A hodge-podge of items today, mostly left over from the last few days when I've been busy with this so-called "real life". pffft. Who needs that?



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Untouched water

More than 1 billion people, almost 20% of the global population, lack access to clean drinking water. Two billion more lack access to basic sanitation. Nearly 2 million children around the world will die this year from water-related illnesses, and with populations in the poorest regions growing faster than in industrialized areas we can expect this number to increase. Meanwhile, the United States has little to say on global or domestic water policy.

Fortune magazine reports that the global water crisis will be as serious in the 21st century as oil crises were in the 20th, potentially leading to warfare. So it should come as a shock that water is not on the lips of the presidential candidates.

Scientists to gather over worsening Murray crisis

There was an air of desperation in Melbourne today, when some of Australia's top water scientists gathered to urge politicians to do more, urgently, to save the Murray-Darling river system.

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Western world is losing Christian values, says leading bishop

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed the declining importance of the church was creating a "double jeopardy" situation where faith was being challenged at a time when society would most benefit.

He said believers needed to "recover their nerve" and spread the Gospel again.

Romans 1:16-17 (New International Version)


16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[a] just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."[b]

Dr Nazir-Ali said when changes took place in society they must be assessed against the Bible to see whether they should be accepted, and should not just be waved through.

He said those who were attending Gafcon, many of whom like him are boycotting the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference gathering of bishops because of their opposition to liberals over homosexuality, were at the forefront of a revival of Anglicanism.

"You are the miraculous beginning of a movement for the renewal of the church."

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. --Romans 12:1-3 (Amplified Bible)



Looks like he's got his act together.



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Florida Buying Big Sugar Tract for Everglades

LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — The dream of a restored Everglades, with water flowing from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, moved a giant step closer to reality on Tuesday when the nation’s largest sugarcane producer agreed to sell all of its assets to the state and go out of business.

Under the proposed deal, Florida will pay $1.75 billion for United States Sugar, which would have six years to continue farming before turning over 187,000 acres north of Everglades National Park, along with two sugar refineries, 200 miles of railroad and other assets.

Wait, what? The state is going through a huge budget crunch, resulting in the layoff of 2100 teachers and numerous law enforcement and corrections officers but we can shell out 1.75 billion for swampland? Aaaarrgh!





Scuffles Break out Between Wisconsin Flood Victims in Line for Food Vouchers

MILWAUKEE — Pushing and shoving broke out among some of the 2,500 people hit hard by recent floods who lined up outside a county office early Monday in hopes of collecting free food vouchers.

Some residents told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they heard from friends or at food pantries that they could get free vouchers to replace food lost in recent floods and power outages. But the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center was just taking names for a state voucher program.

Scuffles began breaking out around 7 a.m. with people shoving, pushing, and taking a door off its hinges, police said. Police arrived in dozens of squad cars and restored
order.

Photo:http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/graphic.asp?graphic=http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jun08/crowd_62508_big.jpg



You know what troubles me about this picture? Look at all the women and kids. Momma and Grandma couldn't find a babysitter for a few hour while they took care of this? No man of the house to stand in line while the kids stay home? :(





AQ Khan 'nuclear middleman' freed

The Malaysian government says it has released an alleged middleman in the nuclear secrets ring run by disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan.

Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman, was arrested in Kuala Lumpur in May 2004.

US President George W Bush described him as AQ Khan's "chief financial officer and money launderer".

Well, I feel safe now, don't you?







Messianic Jews to protest 'discrimination'

A contingent of about 300 Messianic Jews from the US will protest this weekend against what they call Israel's discriminatory immigration policy against Jews who believe that Jesus is the messiah.

The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an umbrella body for about 80 US congregations, is holding a three-day conference in Jerusalem that starts Thursday.

During the conference a number of issues will be discussed - including the recent public burning by haredim of New Testaments distributed by missionaries in Or Akiva, a bomb attack that seriously wounded the son of well-known Messianic Jew in Ariel and the attempt to disqualify a Messianic Jewish high school girl from this year's International Bible Quiz for Jewish youth.

I love the scare quotes in the title. ;P





Signs of division on Egypt's brow

The zebiba used to be the mark of an elderly Muslim man, the fruit of a lifetime's devotion, but it is increasingly seen on the faces of young Egyptians.

Literally meaning "a raisin", the zebiba is a patch of hardened skin where the forehead touches the ground during Muslim prayers.

Some welcome the trend as a sign of devotion, others say it is ostentatious piety.

Worse still there are fears public displays of faith like the zebiba and the hijab, or headscarf, are spilling over into vigilantism.

Liberals or Christians who don't conform in the workplace or on the street say they are being harassed.

Display the mark, or be attacked. Yeah, nothing creepy or prophetic about that. *whistles*



A Dark Past
Contraception, abortion, and the eugenics movement.
By Jonah Goldberg

Read it, read it, read it! And throw it in the face of the next person who spouts crapola about how great Planned Parenthood is.


And speaking of death activists...

Drug company supplies cancer drug Oregon Health Plan won't

EUGENE, Ore. — After weeks of bad news, things turned Barbara Wagner’s way this week. Last month her lung cancer, in remission for about two years, was back. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that could slow the cancer growth and extend her life, Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover it.

It would cover comfort and care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.

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Court bans death penalty for child rape

Rape and other crimes "may be as devastating in their harm, as here, but 'in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public,' they cannot be compared to murder in their 'severity and irrevocability,'" Kennedy said, quoting from earlier decisions.

We are talking about children under the age of twelve. Anyone who gives a $#!+ about the value of life would agree that child rape is much more injurious to the public than treason, yes?

"The opinion reads more like an out-of-control legislative debate than a constitutional analysis," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican. "One thing is clear: The five members of the court who issued the opinion do not share the same 'standards of decency' as the people of Louisiana."

The more I know about this guy, the more I like him. I'm pro-death penalty, though I think we need to be careful about it. Rape of a child that age is a no-brainer, though. I consider that even worse than murder.


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And now, a bit of good news:

Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Gun Ban, Upholds Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a constitutional right to keep guns in their homes for self-defense, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun control in U.S. history.

I'm still reading the raw decision, but I can tell you this: Stevens has his head up his ass.

In a dissent he summarized from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority "would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons."

He said such evidence "is nowhere to be found."

Fool. No other word for it. That is EXACTLY why we have the second amendment.