A growing list....
From the EPW Senate blog:
Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report -- updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” -- features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.
The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grow louder in 2008 as a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments challenged the UN’s and former Vice President Al Gore's claims that the "science is settled" and there is a "consensus." On a range of issues, 2008 proved to be challenging for the promoters of man-made climate fears. Promoters of anthropogenic warming fears endured the following: Global temperatures failing to warm; Peer-reviewed studies predicting a continued lack of warming; a failed attempt to revive the discredited “Hockey Stick”; inconvenient developments and studies regarding rising CO2; the Spotless Sun; Clouds; Antarctica; the Arctic; Greenland’s ice; Mount Kilimanjaro; Global sea ice; Causes of Hurricanes; Extreme Storms; Extinctions; Floods; Droughts; Ocean Acidification; Polar Bears; Extreme weather deaths; Frogs; lack of atmospheric dust; Malaria; the failure of oceans to warm and rise as predicted. ...(more)
Friday, January 9, 2009
Rare Snowfall in London Helps Bobbies Track Down Bungling Burglars
That damn (uncooperative) "global warming", oops, I mean "climate change", strikes again.
From Dr Bulldog:
I bet those two young burglars are now wishing that global warming was more than just a myth…
...Rare snowfall in London, as temperatures reached minus 10C, meant the criminals had left a trail of evidence with every step along their escape route.
At around 4.30am, with local residents still in bed, the trail in the fresh snow was unsullied by commuters. Officers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, were able to follow the prints along Glebe Road, across driveways and down alleys....(more)
From Dr Bulldog:
I bet those two young burglars are now wishing that global warming was more than just a myth…
...Rare snowfall in London, as temperatures reached minus 10C, meant the criminals had left a trail of evidence with every step along their escape route.
At around 4.30am, with local residents still in bed, the trail in the fresh snow was unsullied by commuters. Officers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, were able to follow the prints along Glebe Road, across driveways and down alleys....(more)
HAMAS' EVIL MAP-PLAN FOUND FOR CIVILIANS AS SHIELDS
From NY Post:
Israeli soldiers yesterday discovered a hand-drawn Hamas map revealing how the terror group is exploiting Gaza's civilian population by deploying snipers, booby-trapping homes and planting bombs, officials said.
"Hamas makes cynical use of civilian homes," said Israel's chief intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. Yuval Halamish.
The map of the northern Gaza town of al-Atatra was translated on the scene and helped the Israeli troops in subsequent operations, he said.
The block-by-block sketch was apparently based on a view taken from Google Maps.
On the map, Hamas split up the town into three sectors - red, blue and green - and highlighted sites such as mosques, a gas station and a fuel depot, the Jerusalem Post and Yediot Ahronoth newspapers reported on their Web sites.
"You can see that the neighborhood was divided into three areas of fighting, according to color, and inside, the terrorists spread out a number of posts, planted explosive devices and posted sharpshooters," Halamish said...(more)
Israeli soldiers yesterday discovered a hand-drawn Hamas map revealing how the terror group is exploiting Gaza's civilian population by deploying snipers, booby-trapping homes and planting bombs, officials said.
"Hamas makes cynical use of civilian homes," said Israel's chief intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. Yuval Halamish.
The map of the northern Gaza town of al-Atatra was translated on the scene and helped the Israeli troops in subsequent operations, he said.
The block-by-block sketch was apparently based on a view taken from Google Maps.
On the map, Hamas split up the town into three sectors - red, blue and green - and highlighted sites such as mosques, a gas station and a fuel depot, the Jerusalem Post and Yediot Ahronoth newspapers reported on their Web sites.
"You can see that the neighborhood was divided into three areas of fighting, according to color, and inside, the terrorists spread out a number of posts, planted explosive devices and posted sharpshooters," Halamish said...(more)
Better keep all the witches, well-diggers and brass monkeys in
From AcuWeather:
Beyond the weekend, waves of arctic air will plunge over the eastern two-thirds of the nation. Blustery winds will usher the bitterly cold air southward, resulting in even colder and potentially dangerous AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures.
The first wave of cold will grip the Midwest and Northeast Tuesday into Wednesday. The second wave later in the week will not only encompass more places east of the Rockies, but threatens to be harsher than the first.
Beyond the weekend, waves of arctic air will plunge over the eastern two-thirds of the nation. Blustery winds will usher the bitterly cold air southward, resulting in even colder and potentially dangerous AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures.
The first wave of cold will grip the Midwest and Northeast Tuesday into Wednesday. The second wave later in the week will not only encompass more places east of the Rockies, but threatens to be harsher than the first.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Into Eternity, Brother...
When I eat lunch each day in my classroom, I check the news at www.cnn.com and www.cnsnews.com. Then I head over to this blog to see what is going on. I stopped in mid-bite and tears came to my eyes as this post greeted me.
I cannot begin to say what the writings of Richard John Neuhaus have meant to me. In the early 1990s, I devoured the book he co-authored with Chuck Colson titled Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Since then I have savored his exquisite reflection on the last words of Christ called Death On A Friday Afternoon. Most recently I have been reading his book Catholic Matters. I can also recall vividly his commentary with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States. Father Neuhaus represented to this Protestant what is best in Catholicism. His doctrinal orthodoxy and his ability to articulate it are exceeded perhaps only by the current pope. I conclude with these words from the 1st century B.C. Roman poet Catullus. In perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale. "Into eternity, my brother, hail and farewell."
I cannot begin to say what the writings of Richard John Neuhaus have meant to me. In the early 1990s, I devoured the book he co-authored with Chuck Colson titled Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Since then I have savored his exquisite reflection on the last words of Christ called Death On A Friday Afternoon. Most recently I have been reading his book Catholic Matters. I can also recall vividly his commentary with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States. Father Neuhaus represented to this Protestant what is best in Catholicism. His doctrinal orthodoxy and his ability to articulate it are exceeded perhaps only by the current pope. I conclude with these words from the 1st century B.C. Roman poet Catullus. In perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale. "Into eternity, my brother, hail and farewell."
Richard John Neuhaus, 1936–2009
Sigh ) -:
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.
My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.
I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away. From First Things
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.
My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.
I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away. From First Things
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Holocaust Envy - Who Are the Real Nazis?
From the NRO
Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”
This is what one young woman thought passed for acceptable discourse during an anti-Israel rally last week in, of all places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other chants were similarly unlovely. You can watch it on YouTube if you like....
...At a Saturday protest in New York against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, some carried signs that read: “Israel: The Fourth Reich,” “Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors,” “Stop Israel’s Holocaust,” “Holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop the Zionist Genocide in Gaza.”
Type “Israel” and “Nazi” into any news search engine and you’ll be rewarded, or punished, with a bounty of such statements from just the last week or so. Gaza is the new Auschwitz, the Israeli Defense Forces are SS troops ... I find myself tempted to simply write “et cetera” because it’s all so familiar by now. But to do that is to dismiss, and therefore accept, such grotesqueries as trivialities, when in fact such charges are deeply revealing — just not about Israel.
First, let us note that if supposedly all-powerful Israel is dedicated to exterminating the Palestinian people, it is doing a bad job.
The Palestinian population has only grown since 1948. There are more Arab citizens living in Israel proper today than there were in all of Palestine the year Israel was founded.
Perhaps one reason Israel fails at genocide is that it isn’t interested in genocide? That would explain why Israel warned thousands of Gazans by cell phone to leave homes near Hamas rocket stockpiles. It would clarify why, even amid all-out war, it offers aid to enemy civilians. It would even illuminate the otherwise mysterious clamor from Israelis for a viable “peace partner.”
But no. For millions of Israel haters, the more plausible explanation is that the “defiant” Palestinians have miraculously survived Israel’s determination to wipe them out.
Meanwhile, calls for the complete extermination of Israel are routine. The Hamas charter, invoking the fraudulent “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as justification, demands the destruction of Israel. Hamas exists solely because it is dedicated to the complete obliteration of the “Zionist entity.” Remove that “principle” and Hamas is meaningless.
A sick mixture of Holocaust envy and Holocaust denial is the defining spirit of Hamas. Indeed, Holocaust denial passes for a scholarly pursuit not just in Gaza but throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world.
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, literally earned a doctorate in it. His doctoral thesis became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, in which he denounces “the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that 6 million Jews were killed.”
In Hamas’ eyes, Abbas is an incorrigible moderate.It’s Palestinian Islamists who have ideological and political ties to Nazism stretching back to the days of “Hitler’s Mufti,” Haj Amin al-Husseini, a happy warrior for the Nazi cause....(more)
Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”
This is what one young woman thought passed for acceptable discourse during an anti-Israel rally last week in, of all places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other chants were similarly unlovely. You can watch it on YouTube if you like....
...At a Saturday protest in New York against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, some carried signs that read: “Israel: The Fourth Reich,” “Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors,” “Stop Israel’s Holocaust,” “Holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop the Zionist Genocide in Gaza.”
Type “Israel” and “Nazi” into any news search engine and you’ll be rewarded, or punished, with a bounty of such statements from just the last week or so. Gaza is the new Auschwitz, the Israeli Defense Forces are SS troops ... I find myself tempted to simply write “et cetera” because it’s all so familiar by now. But to do that is to dismiss, and therefore accept, such grotesqueries as trivialities, when in fact such charges are deeply revealing — just not about Israel.
First, let us note that if supposedly all-powerful Israel is dedicated to exterminating the Palestinian people, it is doing a bad job.
The Palestinian population has only grown since 1948. There are more Arab citizens living in Israel proper today than there were in all of Palestine the year Israel was founded.
Perhaps one reason Israel fails at genocide is that it isn’t interested in genocide? That would explain why Israel warned thousands of Gazans by cell phone to leave homes near Hamas rocket stockpiles. It would clarify why, even amid all-out war, it offers aid to enemy civilians. It would even illuminate the otherwise mysterious clamor from Israelis for a viable “peace partner.”
But no. For millions of Israel haters, the more plausible explanation is that the “defiant” Palestinians have miraculously survived Israel’s determination to wipe them out.
Meanwhile, calls for the complete extermination of Israel are routine. The Hamas charter, invoking the fraudulent “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as justification, demands the destruction of Israel. Hamas exists solely because it is dedicated to the complete obliteration of the “Zionist entity.” Remove that “principle” and Hamas is meaningless.
A sick mixture of Holocaust envy and Holocaust denial is the defining spirit of Hamas. Indeed, Holocaust denial passes for a scholarly pursuit not just in Gaza but throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world.
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, literally earned a doctorate in it. His doctoral thesis became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, in which he denounces “the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that 6 million Jews were killed.”
In Hamas’ eyes, Abbas is an incorrigible moderate.It’s Palestinian Islamists who have ideological and political ties to Nazism stretching back to the days of “Hitler’s Mufti,” Haj Amin al-Husseini, a happy warrior for the Nazi cause....(more)
The Trinity in Romans
STR alerts us to a fine sermon:
Fred Sanders preaches on the Trinity in the book of Romans. Here's his summary and the reason to listen to it:
The Trinity is lurking in Romans, and I hope you can see that it is lurking in the life of every believer. This trinitarian reality is going on in your life whether you know that you know it or not.
Fred Sanders preaches on the Trinity in the book of Romans. Here's his summary and the reason to listen to it:
The Trinity is lurking in Romans, and I hope you can see that it is lurking in the life of every believer. This trinitarian reality is going on in your life whether you know that you know it or not.
Hamas's 'Sole Strategy is Destruction and Chaos'
There is a good dose of Fatah camel hockey here but it's still interesting:
Mohammed Dahlan, 47, is the former head of security for Fatah in the Gaza Strip. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses the Israeli war against Hamas and why he believes the Islamist organization will lose the next election.
...SPIEGEL: But doesn't the war offer Fatah a new opportunity to assume power in Gaza again?
Dahlan: We will only return to Gaza after we have won an election -- not through military force. If you ask me personally, though, I am happy about the coup against Hamas.
SPIEGEL: What do you mean?
Dahlan: The Palestinians have now realized that Hamas is not capable of governing. Their leaders were celebrated as resistance fighters and for fighting corruption, but since their election they have lost all legitimacy. Their sole strategy is destruction and chaos. Hamas has lost its appeal -- and it will lose the next election.
Another good article from American Thinker on the destruction and chaos wrought by Hamas:
Hamas leaders take refuge in hospitals
Hamas' cruelty towards Israeli civilians is reflected in its cruelty to its own civilians. Hamas, like the other Arab/Muslim states and guerrillas, considers all Israelis as the enemy, making no distinction between civilians and military targets. Israeli hospitals, schools and homes are deliberately bombed.
But while Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties Hamas cowardly exploits what they think is an Israeli weakness, exposing its own people to the terror it poured on Israel. (more)
Mohammed Dahlan, 47, is the former head of security for Fatah in the Gaza Strip. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses the Israeli war against Hamas and why he believes the Islamist organization will lose the next election.
...SPIEGEL: But doesn't the war offer Fatah a new opportunity to assume power in Gaza again?
Dahlan: We will only return to Gaza after we have won an election -- not through military force. If you ask me personally, though, I am happy about the coup against Hamas.
SPIEGEL: What do you mean?
Dahlan: The Palestinians have now realized that Hamas is not capable of governing. Their leaders were celebrated as resistance fighters and for fighting corruption, but since their election they have lost all legitimacy. Their sole strategy is destruction and chaos. Hamas has lost its appeal -- and it will lose the next election.
Another good article from American Thinker on the destruction and chaos wrought by Hamas:
Hamas leaders take refuge in hospitals
Hamas' cruelty towards Israeli civilians is reflected in its cruelty to its own civilians. Hamas, like the other Arab/Muslim states and guerrillas, considers all Israelis as the enemy, making no distinction between civilians and military targets. Israeli hospitals, schools and homes are deliberately bombed.
But while Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties Hamas cowardly exploits what they think is an Israeli weakness, exposing its own people to the terror it poured on Israel. (more)
Inauguration 2009: 'So Help Me God' At Risk
From the AmericanThinker some good (if somewhat disheartening) reading on the Establishment Clause (or what is left of it)
With the approach of the presidential inauguration, America's most notorious atheist, Michael Newdow, is back in the headlines. Once again, he and an assortment of other plaintiffs are challenging the long-standing addendum, "So help me God," to the presidential oath of office. The lawsuit, filed by the American Humanist Association on Dec. 30, also challenges as unconstitutional, the pending invocation and benediction prayers to be offered respectively by Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery at the swearing-in ceremony of President-select Barack Obama on Jan. 20....
...Many words may be used to describe Michael Newdow, but unintelligent is not one of them. It is likely that most Americans view lawsuits against the religious expressions of inaugurations as frivolous and without merit, invoking the same type of ire against those challenging the constitutionality of the Flag pledge and the national motto. Dr. Newdow, however, knows something that most Americans do not.
Newdow knows that the legal precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court is actually on his side. He knows also that when it comes to judging his complaints, the Court has not been intellectually honest in the application of its precedent. So, he keeps at it (in 2002, the 9th circuit federal appeals court applied precedent and agreed with him, ruling that the Flag pledge was unconstitutional)....
...The religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution merely prohibits the federal Congress from passing law to establish religion and/or to prevent the people from enjoying free exercise. Under the protection of the Constitution, the feds cannot, by force of law, make you or your State subscribe to a religion and cannot prevent you or your State from carrying out religious expression. In short, the First Amendment ensures that the federal government has no jurisdiction over the religious affairs of the states and the people.
Then came the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court scuffled with the Establishment Clause, turning it on its head and setting it against the very states it was meant to protect. (Jurists refer to that feat as the doctrine of incorporation through which the Court uses the 14th Amendment as a handy tool to apply the Bill of Rights against the states.) Ironically, the clause meant to limit the federal government was used by the federal government to expand its power. Holding the Establishment Clause upside down in a full nelson, the Court forced it to cry Uncle Sam by reading into it a previously unheard-of doctrine: The requirement of government - federal, state and local -- neutrality toward religion.
We have reached the point in which the historic purpose of the Establishment Clause is practically irrelevant....(more)
With the approach of the presidential inauguration, America's most notorious atheist, Michael Newdow, is back in the headlines. Once again, he and an assortment of other plaintiffs are challenging the long-standing addendum, "So help me God," to the presidential oath of office. The lawsuit, filed by the American Humanist Association on Dec. 30, also challenges as unconstitutional, the pending invocation and benediction prayers to be offered respectively by Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery at the swearing-in ceremony of President-select Barack Obama on Jan. 20....
...Many words may be used to describe Michael Newdow, but unintelligent is not one of them. It is likely that most Americans view lawsuits against the religious expressions of inaugurations as frivolous and without merit, invoking the same type of ire against those challenging the constitutionality of the Flag pledge and the national motto. Dr. Newdow, however, knows something that most Americans do not.
Newdow knows that the legal precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court is actually on his side. He knows also that when it comes to judging his complaints, the Court has not been intellectually honest in the application of its precedent. So, he keeps at it (in 2002, the 9th circuit federal appeals court applied precedent and agreed with him, ruling that the Flag pledge was unconstitutional)....
...The religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution merely prohibits the federal Congress from passing law to establish religion and/or to prevent the people from enjoying free exercise. Under the protection of the Constitution, the feds cannot, by force of law, make you or your State subscribe to a religion and cannot prevent you or your State from carrying out religious expression. In short, the First Amendment ensures that the federal government has no jurisdiction over the religious affairs of the states and the people.
Then came the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court scuffled with the Establishment Clause, turning it on its head and setting it against the very states it was meant to protect. (Jurists refer to that feat as the doctrine of incorporation through which the Court uses the 14th Amendment as a handy tool to apply the Bill of Rights against the states.) Ironically, the clause meant to limit the federal government was used by the federal government to expand its power. Holding the Establishment Clause upside down in a full nelson, the Court forced it to cry Uncle Sam by reading into it a previously unheard-of doctrine: The requirement of government - federal, state and local -- neutrality toward religion.
We have reached the point in which the historic purpose of the Establishment Clause is practically irrelevant....(more)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
What Disappearing Sea Ice?
From American Thinker:
Despite the mountains of contrary evidence, concerns over disappearing sea ice and the unfounded position that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008, pushed U.S. government bureaucrats to officially list the polar bear as an endangered species in May of 2008. And then guess what happened....
After the onslaught of record breaking bitter temperatures during the last quarter of this year, and with less wind, the amount of sea ice has significantly and dramatically rebounded at the fastest rate ever before recorded. Currently being measured to be about where it was 29 years ago in 1979, sea ice is again as expansive and dense as it was when global cooling proponents of the time said that we were witnessing the advance of a mini ice age.
Reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions, sea ice has been restored to pre-AGW levels. ...(more)
Despite the mountains of contrary evidence, concerns over disappearing sea ice and the unfounded position that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008, pushed U.S. government bureaucrats to officially list the polar bear as an endangered species in May of 2008. And then guess what happened....
After the onslaught of record breaking bitter temperatures during the last quarter of this year, and with less wind, the amount of sea ice has significantly and dramatically rebounded at the fastest rate ever before recorded. Currently being measured to be about where it was 29 years ago in 1979, sea ice is again as expansive and dense as it was when global cooling proponents of the time said that we were witnessing the advance of a mini ice age.
Reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions, sea ice has been restored to pre-AGW levels. ...(more)
Monday, January 5, 2009
Hippies for Hamas
From Contentions:
Title of a post at the Daily Kos:
Why Do I Find Israeli Troop Deaths Satisfying?
Read on to learn why. As Glenn Reynolds likes to say: they’re not anti-war, they’re just for the other side.
Title of a post at the Daily Kos:
Why Do I Find Israeli Troop Deaths Satisfying?
Read on to learn why. As Glenn Reynolds likes to say: they’re not anti-war, they’re just for the other side.
DisenFrankenchised
Some good stuff as usual over at And Sometimes Tea: on the election in Minnesota.
Also this Minnesota Madness Update from AmSpec
Also this Minnesota Madness Update from AmSpec
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Focus/Study For the New Year
During Advent I read an article in the local newspaper on a book called Soul Revolution and began to prayerfully consider the possibility of using the exercise it recommended as a part of a study for the New Year. I decided to include "Learn to pray" in my list of resolutions for 2009. A number of things occurred including learning that my church will be focusing on prayer this year when I came across this quote over at MereComments:
...While we all have our plans, and perhaps "resolutions," the best of all is to begin each day on our knees, so to speak, seeking the Lord's grace and mercy upon our lives, our loved ones, and our plans, which have to be tentative and revisable. If we are just too busy to pray regularly, we are doing the wrong things. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....
So that kind of settles it. We'll have a number of postings on prayer in the coming months and some exercises and some links. It is my hope and prayer that these tools will lead us all to a deeper and richer prayer life.
...While we all have our plans, and perhaps "resolutions," the best of all is to begin each day on our knees, so to speak, seeking the Lord's grace and mercy upon our lives, our loved ones, and our plans, which have to be tentative and revisable. If we are just too busy to pray regularly, we are doing the wrong things. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....
So that kind of settles it. We'll have a number of postings on prayer in the coming months and some exercises and some links. It is my hope and prayer that these tools will lead us all to a deeper and richer prayer life.
Vatican Attacked for Defending Natural Family
ROME, December 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vatican has been attacked for its defence of the natural family and of the countries in which the natural family is still recognised and protected in law. Homosexualist groups and newspaper editorials today attacked the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations, after he said that the Vatican will not support a resolution that purports to “decriminalise” homosexuality.
The proposal, put forward by France, is set to be brought to the European Union later this month. While the Vatican, an independent state, is not a part of the EU, it holds Permanent Observer status at the UN. ...
...Pro-life and pro-family leaders have warned that the use of the language of “human rights” and “equality” have been manipulated by the homosexualist political movement and their secularist supporters to suppress principled opposition to the movement’s anti-Christian goals.
Gabrielle Kuby, a German Catholic writer, wrote recently in an article featured on LifeSiteNews.com, that the movement is a direct attack on the social foundations of western society. “Behind the facade” of equality, she wrote, “lurks the general attack on the moral standards to which we owe the Western culture. Without it, neither the family nor Christianity can survive.”
The proposal, put forward by France, is set to be brought to the European Union later this month. While the Vatican, an independent state, is not a part of the EU, it holds Permanent Observer status at the UN. ...
...Pro-life and pro-family leaders have warned that the use of the language of “human rights” and “equality” have been manipulated by the homosexualist political movement and their secularist supporters to suppress principled opposition to the movement’s anti-Christian goals.
Gabrielle Kuby, a German Catholic writer, wrote recently in an article featured on LifeSiteNews.com, that the movement is a direct attack on the social foundations of western society. “Behind the facade” of equality, she wrote, “lurks the general attack on the moral standards to which we owe the Western culture. Without it, neither the family nor Christianity can survive.”
Employer-Based Health Insurance: Why Congress Should Cap Tax Benefits Consistently
From the Heritage:
Too many Americans do not fully understand how the health insurance they receive through their employer is financed. Health insurance is, of course, a "fringe" benefit. Formal premium payments to health insurance companies are made by employers, just as employers pay for other fringe benefits, such as paid vacation, child care, education and training, or retirement plans.
Technically, however, the employer is not "giving" the employee anything: The employees pay for these benefits through a reduction in their wages or an employer's reduction of full-time staff.The number of part-time jobs is increased to accommodate workload without offering any additional fringe benefits.... (more)
Too many Americans do not fully understand how the health insurance they receive through their employer is financed. Health insurance is, of course, a "fringe" benefit. Formal premium payments to health insurance companies are made by employers, just as employers pay for other fringe benefits, such as paid vacation, child care, education and training, or retirement plans.
Technically, however, the employer is not "giving" the employee anything: The employees pay for these benefits through a reduction in their wages or an employer's reduction of full-time staff.The number of part-time jobs is increased to accommodate workload without offering any additional fringe benefits.... (more)
Where is Global Warming When We Need It?
Fom the American Spec:
Still, shouldn't global warming mean, well, the planet is warming? But it hasn't over the last decade. If the alarmists can't get today's temperature right, I keep wondering why we chould believe them when they purport to predict the temperature a century from now. "Some day we'll get it right" seems to be the mantra of the alarmist lobby.
At least I'm not the only person with questions. Christopher Booker has a wonderful year-ending column in The Daily Telegraph. He wryly observes:
Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.
The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".
Well, I guess that's why the operative phrase now is "climate change." That way the social engineers can justify destroying the economy whatever happens to the temperature. ...
Still, shouldn't global warming mean, well, the planet is warming? But it hasn't over the last decade. If the alarmists can't get today's temperature right, I keep wondering why we chould believe them when they purport to predict the temperature a century from now. "Some day we'll get it right" seems to be the mantra of the alarmist lobby.
At least I'm not the only person with questions. Christopher Booker has a wonderful year-ending column in The Daily Telegraph. He wryly observes:
Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.
The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".
Well, I guess that's why the operative phrase now is "climate change." That way the social engineers can justify destroying the economy whatever happens to the temperature. ...
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