Federal Bureau of Prisons Changes Its Mind on Library Purging: Prison Fellowship Relieved
"We applaud the Bureau of Prisons for listening to the concerns of a diversity of faith communities and returning those resources removed from chapel library shelves," said Prison Fellowship President and former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley [shown at left]. "We appreciate the Bureau’s commitment to keeping the small number of materials that incite violence out of prison chapel libraries. By returning to the common-sense approach of getting rid of only those materials that incite violence, they ensure that prisoners have access to a wide range of quality religious works that will help them become productive members of society when they are released back to our communities."
A top Russian investigator was shot dead on Thursday as he walked out of a restaurant in central Moscow in an apparent contract killing, the Kommersant daily reported. Nazim Kaziakhmedov was shot twice in the chest and once in the head by an attacker dressed in black and wearing a baseball cap, Kommersant said on Friday, citing officials.
The judge may have been sympathetic after several self-confessed gambling addicts took the stand to plead for mercy in the case of Donna Duffer, the controller of the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau, whose own gambling passion ended up in her writing 220 forged checks totaling $1.6 million. But that didn't stop the judge from sentencing Duffer to 10 years in prison.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, desperately trying to make headway against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the race for the Democrat nomination for President, promised the audience of Wednesday night's debate that if elected, he would decline the position of Honorary Chairman of the Boy Scouts of America because of the organization’s barring of homosexuals.
In what has to be creating a headache for Santa Claus, Russia's new saber rattling attitude includes ongoing claims on the vast mineral wealth of the North Pole. The latest example, reported by Radio Free Europe, is Artur Chilingarov's bold announcement that Russia will bore into the seabed below the North Pole in 2008. Chilingarov is the polar explorer, deputy speaker of the State Duma and titled Hero of the Soviet Union, who led the Arctic expeditions earlier this year.
For many people around the world, religious freedom is an alien concept. No “First Amendment” protects them. No tradition of religious liberty permits them to worship according to their own consciences. If they go to a church that isn’t the “accepted” church, they risk ostracism, assault, torture, jail … even death.
In a world where I find little that actually shocks me anymore, the following news almost did.
Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, was scheduled to speak to the students of Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. But that was before Kathie Danielson took over as principal. Alveda King is now out.
The general media is reporting that Anglican leaders have "blinked" in their standoff with conservatives in the controversies over homosexual clergy, same-sex unions, and so on. For instance, even the Washington Times writing their story from "combined dispatches" writes:
Behold Two public displays: One is an immature stunt, the other a work of art. Can you tell which is which?
When the news broke that Dan Rather was suing CBS News for $70 million for somehow destroying his reputation, the most noticeable reaction came from the media establishment itself. From the first story in The New York Times, it carried a different tone between the lines of the breaking news. Rather's former colleagues think he's lost his marbles.
With the Columbia visit of Iran's dictatorial jihadist making Americans think about academic propriety, James Taranto included in yesterday's "Best of the Web" column this revealing item about how Hofstra Law School views the issue:
The decades-long presence of an embattled city abortion clinic has finally come to an end.
The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship (LCF) is calling on Christians to rally outside the Houses of Parliament this October in a show of opposition to abortion on the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act.
Yes, Virginia; There Are Still a Few Responsible Senators
Last week Time Magazine published an interesting (and generally balanced piece) by Jay Newton-Small dealing with that most remarkable of political minorities, the principled, active conservatives who are deeply committed to both moral and fiscal ideals.
Harry Stein reviews the new Peter Berg film, The Kingdom, for City Journal.
That may have meant that Hansen had media flacks help him get on the evening news to push his agenda and lawyers pressuring officials to let him spout his supposedly "censored" spiel for weeks in the name of advancing the global warming agenda. Hansen even succeeded, with public pressure from his nightly news performances, in forcing NASA to change its media policies to his advantage. Had Hansen's OSI-funding been known, the public might have viewed the whole production differently. The outcome could have been different.
Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.
In an incredible display of arrogance (unconstitutional even by 21st Century standards), a federal judge has thrown away a Missouri law requiring abortion clinics to meet certain health and safety standards. Indeed, U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith went even further by instructing the state Department of Health and Senior Services to come up with "modified" rules that Planned Parenthood would accept!
The new Women’s Party in Poland wants equal pay, more pension rights and more government-funded child care. They also are demanding expanded rights of abortion, free contraception, an increase in the number of gynaecologists, and, get this, a "right to pain-free birth."
Were you aware that today (September 24, 2007) has been designated National Family Day by presidential proclamation?
I must admit that until this morning, I didn't know what an "avatar" even was. In fact, my "first life" has been so occupied, I have completely missed what has become one of the most astounding and flat-out weirdest social developments ever.
Did you know that China could become the world’s leading naval power by 2020? That’s the verdict of military analyst Tony Corn. This may help explain why the U.S. Navy thinks a piece of paper called the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty provides some sort of protection for American forces on the high seas. It offers no such protection, of course, but it creates the impression that Navy leaders are doing something about our increasing weakness and vulnerability. However, like so many other U.N. treaties, including the 19 anti-terrorism treaties in effect on 9/11, this one offers a false sense of security. It will mask a dramatic decline in our military power. (Cliff Kincaid, Editor of the Accuracy in Media Report.)
The pursuit of scientific truth has thrived for more than a century at Creighton University -- home to schools of dentistry, medicine and nursing and the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. Yet the pursuit of scientific knowledge to improve health can lead to difficult moral and ethical issues. As a Jesuit, Catholic university, Creighton is called upon to provide leadership in ensuring that ethical guidelines and Catholic directives play as prominent a role as scientific rigor in research and health care.
Unfortunately, cord blood stem cells are generally discarded following birth, despite their tremendous potential in research and treatment of a wide variety of diseases. Some groups, including the Catholic Church in the United States, are trying to change that practice. The U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops has lobbied for federal legislation to create a nationwide bank for umbilical cord stem cells. More than 10 states have passed legislation or taken action to promote the establishment of cord-blood banks. In New Jersey, 15 Catholic hospitals have agreed to encourage umbilical cord and placenta blood donations to the state’s two public cord banks.
An interviewer from CFRB radio in Toronto asked acclaimed actress Ellen Burstyn what was the lowest moment of her life. Burstyn, now 74-years old and on a book promotion tour, paused before giving this answer...
I have never read a John Grisham novel. And after reading this article, revealing as it does Mr. Grisham's arresting lack of propriety and judgment, I'm pretty sure I never will. I mean, "outing" himself as a Democrat who has campaigned for Bill Clinton and John Kerry is one thing. And throwing a fund-raising party for Hillary Clinton is another.
Is California More Dangerous than Iraq? and Other Disturbing Questions
Victor Davis Hanson has a few alarming comparisons to make between Iraq and California...comparisons that make one more carefully ponder the issues of justice, the precarious nature of being human, media bias, and more. Very provocative reading.
One of the latest (and best) articles about the ongoing flap between academic freedom and Baylor University is Regis Nicoll's brief but punchy,"The Unpardonable Sin in Academia." Here it is:
Within the last week, three dioceses have signaled that they are preparing to depart the Episcopal Church if it does not reverse its course away from the larger Anglican Communion. The dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, and Quincy, all of which represent a more biblically orthodox element in the Episcopal Church, have indicated that they are preparing to potentially depart the denomination.
It should have been a "no brainer;" namely, to vote for the repudiation of the contemptible ad created by the ultra-liberal organization MoveOn that branded American hero Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us.” After all, as the sponsor of the Senate measure, John Cornyn of Texas, said, “This amendment was an opportunity for every senator to declare with not only their voices but also with their votes that they fully support our troops and our commanding general in Iraq...For MoveOn.org and their left-wing allies to brand General Petraeus a traitor and a liar crossed a historic line of decency. It was a despicable political attack by a radical left-wing interest group.”
A New York judge who denied a Chinese man asylum in a forced abortion case and ridiculed him in court has been removed from it by a federal appeals court. The rare decision to take the magistrate off the case came in a decision the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued Friday.
As William Kristol points out in this piece for the Weekly Standard, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a known supporter and supplier of anti-West terrorists, gets the honored nod to appear on the Columbia campus -- while the ROTC remains banned!
"This was in many ways a fraud. It was a setup." (Dan Rather)
A Universal Headache: Hillary's Health Care
...Clinton would require that all employers offer coverage, that all residents buy it, and that Washington dictate its price and content. She would levy higher income taxes on the wealthy, and hidden taxes on everyone.
Here's a rather troubling but very interesting video discussion (only 3 and 1/2 minutes) between John Fund and James Taranto about the worsening traffic control problems in America.
While National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell (photo at left) explained to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that "China's and Russia's foreign intelligence services are among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems, facilities, and development projects," efforts which he described as "approaching Cold War levels," former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton (photo at lower right) was emphasizing the same problems to reporters.
