Senate Bringing Pressure on China

The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would put greater U.S. pressure on China and other countries to allow their currency to appreciate, giving the green light to a measure that supporters say would level the playing field with China but that both the White House and House Republican leaders have warned could lead to a trade war.

The chamber approved the measure on a 63-to-35 vote. The next step remains uncertain; House Republican leaders have declined to bring the measure up for a vote, arguing that the White House must first formally make its position known.

Read the story here.

Breivik a "Darwinian" Terrorist

WASHINGTON – A review of Anders Behring Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto shows the media's quick characterization of the Norwegian terrorist as a "Christian" may be as incorrect as it was to call Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh one.

Breivik was arrested over the weekend, charged with a pair of brutal attacks in and near Oslo, Norway, including a bombing in the capital city that killed 7 and a shooting spree at a youth political retreat on the island of Utoya that killed more than 80 victims.

Piecing together Breivik's various posts on the Internet, many media reports have characterized the terrorist – who says he was upset over the multiculturalist policies stemming from Norway's Labour Party – as a "right-wing, Christian fundamentalist."

Yet, while McVeigh rejected God altogether, Breivik writes in his manifesto that he is not religious, has doubts about God's existence, does not pray, but does assert the primacy of Europe's "Christian culture" as well as his own pagan Nordic culture.

Breivik instead hails Charles Darwin, whose evolutionary theories stand in contrast to the claims of the Bible, and affirms: "As for the Church and science, it is essential that science takes an undisputed precedence over biblical teachings. Europe has always been the cradle of science, and it must always continue to be that way. Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I'm not an excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic. However, I am a supporter of a monocultural Christian Europe."

Read it all here.

Mr. Camping: Clueless about Bible's Meaning

Pastor Camping thinks that "the Rapture" is going to happen this weekend.  For the record, the Rapture theory is a sectarian heresy based on a misuse of Scriptural references.

Here is what Sheila Liaugminas has to say:
‘Jesus is coming. Look busy,’ quips one bumper sticker. Folks in a California church have been warning the world to take it seriously, because he’s coming soon. Saturday, to be specific.

Surely you’ve heard of this. Rolling earthquakes will hit on Saturday evening across the globe, marking the beginning of the end of life as we know it. So says preacher Harold Camping and his group of followers is trying to warn the world.

“Mr. Camping saw God had placed, in scripture, many important signs and proofs. These proofs alert believers that May 21st of 2011 is the date Christ will return for His people and begin a period of the final destruction of the world.” All will be over on Oct. 21, “when God will completely destroy this earth and its surviving inhabitants,” the website says.

This isn’t the first time Camping has predicted the end of the world. He also targeted 1994 as a probable time, but on the website, Family Radio says, “important subsequent Biblical information was not yet known.”

This prediction has picked up a lot of press lately, especially this week. Eliot Spitzer’s crew put Camping ‘in the Arena’ on CNN’s blog.

Some people are having fun with it all.

While Harold Camping’s followers will be preparing for the end of the world this Saturday (May 21), non-believers across the United States are planning to have a little tongue-in-cheek fun by planning “Rapture parties” as a source of amusement.

When I first heard this, I thought of the people in Japan in those terrible videos of the moment the tsunami washed away countless homes and cars and the people in them, on an otherwise ordinary day when people were going about their business. And for them, that became their last day, the end of the world for them.

And I thought of the recent devastating tornadoes through America’s south, historic flooding, taking a terrible toll in human lives that were going about their business as usual until the sound of the freight train that accompanies a sudden tornado crashed into their complacency, and may have been the last sound they heard besfore their homes ripped apart.

And, oddly but maybe not….I had a sudden flashback of the time a couple of years ago when our family walked into a popular neighborhood restaurant and as we were being seated, I became aware of the lyrics of the song playing overhead:

If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?…

How bad how good does it need to get?
How many losses how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change…

If you’d broken every rule and vow
And hard times come to bring you down
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?

The truth we all know, that doesn’t merit headlines, is that any day could be our last day. No one knows, said even Christ in scriptures. Christians believe that when this life ends, we each face judgment and eternal life according to how we lived.

Read more here.


Related reading:  The Kingdom of God in Genesis; Yes, Georgia, There is a Kingdom

Churchmen and Presidents We Don't Trust

Alice C. Linsley


Fr. Michael Pfleger, the Catholic priest who preaches in an African-American Pentecostal style, is a social radical who supports Barack Obama. This is what he has to say about why Hillary Clinton cried when Obama won the election: She cried because she thought “There’s a black man stealing my show.” (Watch the video here.)

Pfleger also advocates women priests because he sees this as a rights or entitlement issue. Women are entitled to be priests, just like men. He plays the entitlement card for women’s ordination and imposes the charge of white supremacy on Hillary Clinton.

Pfleger invited Al Sharpton to speak during Mass while he was running for President, and is reported to have threatened to “snuff out” a Chicago gun shop owner. He also flew the American flag upside down outside the Church. This is a man who enjoys drawing attention to himself, and the only truth that concerns him is the truth he wants to believe.

He isn’t the sort of man that a President wants standing at close proximity when the cameras are running. Yet he and President Obama have some things in common. They are both first and foremost political creatures; they hold an essentially Marxist worldview, and they promote their beliefs as the "gospel truth."

Reagan scholar Dr. Paul Kengor notes this about Omaba in contrast to Ronald Reagan:

Obama, however, has never left the left. More than that, if he really was on the Marxist-Leninist left, as John Drew describes, we have no accounting, from Obama or anyone, of a switch. In Obama’s memoirs — he’s already done two of them — we hear about him attending socialist conferences and “hanging out” with Marxist professors, but we never get any repudiation of those conferences, professors, or even a tiny, passing comment suggesting these were fanciful political musings from a misguided youth.

We have the Reagan conversion narrative. Where’s Obama’s? And could someone in the media, with access to Obama, please ask the question? (Read more here.)

Jack Cashill's assessment of Obama is in the light of this:

Going back, Occidental friend John Drew confirms seeing Obama at a party in Los Angeles in June 1981. “At that time,” says Drew, “the future president was a doctrinaire Marxist revolutionary, although perhaps — for the first time — considering conventional politics as a more practical road to socialism.” (Read more here.)

Now back to Fr Pfleger who was recently asked to take a new assignment by Cardinal Francis George. Fr. Pfleger wants to stay at his parish in Chicago, but if push comes to shove, he’ll set aside the vows he made at his ordination. “I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church,” he said. “If they say, ‘You either take this principalship of [Leo High School] or pastorship there or leave,’ then I’ll have to look outside the Church.”

Is this another quality that the two men share? If push comes to shove, would President Obama also be willing to set aside the vows he made when he was sworn in as the President of the United States of America?

Ahmadinejad: Mideast without Israel and US

"I can safely say that they will simply not be able to do anything and that this is the end of the road."

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards website, Sepah News, reports:

In his first press conference of the new year 1390 [Iranian New Year was on March 21] which took place on Monday evening, April 4th, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted that a new Middle East, without the specter of the Zionist regime, America and its proxies, is taking shape.

Ahmadinejad warned that the U.S. and its allies plan to partition Jordan under the guise of creating a Palestinian state which is in fact nothing more than an attempt to save the Zionist regime. He cautioned: “The governments and peoples of the region must be vigilant and aware, not to fall pray to the conspiracy and the deception of the U.S., its allies and the Zionist regime.”

Remarking on U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad maintained that both the Bush and Obama administrations actually followed the very same course of action, and added: “If the previous U.S. president left office with his head hanging in shame, his successor will be leaving the political scene with more derision and humiliation.” Quoting Obama’s campaign slogan of change and supporting the rights of people, Ahmadinejad then said: “Behind this attractive appearance lurks the same old criminals, professional and typical thieves, those same slave owners and colonialists and this time their aim is to once again save their own banking system and imperialist interests. The last U.S. administration very openly and publicly rolled out its tanks, cannons, machine guns and bullied its way into the field; the successor who then claimed to be for change has, on the one hand, the arms and military force and, on the other hand, the apparatus of deception and intrigue.”

Read it all here.

Breaking the Darwinian Monopoly in Science Education

The Tennessee House of Representatives voted 70-28 on Thursday, April 7 to pass a bill that would protect teachers from discipline if they challenge the mainstream theories on "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." All of these have been questioned by scientists themselves.  Consider this disagreement between two environmentalists on global warming.

Of course, the Tennessee bill will be challenged by evolutionary science addicts.  Still, it is a good step in the direction of breaking the Darwinian monopoly in science education. Even the Russians think its time that other theories be considered also.


Related reading:  Science Teachers and Creationism

Bahrain Protestors Passionate About Change

Thousands of anti-government demonstrators have marched into Manama's Pearl Roundabout, just two days after authorities used deadly force to seize and cordon off the area.

Witnesses say police fired rubber bullets at the crowd, but eventually left the scene.

A small number of people were rushed to the hospital.

Tanks and soldiers had been stationed at the roundabout since Thursday, when authorities used deadly force to disperse people camping there.

Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Khalifa, justified the crackdown saying it was necessary because the demonstrators were threatening the country's stability.

Protesters attempted to march back to the scene on Friday, but again had rubber bullets, tear gas and birdshot fired at them.

Shortly afterwards, Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Khalifa called for a national dialogue to resolve the crisis.

However, the country's main opposition group rejected the offer.

Speaking from the Pearl Roundabout shortly after protesters entered on Saturday, Ali Ahmed said the people's passion for change is stronger than their fear of the authorities.

"I was coming here and I was telling myself and the family - I don't care whether I die or live, but if I die I'll bring you freedom. If I live, I'll live the freedom with you," he said.

Nabeel Rajab from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, described the mood on Saturday as "victorious."

"People feel a little bit of victory, especially because they have lost six lives over the past few days and four lives because of this square. It was a smart move by the government and by the riot police to pull out, because I would expect more people would have been hurt and attacked and we could have had more people dead," said Rajab.

Protests inspired by the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt began in Bahrain on February 14. Originally, demonstrators were calling for more equality, more rights and for the release of political prisoners, but they have since started demanding a new government.

Source: Voice of America

Iranian Warships Through Suez Called "Provocation"

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Iran's attempt to send warships through the canal was a provocation.

Israel's state-funded Channel One television said Lieberman, a stridently far-right partner in the conservative coalition, had spoken out of turn and that Israels defense ministry "had preferred to ignore" the ships' approach.

Israel considers Iran an existential threat because of its disputed nuclear program, ballistic missile development, support for militants in the region and its threats to destroy Israel.

Syria is one of Israel's neighboring adversaries. It has an alliance with Iran which has deepened along with Tehran's isolation from the West over its disputed nuclear programme, which the Jewish state sees as an existential threat. Iran is a sponsor of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.

From here. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.


Related reading: Iran is Playing a Dangerous Game

Catholic vs Christian School, United in Tragedy

This letter appeared in the local paper after a game between arch-rivals Lexington Christian Academy and Lexington Catholic.


Class acts


I volunteer with some older fellows at Lexington Catholic home basketball games. While working a game against Lexington Christian Academy, I was distracted by something different. It was utter silence.

Three days earlier a senior who attended Catholic died unexpectedly. A minute of silence was observed in his memory. This was followed by a prayer for a fallen friend.

The Catholic student section, all clad in black, stood silently with heads bowed. Two lines of LCA players stood reverently, heads bowed.

I noticed the Catholic players were wearing their black jerseys instead of their usual home whites. Their cheerleaders were dressed in black uniforms also. I saw LCA students also in black.

During the game an LCA player was fouled and knocked to the floor. The Catholic player who fouled him walked over, extended a hand and pulled the LCA player to his feet and gave him an affectionate pat on the backside. Way to go, No. 20.

Later, an LCA player charging hard down the floor ran into and flattened Catholic's star, Taylor Martin. The LCA player leaned over and said something to Martin and helped him to his feet. Way to go, No. 14.

At times a tragedy brings out the best in us. This was demonstrated by a bunch of high school students on this night.

To those parents who spend a lot to assure their kids a Christian education, it's worth it.

Gene Caudill
Lexington

From here.  The sudden death was a suicide.

Ambassador Holbrooke in Critical Condition

WASHINGTON, Dec 11: The US State Department said on Saturday that Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was in critical condition after doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta.

“Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was admitted to George Washington University Hospital yesterday,” the department said. “This (Saturday) morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is in critical condition.”

US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan fell ill during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday and walked down to the department’s medical unit and was later taken to the hospital.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's Fate Uncertain

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after she was convicted of adultery has been released from jail, a human rights group claimed last night.


Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose plight became an international cause célèbre, was said to have been released along with her son, Sajad, her lawyer and two German journalists who were arrested over the case.

Photographs of Ms Ashtiani meeting her son were released by Iran's state-run English television channel, Press TV. They appeared to show the pair at home in Osku, in north-western Iran, and boosted her supporters' hopes that she had been released.

Read it all here.

Obama Omnipotence in Washington, Impotence Abroad

Dinesh D'Souza writes about how President Obama thinks for Forbes:

Barack Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history. Thanks to him the era of big government is back. Obama runs up taxpayer debt not in the billions but in the trillions. He has expanded the federal government's control over home mortgages, investment banking, health care, autos and energy. The Weekly Standard summarizes Obama's approach as omnipotence at home, impotence abroad.

The President's actions are so bizarre that they mystify his critics and supporters alike. Consider this headline from the Aug. 18, 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal: "Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling." Did you read that correctly? You did. The Administration supports offshore drilling--but drilling off the shores of Brazil. With Obama's backing, the U.S. Export-Import Bank offered $2 billion in loans and guarantees to Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras to finance exploration in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro--not so the oil ends up in the U.S. He is funding Brazilian exploration so that the oil can stay in Brazil.

More strange behavior: Obama's June 15, 2010 speech in response to the Gulf oil spill focused not on cleanup strategies but rather on the fact that Americans "consume more than 20% of the world's oil but have less than 2% of the world's resources." Obama railed on about "America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels." What does any of this have to do with the oil spill? Would the calamity have been less of a problem if America consumed a mere 10% of the world's resources?


The oddities go on and on. (more here...)

Desecrating the Host Could Get you Slapped

Recently there has been a rash of desecration of the Eucharist during communion time. As a result, there have been some calls to restore communion on the tongue. In Spain, a priest recently slapped a parishioner who threw the consecrated host on the floor and stepped on it.  Read about it here.

Of course, such hatred of God and holy things is a sign of the times. 

Pakistani Military Delegation Detained at Dulles

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani military delegation became the latest victim of the paranoia permeating US airports on Monday night, when US security officials detained a brigadier at Washington’s Dulles airport on a complaint by a passenger who said he did not feel safe sharing the flight with the delegation.

The brigadier was removed from the United Airlines flight, and others in this eight-member delegation were also detained after they disembarked. They were later released.

The dispute became a major diplomatic row as the delegation, offended by this treatment, decided to cancel an important meeting at the headquarters of the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, and return home.

By the time the US Department of Defence apologised to the delegation, their leader, a two-star naval officer, had already informed Islamabad where officials approved his decision to return home on Tuesday night.

The delegation included senior officials from all three services, the army, the navy and the air force.

Dawn contacted the US Transport Security Administration, whose officials had detained the brigadier, and the Department of Homeland Security but failed to get a response.

Mathew Chandler, a DHS spokesman, and Lauren Gaches of TSA, however, asked Dawn to contact the airline.

United Airlines officials, however, told the US media that the brigadier, whose name was not disclosed, had misbehaved with a stewardess and told her that “this would be her last mission”.

Information collected by Dawn showed that the incident that led to the cancellation of the meeting happened at Washington’s Dulles airport on Monday night when a passenger on the flight to Tampa complained that a Pakistani brigadier, while talking to his colleagues, had made remarks that he found threatening.

Officials of the airline informed the Transport Security Administration who detained the brigadier and later other officials as well.

A Pakistani official, when asked to comment on the airline’s claim, said: “This is a delegation of senior officials, led by a two-star officer, not unit captains and majors. Such responsible officers do not indulge in such behaviour.”

Information collected by Dawn also confirmed the Pakistani claim as the plane was delayed for 40 minutes before the airline’s mentioned the alleged altercation between the brigadier and the stewardess.

Later, an official of the airline came with a TSA security officer and asked the brigadier to disembark. She gave no reason.

The head of the delegation asked the brigadier to get down and cooperate with the TSA. The brigadier disclosed his identity.

There was no response for about 15-20 minutes and then the airline and security officials asked the entire delegation to get off the plane.

The leader of the Pakistani delegation showed TSA officials an invitation letter from the Centcom, confirming that they were going to Tampa for a meeting. He also showed them all the passports that identified the delegation as senior military officers.

He then requested to talk to a senior TSA official or the person in-charge of security at the airport but his request was turned down.

“They did not let them speak and treated them like terrorists,” said a Pakistani official. “The investigators were unprofessional, junior officials.”

The official said that the TSA and airlines officials kept telling the delegation that a passenger found the brigadier’s remarks threatening but did not say what those remarks were.

“The delegation was detained for two hours, telling them nothing, not allowing them to talk to anyone,” said the Pakistani official.

“They received no response even when they showed them their passports and the Centcom letter,” the official said.

“At the end, they realised their mistake and apologised but by then the delegation had decided it did not want to take that flight.”

Explaining why the delegation decided to cancel the meeting and return home, the official said it was basically because of the humiliating treatment by the TSA and airline staff.

“They could not prove any of the allegations. What we gathered is that one of the passengers became paranoid, so they decided to detain an official delegation. This is an issue of paranoia,” said the official who said the Pakistani forces will hold their own inquiry to determine what caused this humiliating behaviour.

In Islamabad, the Inter Services Public Relations said: “A Pakistani military delegation on a visit to US (on US invitation to attend a meeting at Centcom) was subjected to unwarranted security checks at Washington airport by US Transport Security Agency. Later, the delegation was cleared and US defence officials regretted the incident. However, as a result of these checks, military authorities in Pakistan decided to cancel the visit and call the delegation back.”

From here.

Glen Beck Rally

The massive rally on the mall of Washington over the weekend has the media in a tangle. It was larger and more peaceful and more positive and less political than they expected, and this is all territory largely foreign to them. How to account for what they’re all calling ‘Glenn Beck’s rally’?

Though it was more about recovering personal virtue than replacing political parties, the CS Monitor suggests some politicians may have cause for concern.

Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington Saturday could not have been an encouraging sign for Democrats and the Obama administration.

The crowd was huge by any count – likely at least a couple hundred thousand people judging by aerial photos and the reported comments of some police officers – stretching from the Lincoln Memorial back to the Washington Monument.

And far from being a gathering of self-proclaimed rabble rousers carrying offensive signs insulting of President Obama, as has often been the case with “tea party” rallies spurred on by Mr. Beck, it was mostly a heartfelt and largely nonpartisan expression of civic concern, patriotism, and religious faith.

In other words, there may have been some Democrats in the crowd, but even they are likely not happy with the direction the country’s taking, according to recent polls – including the policies and programs pushed by the majority party in Congress and the White House.

And yet, this was a new Beck on a new mission, calling out Americans to change what’s wrong with the country by changing what’s wrong with themselves.

“We must get the poison of hatred out of us,” he told the crowd. “We must look to God and look to love. We must defend those we disagree with.”

This from a man who has called Obama “a racist” and likened Al Gore’s campaign against global climate change to “what Hitler did” in having scientists use eugenics to justify the Holocaust.

Which drives Beck’s critics nuts.

It’s driving them nuts partly because Beck is doing exactly what Obama did in 2007-2008, and doing it nearly as well. Most media don’t seem to be getting that, but in this NPR review of differing viewpoints on the rally, someone does.

At the widely read conservative webste HotAir.com, blogger “Allahpundit” thinks that “in a way, the rally … mirrored rallies held for then-candidate Barack Obama in 2007 and leading up to the election of 2008. Both this rally and many of Obama’s featured mesmerizing speakers, who chose to inspire audiences by rhetorically empowering them to take matters into their own hands.” But, Allahpundit adds, “while Beck’s rally emphasized belief in God, Obama’s generally emphasized himself as a savior of the American people.”

The comparison is both valid and important to understand. Obama was a masterful community organizer. The country has learned that skill from him and learned it well, and it’s working to galvanize individuals into a communal force for change.

That they rallied on this particular occasion where they did posed a problem, some say a huge offense.

The rally took place on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Beck is asking for a return to traditional American values, but the Reverend Al Sharpton accused him of trying to hijack King’s legacy.

“They want to disgrace this day. This is our day and we’re not giving it up,” said Sharpton.

With all due respect, I take issue with this claim. Dr. King’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, took a prominent and active role in “Beck’s rally” at the site where her uncle delivered his impassioned rallying cry for the nation to ennoble itself and its citizens by recognizing the dignity of all humans. She has worked for years within the pro-life movement to promote King’s ideals and goals of realizing universal human rights across the spectrum, without exception. Her participation in Beck’s rally dignified it. Attacks like this disgrace the cause of unity King embodied.

“This is our day and we’re not giving it up”? What does this say? Dr. Martin Luther King said, passionately, that his dream is for a country that judges a person not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. It was an address about race as a highlight of the fundamental issue of human dignity. It dishonors Dr. King to narrowly and angrily claim that his rally belonged to one race and not the entire nation it sought to free from hatred and fear and rancor and division.

In Dr. King’s speech, just after he says

I have a dream that one day…right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

…he goes on to say what has far less been quoted:

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

He was a Christian preacher. He quoted the Gospel, and called on the nation to recall and embrace the meaning of ‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee.‘

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

Many people are trying to do that still…and again.

From here.

Australia's Anti-Family, Pro-Euthanasia Govt.

Expectations of stable majority government in Australia have been scuppered by a remarkable “Greenslide” in Saturday’s national election. Neither the Labor government nor the conservative coalition won a clear majority, so it is not clear who will be leading the country – the incumbent Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, or the Liberal leader Tony Abbott. A week of intense horse-trading with a handful of independent MPs lies ahead. It will be Australia’s first minority government in 70 years.

It was a dispiriting result for Labor, but the Greens are ecstatic. They won one seat in the House of Representatives and four in the Senate. Because of an eccentric provision in the Australian constitution, the new Senators do not take their seats until July next year. But then the Greens will have nine senators and the balance of power. “There is a new light on the hill and it's powered by renewable energy,” says one of the new parliamentarians.

What will this mean for Australia?

Interpreting the stunning Green gains in this election is difficult, but it is more than a protest vote. The Greens’ leader, Senator Bob Brown, a dour, lanky Tasmanian, told the media that it was a new birth in Australian politics – like the whale calf which had just been born in the waters lapping suburban Hobart, Tasmania’s capital.

The Greens have steadily gained ground over the past 20 years, first capitalising on concern for the Tasmanian wilderness and then on disillusionment with the left-leaning Labor party. And as it grew, policies which nothing to do with saving virgin forests or protecting endangered species stuck to the Green snowball.

In an address to the National Press Club last week Senator Brown highlighted three policies which his party would pursue. The first two were environmental boilerplate: a hefty tax on the mining industry and the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. But the third was the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Senator Brown is gay himself and to underscore his commitment, he brought his partner along for some carefully scripted photos.

What does gay marriage have to do with saving whales? Not much, but the Australian Greens have wandered far from their conservationist roots. Their opposition to capitalism attracted radicals who were left without a cause after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their stand on moral issues pandered to pampered Chardonnay socialists of the inner city. Championing of causes like a free Tibet and asylum-seekers enthused idealistic young voters.

If there is an intellectual inspiration for the movement, it is the Australian philosopher Peter Singer, a theorist for the animal rights movement and a radical utilitarian who supports voluntary euthanasia and infanticide for disabled infants. Singer was one of the founding members of the national Greens and in 1996 he even ran unsuccessfully for the Senate as a Green candidate. He co-authored a book on the Green movement with Bob Brown.

Unfortunately, it’s likely that many voters are unaware of the “socially progressive” side of Green policies. Of all the other parties, only the odious Australian Sex Party, which represents the pornography industry, may have more destructive policies on social values. The combative Catholic Cardinal George Pell scathingly describes them as watermelons, green outside and red inside. He claims that their policies are “thoroughly anti-Christian”.
In his regular column in one of Sydney’s newspapers Pell wrote: “Naturally the Greens are hostile to the notion of the family, man, woman and children, which they see as only one among a set of alternatives. They would allow marriage regardless of sexuality or gender identity. We all accept the necessity of a healthy environment, but Green policies are impractical and expensive, which will not help the poor. For those who value our present way of life, the Greens are sweet camouflaged poison.”

Read here.

Iman, Not "President"

Moscow, August 13, Interfax - Officials in Grozny are discussing various possible job titles for the leader of the Chechen Republic, the Chechen president's press secretary Alvi Karimov said.

"Any title is acceptable for Kadyrov as long as it does not conflict with the Russian and Chechen constitutions," he told Interfax.

"He [Kadyrov] clearly expressed his opinion in a document sent to parliament today. He is convinced that only one person in the country, namely the head of state, must be called president. The rest is the product of the 1990s when Russia saw a parade of sovereignties. Parliament will carefully study Kadyrov's request, discuss options and choose the most suitable [title] for Chechnya," Karimov said.

Asked whether the job could be titled "imam," he said he saw "no contravention to the fundamental law."

"Why not? Although I do not know what parliament is considering. My personal opinion is that it is a concise title that is easy to write and to pronounce. The main thing is that, regardless of the options, the powers and duties of the top official in the republic are not changing. If I were a member of parliament, this is precisely what I would have proposed, but I do not know what opinion will be reached by the MPs," Karimov added.



In a related story, Ramzan Kadyrov’s press secretary Alvi Karimov said "any title is acceptable for Kadyrov as long as it does not conflict with the Russian and Chechen constitutions." Asked whether the job could be titled "imam," he said he saw "no contravention to the fundamental law."

In his interview to Interfax-Religion Silantyev reminded that there had already been a title of imam in Caucasus and it was imam Shamil. "Title of imam in his case corresponded to the title of "minicaliph" or as Wahabi call it amir, a leader who personifies all the plenitude of secular and spiritual authority," the expert said.

"However, the person who bears plenitude of secular and spiritual authorities is Imam with a capital letter, and if Kadyrov decides to become an imam with a small letter, then he will automatically find himself among subordinates of life-long mufti of his republic Sultan Mirzayev," the interviewee of the agency said.

If Kadyrov, he further said, "will become an imam with a capital letter that I suppose he will declare himself a successor of imam Shamil and he will have the same authorities as imam Shamil, we will have a local caliphate in Russia with very interesting ensuing consequences".

According to Silantyev, this idea will "cause considerable resonance in world Sunnite community that is very jealous about the idea of reviving caliphate." He explained, head of caliphate can pretend both to spiritual and political leadership in the whole Sunnite world and "as minimum to the post of Muslim head in Russia

Iran Unmanned Bomber

Iran announced on Sunday a new unmanned jet bomber that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dubs an “ambassador of death” to Israel and other enemies. Sunday’s launch statement comes one day after Iran began operating its first nuclear power plant and two days after it test-fired a new surface-to-surface guided missile.

"The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship," Ahmadinejad told Iranian officials. He added that the aircraft will help "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases…until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

It is tacitly taken for granted that Israel has been mapping out possible scenarios for attacking Iran if American-led diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions do not succeed in stopping the Islamic Republic from continuing unsupervised production of enriched uranium. The recent joint IDFair exercises in Romania seemed to bear that out. Iran has denied widely-accepted Western assumptions that it plans to produce a nuclear warhead that would be aimed at Israel.

Read it all here.

First American IVF Baby Gives Birth to Son

Elizabeth Comeau, 29, the first American IVF baby, gave birth to her first son last Friday. He was born at 2:05 am, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. In an article she wrote last week for the Boston Globe, she said that she doesn’t want her son to have the same worldwide publicity that she had as a child. She even changed her surname from Carr to Comeau to have “a couple of years under the radar.”

She said that while her childhood was not normal, her life now is. “I had a normal conception and pregnancy despite my abnormal childhood. And early yesterday, my husband and I had a baby boy ‘the normal way,’ proving (I hope) that I’m just like everyone else,” she said.

Comeau, a journalist for the Boston Globe, said she wrote about her story to help others learn about IVF - at the risk of her own privacy. “I follow the same principle my parents did: If my story helps couples or families learn about in-vitro fertilization, then the loss of privacy is worthwhile. People who have fertility issues deserve to know they can have healthy, normal babies,” she wrote. ~ Boston Globe, Aug 6

Another Liberal Jew on the Bench

Elena Kagan has been confirmed by the Senate as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, joining two other liberal Jews: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Rutgers Law School) and Stephen Breyer (Harvard Law School).

For most Jews this is a cause of celebration. Here's a poem in that spirit:


To say the least, we are surprised!
Three justices are Judaized!
It seems, almost, they’re heaven-sent,
Like prophets from Old Testament!
There’s Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan! Three!
A most impressive trinity!


Each one’s a jurisprudent whiz,
These Jewish-prudent justices!
They’re forthright, geared for any fray,
From them you’ll never hear “oy vey”
Or variations likewise drear,
As in the cry “Oy vey iz mir!”


No doubt behind closed doors they’ll schmooze
(A common attribute of Jews).
Maybe they’ll group to joke and josh
And have a cordial little nosh.
Some festive Friday night, perhaps,
They’ll share a bit of wine or schnapps?


At such events, it would make sense
To practice framing arguments
For purposes of keeping sharp.
(Fit topics might be banks or TARP,
Or maybe even Roe v. Wade,
A case that still incites tirade).


No coffee-klatch or friendly tea
Could guarantee they’d all agree
On any point of legal lore:
Through verbal clash — that’s how Jews score!
(A little halvah for dessert
Is à propos and couldn’t hurt.)


In Yiddish will they sometimes speak?
Or is that language to them Greek?
As landsleit they might fraternize,
A tribal twinkle in their eyes.
They’ll quickly learn, as well befits,
Which one is Litvak, who Galitz.


Ad-Jew-dicators, they will bring
Refined Talmudic reasoning
To tasks of weighing arguments
And issuance of writs, dissents.
The Yiddish kup they will apply
To legalisms clarify.


Their quest for justice won’t be quenched!
These judges are, indeed, well benched!

From here.