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.