What Obama For America

Carter Sets Armageddon Back on Track

The Israelis have never confirmed they have nuclear weapons, but this has been widely assumed since a scientist leaked details in the 1980s.

He also described Israeli treatment of Palestinians as "one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth".
Mr Carter gave the figure for the Israeli nuclear arsenal in response to a question on US policy on a possible nuclear-armed Iran, arguing that any country newly armed with atomic weapons faced overwhelming odds.

The US, a key ally of Israel, has in general followed the country's policy of "nuclear ambiguity", neither confirming or denying the existence of its assumed arsenal.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused US President George W Bush of bias towards Israel, "What the president said at the Knesset made us angry, and to be honest, we don't accept it," Mr Abbas said.
"We had many things to say about it, and we told him this when we met him yesterday, because we speak with him openly, honestly and transparently. We have asked him to maintain a balanced position," Mr Abbas said.

Mr Bush had told Israeli politicians that the US was their closest ally, and that their country was a "homeland for the chosen people".

Few Palestinians regard President Bush as an honest broker, and his latest visit to the region seems to have reinforced that view, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Maybe there is a Case for Darwin

'Narnia' Bible Study

Prince Caspian brought in more than $56 million over the weekend in the U.S. and Canada, and an additional $20 million overseas. Like The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, this C.S. Lewis classic is providing an opportunity for evangelism.

Just as the new Disney film opens in theaters nation-wide, a Christian group, Outreach Incorporated, is launching a massive Bible study program based on this C.S. Lewis classic.

"If we go back to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, when the kids left Narnia, Narnia was a place of faith. And Aslan was present. When we fast forward and they go back into Narnia a year later it's been 1,300 Narnia years," Evans said.
"During that 1,300 years when the kids go back, there is no more faith," he added.

The strong biblical lessons of Prince Caspian drive home spiritual truths, Evans said.

Britain: 'Muslims will outnumber Christians by 2035'

Practicing Muslims will outnumber worshipping Christians in Britain within 30 years, according to research published today. By 2035, there will be about 1.96 million active Muslims in Britain, compared with 1.63 million church-going Christians, according to calculations by Christian Research, a think- tank. The figures are published in the latest in a series of reports entitled Religious Trends.

The think-tank has warned that 4,000 churches could close by 2020 if congregations continue to shrink at current rates. According to the most recent figures from the Church of England, regular Sunday, weekly and monthly attendance each fell by one per cent in 2006.

Fewer than a million people attend church every Sunday. Although at the last count there were only 1.6million Muslims living in Britain – compared to 41million Christians – experts have suggested Muslims are more likely to practice their faith. More than half of the Muslims who responded to the 2001 census said they prayed every day, compared to 6.3 per cent of Christians who attend church services each week.

Working on a Sunday

Luke 6;6
The Man with the Paralyzed Hand
6 On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was paralyzed. 7 The scribes and Pharisees were watching Him closely, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against Him. 8 But He knew their thoughts and told the man with the paralyzed hand, "Get up and stand here." So he got up and stood there.

9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" 10 After looking around at them all, He told him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Expelled!

Ben Stein has a dangerous idea. His idea is that professors and teachers who express skepticism about Darwinism are likely to find themselves not granted tenure, castigated and ridiculed, and disqualified from the opportunity to have research papers published.

Stein documents this in his new movie "Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed." As you would expect, it is drawing highly critical reviews from the usual suspects. One agitated reviewer on a blog said the movie was filled with half-truths and outright lies. It would be interesting to see what this same source had to say about the latest documentary movies promoted by Al Gore and Michael Moore.

Having reviewed the movie myself, it appeared that Stein was trying to make the case for academic freedom, not attempted to convert anyone to a particular ideological position. Stein, in fact, never makes it known what particular beliefs he holds personally, he merely makes it known that he is disgusted by the idea that someone could lose their job over honest doubts about Darwinism.

Sheer Terror

Ephesians 4:32
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.


It occurs to me that in the advent of cultural bankruptcy that the idea of kindness strikes so much fear into the soul that people have to cling to media manipulation and conspiracy theories.

Nuclear Iran

The prime minister held out hope that diplomatic efforts by the United States, the European Union and Russia aimed at ensuring the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program would bear fruit.

"I hope they will be successful," Olmert said.
However, he sharply disagreed with findings contained in last year's US National Intelligence Estimate, which argued that Iran's military nuclear program had been halted in 2003.
"Based on the information we have, the military program continues and has never been stopped," Olmert insisted.
"If this program continues, at some point they will be in possession of a nuclear weapon," he warned.

"Israel will not tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of people who say openly, explicitly and publicly that they want to wipe Israel off the map. Why should we?" Olmert asked in an interview with The Washington Post.

The Jewish state will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, but expressed hope the international community would be successful in checking Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Genetic Discrimination Outlawed

Last week, with little attention or fanfare, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 414 to 1 to outlaw genetic discrimination. The only dissenter was the irascible libertarian Ron Paul.

"The bill tells employers and insurance companies that they may not use the results of genetic tests in choosing their employees and customers. One purpose of the bill is to encourage genetic testing. But the more important reason for it is to uphold a sense of fairness.

This law forbids the use of genetic information garnered in blood tests. But your genes affect your life in many ways. To avoid all the controversy around the concept of "intelligence," let's consider a slightly different concept called "talent."

The same politicians who voted last week to forbid genetic discrimination, because they apparently believe you should not gain any advantage or suffer any disadvantage as a result of the genes you inherit from your parents, have also voted to abolish the estate tax, because they apparently believe there should be no limit whatsoever on how much money you can inherit. "

Time magazine wrote this and the comparison of money to eugenics is hilarious. I guess these peeps use anything and everything they can to get ahead and their market share is still dissolving.

The Weather Cult is Wrong Again

Big Media's Global Warning bias has largely remained in the realm of theory; now it has begun to endanger people's lives and property in real time.
The AP and the Globe had the choice of reporting a truly inconvenient truth -- for them -- or of perpetuating Global Warning, of facilitating officials' efforts to protect the public or advancing their ideological agenda. Why are we not surprised by the decision they made?

The new study, funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, suggests that warming in Antarctica could offset this amount by about 2 inches (5 centimeters) if the continent warms by 5.4 F (3 C), as warmer air would hold more moisture and generate more snowfall, which contributes to the growth of the ice sheets, locking up any additional water in the these large masses of ice. That would mean a rise of only 5 to 21 inches (13 to 54 centimenters).

Rush: On the 7th of May, a couple of days ago the UK Daily Mail published some color pictures of the aftermath of the eruption of the volcano in southern Chile. The amount of ash that was spewed into the atmosphere would dwarf the amount of pollution the United States automobile industry has created since the invention of the automobile. And I say this in the context of there is not a human being on this planet who could be teleported somewhere else in the universe, earth wiped out, and this smart human being, "Okay, recreate it. Here's your chalkboard, here's your computer, here's the software, you go design just the climate. I'll handle everything else." God says, "You do the climate." Folks, there is not enough knowledge, there is not enough understanding; it could not be done. And of course this is obvious.

Happy 60th and here's to 2000 More!

Of Burma and Katrina

Rush: It is due to one simple fact, maybe not just one, but I think the central characteristic here of these massive humanitarian disasters is that when people are denied freedom, the results can be deadly. Millions of poor people in Burma live on a floodplain right along the coast, and the reason they do is because they have to raise enough rice to support their families. They have no freedom. They have no freedom to move around. They have no property rights or anything else. They have to live where they live right in the target of a floodplain, just to be able to eat.

Now, you can contrast this with the poor people in New Orleans, who did hear the warnings before Hurricane Katrina. At least they had the freedom to choose to stay or to leave, which helps illustrate the fact that we have the richest poor people in the world. They had every warning available to them, they all had televisions, most of them had cars, or they had ways of getting out. They had the freedom to choose whether to leave or stay.

That was not the case in Burma. So what we have here, folks, we have one more example of what can happen when people are denied freedom, freedom to own property and to benefit in proportions to one's own creativity and hard work, and a lot of people are going to blame this on global warming and climate change and all this, and all these poor people.

Dissing the Delphi

Three steps can diffuse the Delphi Technique as facilitators attempt to steer a meeting in a specific direction.

Always be charming, courteous, and pleasant. Smile. Moderate your voice so as not to come across as belligerent or aggressive.

Stay focused. If possible, jot down your thoughts or questions. When facilitators are asked questions they don't want to answer, they often digress from the issue that was raised and try instead to put the questioner on the defensive. Do not fall for this tactic. Courteously bring the facilitator back to your original question. If he rephrases it so that it becomes an accusatory statement (a popular tactic), simply say, "That is not what I asked. What I asked was . . ." and repeat your question.

Be persistent. If putting you on the defensive doesn't work, facilitators often resort to long monologues that drag on for several minutes. During that time, the group usually forgets the question that was asked, which is the intent. Let the facilitator finish. Then with polite persistence state: "But you didn't answer my question. My question was . . ." and repeat your question.


To accompany a wonderfully functional sermon by Pastor Larry Wood.
Turning Bitterness Into Sweetness
Exodus 15:22-27

Freesboro's Revenge