Bush Seeks to Make War Powers Permanent for Indefinite War

As the nation focuses on Sen. John McCain's choice of running mate, President Bush has quietly moved to expand the reach of presidential power by ensuring that America remains in a state of permanent war.

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Unbelievable! U.S. prevents testing for mad cow...

A federal appeals court says the government can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease. Read this short article for the reason why. It'll astound you!

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Reqium for the fireflies

Back in the mid fifties my father decided that it was a good idea to move our clan out to the boonies. He had the crazy idea that he wanted to raise goats and rabbits. To my eight year old sensibilities this seemed like a great idea. My evil stepsisters were slightly less amused. My oldest sister was about to graduate from high school and would not be graduating with all her little friends. My middle sister was equally unenthusiastic. My Mom seemed to want whatever Dad wanted. To further complicate situation was that as a policeman my father was not supposed to live out side the city limits and finding a small farm inside the Cincinnati city was nigh on impossible.

Mom and Dad found a place in they liked just out side of the city in a place that went by the very Mayberryesque name of Peach Grove. A little red brick house sat atop a six and one half acre hilltop lot, most of it at a forty five degree slant(perfect for goats Dad decided). Dad's little piece of paradise was on a road called Lockwood Hill. The thing I remember the most was the incredible view. To paraphrase Bab's hit song "On a clear day you could see forever". At night I was amazed at how dark it got, being a city kid I was used to street lights. Once your eyes got acclimated you could see all the way to the Fernald National Lead plant where they processed nuclear fuel(no,I don't glow in the dark)

Being an over stimulated borderline A.D.D. /O.C.D kind of kid my parents and evil step sisters often found ways to to keep me distracted and after the second or third summer night I was fascinated by the huge clouds of fireflies that haunted our little hilltop hideaway. The surrounding woods and fields were practically over run with these little luminescent beasties. Some one in the household had the bright idea of me going outside and catching some in a Mason jar.(I suspect my evil stepsisters) Before long I was running after the lightning bugs and even capturing a few. I even took my flashing little menagerie to bed with me. (I seem to remember releasing some in the attic that I shared with my E.S.S's(evil step sisters),
much to their consternation.

So why am I waxing nostalgic about bugs with built in flashlights? There are stories in the news that fireflies might be going the way of passenger pigeons and dodo birds. Their numbers have been dwindling over the last few years. No one seems to know why, perhaps pollution or global warming. (I'm leaning towards Alien Abductions personally) To an eight year old with more imagination than common sense those shiny little guys were magical. Watching them light up weaving in and out of the trees as I chased them. Juking left and right or flying up just out of reach. So if they are going away and not coming back, I for one will miss them

Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

McCain's VP Wants Creationism Taught in School

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin wants creationism taught in science classes. In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, the soon-to-be governor of Alaska trotted out the usual creationist education canard: "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools."

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I am depressed again!

I hope I'm wrong but I'm getting a definite sense of dread. There are some really disheartening rumors going around that McCain is picking Mitt(the Mormon)Romney as his running mate. I have nothing on a personal level against Mormons in general and hold that belief system in the same level of contempt that I reserve for any flavor of organized religion. However, Do we have to have a guy that's one heartbeat away from the highest office in the land that not only believes in talking snakes but magic underwear too?! And to add insult to injury the McCain is making his big announcement in my hometown!

Sign me:

Looking for my Prozac in Dayton

Emoose out

So what's the harm?

A common defense for not using critical thinking or having a rational point of view is "What's the harm?". I must confess that I have had that attitude my self. A live and let live may not always be appropriate. I have often let door to door or street preachers go unscathed. So I have to ask myself am I doing them or myself any favors with that kind of behaviour?

I am definitely rethinking this strategy after finding a website called "What the harm?". After all I know from personal what kind harm that an cult like the Jehovah's Witnesses can do. So I am thinking I'm going stop taking the easy way out when confronted by bible wielding nut cases. Whenever appropriate I owe it to myself and others to state my case.

Jehovah's Witnesses Did It Again!

Nothing seems to stop one of Jehovah's Witnesses from preaching, house to house, the consequences can be dramatic.

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50,000 women abandoning church every year as Buffy the Vampire Slayer turns them on to witchcraft

Christian churches in England have lost at least 50,000 women from their congregations every year since 1989, says a sociologist.

Dr Kristin Aune, from the University of Derby, said many young women are put off going to church because they link it with traditional values.

She also said television icons such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who promote female empowerment, discourage women from attending services.

I knew there was a reason I liked that show.

Clergymen say extremists blame Christian prayers for Muslim leader’s death

Blaming the death of their leader on Christian prayers, an Islamist group that launched a hate campaign in response to an evangelistic event in 2004 is reportedly attacking Christians in this Kwara state capital with renewed virulence, area Christians said.

At least three Christians have died and several others have been injured in attacks with machetes and other weapons since June, clergymen said. They said the attacks began after the death in May of Dr. Ali Olukade, head of a local group of Islamists called Tibliq, possibly patterned after the worldwide Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.

Dr. Olukade was critically injured in an auto accident in 2006, and after extensive recovery efforts he succumbed to his injuries in May. His extremist followers, according to the Rev. Cornelius Fawenu, secretary of the Kwara chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), believe that his death was the result of prayers by Christians upset when Muslim threats cut short a major event by German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke in 2004.

Islamic uproar over the evangelistic event in Ilorin forced it to a venue outside the city, and Bonnke had to “abort” three days of the planned five-day event, Rev. Fawenu said.

When the local Tibliq leader was injured in the car crash in 2006, Rev. Fawenu said, “The members of his Muslim sect went on rampage, demonstrating against America and the state of Israel, over claims that it was the prayers of Christians over the aborting of the gospel event of 2004 that caused their leader to be involved in an auto crash. Dr. Olukade, the Muslim sect’s leader, died in May 2008, and since then Muslim fanatics have embarked in serial killings and attacks on Christians in the city.”

The group from the Tibliq movement in Ilorin, Rev. Fawenu said, had spear-headed opposition to the evangelistic event.

The Kwara chapter of CAN has received 10 reports of Christians attacked by the Muslim extremists in the past two months, Rev. Fawenu said, adding that he believes unreported assaults on Christians average about four daily.

Facts on even the confirmed reports, however, are few. Last month the state CAN chapter petitioned the inspector general of police to investigate the attacks on Christians in Ilorin, which Rev. Fawenu said resulted in the death of a former leader of an Evangelical Church of West Africa congregation known only as Pastor Habila. The former church leader was assaulted in the Oke Oba area of Ilorin in June and died on June 15 from his injuries, Rev. Fawenu said.

“The corpse of another Christian victim was found along stadium road, with his Bible beside him, on June 18,” Rev. Fawenu said. “So also, a young Christian girl living near the stadium road was also murdered in the same manner within this period.”

The Kwara state CAN leader said he did not have the names of these victims but that their deaths resulted from attacks that fit a pattern of other area assaults – taking place after dark as Christians either went to or returned from church services.

Another church leader injured from an attack, he said, is known only as Pastor Olagunjo. Rev. Fawenu said the assaults have reduced attendance at Christian worship services in the state.

Survivors

The Kwara chapter of CAN staged a three-day prayer rally over the attacks from June 30 to July 2, which drew large crowds.

Samuel Ajiboye, pastor of New Testament Christian Mission in Ilorin, told Compass that Muslim extremists attacked a member of his church, Nanle Nathaniel, in June.

“Nanle Nathaniel was attacked on June 11 near our church,” Ajiboye said. “He saw a man with a machete coming towards him, and before he realized what was happening, the man cut him on his head with the machete, and thereafter fled.”

Ajiboye added that Nathaniel shouted and dragged himself to a nearby house, where neighbors phoned the pastor, and he told them to take Nathaniel to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. At press time Nathaniel was still receiving treatment for nerve damage on his head, he said.

Ajiboye echoed the Kwara state CAN leader’s assertion that there are many Christian victims of such attacks, and that some of them have died.

Another survivor was Rachael Harry of Blessed Chapel, a church in the Sango area of Ilorin. Attacked on June 25, she also received head injuries for which she received hospital treatment, according to 70-year-old pastor and photojournalist Gabriel Oki Olufemi, of Chapel of Redemption church in Ilorin.

“While being attacked, she was rescued by her neighbors,” Olufemi told Compass. “I was there shortly after she was attacked, and I personally took pictures of her and interviewed her.”

Olufemi said Harry was about 100 meters from her house when she was attacked. “She was a trader returning from the Ministry of Agriculture, where she sells food,” he said, adding that she was attacked at about 7 p.m. near the home of her pastor, who was out of town at the time.

“Only yesterday [August 7], I was told that another Christian was attacked by the railway station in the city,” Olufemi said. “The police recovered an iron rod from the scene where she was attacked. All those killed or attacked are Christians.”

Olufemi said he interviewed another girl who was attacked near the venue of the June 30-July 2 prayer rally. “So also,” he said, “a young Christian man was attacked while on his way from night vigil in his church.”

Islamist Sect Fingered

The group said to be behind the attacks, Tibliq, may reflect the influence of the radical Sunni Tablighi Jamaat, a worldwide missionary movement originating in India in 1927.

Active in north African countries such as Morocco and Algeria, the secretive Tablighi Jamaat describes itself as pietistic but comprises an extremist wing that advocates jihad through the sword, according to a 2005 article in the Middle East Quarterly. Yusef Fikri, a Tablighi member and leader of the Moroccan terrorist organization At-Takfir wal-Hijrah, was sentenced to death for helping to plan the May 2003 Casablanca bombings that killed 45 people.

“Tablighi Jamaat has always adopted an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam,” Alex Alexiev wrote in the Middle East Quarterly, “but in the past two decades it has radicalized to the point where it is now a driving force of Islamic extremism and a major recruiting agency for terrorist causes worldwide.”

Rev. Fawenu recalled the evangelistic event in 2004 that he said is at the root of recent attacks. The rally by German evangelist Bonnke was to take place in the heart of the city, he said, but Tibliq-led Muslim opposition led to the Kwara state government moving the event to a village miles outside of Ilorin.

“However, two days into the five-day event, the government again brought the police to stop the event,” he said. “The event was aborted following opposition from Muslims in the city.”

After the leader of the Tibliq, Dr. Olukade, was injured in the car crash, he was taken to a hospital in Germany but returned to Nigeria last November with his condition still critical, Rev. Fawenu said.

“Before his death,” Rev. Fawenu told Compass, “Dr. Olukade was a medical doctor with the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, and was also the proprietor of TIM Hospital Ilorin.”

Most of the victims of the attacks, he said, have been treated at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, as well as at the Delink Hospital in the Oja-iya area of Ilorin.

Are they saying that the Christians have a better imaginary friend than they have?

Presidential Candidates out of touch with the common man? Shocking(not)

Is anybody really surprised by the fact that a couple of rich guys running for national office are more than a little out of touch with the financial realities of American families? Is everyone in the U.S. electorate cursed with a short memory? Wasn't it George the Elder that had never seen a grocery store scanner before? And wasn't it George the Lesser that had no idea how much a gallon of milk cost during a town hall Q&A session? When was the last time these guys had to scrape up enough money to feed their family for a week? Or decide on buying gas for the car or prescriptions?

Now I could really care less how many houses somebody owns whether its 7, 8 or 9. And furthermore would we really want somebody couldn't afford one house running the country? But on the other hand it would be nice if we figure out someway as a prerequisites to run for office that they are required to work at Walmart for a year or two, with no health insurance or the any other of the bazillion perks they are entitled to as U.S. Senators. Let's just see how well they do.

US school district sued over homophobic 'witch hunt'

FLORIDA - When a high school senior told her principal that students were taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children.

He suspended some of her friends who expressed their outrage by wearing gay pride T-shirts and buttons at Ponce de Leon High School, according to court records. And he asked dozens of students whether they were gay or associated with gay students.

The American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued the district on behalf of a girl who protested against Principal David Davis, and a federal judge reprimanded Davis for conducting a "witch hunt" against gays. Davis was demoted, and school employees must now go through sensitivity training.

And despite all that, many in this conservative Panhandle community still wonder what, exactly, Davis did wrong.

"We are a small, rural district in the Bible Belt with strong Christian beliefs and feel like homosexuality is wrong," said Steve Griffin, Holmes County's school superintendent, who keeps a Bible on his desk and framed Scriptures on his office walls.

Three Imagined Conversations Between Rex and Rexella Van Impe

* Jack: Honey could you please pass the bread, First Chronicles 23:9, Psalm 14:4, Mark 14:20
* Rexella: Oh, Jack
* Jack: Looks like it will be a nice day today, Matthew 16:2-3, James 1:11
* Rexella: Yes jack
* Jack: Could I get the milk please? Luke 4:4, Job 29:6, proverbs 27:27
* Rexella: Ohhhh Jack

* Jack: … and because of that Scripture verse it is clear that 1 million people will die
* Rexella: Isn’t God wonderful?
* Jack: And not just die, but be tortured horribly
* Rexella: Ooohhh Jack, Jesus is beautiful
* Jack: And not just a million people but their children too
* Rexella: All the time God is good
* Jack: and their pets
* Rexella: Amen Jack!

* Jack: Let’s go to the bedroom, Mark 10:7
* Rexella: Um… Jack? It sort of ruins the mood when you do that.
* Jack: My mood could never be ruined by you, Proverbs 5:19, Song of Solomon 1:16
* Rexella: Seriously, if you keep up the Scripture thing I’m not going upstairs
* Jack: You have to go upstairs, 1 Peter 3:1-2, Ephesians 5:22
* Rexella: Seriously Jack stop now
* Jack: I can’t, Luke 19:40, Deuteronomy 6:6
* Rexella: You’re sleeping alone tonight

Back in my J-Dub days I ran into a couple of people that had a bad case of "Bible Verse Tourett's".

Basic Rights Denied At J.F.K. Airport

I was recently stopped by Homeland Security as I was returning from a trip to Syria. What I saw in the hours that followed shocked and disturbed me.

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California Court: Doctors Cannot Withhold Care To Gays

California's highest court on Monday barred doctors from invoking their religious beliefs as a reason to deny treatment to gays and lesbians, ruling that state law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination extends to the medical profession. The ruling was unanimous.

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This explains everything.

Make Satan happy:Watch the Olympics

Local Mother Leaves 3-Year Old Bound And Gagged As Punishment

DAYTON, Ohio -- A Dayton mother is being charged with 3rd degree felony child endangerment after binding her 3-year old daughter and leaving her home alone.

22-year old Erica Bailey bound her daughter and gagged her with a sock, and then left her locked in a bedroom at her apartment on West Stewart St.

The child's grandmother called police when she discovered the girl Thursday.

According to police, Bailey bound her daughter as punishment for fighting another sibling over taking snacks from the refrigerator.

Bailey is currently being held at Montgomery County Jail.

Bank Robber Accused of Also Breaking Baby's Arm

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- He allegedly robs a bank and cops recognize as the suspect in another crime - breaking a baby's arm.

The heist occurred Wednesday afternoon at the Security National Bank on West Main Street in Springfield.

The suspect was arrested at his home just a block away from the bank.

That's when detectives recognized 22-year-old Bradley Goodson Junior from an earlier case.

In that one, Goodson is accused of twisting and breaking the arm of his girlfriend's three-month-old baby. That happened on July 4th.

Goodson is now locked up on $100,000 bond. He has entered not guilty pleas to aggravated robbery, felonious assault and child endangering.

Buffalo Police batter their way into wrong house.

Armed with a battering ram and shotguns, Buffalo police looking for heroin broke down the door and stormed the lower apartment of a West Side family of eight. The problem is that the Wednesday evening raid should have occurred at an apartment upstairs.

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Hypocricy South African Dutch Reform Church Style

The Dutch reformed Church in Moreleta Park wanted their gay music teacher to "free himself" from his "sin" - either by changing his ways or living a celibate life without impure thoughts about men.

The 31-year-old Johan Strydom, who now lives in Jeffrey's Bay, said he did not have to repent for being gay, as that was the way God had made him and he was comfortable with his sexuality.

The Pretoria high court this week was the forum for (sometimes heated) debate regarding the Dutch Reformed Church's stance on gays, during which Bible verses were quoted freely.

This followed a damages claim instituted by Strydom against the congregation in Moreleta Park in the east of Pretoria.

He is claiming about R150 000 in damages for "the impairment of his dignity" when the church gave him the boot for being gay, as well as a further R50 000 for loss of income.

In January 2005, Strydom, whose sexual orientation is not immediately apparent, entered into an oral agreement with the church in terms of which he was going to give music lessons to young students at the congregation's music academy.

Strydom worked happily for a couple of months and was described by his supervisor, Janie de Bruin, as a being a first class music teacher.

But in July of that year, word reached the church via an "anonymous call" that Strydom was in a homosexual relationship.

The council of the congregation demanded to speak to him about his sexuality, but Strydom refused. He maintained that it was a matter between him and God and that it had nothing to do with his work. He said he was not even a member of the Moreleta Park congregation, but merely in their employ.

Strydom claimed he was never questioned during his job interview about his sexual orientation. He was only asked whether he was a Christian, which he acknowledged, and asked about his musical skills. Strydom said it could not be expected of him to volunteer details of his sexuality during a job interview when heterosexual people were not required to do this.

He said he had known he was "different" since he was a child, as he preferred looking at the pictures of male models. "This is what I am. I cannot change it. I have peace in my heart about who I am. This is not about the church, it is about my relationship with God."

Strydom has been in a relationship with the same partner for the past eight years.

But Ds Dirkie van der Spuy, one of the congregation's ministers, this week told Judge Dion Basson that Strydom knew how they felt on the gay issue and that it had been Strydom's duty to divulge the fact that he was a homosexual.
Van der Spuy was adamant that they did not merely want to give him the boot, but that they wanted to "walk the path of love" with him and through therapy and other means to convince him that his ways are wrong.

He said all people were sinners but that God was forgiving.

If Strydom repented, he could get a second chance in God's eyes, he said. Van der Spuy said it was the same as when a patient went to a doctor. The doctor was obliged to inform the patient about the condition of his health, and to treat him.

Van der Spuy said the church would be acting without love if it did not warn a person that he was on the wrong path and was heading downhill.

"It is an act of love to reach out to such a person. God in fact loves sinners but he speaks to them through the Bible to realise their wrongs."

Van der Spuy said no outside opinions mattered, as God had clearly pronounced on the subject of gayness in the Bible.

He was confronted with the fact that the Dutch Reformed Church had at one time justified apartheid, but had changed its stance in this regard and asked for forgiveness.

Van der Spuy said this may be so, but apartheid was not mentioned in the Bible, while homosexuality was clearly pronounced on.

Counsel for Strydom, Ronel Tolmay SC, at length referred to the issue of divorce, which is condemned in the Bible. She cited Matthew 19:9 and Mark 10:11 in this regard. "Now, dominee, according to this, people are not allowed to get a divorce, and if they do, they may not re-marry, as they will then be adulterous.

"Yet your church accepts people who do this, but condemns gays" Tolmay said.

Van der Spuy said the difference was that people who realised they were on the wrong path and sought forgiveness, were given another chance. "God said there is forgiveness and mercy for every divorcee and homosexual who repents," he said. Tolmay accused the congregation of having double standards.

Final arguments will be heard on Wednesday.

Child beggar's father fights abusive teacher

KAOLACK, Senegal - It hurts too much to lie on his back, so the 7-year-old has spent the past month stretched out on his stomach. His two grandmothers sit on the hospital bed beside him, fanning the pink flesh left exposed by his teacher's whip.

It's progress that Momodou Biteye is in the hospital at all. It's also encouraging that the Quranic teacher who did this to him is behind bars.

But what is most significant is that the boy's father — a poor farmer who sold part of his harvest to pay for the bus fare to the hospital — filed the charges against the teacher himself. In doing so, this man with cracked lips and bloodshot eyes braved the wrath of his entire village, including his own father, who considers all teachers in Senegal's Islamic schools to be holy.

In hundreds of these schools in the mostly Muslim West African country, children are made to beg in the streets and are beaten if they don't bring back enough money. One 10-year-old was beaten to death with his hands tied behind his back and his mouth stuffed with rocks. Despite laws passed to protect children, the courts have convicted only a handful of Quranic teachers and quickly cave in the face of powerful clerics.

The biggest obstacle to justice is the families themselves, who are unwilling to speak out against the teachers. Government officials say they cannot think of another case where the family has brought charges.

"Some people may say bad things about me. Even my own village is against me," says 40-year-old Moussa Biteye, the father of the twig-like boy. "But I think I am within my rights."

The respect for Islamic schools comes from a centuries-old tradition of families sending their sons to study the Quran and till fields in exchange for food. In the 1970s, as drought devastated West Africa, schools moved to the cities and Islamic teachers sent children out to beg in the streets. These days, boys as young as 3 are beaten not for failing to master the Quran, but for failing to bring back enough money — a change families often are unaware of.

Biteye's village is a 30-mile drive from here on a potholed road, past herds of skinny cattle. Almost all the men in the village can recite verses from the Quran, especially the boy's grandfather, Baba Biteye, a wrinkled man who taught the holy book for 40 years before going blind.

The old man becomes agitated when asked about his grandson. He is angry not because of the severe beating, but because the boy's father — his son — dared press charges against the Quranic teacher, or marabout.

"It was an accident and my son had no right to humiliate the marabout by doing what he did," he says. "The day they took the marabout to prison, it hurt me so much it was as if they had come to jail me."

No one in this poor village is surprised that the boy was beaten. A child needs to suffer, the grandfather says, to master the difficult text. It's a sentiment that is echoed in the village chief's hut, under the grass roofs of neighbors' homes and on the lips of other families whose own sons are still in the jailed teacher's boarding school.

Hitting and education are so intertwined in Senegal that the word for "to educate" — "yaar" is the same as the word for the stick to discipline students.

"See this?" says Omar Drame, a middle-aged villager, as he bends his head forward and points to an indentation on the top of his skull. "It's my marabout that did this to me. It forged me. It allowed me to learn that I can overcome difficulty."

At first, even the father thought his son was lying about why he was beaten. The marabout told investigators that he hit the boy for mispronouncing a verse from the Quran.

But when the father saw his son, he wept. "I knew that he would be hit — but I didn't think he would be hit up to this point," says Biteye.

The boy says when he arrived at the school in June, his marabout handed him an empty tin can and told him not to come back before filling it with 200 francs (about 50 cents).

The boy also had to beg for food. Some days all he got was a discarded fish head, or a spoonful of rice.

By the second week, he was hungry all the time. On July 2, he begged until dark and got the 50 cents, but spent part of it on biscuits. When the marabout found out, the boy says, he got whipped until the skin on his back fell off. Hospital officials believe the whip was laced with metal.

With around 30 children in his care, the marabout was netting $430 a month, three times the salary of an average citizen and as much as a government official.

"Ask yourself, what is this money used for? The kids are not fed, so it's not for food. They wear rags, so it's not for clothes. They don't have mattresses, so it's not for their beds," says Paul Ndiaye, of the Swiss aid group Sentinelles, who has spent the last 10 years trying to get courts to take action against abusive marabouts. "This is a sham on a grand scale under the cover of religion."

The reaction from the boy's village doesn't surprise Aissatou Mbodj, Senegal's former Minister of the Family and now vice president of the country's parliament. Three years ago, a 3-year-old boy turned up at a government shelter, his back sliced open by his teacher's whip.

The boy's father refused to file charges. Mbodj was so angry that she paid a lawyer to file them herself. Soon after, she began receiving death threats.

"The parents of these children believe in these men so completely that when they hand over their sons they relinquish all control," says Mbodj, who is married to a prominent cleric. "They swear allegiance to the marabout and say that whatever happens to their son is for the child's good."

The marabout against whom she pressed charges was sentenced to five years in prison, in one of the only cases of firm reprimand by a Senegalese court. Far more cases end in a suspended sentence. The marabout in a town an hour away from Kaolack was given probation after leaving scars on the backs of five children.

Even hospitals have become wary of treating beaten talibe, or Quranic students, for fear of retaliation from the religious community.

Momodou Biteye's marabout is still awaiting trial. The father said he had no money for medicine, much less a lawyer or the multiple bus trips to the police station to file charges. But the Swiss aid group agreed to pay for hospital fees and help with transportation.

So when police asked the father to file charges, he did. Already, an organization representing 700 Quranic instructors has denounced him, calling him a bad Muslim and a puppet of Western donors.

Each evening at prayer time, a bone-colored moon rises over the village huts. Baba Biteye feels his way down the walls to find the floor. It's not easy to commit to memory the back-to-back verses of the Quran, says the blind old man. His memory of the scripture may not have lasted a lifetime if not for his teacher's stick.

"My grandson can say whatever he wants — but I know the truth," says the grandfather. "He was hit because he was lazy and refused to memorize his verses."

As he has for over 80 years, Baba Biteye bends his forehead to the ground. He murmurs the verses from the Quran that his own marabout taught him.

Aliens calling? Signals detected from beyond Solar System

Scientists in South Africa have detected radio signals from beyond the solar system for the first time – prompting a wave of excitement over who, or what, might have sent it. The signal is the most significant of its kind since radio telescopes started operating in the 1960s.

The discovery was made by the Indlebe Radio Telescope at Durban’s Technology University.

A strong radio signal, possibly of alien origin, was detected at around 21:14 local time on July 28. It came from Sagittarius A, the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 30,000 light years away.

The received data will shortly be made available to experts who can use it to create a graph.

Project leader Stuart MacPherson said he and his students were amazed when they realised the telescope had picked up a signal.

“We had made significant changes to the receiver to increase its sensitivity,” he said. “When we went in that morning to check the data, we found that it had detected a source. It’s unbelievable. It’s definitely a great relief for us because now we know that the radio telescope works.”

However, as the hardware used in the radio telescope has been designed by students and constructed on campus, the receipt of the signal still needs confirmation.

The Indlebe project, which takes it name from the Zulu for ‘ear’, was initiated in 2006. It uses a highly sensitive radio receiver to detect extra terrestrial radio sources.

Cult starves 'demon' toddler who wouldn't say 'amen': police

A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say "amen" after meals.

Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged with first-degree murder over the boy's death. Baltimore police said that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder.

Police and Ramkissoon's family say the group is a cult.

Members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing, and the boy died in his mother's arms, according to court documents that described police interviews with a confidential informant and two children. He would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.

Ramkissoon, 21, was being held in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Centre, and a bail review was postponed until Tuesday. Her public defender declined comment.

The three other people charged - Queen Antoinette, 40, also known as Toni Ellsberry or Toni Sloan; Marcus Cobbs, 21; and Trevia Williams, who turns 21 on Tuesday - were already in custody. They were arrested in May in New York City on warrants charging them with failure to appear in court in Baltimore. Those charges stemmed from a scuffle with police in a child custody dispute.

A fifth alleged cult member, Steven Bynum, has been charged in a warrant with first-degree murder and remains at large. He was believed to be in New York.

Ramkissoon's family said she should not be held responsible for her son's death.

"She had no control over that situation at all," her stepfather, Craig Newton, said.

Ramkissoon's mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, told The (Baltimore) Sun it wasn't her daughter's decision not to feed the boy.

"My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson," Khadan-Newton said. "Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions."

According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon's mother last saw her daughter in April 2006; she later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that "the cult leaders" were preventing her from contacting her daughter.

The documents show police interviewed two school-age children who had been part of the group but were taken away from members by Philadelphia police. The children told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December 2006, in part because the boy refused to say "amen" after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as "a demon".

Another unnamed informant told police that after Javon died, Antoinette left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming "God was going to raise Javon from the dead", the documents show.

Afterward, Antoinette burned the boy's clothing and a mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the odour, police claim in the court documents.

In early 2007, the group members left Baltimore for Philadelphia. They left the green suitcase and other luggage inside a shed belonging to a man they befriended while there, police said, and then relocated to Brooklyn, New York.

Police recovered the suitcase in April after they got a tip from the confidential informant. The remains of a small child were inside. DNA tests are pending to confirm the boy's identity.

GOP Rep. To Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved The Planet

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the Christian Right champion from Minnesota. But this latest is really out there -- Bachmann says we don't need pesky environmentalists like Nancy Pelosi around, because Jesus already saved the planet!

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet," Bachmann told the right-wing news site OneNewsNow. "We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

Let's see now: We got Mitt Romney that wears "magic underwear", we have Mike Huckabee that believes in talking snakes and now we have this looney tunes. No wonder this country has problems.

Prayer group says God lowered gas prices

Rocky Twyman says you can thank God for the recent drop in gasoline prices.

Twyman, who heads what he calls the "Pray at the Pump" movement, says he and his band of prayer warriors has been asking God for lower fuel prices at service stations around the country.

He and his followers held a victory celebration at a Shell station in Washington D.C. Wednesday.

Do you think his group would pray for me to win the Lottery?

Target has 79 year old taken in for mental evaluation after asking for cash refund

79-year-old Christina Brown had a sales receipt and bank records showing that Target had taken cash from her bank account, but the retailer refused to give her a cash refund — offering a gift certificate instead. Christina refused. She wanted her money, and said she'd stay at the Target all day if she had to, but she wasn't leaving without $30. Target told her she was trespassing and that they would call the police. Christina said that was fine with her and called 9-1-1 herself. When the police arrived, Target had Ms. Brown hauled out of the store on a stretcher and taken via ambulance to a hospital for a mental evaluation. Does wanting a cash refund mean you're potentially mentally ill?

"If they thought I was a cranky old biddy, they should just have given me my money and let me go," Christina told the Star-Tribune. "I paid in good faith, and I wanted my money back. That's all. It's the principle."

This clipping raises a good point: Most stores now extract the money immediately from your account when you write a check, so why do you have to wait a week for a refund? If they get their money instantly why can't you?

MURRIETA: Judge throws out religious discrimination suit

A federal judge in Los Angeles has thrown out the remaining claims of Calvary Chapel Christian School, which sued the University of California alleging university officials rejected some courses for credit because of their Christian viewpoint.

U.S. District Judge James Otero said in a summary judgment ruling released Friday that the school had failed to show evidence that UC officials had violated the First Amendment rights of the five Calvary students who sued along with the school and the Association of Christian Schools International.

Robert Tyler, an attorney who represented Calvary, said Friday night that the decision will be appealed.

"We always believed we were going to have to get up in the higher courts before we would get a ruling that would be favorable to us," said Tyler, general counsel for Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a religious liberty law firm in Murrieta.

In March, Otero threw out the Christian school's broader claims that UC policies were unconstitutional on their face. Friday's ruling concerned Calvary's claims that the policies were also unconstitutional as they were applied in the review of several classes.

Otero wrote that Calvary "provided no evidence of animus" on the part of university officials, whom he said had a "rational basis" for determining that the proposed Calvary courses would not meet the UC college preparatory requirements.

For instance, a UC professor who reviewed Calvary's proposed Christianity's Influence on America class said the course used a textbook that "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events," "attributes historical events to divine providence rather than analyzing human action," and "contains inadequate treatment of several major ethnic groups, women and non-Christian religious groups."

Another university professor agreed that the textbook from Bob Jones University shouldn't be used for a college-preparatory history class because it didn't encourage critical thinking skills and failed to cover "major topics, themes and components" of U.S. history, Otero wrote.

The judge said Calvary provided little admissible evidence to the contrary.

The court also ruled that UC officials had a rational reason to reject a course called World Religions for elective credit.

University reviewers had asked Calvary to accurately identify the book because they could not verify its existence and asked the school to show how the class "treats the study of religion from the standpoint of scholarly inquiry," Otero's ruling said. He said Calvary provided no evidence they had tried to clarify the content.

"[T]he course rejection feedback makes clear that the course may have been approved with minimal clarification," the judge wrote.

University officials have said they approved 43 courses from Calvary Chapel, which Tyler said Calvary students have used to gain admission to UC schools. There are other ways to be admitted, such as high test scores. However, Tyler said he fears schools will become afraid to teach from a Christian perspective.

"We're worried in the long term, Christian education is going to be continually watered down in order to satisfy the UC school system," he said.

A university spokesman could not be reached for comment late Friday.

US whites 'to be minority sooner'

so the u.s. census bureau says...

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New Species: Water Lily Helps Prove Evolution.

Scientists today have found a new species of water lily which helps forward the theory of evolution. Anyone who doubts this theory just visit this page.

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Bloggers Arrest Is On Rise

Most of those arrests are in countries with oppressive regimes, such as Egypt, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. But bloggers have been arrested in Canada, France, Greece, and even the U.S. (with Josh Wolf being one of the most famous incidents—he spent the better part of a year in jail for refusing to turn over journalistic video footage to a jury).

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The 6 Raunchiest, Most Depraved Sex Acts (From the Bible)

What happens when you take a really skanky sex story and dress it up in a lot of flowery words? You get the Bible. Or large chunks of it, anyway.

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Judge dismisses suit over Jesus filled graduation "sermon"

The brouhaha began more than two years ago when Corder, one of 15 valedictorians, ditched the graduation speech her principal thought she would deliver to her fellow classmates, and replaced it with a sermon urging them to find Jesus. This is the part of the speech that got her in trouble:

"We are all capable of standing firm and expressing our own beliefs, which is why I need to tell you about someone who loves you more than you could ever imagine. He died for you on a cross over 2,000 years ago, yet was resurrected and is living today in Heaven. His name is Jesus Christ. If you don't already know Him personally, I encourage you to find out more about the sacrifice He made for you, so that you now have the opportunity to live in eternity with Him."

Not amused, the principal had Corder write an e-mail letter of apology to her classmates before he would hand over her diploma. Off Corder went to Wheaton College in Illinois, but last August, with the help of the Lynchburg, Va.-based Liberty Counsel, a Christian law firm and ministry, Corder sued.

Last week U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller ruled that the school district did not violate Corder’s First Amendment rights. The speech, he ruled, was not “private speech in a limited public forum but rather school-sponsored speech.” In addition, the case was moot, Judge Miller ruled, as Corder has graduated.

But don’t expect Corder to necessarily move on. Last week she told the Colorado Springs Gazette that she may appeal the case: "I want to continue to do what God wants me to do, and he wants me to keep going." 


The 5 Most Ridiculously Unjust Religious Afterlives

All of you will die someday (you, not us-we're having our brains frozen) and many of you believe in some kind of afterlife.Unfortunately, depending on which religion you believe in, you can get totally screwed on Judgment Day based on a number of arbitrary technicalities. For instance

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Victoria Osteen: Humble servant of God ?

Victoria Osteen, co pastor of a Texas mega-Church has been in the news lately. An incident that actually took place in 2005 finally made it to court. While taking her seat our intrepid shevangelist noticed a stain on the arm of her first class seat. When the problem was not resolved as fast as she wanted, an altercation ensued. During the scuffle the right Reverend Ms. Osteen allegedly elbowed a Flight Attendant in the breast(yes she was female). Reverend Osteen paid a F.A.A fine($3000, pocket change for her probably,all she has to do is pull a Tammy Faye next Sunday to make it back) In any case, the flight attendant is suing(naturally).

Of course I do not know this woman and I have no idea of the validity of the case. However I do have a few questions about the situation. Would Jesus fly first class? Wouldn't it have been nice if she flew Coach and gave the difference to the poor?(Vickie I'm poor I'll email you my address) Would Jesus vacation in Vail Colorado? I have a feeling that she wasn't going there to preach to the sinners out there.(although there are a few people on the slopes that could use some Churchin' up) Vickie why didn't you just throw a napkin over that big old nasty stain, and wait for the plane to get to altitude and then have it cleaned up or switch seats? Vickie do you think that Jesus would bully and humiliate Flight Attendants? Are you so self important that you don't have to associate with us peons in coach? HMMMMMMMMM?

Now look Vicky, I will say that you better preserved than the typical big haired Jesus freak on TBN, but if you want to keep the tithes rolling in and the books, CDs and DVDs flying off the shelf you better be nicer to us poor peons.

Watch this PBS Nova episode called: "The Bible's Buried Secrets"

A group called "The American Family Association." Has a petition online to withdraw funding from PBS because of a TV show that hasn't even been broadcast. Let's show these right wing Bible thumpers that we Freethinkers value our Constitutional rights. Send some money to your local PBS affiliate and tell them you are looking forward to seeing that Nova episode when it airs in November

Now this is a wierd story.

A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She may be the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave.

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You mean those guys can speak in tongues any time they want?

Border guards told to stop U.S. church fanatics

Canadian border guards have been told to bar members of a fanatical American church from entering the country after they announced plans to protest at the funeral of the man decapitated on a Greyhound bus, says a Winnipeg MP.

Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based fundamentalist sect, said the protest is to let Canadians know that the slaying of Tim McLean on July 30 was God’s response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and adultery.

NDP MP Pat Martin said his office was flooded with phone calls Thursday from Winnipeggers offended by the group’s plan.

“These people (the WBC) are almost as crazy as the murderer,” he said, referring to the protesters’ intentions.

Hershey's Candy No Longer Legally Considered"Milk Chocolate"

The Candy Blog noticed that Hershey's have been reformulated, and can no longer be legally labeled "milk chocolate" because of FDA regulations.

I am so depressed

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Ouch!

Woman kills boyfriend for drinking her beer

Does this really need a description?

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This is GENIUS!

"This universal remote control is powered by a wind-up dynamo on its face instead of AAA batteries, and that's awesome. Not only is it eco-friendly but it's also a relief. There's nothing worse than using a remote with dying batteries. Apparently you can simply turn the handle 30 times and that will generate enough power to keep it going for a week, long enough for that Suddenly Susan marathon that starts on Monday you're so excited about. "

Newsflash:Biblical Scholars Say Jesus Did Not Look Like a Cheeto

HOUSTON. Biblical scholars have debunked a Houston minister’s claim that a Cheeto-brand snack he almost ate was made in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, saying that the Shroud of Turin and pictures in Sunday School books indicate that Jesus did not look like a Cheeto.

Dear sweet Cheesus or should I say Junkfood Jesus. I wonder if eating that cheesus would worse than what P.Z.Myers did to the host?

Matthew Bumpus just died for a Government that abandoned him

Please share this outrage! He served in the US Army for 8 years and 9 months. Staff Sergeant, Command Section Sergeant and Stryker Vehicle Commander; and was in Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment. He was exposed to radiation in Iraq. The V.A. repeatedly denied him. Please read his story. He leaves behind his wife and two sons.

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Man Calls 911 Over Incorrect Sandwich

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- An unhappy Subway customer called 911 not once, but twice to complain to police that his sandwich was not made to his liking.

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Kids need the adventure of 'risky' play

A major study says parents harm their children's development if they ban tree-climbing or conkers

It is a scene that epitomises childhood: young siblings racing towards a heavy oak tree, hauling themselves on to the lower branches and scrambling up as high as they can get. Yet millions of children are being deprived of such pleasure because their parents are nervous about exposing them to any risks, new research has revealed.

A major study by Play England, part of the National Children's Bureau, found that half of all children have been stopped from climbing trees, 21 per cent have been banned from playing conkers and 17 per cent have been told they cannot take part in games of tag or chase. Some parents are going to such extreme lengths to protect their children from danger that they have even said no to hide-and-seek.

'Children are not being allowed many of the freedoms that were taken for granted when we were children,' said Adrian Voce, director of Play England. 'They are not enjoying the opportunities to play outside that most people would have thought of as normal when they were growing up.'

Voce argued that it was becoming a 'social norm' for younger children to be allowed out only when accompanied by an adult. 'Logistically that is very difficult for parents to manage because of the time pressures on normal family life,' he said. 'If you don't want your children to play out alone and you have not got the time to take them out then they will spend more time on the computer.'

Voce pointed out how irrational some of these decisions were. Last year, almost three times as many children were admitted to hospital after falling out of bed as those who had fallen from a tree.

The tendency to wrap children in cotton wool has transformed how they experience childhood. According to the research, 70 per cent of adults had their biggest childhood adventures in outdoor spaces among trees, rivers and woods, compared with only 29 per cent of children today. The majority of young people questioned said that their biggest adventures took place in playgrounds.

Inmates To Get Free Condoms

A controversial new pilot program providing free condoms for prison inmates is in its final planning stages.The Solano State Prison is installing 10 condom distribution machines that will be stocked with 1,200 condoms a week.The hope is that the condoms will limit the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among inmates."We know risk behavior is being reduced," said Mary Sylla of the Center for Health Justice. "We will eventually be reducing HIV infections by this measure."A nonprofit group is supplying the prison with the machines and condoms, which comes out to costing a total of $60,000.

SWAT team kills 2 dogs in pot bust on Md. mayor's home

Yes, this is real: 36lbs of concealed pot get delivered to the home of the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Md. by officers posing as couriers, and the box is left outside. As soon as it is taken inside, SWAT storms the house, seizes the pot, arrests the Mayor and his family, and kills 2 of their dogs. The Mayor maintains he had nothing to do with the box.

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New drug turns couch potatos into athletes

People too busy – or lazy – to go for a run or hit the gym could swallow a pill and get the same boost, thanks to two different drugs that make mice run longer and further than un-doped mice.

"The first group that will use [them] is athletes," says Ronald Evans, a molecular biologist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. "Athletes have a very low threshold for experimenting with and using performance-enhancing drugs, and I have no doubt they will be the early adopters of both drugs."

The drugs seem to work by activating a key metabolic protein called PPAR-delta, which tells cells to burn extra fat and make more mitochondria – the cell's power-producing structures.

In 2004, Evans' team showed that "marathon mice", genetically engineered to crank up the protein, outpace normal mice on a treadmill.

Marijuana may provide colon cancer treatment

The chemicals in marijuana could put the brakes on colon cancer, according to new research. That doesn't mean smoking a joint will help, though, as the chemicals only form part of the process.

Raymond DuBois and colleagues at the University of Texas in Houston discovered that a key receptor for cannabinoids, which are found in marijuana, is turned off in most types of human colon cancer.

Without this receptor, a protein called survivin, which stops cells from dying, increases unchecked and causes tumour growth.

To better understand the role that the receptor, called CB1, plays in cancer progression, the researchers manipulated its expression in mice that had been genetically engineered to spontaneously develop colon tumours.

"When we knocked out the receptor, the number of tumors went up dramatically," says DuBois. Alternatively, when mice with normal CB1 receptors were treated with a cannabinoid compound, their tumours shrank.

A man accused of forcing his 7-year-old daughter to stab the family cat

A man accused of forcing his 7-year-old daughter to stab the family cat by holding a knife in her hand has pleaded guilty to three charges in the March attack.

Danield John Collins, 39, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of domestic violence/animal cruelty and two counts of neglect of a dependent. He was being held Thursday night at the Delaware County Jail on a $40,000 bond.

If a judge accepts the plea agreement, Collins will receive an 18-month sentence when he's sentenced on Aug. 28, and prosecutors will dismiss an intimidation charge he now faces.

Collins was arrested March 13 after he was accused of forcing his daughter to stab Boots, the family's eight-month-old feline, with a knife. The girl and Collins' 11-year-old son said their father ordered them to stab the cat because he wanted them to "learn to kill."

Jordanian charged after sister shot in suspected 'honour' killing

A 26-year-old Jordanian man was charged with murder on Friday after his 23-year-old sister was shot dead in an apparent "honour" killing, a security official said.

The unnamed suspect allegedly shot his sister six times on Thursday night in the Nqeira area south of the capital Amman, the official told AFP.

"He turned himself in and confessed to murdering his sister to cleanse his family's honour because she disappeared from home for four months with a man," the official said.

"He killed her the moment she returned home last night. But forensic tests showed that the girl was a virgin."

It was the eighth reported so-called honour killing this year, according to Jordanian authorities which in 2007 recorded 17 such murders -- a slight rise on previous years.

Those convicted in such cases often receive light sentences because parliament has twice refused to reform the penal code, despite pressure from human rights groups to end the near impunity of perpetrators.

When is the civilized world going to put a stop to this barbarism!?

The 8 Most Bizarre Patron Saints

God doesn't have time to sift through every prayer asking for help with a dog bite or syphilis. To help out, over the centuries the Catholic Church has recruited patron saints to act as sort of receptionists to sort through your requests. And lucky for you, there is a Saint for everything. And we mean EVERYTHING.

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Workers' Religious Freedom vs. Patients' Rights

Proposal Would Deny Federal Money if Employees Must Provide Care to Which They Object

If you click on the title of this post it will take you to an Washington Post story regarding proposed legislation to protect health care employees that refuse to go against their religious beliefs in treating patients. My question is: if myself or a loved one is laying bleeding in an E.R. and a life saving transfusion is needed, would a Jehovah's Witness nurse(or doctor or some other flavor of health care professional) be compelled to give a transfusion?

Woman sues ferry company over 'ticks nightmare'

An Italian woman is suing a ferry company after waking up in a first-class cabin "covered in ticks from head to toe". Cristina Sassudelli, 41, was making a night crossing at the weekend from the northern city of Genoa to the port of Olbia on the southern Italian island of Sardinia.

"At 6.30am, I was wakened by the itching on one arm and I realised I was covered with ticks from head to toe," she said, according to accounts in several Italian dailies.

"I have always had dogs and I saw immediately that these weren't any kind of insect. There were hundreds of them," she added.

Staff on the ferry, run by a company called La Tirrenia, took her infested clothes and gave her new ones that were far too big, she said.

The company did not reimburse her for her first-class ticket, she said.

Man on bus decapitates seatmate

Passengers aboard a Canadian bus fled in horror as a fellow traveler viciously attacked his seat mate, repeatedly stabbing him and then severing his head, witnesses said Thursday.

Police said a 40-year-old man was arrested after the grisly attack late Wednesday night aboard a Greyhound bus en route from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The suspect was captured as he tried to escape from the bus early Thursday about three hours after the violence, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Steve Colwell told reporters.

Authorities declined to provide details beyond that the victim had been stabbed. They said a motive hadn't been determined and refused to identify the suspect or the victim.

But passenger Garnet Caton said the victim, who appeared to be about 19, was sleeping with headphones on when his seat mate suddenly began stabbing him as the bus traveled a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway, a dozen miles from Portage La Prairie.

Caton, sitting just one seat in front of the two men, said he heard no exchanges between them prior to the violence.

"We heard this bloodcurdling scream and turned around, and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy repeatedly," Caton said from a hotel in Brandon, Manitoba, where he and other horrified passengers were taken.

Caton said the driver stopped the bus when he became aware of the attack and passengers scrambled off. A short while later, Caton said he re-boarded along with the bus driver and a trucker who had stopped to see what was happening.

He said the suspect had the victim on the floor of the bus and "was cutting his head off" with a large hunting knife.

"When he was attacking him, he was calm," said Caton. "There was no rage or, or anything. He was just like a robot stabbing the guy."

The attacker turned toward them and the three men quickly left the bus, blocking the door as the attacker slashed at them through an opening. The three secured the door to prevent the man's escape. Caton said the driver disabled the vehicle after the attacker tried to drive it away.

As the three guarded the door with a crow bar and a hammer, the attacker went back to the body and calmly came to the front of the bus to show off the head.

Cody Olmstead, another passenger, said the man "dropped the head and went back and started cutting the body." Olmstead said the man later use the head to taunt police.

By midday Thursday, the bus was still parked at the side of the highway, surrounded by squad cars as white-suited investigators examined the vehicle and ground nearby.

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said there had been 37 passengers aboard, many watching a movie when the violence erupted. She called the attack tragic but isolated.

"You're sitting there enjoying your trip and then all of a sudden somebody gets stabbed. I imagine it would be pretty traumatic," Colwell said.

He said the actions of truck driver, bus driver and Caton probably prevented anyone else from being hurt. They "were very brave."

The victim had been on the bus since Edmonton. Caton said the attacker boarded the bus in Brandon, Manitoba, about 80 miles west of Portage La Prairie.

The suspect had been on the bus about an hour and initially did not sit near the victim, Caton said. But changed seats after a rest stop.

"This particular incident, as horrific as it is, is obviously extremely rare," said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. He did not provide any details, saying he did not want to jeopardize the investigation.

I may never ride the bus again

Activists Raise Global Stink Over Cows

Burgeoning efforts to curb global-warming pollution are taking aim at an unlikely new target: the placid, cud-chewing -- and apparently rather gassy -- cow.

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See I told you, Flying cow dirigibles of death! Damn Argentinians!

Please Jesus, no starch in my "Whitey Tidies"

Another bizarro from Ohio

One of the TV shows that I detest the most is "So you think you can dance". One of the main reasons(one of many) that I find it so repulsive is one of the judges named Mary Murphy. What really puts me off about this woman is that this woman has had so much Botox evidently that the upper part of her face seems to be paralyzed. The top half of her face does not seem to be able to move. She just stares in a zombie like mode.The woman creeps me out. To make her even more revolting she evidently suffers from some sort of self induced Turrets syndrome. When on camera she utters all sort of screams, grunts and cackles. I bet small children and puppies run from her in terror.

But once again to add insult to injury, Wikipedia says that she is from Ohio. She's from, of all places, Canal Fulton. I've been there a couple of times to visit one of my evil stepsisters so I can see why she'd want to leave. About the only thing I can say nice about Mary Murphy is that she is slightly less crazy than Paula Abdul.