Right Mind

Employer beheads worker for not milking cows

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

From Reuters.

An employer in eastern India beheaded one of his workers for failing to milk his cows, police said on Saturday.

Neighbors watched in horror as Upendra Yadav was dragged out of his house in Jharkhand state on Friday by his angry employer.

The employer's father and brother held Yadav down before he was beheaded with a sword, police said.

Barbers warned against Western haircuts

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

From Reuters.

Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said on Sunday.

The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of the authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values.

"Western hair styles ... have been banned," the newspaper Etemad said in a frontpage headline.

It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing numbers of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months.

Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.

Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment.

The student news agency ISNA quoted a police statement as saying: "In an official order to barber shops, they have been warned to avoid using Western hair styles and doing men's eyebrows."

Iranian young men have in recent years started paying more attention to the way they look and dress, especially in affluent parts of the capital Tehran. Spiked up hair, by using gel, is known as the Khorusi (Rooster) style and some also use make-up.

Brother, can you spare a bride?

Via Reuters:

Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the groom's more sober brother instead, police said Monday.

"The groom was drunk and had reportedly misbehaved with guests when the bride's family and local villagers chased him away," Madho Singh, a senior police officer told Reuters after Sunday's marriage in a village in Bihar state's Arwal district.

The younger brother readily agreed to take the groom's place beside the teenage bride at her family's invitation, witnesses said.

"The groom apologized for his behavior, but has been crying that word will spread and he will never get a bride again," Singh said by phone.

The legs are long, the eyes are big, the bodies curvaceous.

Via Reuters:

Contestants in this Saudi-style beauty pageant have all the features you might expect anywhere else in the world, but with one crucial difference -- the competitors are camels.

This week, the Qahtani tribe of western Saudi Arabia has been welcoming entrants to its Mazayen al-Ibl competition, a parade of the "most beautiful camels" in the desolate desert region of Guwei'iyya, 120 km (75 miles) west of Riyadh.

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon," jokes Walid, moderator of the competition's Web site. "Here we have Miss Camel."

$666 and Change

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs: Not a Very Bright Idea

Cross-posted from Moonbattery:

Moonbattery sure isn't cheap. Those flickering, dim compact fluorescent light bulbs that moonbats want to force us to use because they will allegedly save a few pennies on the electric bill cost about $4.28 a bulb — so long as you don't break one. If you do, the cost will be in the neighborhood of $2,004.28.

Knowing that the bulbs contain highly toxic mercury, Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine got on the phone for advice after breaking one. She ended up dealing with the bureauweenies at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, who sent a specialist to her house to test for contamination. Her daughter's bedroom had to be sealed off while she scraped up the $2,000 to pay for cleanup. Her insurance wouldn't pay because mercury is a pollutant.

There are about 5 billion light sockets in North American households. Each will be a potential toxic waste site if liberals are successful at imposing compact fluorescents.

By the way, compact fluorescent bulbs are manufactured in China and India, where there are virtually no environmental regulations. Waste presumably goes into the nearest river.

Soon we'll need to dispose of billions of these subpar bulbs. According to Maine safety standards, it takes 16,667 cubic meters of soil to contain the mercury in a single bulb. The entire country is going to turn into a Superfund site at the behest of environmentalists, whose Dem allies are pushing for a ban on incandescent bulbs in the name of the global warming hoax.

Compact fluorescents have a special appeal for the dim bulbs in the Democrat Party.

Moscow sees wave of vehicle break-ins

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

A rash of vehicle break-ins were reported in Moscow on Friday, as 14 cars were broken into sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning.

Lt. Dave Lehmitz with the Moscow Police Department said the burglaries were on West A, Lenter and Levick streets.

He said some vehicles were left unlocked, but in others, windows were broken out.

"We think they are all related; entry was make the same way," Lehmitz said.

Car stereos and CDs were reported stolen from the vehicles, he said.

And from the police blotter:

Moscow Police

Friday

7:22 a.m. - A man reported that someone broke into his vehicle and damaged his stereo in the 300 block of East E Street.

7:40 a.m. - A man reported that his car was broken into and someone took his stereo in the 1100 block of West A Street.

8:12 a.m. - A woman reported that her vehicle was broken into in the 1500 block of Lenter Street.

9:45 a.m. - A woman reported that her car was broken into and her CD player and CDs were taken in the 1200 block of West A Street.

10:24 a.m. - A vehicle was broken into in the 1600 block of Lenter Street.

10:51 a.m. - A vehicle was broken into in the 1600 block of Levick Street.

11:37 a.m. - A vehicle was broken into and a stereo was reported stolen in the 300 block of Lauder Street.

12:19 p.m. - A vehicle was broken into in the 1100 block of West A Street.

4:52 p.m. - A vehicle was broken into and a stereo was reported stolen in the 300 block of Lauder Avenue.

A day for unity

I’m always curious at what gets reported and what’s not reported in the Daily News.

On the same Saturday as this CommUNITY walk, over 200 people gathered near WinCo for the annual “March for Life”.

Same number of people as those who gathered downtown. No mention of this walk…

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

Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney, right, reads a proclamation at the Moscow CommUNITY Walk at Friendship Square in Moscow on Saturday. More than 200 people gathered in Friendship Square before walking to East City Park, where the crowd swelled to more than 300 people. The CommUNITY walk culminated with food and entertainment at East City Park for what organizers called a celebration of the community's "common ground."

Wal-Mart Does TV

Wal-Mart — the store that has everything.

Now they’re added their own TV show to their repertoire.

Check out http://InFrontWithWalMart.com

They are adding additional episodes about once a month.

The Demographics of American Newspapers

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country . . . or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. The Pensacola News Journal is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.

HT: Bill J.

Ban on 'mom' and 'dad' considered – again: California agenda would require K-12 'gay' indoctrination

American kids who have to compete in the global marketplace may not be able to read their own diplomas, but at least they'll have three choices of where to go to pee.

From World Net Daily:

A plan that has been launched in the California state Assembly – again – could be used to ban references to "mom" and "dad" in public schools statewide by prohibiting anything that would "reflect adversely" on the homosexual lifestyle choice.

It's similar to a plan WND reported was approved by lawmakers last year, but fell by the wayside when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

"SB 777 forcibly thrusts young school children into dealing with sexual issues, requiring that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality be taught in a favorable light," according to an alert issued by the Capitol Resource Institute.

"Not only does SB 777 require that classroom instruction and materials promote and embrace controversial sexual practices, it also bans school-sponsored activities from 'reflecting adversely' on homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals," the group said.

"Pushing this radical homosexual agenda in California schools will stifle the truth in favor of political correctness and will inevitably conflict with the religious and moral convictions of both students and parents," said CRI Executive Director Karen England. "The full ramifications of this sweeping legislation could affect the entire nation as most textbook companies tailor their material to their number one purchaser: California."

She noted that Los Angeles schools already have implemented most of the proposals now pending for districts across the state, and among the changes are:

• "Mom" and "dad" and "husband" and "wife" would have to be edited from all texts.
• Cheerleading and sports teams would have to be gender-neutral.
• Prom kings and queens would be banned, or if featured, would have to be gender neutral so that the king could be female and the queen male.
• Gender-neutral bathrooms could be required for those confused about their gender identity.
• A male who believes he really is female would be allowed into the women's restroom, and a woman believing herself a male would be allowed into a men's room.
• Even scientific information, such has statistics showing AIDS rates in the homosexual community, could be banned.

"It's embarrassing that we've got kids who can't pass their exit exams, but we add all sorts of complications [to school]," she told WND.

HT: Chris W.

Car Theft: Spokane #17 in the nation

From KREM News in Spokane:

Car thieves are hitting the jackpot in Washington. The National Insurance Crime Bureau just released its national ranking for cities with the most stolen cars.

Every city listed in the top 10 for 2006 is located in the western United States, two are in Washington. Seattle has the sixth highest car theft rate in the nation, and Yakima hit at number nine. Unfortunately, Spokane is also on the rise jumping to 17th, a significant increase from 24th in 2005. The NICB says Spokane reported nearly 3400 stolen cars in 2006.

Washington State Patrol says late 80's model pick-up trucks are the most stolen vehicles around Spokane, and blame shaved keys for more than 50% of vehicle thefts. Officials say many stolen vehicles are chopped up, or exported out of the country, and are never recovered. KREM 2 News asked Washington State patrol why so many cars are stolen locally. They say the answer is drugs, specifically methamphetamines.

A gripping look at foundations of Mormon faith

From the Boston Globe:

Many church members will chafe at Whitney’s spotlight, while countless non-Mormons will be shocked by church history and practices. They will be put off by its secrecy and authoritarian structure. By the absence of black men as full members until 1978. By its early embrace of polygamy.

They will find risible the notion that the Garden of Eden was located in what is now Jackson County, Mo., or that ancient Israelites came to America more than 2 , 000 years ago. The early Christian church looked loony to a lot of people, too, yet it has had 2,000 years to polish its myths. The Mormon church is less than 180 years old.

Still, the Mormons have spooked America since the church’s creation. Joseph Smith was called a fraud when he founded the church in 1830, and despite its best efforts to inject itself into the American cultural mainstream, the church is still viewed with suspicion in some quarters. Polls show that a substantial number of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for president. Catholic and Protestant denominations alike have challenged the inclusion of the church in historic Christianity.

…

The first episode pursues a linear path beginning with the early life of Smith and follows his visions, including one he received of the Angel Moroni, who directed him to the golden tablets of the Book of Mormon buried near his home in Palmyra, N.Y. Smith then travels amid steady persecution to Ohio, Missouri, and finally Illinois. He created his own theocracy in Nauvoo, and was later killed in Carthage by a mob incensed, among other things, over allegations that Smith practiced polygamy.

Brigham Young then led the faithful in a brutal trip to what is now Salt Lake City. By then, the Mormons had built two themes elemental to religious and social movements — persecution and exodus. While Mormons denied courting persecution, they kept running into it at alarming rates. And like Moses leading his flock to the Promised Land or Mao Zedong’s Long March, Young’s exodus cemented imagery crucial to the church’s foundations.

We see both the bleakness of the Salt Lake area and the beauty of Mountain Meadows, where in 1857 Mormons participated in the massacre of 120 men, women, and children from Arkansas traveling west in wagons. This outrage was compounded by an appalling coverup. The event has plagued the church’s image ever since.

At the Door With God’s Army

From the N.Y. Sun:

PBS’s two-part four-hour documentary, “The Mormons,” which will be shown Monday and Tuesday next week. Produced, directed, and co-written by Helen Whitney, whose previous credits include “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero” and “John Paul II: The Millennial Pope,” it’s an exhaustive and occasionally exhausting examination of America’s strangest religion (unless you count Scientology), a marathon feast of talking heads, stagy dramatic re-enactments, vivid photography, and history lessons delivered in PBS’s trademark voiceover drone.

If that sounds like a thinly veiled suggestion to keep watching “American Idol” and “CSI: Miami” re-runs, look at it this way: By the end of the program, you’ll know quite a lot about Mormons and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Since one Mormon (Mitt Romney) is running for president, and another (Harry Reid) is the Majority Leader of the Senate, this might not be a bad time for a bit of homework.

Mormonism has now entered the mainstream, revoking some of its more controversial teachings and discarding the bearded look for the joys of the five-blade battery-operated razor. But the disdain of its 19th-century founder, Joseph Smith, for church-state separation, along with his insistence on polygamy (he took 84 “wives”) and his Mohammad-like status as both a spiritual and political leader, remind us that this most American of religions has some unexpected similarities to Islam.

In one riveting interview, Tal Bachman, a blond, tousle-headed rock musician who has left the church, recalls undergoing the two years of missionary work expected of Mormons when they reach 19. His mission took him to South America, where he was convinced he was on “the Lord’s errand” despite laboring in conditions most Americans would regard as traumatizing: Undrinkable water, killer heat, poisonous toads, and crocodiles “running all over the place,” not to mention the constant surveillance of his own personal mission supervisor. (For the two years they spend as members of “God’s Army,” Mormons are under round-the-clock observation.)

“I was completely into it,” Mr. Bachman says. “If my mission president had asked me to blow myself up like a suicide bomber, I would have said sure. Where should I go?” He still seems wound up just thinking about it.

…

Like most religions, Mormonism works wonderfully for those who are suited to it. For gays, women with feminist leanings, and the overly intellectual (as they are regarded) who want to remain within the faith while being permitted to study it skeptically, it can be a very different story. Dissent is stifled and files are kept on questionable church members.

Margaret Toscano, a Mormon author who was excommunicated, gives a horrifying account of her “trial” — alone, unrepresented, facing 16 male judges. After declaring her an apostate, the judges smiled, shook her hand, and told her she was an impressive woman. Having excommunicated her, they were now trying to be nice.

“There is something vicious about niceness,” Ms. Toscano says. It is perhaps the most striking remark in this long, complex, thought-provoking film about a religion that — to this observer, anyway — is chiefly notable for its neartotal absence of allure.

It is also, as a British observer reminds us, America’s very own, “homegrown religion.” Have a nice day.

Poll: Muslims distrust U.S.

Majority in 4 nations surveyed don’t think al Qaeda was behind 9/11, say America wants to undermine Islam

From the San Francisco Chronicle.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Dr. Khalil Fadel, a political psychology expert from Egypt, was watching coverage of the attack on New York when one of his patients came running into his clinic.

“I’m so happy,” the joyous patient cried to the shocked Fadel. “If the Americans decide to invade Afghanistan, I will go there to fight against them.”

Such anti-American sentiment led the White House 18 months ago to launch a “public diplomacy” offensive led by Karen Hughes, President Bush’s longtime confidante and White House counselor.

A new poll of four Islamic nations suggests that much work remains to be done.

According to the poll, published Tuesday by WorldPublicOpinion.org, skepticism and distrust of American motives remains high, and support for attacks on American troops in the region widespread — along with continuing disbelief that al Qaeda was behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The most interesting thing is how central the perception is that the United States has an intention to harm Islam, undermine Islam,” said Steven Kull, editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Kull said respondents in Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco and Pakistan expressed support for what they described as the goals of al Qaeda, such as standing up to the United States, affirming the dignity of Muslims worldwide, and pushing the United States to stop siding with Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.

That support, Kull said, led to many respondents questioning al Qaeda’s role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Fewer than half of respondents in each country said they were very or somewhat confident that they knew who was behind the attacks, and of those, fewer than one-third blamed al Qaeda, with others not answering the question or blaming the U.S. government, or Israel.

Hispanics Transforming U.S. Religion

From SF Gate:

U.S. Hispanics view religious and political life as intertwined, often worship in ethnic congregations and embrace a spirit-filled, charismatic style of Christianity, a new survey says.

The trends cross Roman Catholic and Protestant lines and signal significant shifts in the U.S. religious landscape, considering the explosive growth of the Hispanic population, according to the survey released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center.

When it comes to political loyalties, religion trumps ethnicity: Hispanic Catholics, who make up two-thirds of the Hispanic population, are solidly Democratic. But born-again or evangelical Hispanics, at 15 percent of the Hispanic population and rising, favor Republicans, though by a much narrower margin.

…

The survey found Hispanics see religion as a moral compass to guide their political thinking and expect the same of politicians, with the feeling stronger among evangelicals. Most Hispanics believe social and political issues should be addressed from the pulpit.

The racial split over that question at times was stark: About 54 percent of white Catholics believe churches should stay out of politics, compared to 36 percent of Hispanic Catholics, the survey found.

The survey found 43 percent of eligible Hispanic voters consider themselves Democrats and 20 percent were Republican; 20 percent chose independent — the rest had no answer or picked another party. Among Catholic Hispanics, 48 percent said they were Democrats and 17 percent Republicans, while Hispanic evangelicals more narrowly favored Republicans, 37 percent to 32 percent.

On a volatile political topic, two-thirds of Hispanics surveyed said immigrants strengthen society. But the remainder did not, which the survey authors flagged as a sizable minority. One in three evangelical Hispanics said immigrants threaten society, the highest number among all the faith groups.

Guilty verdict in Bible rape case

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

From the U.K. Daily Telegraph.

The man found guilty of raping a woman as punishment for reading the Bible lured her to his unit by claiming he had news of her family overseas.

Abdul Reda al-Shawany was today found guilty of sexually assaulting the then-Muslim mother of four - a refugee from the Middle East who had left her children and husband behind - for her “insult” to Islam.

She had been studying the Bible because she was interested in Christianity. After the attack, at al-Shawany’s Warwick Farm unit in September 2002, she converted.

It took a jury just half an hour to convict al-Shawany, 52, of two counts of assault at Campbelltown District Court.

Furor over author Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s visit stirs debate on religious freedom

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

Imam Fouad ElBayly, president of the Johnstown Islamic Center, demonstrates the extremist nature of Islam by threatening Ayaan Hirsi Ali with the death penalty -- under Islamic law.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

A community debate over religious freedom surfaced in Western Pennsylvania last week when Dutch feminist author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who has lived under the threat of death for denouncing her Muslim upbringing, made an appearance at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Islamic leaders tried to block the lecture, which was sponsored through an endowment from the Frank J. and Sylvia T. Pasquerilla Lecture Series. They argued that Hirsi Ali’s attacks against the Muslim faith in her book, “Infidel,” and movie, “Submission,” are “poisonous and unjustified” and create dissension in their community.

Although university officials listened to Islamic leaders’ concerns, the lecture planned last year took place Tuesday evening under tight security, with no incidents.

By its very nature, Islam makes it extremely difficult for Muslims to integrate in a Western society. Islam means submission, and the Quran makes it clear that Muslims expect non-Muslims to submit to Islam. Criticism of Islam is punishable by death. As demonstrated by the comments of IlBayly, Islam is an intolerant religion. Hence Western values are not compatible with Islam.

Imam Fouad ElBayly, president of the Johnstown Islamic Center, was among those who objected to Hirsi Ali’s appearance.

“She has been identified as one who has defamed the faith. If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death,” said ElBayly, who came to the U.S. from Egypt in 1976.

Hirsi Ali, an atheist, has been critical of many Muslim beliefs, particularly on subjects of sexual morality, the treatment of women and female genital mutilation. In her essay “The Caged Virgin,” she also wrote of punishment, noting that “a Muslim’s relationship with God is one of fear.”

“Our God demands total submission. He rewards you if you follow His rules meticulously. He punishes you cruelly if you break His rules, both on earth, with illness and natural disasters, and in the hereafter, with hellfire,” she wrote.

In some Muslim countries, such as Iran, apostasy — abandoning one’s religious belief — and blasphemy are considered punishable by death under sharia, a system of laws and customs that treats both public and private life as governable by God’s law.

Sharia is based largely on an interpretation of the Quran, the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, a consensus of Islamic scholars and reasoning, according to the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. In some countries, sharia has been associated with stoning to death those who are accused of adultery, flogging for drinking wine and amputation of a hand for theft.

One of the most noted cases of apostasy in recent years involved author Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” offered an unflattering portrayal of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. The book prompted Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa — a religious decree — in 1989 calling for Rushdie’s assassination.

QoD

In war there is no substitute for victory.
—Gen. Douglas MacArthur

It's not city property

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Dementia seems to have taken hold of Moscow's most senior city councilperson - she seems to have forgotten (maybe conveniently) that the Joseph Street property she wishes to develop for the Palouse ice rink is not city property. No one, not even a politician, should take something which is not theirs - that is theft and for her to demand the true owners of the property, the Moscow School District, give the property to the city for nothing implies extreme arrogance. Her mind seems to be unidirectional and fails to remember that the city is developing a sports complex on West Palouse River Drive.

Common sense would dictate that to avoid the perception of bullying, she should propose the Palouse ice rink be developed on city property.

As I have said before, one of the biggest mistakes the MSD Board of Trustees ever made was to allow the city to build playfields on the Joseph Street property and that it would be ludicrous for the Board of Trustees to foolishly capitulate to the demands of the city and partition the Joseph Street property to satisfy the whims of the most senior city councilperson and the wants of a special interest group.

It is not fair to the city to demand that the MSD Board of Trustees be forced into giving the valuable Joseph Street property to the city in exchange for nothing of value.

Edward Christian, Moscow

Putting Latah County Poverty in Focus

It doesn’t help that Moscow’s liberals have made this area one of the most expensive in Idaho. Few jobs; a bad economy (our #1 employer, UI, is in hard times); high property taxes; and expensive homes make Moscow unaffordable for people looking to get out of poverty.

I’m not holding my breath that these students will be looking at fixing the root causes instead of symptoms — things that liberals prefer to deal with.

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

Area agencies, UI students collaborate on documentary about poverty

Many people don't realize poverty exists in Latah County because it's not right in front of them, said Tiffanie Braun with the Community Action Partnership.

"In urban areas you see poverty ... Here, there might be a homeless family sleeping on friends' couches or areas where we don't necessarily drive by," she said. "It's a very private issue; the folks that are struggling aren't going to be out there announcing their struggles."

A documentary about poverty in Latah County, titled "One Step Away," attempts to address this and other issues.

The documentary was put together by three University of Idaho classes - in sociology, film and public relations - that worked with the Community Action Partnership and families in the area.

The 10-minute documentary will be shown for the first time at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the UI Commons Crest Room.

Braun said according to the 2000 U.S. Census, 16.7 percent of Latah County residents live at or below poverty levels. That amounts to one in every six people.

"That's something that hasn't changed a lot in last few decades," she said. "People are struggling to meet basic needs."

Braun said there are great jobs in the area, but not a lot of well-paying jobs, especially in rural areas like Bovill and Harvard.

That's not the only problems rural residents face.

"There isn't a lot of access to transportation and medical services, which is so critical," she said.

A gallon of milk might cost $3.75 in Deary, and in order to get cheaper milk people have to drive to Moscow.

"Many people don't have reliable transportation and the price of gas is a struggle," she said. "There are a lot of unique challenges in rural areas."

Braun was interviewed for the documentary, as were people from different agencies and families struggling with poverty.

10 Differences between Conservatives And Liberals

I don’t typically make a disclaimer that I don’t agree with everything I post. I would hope that my readers would know that just because a blogger posts something, it doesn’t necessarily mean he agrees with everything written (or even anything that’s written). I post these often to provoke thinking. This is one of those cases — I certainly don’t agree with everything that Hawkins writes below. But much of what he says has merit.

From John Hawkins.

Conservatives and liberals approach almost every issue with completely different philosophies, underlying assumptions, and methods. That's why it's so hard to find genuine compromise between conservatism and liberalism -- because not only are liberals almost always wrong, their solutions almost always make things worse.

With that in mind, let me take a few moments to explain some of the key differences between liberals and conservative to you.

Bonus) Conservatives believe that judges should act like umpires instead of legislating from the bench. That means that judges should determine whether laws are permissible under the Constitution and settle debates about the meaning of laws, not impose their will based on their ideological leanings. Liberals view judges as a backdoor method of getting unpopular left-leaning legislation passed. They don't want umpires, they want political partisans in black robes who will side with them first and then come up with a rationale to explain it.

10) Conservatives believe that individual Americans have a right to defend themselves and their families with guns and that right cannot be taken away by any method short of a Constitutional Amendment, which conservatives would oppose. Liberals believe by taking arms away from law abiding citizens, they can prevent criminals, who aren't going to abide by gun control laws, from using guns in the commission of crimes.

9) Conservatives believe that we should live in a color blind society where every individual is judged on the content of his character and the merits of his actions. On the other hand, liberals believe that it's ok to discriminate based on race as long as it primarily benefits minority groups.

8) Conservatives are capitalists and believe that entrepreneurs who amass great wealth through their own efforts are good for the country and shouldn't be punished for being successful. Liberals are socialists who view successful business owners as people who cheated the system somehow or got lucky. That's why they don't respect high achievers and see them as little more than piggy banks for their programs.

7) Conservatives believe that abortion ends the life of an innocent child and since we believe that infanticide is wrong, we oppose abortion. Most liberals, despite what they'll tell you, believe that abortion ends the life of an innocent child, but they prefer killing the baby to inconveniencing the mother.

6) Conservatives believe in confronting and defeating enemies of the United States before they can harm American citizens. Liberals believe in using law enforcement measures to deal with terrorism, which means that they feel we should allow terrorists to train, plan, and actually attempt to kill Americans before we try to arrest them -- as if you can just send the police around to pick up a terrorist mastermind hiding in Iran or the wilds of Pakistan.

5) Conservatives, but not necessarily Republicans (which is unfortunate), believe it's vitally important to the future of the country to reduce the size of government, keep taxes low, balance the budget, and get this country out of debt. Liberals, and Democrats for that matter, believe in big government, high taxes, and they have never met a new spending program they didn't like, whether we will have to go into debt to pay for it or not.

4) Conservatives believe that government, by its very nature, tends to be inefficient, incompetent, wasteful, and power hungry. That's why we believe that the government that governs least, governs best. Liberals think that the solution to every problem is another government program. Even when those new programs create new problems, often worse than the ones that were being fixed in the first place, the solution is always....you guessed it, another government program.

3) Conservatives are patriotic, believe that America is a great nation, and are primarily interested in looking out for the good of the country. That's why we believe in "American exceptionalism" and "America first." Liberals are internationalists who are more concerned about what Europeans think of us and staying in the good graces of the corrupt bureaucrats who control the UN than looking out for the best interests of this nation.

2) Conservatives, most of them anyway, believe in God and think that the Constitution has been twisted by liberal judges to illegitimately try to purge Christianity from the public square. We also believe, most of us anyway, that this country has been successful in large part because it is a good, Christian nation and if our country ever turns away from the Lord, it will cease to prosper. Liberals, most of them anyway, are hostile to Christianity. That's why, whether you're talking about a school play at Christmas time, a judge putting the Ten Commandments on the wall of his court, or a store employee saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays," liberals are dedicated to driving reminders of Christianity from polite society.

1) Conservatives believe in pursuing policies because they're pragmatic and because they work. Liberals believe in pursuing policies because they're "nice" and make them feel good. Whether the policies they're advocating actually work or not is of secondary importance to them.

 

Democrats Cave To Terrorist Demands

Those are the words from Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

A time table for withdrawal from Iraq without establishing a stable environment in which the Iraqi government can function sends a direct message to our enemies that America does not have the resolve to defeat terrorist networks around the world. For too long, Democrat Administrations viewed the Middle East as ‘stable’ as long as there wasn’t too much violence. They turned away from the atrocities and dictatorships that instigated the terrorist movement and incubated their hatred of liberty. Terrorists brought this war to the United States and those terrorist groups are fighting us in Iraq. Now, terrorists are pressuring us to leave Iraq by murdering innocent Iraqis. America doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Unfortunately, Democrats are meeting their demands to declare defeat and withdraw.

If we accept their demands, it will only fuel their drive to use murder to defeat democracy and liberty. It will ensure they refocus their efforts on Americans at home. I support President Bush’s expected veto of this bill, and hope we can send a new bill to his desk as soon as possible so our troops have the resources they need to defeat terrorism in Iraq and around the world, and provide for a secure and stable Iraq that is free from terrorist influence.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- International Trailer

You Been Harrassed Lately?

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

More on the Islamification of Europe

As my friend Tim points out, this article touches on two major problems in Europe:

1. A rapidly-growing un-assimilated minority population, and 
2. A stifling welfare state that depends on the import of workers to support it (since the natives aren't reproducing).

From NIS News:

A school in Amsterdam has halted lessons on rural life because the Islamic children refused to talk about pigs. Reporting this, Alderman Lodewijk Asscher said he wants to take "tough measures." Subsidies for all kinds of dubious groups must stop and parents of unruly children penalised financially.

Asscher told newspaper De Volkskrant: "A primary school in Amsterdam-Noord has decided no longer to teach about living on a farm. Various pupils began to demolish the classroom when the pig came up for discussion. Apparently it has gone that far. These children, 9, 10 years old, have not been given even the most elementary rules at home about why they must go to school."

Asscher, who is also the Labour (PvdA) leader in Amsterdam, wants to subject the parents to an 'upbringing requirement,' enforced with negative financial spurs. He is thinking of cuts in the children's allowance or lower welfare payments. In the Lower House, Youth and Family Minister Rouvoet recently rejected a plea for this from Party for Freedom (PVV).

University robberies not connected

I asked the question about whether Tuesday’s knife-point robbery and November’s stabbing were related. Duke says they are not.

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

Moscow Assistant Chief of Police David Duke said Tuesday's knifepoint robbery on the University of Idaho campus is not connected to a stabbing and robbery that occurred on campus in November.

"We see many differences in the way this occurred compared to the one reported in November," he said.

A University of Idaho student reported being robbed at knifepoint Tuesday in a bathroom on the second floor of the UI Commons building.

The student allegedly was accosted by a white male who held a sharp object against the student's neck, according to a press release from the Moscow Police Department.

The man pulled the victim's wallet out of his pants and removed all the money, then left the bathroom, according to the release.

The suspect is described as being of average height and stocky build. He was wearing blue jeans, Nike high-tops and possibly a black sweatshirt.

Duke said detectives still are gathering evidence and have several leads that will be investigated.

Police plan to meet with the victim this afternoon.

A victim was stabbed twice in the ground floor bathroom of the Engineering and Science Building during the Nov. 2 incident.

Moscow voters to decide missing councilor's replacement

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

Moscow voters, not the mayor, will apparently decide on a replacement for missing city council member John Dickinson.

Members of the city's administrative committee decided earlier this week to not pursue an ordinance that would allow council members to be replaced after missing a certain number of meetings. Under current law, vacancies can be filled only as a result of resignation, disqualification, recall or death.

There had been speculation Mayor Nancy Chaney would eventually name a replacement for Dickinson. But she balked at taking such action after City Attorney Randy Fife began reviewing Idaho code and case law on the issue.

Renting nuclear reactor gets cheaper

This article concerns reactors that operate out at the Idaho National Labs. I qualified on my first reactor out there.

From the Associated Press:

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to make it easier for university researchers to use a nuclear reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory by reducing how much money it costs.

The department's Office of Nuclear Energy earlier this week designated the 40-year-old Advanced Test Reactor as a National User Facility.

With the designation, the department will subsidize much of the cost of running the reactor, making it more affordable for researchers. The size of the subsidy was not immediately available.

…

The reactor is one of three operating at the INL, an 890-square-mile federal nuclear research area in eastern Idaho. It was built to test nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.

The reactor can be used to simulate the conditions found in other types of reactors, but can do so while operating at a low temperature. Pressurized water is use to cool its internal core.

The Navy cut back its use of the reactor after the end of the Cold War, and it was made available for other tests. It also has been used to produce the isotope cobalt-60, used in medical treatment of brain tumors and vascular deformities.

"The U.S. would be in a position of total dependence on foreign suppliers were it not for our production of cobalt-60 in the ATR," said Steve Laflin, president of International Isotopes, an Idaho Falls company.

One man’s trash (Co-60) is another man’s treasure…