global Warming? Let’s Hope So …

From Cato-at Liberty:

If the climate researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences are right, global warming might turn out to be a blessing. Based on their analysis of solar cycles, scientists there are increasingly worried that a mini ice-age is around the corner. Warming might be the only thing standing between us and a glacial blitzkrieg due around 2055. 

 It was fun going to Canada last summer and listening to their experts tell about the mini ice-age that the world experienced from 1400–1800. And that the glaciers started receding around the year 1800 — well before mankind was polluting with hydrocarbons.

The Canadian National Parks gave full credit to the earth’s natural cycles for the heating/cooling.

Bottom line: we’ve been in a warming trend since 1800, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

The Pelosi Translator

Via the Club for Growth.

Yesterday, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi said the following in her native tongue:

“Democrats are determined to take our country in a New Direction to restore economic fairness and opportunity for all American families; that is why in the first 100 legislative hours of the new Congress, we will increase the minimum wage and impose strict pay-as-you-go budgeting.”

But what she really meant to say was:

"Anybody whom we deem as being financially successful is going to get the business end of our liberal redistribution policies.

How are we going to do that? I'm glad you asked.

First, we're going to appease the labor unions by passing a minimum wage hike. Of course, our demand-side economic advisors are 100% certain that employers of all shapes and sizes can absorb the cost without any negative consequences, but if they can't and they start laying off workers or passing the cost onto consumers, we'll think of some heavy-handed regulations to pass (we adore price controls, you know). And our PAYGO budget strategy is our back door approach to raising taxes to finance our big government programs. Clever, eh?"

45,000 terror-threat illegals released into U.S. population: Half from countries of 'special interest' let go between 2001, 2005, says report

From World Net Daily:

Half of the 91,516 illegal aliens from terror-sponsoring countries and those of "special interest" apprehended at the border between 2001 and 2005 were released into the U.S. population, according to a report by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security.

The report, "Detention and Removal of Illegal Aliens," released earlier this year with little fanfare or attention, suggests about 85 percent of those aliens – potentially the most dangerous – would abscond and likely never be seen by authorities again.

Acknowledging the danger such aliens pose to the national security, the report cites a DHS official testifying that terrorist organizations "believe illegal entry into the U.S. is more advantageous than legal entry for operations reasons."