Tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney

Me too...

Scrolling around...October 31, 2012

Why the IRS Has Stopped Auditing Churches—Even One that Calls President Obama a Muslim
...The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has officially halted tax audits of churches until it can adopt rules that clarify which high-level employee has the authority to initiate them.

"We are holding any potential church audits in abeyance," Russell Renwicks of the IRS's Tax-Exempt and Government Entities division told BNA.com this week.

While this is the first public announcement of the moratorium, the IRS hasn't been auditing churches since 2009, said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund)...

 

The Looming Shortfall in Public Pension Costs
The recent economic crisis has left many state and local governments with underfunded pension benefits for government employees. However, elected officials are unwilling to make the necessary cuts or tax hikes because both options are extremely unpopular...Some states will need to have taxpayers contribute more, such as New York, which would require an additional $2,250 per household over the next 30 years...


KLAVAN: Picking Losers, Why Cronyism Isn't Capitalism

UK: Schoolgirls, 13, given birth control jabs during lunch
Schoolgirls as young as 13 are being given birth control injections and implants without their parents’ knowledge during their lunch break.
Over the past two years school nurses have administered implants and injections to girls between the ages of 13 and 16 more than 900 times...

What Will Become of the Middle East’s Christians?
...Across the Middle East, affiliated Islamist movements have undertaken the systematic eradication of religious minorities, especially Christians. From Mali to Egypt, and from Syria and Iraq to Pakistan, millions of Christians find themselves threatened daily with humiliation, extortion, displacement, and murder. Yet where the Muslim world’s Jews had Israel to come to their defense, the region’s Christians have no protector state. These Christians have looked to Western governments, especially America, for moral leadership and advocacy. Yet as the violence of the Arab Spring escalated, America was retreating from its commitment to religious freedom—not only abroad, but at home as well...

Northeast back to business after Sandy's hard hit
Millions of people across the U.S. Northeast stricken by massive storm Sandy will attempt to resume normal lives on Wednesday as companies, markets and airports reopen, despite grim projections of power and mass transit outages lasting several more days... image

Chaplains deployed to Hurricane Sandy communities
...Chaplains are coming from across the US to serve in the Rapid Response Teams, which will be based initially in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

The chaplains are specially trained to deal with crisis situations and had only recently been withdrawn from Louisiana following Hurricane Isaac last year...

Sandy Relief Team: Worst Fears Were Realized in Massive Disaster
Christian relief organizations began to provide food and shelter along the U.S. East Coast to people suffering in the devastating aftermath of superstorm Sandy on Tuesday. By nightfall, the region's death toll reached nearly 50 people and millions remained without power or mass transit...

Hurricane Sandy photos ...more here

 Looters ‘swipe’ up the mess in chaos zones
Hurricane Sandy brought out the worst yesterday in some sleazy New Yorkers, who looted stores and homes across the city...

Believe and trust...

"Believe and trust; through stars and suns,

Through life and death, through soul and sense,

His wise, paternal purpose runs;

The darkness of His Providence

Is starlit with Divine intents."

...LB Cowman
image by John Lemieux

A.S. Haley: Virginia Supreme Court Grants Review in Falls Church Case

Monday, October 29, 2012

A writ panel of three Justices of the Virginia Supreme Court, who heard oral arguments on October 16 in favor of the Petition for Appeal filed by The Falls Church Anglican following the adverse judgment by the Fairfax County Circuit Court has issued an order granting review of the case. (H/T: BabyBlueOnline.)

The Court's order grants review of the following six points of error raised by The Falls Church:

1. The trial court erred in enforcing canon law, rather than “principles of real property and contract law” used in all cases ... to award plaintiffs a proprietary interest in TFC’s property and to extinguish TFC’s interest in such property, even though TFC’s own trustees held title and TFC paid for, improved, and maintained the property.

2. The trial court’s award of TFC’s property to plaintiffs violates the Religion Clauses of the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions by enabling denominations to secure others’ property by means available to no other Virginia entity.

3. The trial court erred in finding that plaintiffs had proprietary interests in TFC’s real property acquired before 1904, when the legislature first referenced denominational approval of church property transfers. [Note: in the body of the Petition, this claim of error is restated in this way: "The trial court divested TFC of property by retroactively applying canons and statutes passed after the conveyances at issue, contrary to state law and the Contracts Clause."]

4. The trial court erred in awarding plaintiffs TFC’s unconsecrated real property, which is exempt from plaintiffs’ canons.

5. The trial court erred in awarding TFC’s personal property to plaintiffs—even though plaintiffs never had any control over TFC’s funds or their use, and TFC’s donors, for religious reasons, gave on the express condition that their gifts not be forwarded to plaintiffs—in violation of Va. Code §57-1 and the Religion Clauses of the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions.

6. The trial court erred in awarding plaintiffs more relief than sought, including funds given after TFC disaffiliated and funds spent on maintenance, which plaintiffs stipulated TFC should keep.

the rest

A little political...October 30, 2012

Obama’s HHS ‘Grooming’ Children for Sex
...Disturbing though that may be, what’s equally disturbing is that nearly all of today’s liberal “comprehensive sex education” curricula – such as that pushed by groups like the National Education Association (NEA), Planned Parenthood and the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) – is derived entirely from the criminally fraudulent research of Alfred Kinsey.

But even more troubling is a recent discovery by Dr. Reisman. She found that the Obama administration, which fully embraces the debunked Kinsey sex-education model, has begun pushing a curriculum that, in many ways, eerily mirrors the “FBI Molester Grooming Paradigm.”

In short, she found that both Obama’s HHS and many public sex-education programs are doing to children, constructively, what pedophiles do to “groom” them for sex...

Latest Liberal Election Ad-Michael Moore: (Video) Disgusting!!!

Newspapers Increasingly Dump Obama For Romney
President Obama spent roughly half an hour last Tuesday on the phone with the Des Moines Register's publisher and editor, desperately trying to win the influential Iowa newspaper's endorsement for a second term.

"You'll feel better when you give it," Obama told them, after touting what he said were four years of accomplishments, along with promises of strong economic growth should he get four more years.

Three days later, the Register endorsed Mitt Romney — the first Republican the paper has backed in 40 years...

Can true solitude be found in a wired world?

MARTHA IRVINE
October 29, 2012

When was the last time you were alone, and unwired? Really, truly by yourself. Just you and your thoughts — no cellphone, no tablet, no laptop.

Many of us crave that kind of solitude, though in an increasingly wired world, it's a rare commodity.

We check texts and emails, and update our online status, at any hour — when we're lying in bed or sitting at stop lights or on trains. Sometimes, we even do so when we're on the toilet.

We feel obligated, yes. But we're also fascinated with this connectedness, constantly tinkering and checking in — an obsession that's starting to get pushback from a small but growing legion of tech users who are feeling the need to unplug and get away. the rest image

Scrolling around...October 30, 2012

What Google Street View Reveals About Why Women Don't Want to Stay Home
Yesterday I looked up my house on Google Street View. I was curious to see how many stray tricycles and scooters would be strewn across our front porch in the image, and I had a lot of work to do and therefore wanted to procrastinate.

Not particularly eager to get back to my to-do list, I ended up clicking around to take a tour of my entire neighborhood. I virtually meandered in and out of familiar streets, turning around in cul de sacs, stopping to admire some of the beautifully manicured yards of my neighbors. I kept admonishing myself that this was a waste of time and I needed to go do something else, but something kept pulling me back -- and it wasn't just my desire to procrastinate. Seeing my neighborhood through my computer screen, in this odd format in which it was entirely the same yet entirely different than what I'm used to seeing in real life, gave me a new perspective on the place where I live. There was something about it, something disconcerting that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then, as I turned down yet another long street and looked at the rows of houses that stretched before me, it clicked:

Where are all the people?...

Egypt: Choice of new Coptic pope is between two bishops and a monk
Two bishops and a monk have been voted into the final round of elections for the choice of the Coptic Church’s new pope, due next Sunday in St. Mark’s Cathedral, in Cairo’s Abbasiya neighbourhood. This is the result of the election held yesterday in the same Cathedral and announced yesterday evening...

Northeast Awakes to Huge Damage in Storm’s Path; Millions Without Power
...The storm was the most destructive in the 108-year history of New York’s subway system, said Joseph J. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in an early morning statement.

“We are assessing the extent of the damage and beginning the process of recovery,” he said, but did not provide a timetable for restoring transit service to a paralyzed city.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey called the damage to his state “incalculable” and said the Jersey Shore had been “devastated.” As he spoke on a series of morning talk shows on Tuesday, rescue teams were rushing to the aid of those stranded in Atlantic City and in areas of Bergen County where he said tidal waters had overwhelmed a protective natural berm... image

Sandy leaves death, damp and darkness in wake
As superstorm Sandy marched slowly inland, millions along the East Coast awoke Tuesday without power or mass transit, with huge swaths of the nation's largest city unusually vacant and dark.

New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart in Lower Manhattan shuttered for a second day and seawater cascading into the still-gaping construction pit at the World Trade Center. President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in the city and Long Island...

Huge fire in Sandy's wake destroys dozens of NYC homes
A huge fire that erupted as Sandy ripped through New York City with near-hurricane force winds on Monday night destroyed dozens of homes in one of the city's most remote neighborhoods, officials said...

Moscow police 'discover brothel on monastery premises'
Moscow police have discovered a brothel on the premises of a monastery whose abbot is thought to be President Vladimir Putin's spiritual adviser...

Giving 13-year-olds contraceptive implants is a policy straight out of Brave New World
Girls from the age of 13 have been provided with contraception in schools, particularly the long-lasting type of contraception given by injection, without their parents' knowledge. It reminds me of Aldous Huxley’s dystopia Brave New World, in which all females are fitted with the “Malthusian belt”, an infallible method of contraception which allowed them to be permanently sexually available but without fear of pregnancy. A licence for licentiousness, so to speak.

To say that this policy sends out “contradictory signals” regarding society’s attitudes and policies towards the sexual behaviour of young people is putting it mildly...

NPR: Recognizing The Right Of Plants To Evolve
...Writing in The New York Times recently, Michael Marder, author of the forthcoming Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life, calls for "plant liberation." Plant stress, Marder points out, does not reach the same intensity, nor does it express itself in the same ways, as animal suffering. This fact, he adds, should be reflected in our practical ethics.

But, he continues, "the commendable desire to ameliorate the condition of animals, currently treated as though they were meat-generating machines, does not justify strategic argumentation in favor of the indiscriminate consumption of plants. The same logic ultimately submits to total instrumentalization the bodies of plants, animals and humans by setting them over and against an abstract and rational mind."

Therefore, he concludes, "the struggles for the emancipation of all instrumentalized living beings should be fought on a common front."... (comments are hysterical!-PD)

Scrolling around...October 29, 2012

Live Updates: Hurricane Sandy-NASA image

Sandy and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Don't miss this! 

The 'New Normal' Christianity
NBC’s sitcom “The New Normal” isn’t just trying to remake society for the Gay Left. It’s trying to remake Christianity, which is to say, destroy it. For its October 22 episode “The Godparent Trap,” NBC ran promos with the gay character Brian in the confessional, and the priest sneering, “If you’re not going to take this seriously, I’m going to go back to playing Angry Birds.”

As the plot unfolds, we’re told Brian was raised Catholic, and as he sits in a pew and looks around at religious pictures, he cracks gay jokes in his mind. He sees the Apostles: “Twelve dudes sitting around gossiping and drinking wine. You call that the Last Supper? I call that a Tuesday night.”...

Anglican Unscripted Episode 54

Oct 26, 2012

In this weeks episode Kevin and George bring an update on the Diocese of South Carolina and their separation from the Episcopal Church. Also this week they talk about Women's Ordination and the new task force created by the Anglican Church in North America. And what episode would be complete without news from one of the broken Anglican "Instruments of Unity". Peter talks about the reality of Women Bishops in England and Allen Haley guildes the viewer thru the Kangaroos courts found in Title IV.

A.S. Haley: What Is It about "Conflicts of Interest" that the Kangaroo Court Cannot Understand?
The term "kangaroo court" is a mid-nineteenth century Americanism that may have hit its stride during the days of the Gold Rush, when rough and ready justice was meted out on the spot in the mining camps and unorganized territories of California. But its meaning has always been well-established, even if its etymology is not clear: it refers to a rigged proceeding to deliver "justice" to some poor victim or unlucky offender who has aroused the popular ire of the moment. The judge is in on the script, the jury is stacked, and the victim generally does not know what hit him until later, because the trial proceeds so fast.

In such an atmosphere, the words "conflict of interest" have no meaning or consequences. The jury foreman may be the judge's brother, and the prosecuting attorney the judge's son. All they care about is railroading the defendant(s) as quickly and thoroughly as they can -- and they have all the power in the situation.

The current attempt to bring canonical charges against the bishops (and, to date, one presbyter) who exercised their First Amendment rights to offer testimony or legal argument to the courts in Illinois and Texas is a case in point. In the Fort Worth case before the Texas Supreme Court, seven bishops and three presbyters within the Episcopal Church (USA) filed a "friend-of-the-court" (amicus) brief, which took the position that ECUSA is not a three-tier hierarchy (1 - "national church"; 2 - diocese; 3 - parish), but has a hierarchical relationship only between the bishop diocesan and the resident clergy of any given diocese...

Scrolling around...October 27, 2012

Is voter fraud being committed in Ohio?
Two volunteer poll workers at an Ohio voting station told Human Events that they observed van loads of Ohio residents born in Somalia — the state is home to the second-largest Somali population in the United States — being driven to the voting station and guided by Democratic interpreters on the voting process. No Republican interpreters were present, according to these volunteers.

While it’s not unusual for get-out-the-vote groups to help voters get to the polls, the volunteers who talked to Human Events observed a number of troubling and questionable activities.

A source, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a volunteer outside the Morse Road polling center. She has witnessed Somalis who cannot speak English come to the polling center. They are brought in groups, by van or bus. The Democrats hand them a slate card and say, “vote Brown all the way down.” Given that Sherrod Brown is the incumbent Democrat Senator in Ohio, one can assume that this is the reference...

Albert Mohler: The Mourdock Moment: Life, Death, and Lies on the Campaign Trail
...A closer look at Mourdock’s comments reveals that the candidate was not in any true sense calling rape “something that God intended to happen.” Everything Mourdock said in that answer flowed from his stated presupposition that life begins at conception, and that every human life is a gift from God.

Nevertheless, the liberal media went into full apoplexy, painting Richard Mourdock as a woman-hating extremist with reprehensible views on an issue as serious as rape.

Almost none of those who quoted Mourdock in making these charges used the full quotation, much less the audio of its delivery in the debate. The full quote reveals that the candidate was affirming the full dignity of every human life, regardless of the circumstance of conception.

To their credit, some in the media saw through the controversy. Writing for The New Republic, Amy Sullivan made clear that she disagrees with Mourdock’s position, but she honestly explained his words, and she expressed disappointment in his treatment by many liberal commentators...

Pro-Lifers React to Obama Sex Ad: Practice Obama Abstinence
...“It is deeply disturbing that a father of two young girls could approve such a demeaning ad,” said Lila Rose of Live Action. “President Obama’s latest campaign ad is a desperate and an offensive stereotype. Again, his campaign reduces women and their concern of political issues to sex and birth control.”...

Indoctrinated liberal 'zombie-children' sing about Obama's potential loss [Video]
There's nothing liberals love more than brainwashing your kids. Ever since the election of Barack Obama, they've been creating shameless songs and raps designed to get your children singing about social issues and our fearless leader.

The latest example is a black and white ad, conceived and created by San Francisco ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners. You may not know the agency's name, but you certainly know their work. Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein are two of America's most highly respected ad men - the force behind the iconic "Got Milk?" campaign....

Scrolling around... October 25, 2012

Hacking the President’s DNA
The U.S. government is surreptitiously collecting the DNA of world leaders, and is reportedly protecting that of Barack Obama. Decoded, these genetic blueprints could provide compromising information. In the not-too-distant future, they may provide something more as well—the basis for the creation of personalized bioweapons that could take down a president and leave no trace...

Woman says she was kicked out of the Air Force for being pregnant, told she could have served if she’d had an abortion

Rebecca Edmonds was rejected from the Air Force and had her $92,000 scholarship revoked after she told her commanding officers she was pregnant, due to a policy against single moms. She has appealed and her case is under review...

Loyola Chicago to Host Drag Show
...Last year, the University defended the drag show to The Cardinal Newman Society. Maeve Kiley, Director of Communications at Loyola University said the university “encourages open discussion” and added that the Jesuit institution, “relishes the opportunity to engage ideas and different points of view.”...

Planned Parenthood Has Spent $12 Million to Re-Elect Obama
 ...Actually, government grants and funding to Planned Parenthood in the last reported year 2009-2010 was $487.4 million—and so far $12 million from the non-profit has been given to re-elect President Obama. That’s right. This organization that cares so much about your cervix cares more about it’s proverbial booty....

Suit Challenges Utah College's Treatment Of Christian Student Group
In Utah yesterday, a federal lawsuit was filed against Utah's Snow College (a public 2-year college) by a Christian student group that claims a school policy unconstitutionally treats student groups affiliated with religious institutions differently than other student groups. The complaint (full text) in Solid Rock Christian Club v. Wyatt, (D UT, filed 10/22/2012) challenges both the rule that relegates to "affiliate" status student groups that are affiliated with commercial, for-profit or religious institutions, as well as limitations placed on plaintiffs' participation in the "Paint the Town" Homecoming activity. In the activity, student groups get to paint the windows of participating local businesses to reflect the Homecoming spirit-- with this year's theme being "Then, Now and Forever." School officials told Solid Rock Christian Club that it could not use religious symbols in the designs it painted on store windows...

Double-secret probation: Student threatened with punishment after filming Democratic congressman’s abortion answer
Kate Engstrom, a 20-year-old in the school’s College Republicans, had other ideas. With the help of an unidentified collaborator, Engstrom approached Peterson after the event and recorded as he spoke candidly and controversially about losing the endorsement of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL).
Peterson bashed the group, calling MCCL “a bunch of extremists.”



NOAA to East: Beware of coming 'Frankenstorm' as Hurricane Sandy meets arctic air
Emergency management teams and utilities along the East Coast are bracing for what could be a $1 billion punch as Hurricane Sandy's 100 mph winds barrel toward the heavily populated region between the Carolina coast and Cape Cod.

The Category 2 storm, which has killed two in the Caribbean as it swept through Cuba and blew toward the Bahamas, may combine with other, rain-heavy weather systems to create what meteorologists are calling a "perfect storm" that could wreak havoc from North Carolina to Massachusetts early next week. Sandy will likely maintain its hurricane status as it passes over the Bahamas later Thursday and may bring tropical storm conditions along Florida’s southeastern coast by early Friday... image

NOAA: DESPITE A MODEST CLUSTER OF OUTLYING DETERMINISTIC SOLUTIONS AND ENSEMBLE MEMBERS FROM THE VARIOUS MODELING CENTERS, THE LION'S SHARE OF GUIDANCE INDICATES THAT THE CIRCULATION ASSOCIATED WITH HURRICANE SANDY WILL PASS CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE AMPLIFYING POLAR TROUGH OVER THE EASTERN UNITED STATES TO BECOME INCORPORATED INTO A HYBRID VORTEX OVER THE MID ATLANTIC AND NORTHEAST NEXT TUESDAY. THE HIGH DEGREE OF BLOCKING FROM EASTERN NORTH AMERICA ACROSS THE ENTIRE ATLANTIC BASIN IS EXPECTED TO ALLOW THIS UNUSUAL MERGER TO TAKE PLACE, AND ONCE THE COMBINED GYRE MATERIALIZES, IT SHOULD SETTLE BACK TOWARD THE INTERIOR NORTHEAST THROUGH HALLOWEEN, INVITING PERHAPS A GHOULISH NICKNAME FOR THE CYCLONE ALONG THE LINES OF "FRANKENSTORM", AN ALLUSION TO MARY SHELLEY'S GOTHIC CREATURE OF SYNTHESIZED ELEMENTS.

A little political...October 25, 2012

 

image

 

White House spokesman tries to explain Obama’s Rolling Stone remark about Romney
After President Barack Obama reportedly suggested during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that Republican challenger Mitt Romney was "a bull*******," adviser Dan Pfeiffer said his comment points to underlying "trust" issues with Romney.

"What is true is that trust is a very important part of the election," Pfeiffer, who said he had not yet seen the article, told reporters during Obama's campaign swing through Florida, Virginia and Ohio Thursday. "The president is someone who says what he means and does what he says, and Gov. Romney's answers in the debates on domestic issues and foreign policy raise real questions about that."...

AP poll: Romney erases Obama advantage among women
What gender gap?

Less than two weeks out from Election Day, Republican Mitt Romney has erased President Barack Obama's 16-point advantage among women, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. And the president, in turn, has largely eliminated Romney's edge among men.

Those churning gender dynamics leave the presidential race still a virtual dead heat, with Romney favored by 47 percent of likely voters and Obama by 45 percent, a result within the poll's margin of sampling error, the survey shows....

Affluent suburbs swing to debate-tested Romney
...In addition, polling shows Romney ahead in Colorado, which Obama carried by 9 points last time, and the race closing in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which Obama carried by 14, 10 and 16 points, respectively...

Obama Privately Touts Sequester After Denying Responsibility in Debate
...After loud complaints from new and mainstream media alike, the transcript of the President's interview with the Des Moines Register was made public today. Since these comments on the sequester represented a complete reversal of the position he took at the debate less than 24 hours earlier, it's easy to understand why the President's campaign initially wanted to keep them off the record...

Texas AG Tells International Election Monitors to Butt Out
The head of an international body that will monitor the U.S. elections next month protested to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday after Texas’ attorney-general warned that any international observer who approaches a polling station in the state risks criminal prosecution...

NYT: How Bill Clinton May Have Hurt the Obama Campaign
...But there is one crucial way in which the 42nd president may not have served the 44th quite as well. In these final weeks before the election, Mr. Clinton’s expert advice about how to beat Mitt Romney is starting to look suspect...

Archbishop Chaput: Democrats have ‘gotten worse’ on abortion because Catholics haven’t left
In a recent video interview with Catholic News Service, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said that the position of the Democrat Party on abortion has “gotten worse” over time because Catholics within the party haven’t taken a strong moral stand and shown a willingness to abandon the Democrat Party.

“I think many of the Democrats have [taken] Democrat Catholic votes for granted because they’ll go with them no matter what the party position might be on abortion,” Archbishop Chaput said. “That’s why the position of the Democrat Party has gotten worse, and worse, and worse as time goes on because Catholics haven’t abandoned them as they’ve moved in that direction.”

Chaput said that in the earliest days of the abortion debate in the United States, most people probably thought that the Republican Party would’ve “easily embraced abortion,” and that Democrats would have been the political party standing for the defense of life because of the large number of Catholics within the party...

The Des Moines Register:

Granting that we are always in the presence of God...

Granting that we are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense; for they, as it were, see that He is looking upon them, while others may be for days together without even once recollecting that God sees them. ...Teresa of Avila
 image by A. Sparrow

Panel of Reference report on the Fort Worth 7 finds misconduct

Panel recommends "conciliation" between the accused and the Episcopal Church
October 22, 2012
By George Conger

A Reference Panel has found that a prima facie case of misconduct can be made against nine serving and retired bishops of the Episcopal Church for having endorsed an amicus brief presented to the Texas Supreme Court, or for having given testimony in a trial court proceeding involving the Diocese of Quincy.

The Rt Rev. Peter H. Beckwith, the Rt Rev Maurice M. Benitez, the Rt Rev John W. Howe, the Rt Rev Paul E. Lambert, the Rt Rev William H. Love, the Rt Rev D. Bruce MacPherson, the Rt Rev Daniel H. Martins, the Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr, and the Rt Rev James M. Stanton have been informed the Reference Panel had reviewed the charges brought against them by the provisional bishops of Fort Worth and Quincy and by lay and clergy accusers.  the rest

Canon law experts note the prosecution of the nine bishops has all the hallmarks of a political trial, as the actions for which they are accused are not considered “triable” when done by other bishops.

A little political...October 23, 2012

Debates deliver favorability edge to Romney; now above 50% in rating
Mitt Romney crossed a major threshold early this week, moving above 50 percent in his favorability rating with voters, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls — and for the first time in the campaign he now leads President Obama on that measure...

Obama supporters trash Ohio-literally [PHOTO]

Romney’s Brilliant Maneuver
Gov. Mitt Romney today pulled a bold move in the final debate with President Obama, opting for relatively limited verbal combat with his opponent while instead showcasing his knowledge of foreign affairs, adopting a presidential demeanor, and offering a sense of optimism for the future...

Scrolling around...October 23, 2012

A War on Religion?
In today’s increasingly secular society, the threat to religious freedom comes not at the point of a sword, but from imposed values at odds with the truth that there is a Creator who has given us certain inalienable rights that government is supposed to secure, not supplant. People of faith in America may not be seeing squads of soldiers pounding on their doors in the dead of night, demanding that they renounce their faith or be dragged off. But they are being confronted by lawmakers, bureaucrats, regulators, human rights commissions, and even college deans demanding that they submit to so-called “neutral laws of general applicability” that venerate such concepts as toleration, non-discrimination, and “choice.”...

INDONESIA: Anti-Christian violence: extremists set fire to Protestant church in Poso
An unidentified group set fire to the Madele Pentecostal Church. Quick action by Church members as well as some Muslims brought the blaze under control, limiting the damages. In another incident, blasts wounded three people, including two police agents. Sectarian tensions raise fears...

Pediatricians raise doubts about the benefits of organic foods
The nation’s leading group of pediatric doctors on Monday questioned the nutritional benefits of products of the booming $30 billion organic foods industry, raising doubts about the superiority of organic offerings for the second time in the past month.

While organic fruits, vegetables and meats do offer less exposure to potentially harmful pesticides and drug-resistant bacteria, the American Academy of Pediatrics found no evidence that proves those foods are safer to eat than conventional offerings...

Shortage of doctors spreading throughout US
...Nationwide, there is a shortage of more than 13,000 doctors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that represents medical schools.

That shortfall is expected to grow 10-fold to 130,000 doctors within 12 years as the US population ages and 30 million more people are added to insurance rolls under the 2010 health-care law, the medical college association said...

Taxes go up in 2013 for 163 million workers
President Barack Obama isn't talking about it and neither is Mitt Romney. But come January, 163 million workers can expect to feel the pinch of a big tax increase regardless of who wins the election.

A temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes is due to expire at the end of the year and hardly anyone in Washington is pushing to extend it. Neither Obama nor Romney has proposed an extension, and it probably wouldn't get through Congress anyway, with lawmakers in both parties down on the idea...

Whatever man may stand...

Whatever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand - in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science - he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of God. He is employed in the service of his God. He has strictly to obey his God. And above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God. ...Abraham Kuyper image by Bill Jacobus

A fox at Breckenridge...

 October 22, 2012

 

Raymond and I are in Breckenridge, Colorado for a mini-vacation following the Christian Legal Society's annual convention which was in Colorado Springs this year.  Raymond took this photo of this beautiful fox in the backyard of where we were staying.

 

 View from Pike's Peak, over 14,000 feet

 

Outer edge of Garden of the gods

 

Picture doesn't do justice to the clear, bright air!



Scrolling around...October 22, 2012

Twelve years left: Clock runs down on saving Medicare.
In just 12 years, Medicare will be broke. So, the question remaining is not whether Medicare will be reformed, but how.

During the first two presidential debates, neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney denied that Medicare's upside-down accounting has put the program on a path toward bankruptcy, but, not surprisingly, each had a very different vision on how we keep our promise to America's seniors. And the differences in those visions matter...

Albert Mohler: Of Babies and Beans? A Frightening Denial of Human Dignity
Adam Gopnik is a gifted essayist and writer whose contributions, often published in The New Yorker, are almost always thoughtful and interesting. Nevertheless, one of his most recent writings is deeply disturbing, and at the deepest level.

Reflecting on the debate between Vice President Joseph Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan, Gopnik registered alarm at “something genuinely disturbing and scary” that had been said by Paul Ryan. Gopnik first complained that Biden and Ryan should not have even been asked about the role their Roman Catholic faith plays in their thinking, specifically on the issue of abortion...

Elderly Widow Told Not to Pray in Public Housing Complex
A widow who lives in a Minnesota apartment complex funded by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development was told that she could not pray, read her Bible or have private discussions of a religious nature in the commons area of the complex...

Sharia courts ‘as consensual as rape’, House of Lords told
Mislim women in Britain are being forced to “live in fear” because of the spread of unofficial and unregulated sharia courts enforcing Islamic rules, the House of Lords was told...

Obamacare Mandate: Anyone Who Works 30-Hour Week Is Now 'Full-Time'
A little-known section in the ObamaCare health reform law defines “full-time” work as averaging only 30 hours per week, a definition that will affect some employers who utilize part-time workers to trim the cost of complying with the ObamaCare rule that says businesses with 50 or more workers must provide health insurance or pay a fine...

Powerful Video Documents 14 Botched Abortions at Planned Parenthood
A powerful new video documents the botched abortions 14 women suffered at Planned Parenthood abortion clinics since January 2011. While the number of botched abortions is likely much higher, the video chronicles 14 of them that pro-life advocates outside the abortion clinics captured on tape...

**********A Little Political**********

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A Red Carpet for Radicals at the White House
A year-long investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has found that scores of known radical Islamists made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, meeting with top administration officials.

Court documents and other records have identified many of these visitors as belonging to groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.

The IPT made the discovery combing through millions of White House visitor log entries. IPT compared the visitors' names with lists of known radical Islamists...

Hewitt: On Confidence
...There's another debate coming of course, as well as the ever-present prospect of an "October Surprise." Many are worried about rumors of a lightning strike from, of all people, Gloria Allred, and a deeply compromised MSM carrying as much water as is needed to drown Team Romney in the equivalent of George W. Bush's DUI.

Anything can happen, but it is increasingly unlikely for two reasons.

First, the country is in very bad shape. The difficulties are enormous, and no one who fills up a tank of gas or watches even a bit of news doubts it. This situation compels the independents and even many Democrats, perhaps privately in the latter case, to pull the lever for Romney.

Second, Mitt Romney is a very good man, and the past two weeks have put that reality on display for everyone who cares to notice to see.

A very good man, and the country wants that right now. They want to trust that someone with great skills also has the great character necessary to ask the country to do hard and complicated things, and the intelligence to choose among many competing proposals on how best to chart a course back to prosperity and security...

Mitt Romney and the Rise of Practicalism
In the first debate, Romney conveyed that he understands the very concept of compromise means not everyone at the bargaining table gets what they want -- that’s not the goal. The goal is to achieve the best possible outcome in confronting a given issue -- actually solving a problem while giving everyone something they can take home as a win.

This is the kind of president this country needs right now. We don’t need vague slogans like “Forward” or “Change you can believe it.”

We need a person who knows what it’s like to look across the table at someone with a different viewpoint and a contrasting agenda -- and yet somehow have the temperament and skill to forge a mutually agreeable conclusion...

ANGLICAN UNSCRIPTED EPISODE 53

Oct 19, 2012

Despite the retirement of news producing Bishops like Benison and Robinson, there is no news vacuum in the Anglican Communion this week thanks to the efforts of Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori. From Islamic led church burnings in Zanzibar to Kangaroo Court fraud deep within the Episcopal Churches new Disciplinary Board -- your Anglican Unscripted Crew covers it for you.

Anglican Perspective: Would you become a dog?

October 19, 2012

What can dogs teach us about God's love for us?

A.S. Haley: New Level of Repression Signaled by Charges against +Lawrence

October 18, 2012

Excerpt:
But now look at the nature of the actions which underlie the first of the charges. Bishop Lawrence is accused of (a) not ruling out of order a motion to amend the diocesan constitution, (b) not dissenting from their adoption by the convention, and (c) advocating their passage in his pastoral address to the convention. As to the second charge, Bishop Lawrence is the Chair of the convention, and as such he has no vote unless he first steps down from that position. Charging him with "failure to dissent" is thus a non-starter. And as for "not ruling the motion out of order," any deputy to the Convention could have asked for such a ruling. Does that mean that every clergy attending the 2010 and 2011 conventions is liable to charges of "abandonment" because they did not make such an objection, or dissent from the resolutions' passage? (The minutes on the diocesan website -- Exhibits C and D to the certification of abandonment -- do not record any objections as having been made to the various resolutions; they record only their passage "by majority vote.") One has to wonder, but that appears to be the position of the complainers, and of a majority of the Board.

The third component of the first charge -- delivering a pastoral address which advocated passage of the resolutions in question -- shows how the Board has erased the distinction between the individual acts of a Bishop and the corporate acts of a Diocese. The real complaint is with what the Diocese did, and not with someone who spoke in favor of the resolutions. Again, if that is to be the new standard for charges constituting "abandonment," it will have a very chilling effect on what members of the clergy feel free to say at diocesan conventions.

The second and third charges in the certification fare no better under closer scrutiny. Bishop Lawrence is charged with a statement made in an amendment to the diocesan corporate articles filed with the secretary of state after the Convention had approved the amendments to the diocesan constitution. The change merely brought the corporate articles into synch with the constitution, and was purely a ministerial and clerical act. To elevate it into grounds for charging "abandonment" is ridiculous. Had Bishop Lawrence failed to sign an amendment to the articles after the deputies acted to change their constitution, his own convention could have charged him with abandonment.

And the third charge, of course, has to do with the signing and recording of the famous quitclaim deeds, following the 2009 ruling of the South Carolina Supreme Court in the Pawley's Island case. The Court ruled in that case that ECUSA's Dennis Canon did not comply with state law requirements for creating a valid trust. Bishop Lawrence's deeds served both to recognize the binding character of that ruling on the two Episcopal dioceses in the State, as well as to calm individual parish fears about possibly losing their church property. It was a consummate pastoral act, and represented an honest assessment of the Church's obligation to comply with South Carolina state law. the rest

SC diocese finally breaks with Episcopal Church

South Carolina expelled from the Episcopal Church

October 18, 2012
by George Conger

The Diocese of South Carolina has been pushed out of the Episcopal Church of the USA. The involuntary secession of the 29,000-member diocese comes as charges have been brought against its bishop, the Rt Rev Mark Lawrence for allegedly “abandoning” the communion of the Episcopal Church.

On 17 October 2012 a statement printed on the Diocese’s Website said that two days earlier Bishop Lawrence had been notified by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori that on 18 September 2012 “the Disciplinary Board for Bishops had certified his abandonment of The Episcopal Church.”

The diocese reported that Bishop Lawrence was “notified of these actions taken by the Episcopal Church between two meetings, one held on October 3 and one to be held on October 22, which Bishop Andrew Waldo of the Upper Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Lawrence had set up with the Presiding Bishop to find a peaceful alternative to the growing issues between The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of South Carolina. The meetings were to explore ‘creative solutions’ for resolving these issues to avoid further turmoil in the Diocese and in The Episcopal Church.” the rest

Diocesan website: Episcopal Church Takes Action Against the Bishop and Diocese of SC

Post and Courier: Bishop Mark Lawrence said to have abandoned Episcopal Church

A.S. Haley: There They Go Again...
It has been obvious for quite some time that the Episcopal Church (USA) has wanted to pick a fight with Bishop Lawrence and his Diocese of South Carolina, one of the larger and more successful in the Church. But success in winning new communicants has never counted for much ever since the advent of the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori to head up ECUSA. No, what counts far more in her book is subordination to her metropolitical delusions of grandeur.

So it was entirely predictable that the Bandit Bishop would make the first move, acting through her new Disciplinary Board for Bishops (the existence of which the Diocese of South Carolina does not recognize). The announcement that sets out all the details, recently posted on the Diocese’s Website, has been published here at SF in this post.

The details included in the announcement show a considerable degree of forethought and planning on the Diocese’s part. ECUSA’s move automatically triggered amendments to the diocesan constitution which resulted in the immediate disaffiliation of one of the Church’s oldest dioceses, and the calling of a Special Convention (to decide, among other things, with which branch of faithful Anglicans the Diocese will affiliate next)....

Comments at Titusonenine

Stand Firm:
TEC Moves Against South Carolina Bishop and Diocese; Special Convention Called and The Earth Shifted: Rage, Revisionists & Responses for The Diocese of South Carolina

Albert Mohler: The Great Clarification: Fuzzy Fidelity and the Rise of the Nones

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Meet the unaffiliated. An increasing number of Americans identify with no church, denomination, or religious tradition, and this development represents a truly significant shift in the nation’s pattern of belief.

America’s religious landscape is changing, and the contours of that change will determine the shape of the church’s challenge for decades to come. An important study recently released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life points to several developments worthy of our attention — and some of these deserve rather urgent analysis. the rest

The Pew study also confirms that Protestants are now a religious minority in America — a development that reverses the nation’s entire history until the present. According to the Pew data, only 48% of Americans identify as members of Protestant churches or claim a Protestant identity. The nation was overwhelmingly Protestant until waves of immigration altered that picture in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Those decades saw millions of immigrants arrive on American shores, and many of these new Americans were Roman Catholic. By the middle of the twentieth century, Will Herberg would famously describe the American religious landscape in the title of one of his most influential books, Protestant, Catholic, Jew.

A little political...October 16, 2012

Will there be any consequences for Secretary Clinton accepting responsibility for Benghazi attack?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accepted responsibility for Benghazi security deficiencies.
Now, who accepts the consequences of responsibility? And what of the disinformation campaign?
Accepting responsibility is only step one. The consequences of failure come second.
Will the second part ever happen? No....

Hillary in 2008: “That buck stopped in the Oval Office”
...Hillary may or may not have intended to take some heat off of the White House after Joe Biden’s Sergeant Schultz “We knew nothing” declaration at Thursday’s debate, but all she ended up doing is making Obama look tremendously weak by contrast...

Another Obama Victory: Electric Car Battery Maker That Received Quarter-Billion Dollars in Fed Funds Goes Bankrupt  and GREEN SCAM: 80% of Green Energy Loans Went to Obama Donors – 19 Companies Went Bust

Fiscal Cliff? Real Threat Is The 'Entitlement Cliff'
...Now add in the 16 million new Medicaid beneficiaries, thanks to ObamaCare, plus an estimated 12 million people who enter the health insurance exchanges by 2014, where most will receive federal subsidies.

The budget implications of these programs are huge. For fiscal 2012, America spent $2.2 trillion of its $3.7 trillion budget on entitlement programs — $400 billion less than the $2.6 trillion in gross annual revenues.

Oh, and interest on the federal debt was $220 billion.

Thus, the cost of entitlement programs plus interest on the debt are nearly equal to total federal revenues today...

Ross Perot Endorses Romney
...“Our country faces a serious choice,” Perot says in a statement emailed out by the Romney campaign. “The fact of the matter is that the United States is on unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home, and our constitutional freedoms. That is why I am endorsing Mitt Romney in his quest for the presidency. We can’t afford four more years in which national debt mushrooms out of control, our government grows, and our military is weakened. Mitt has the background, experience, intelligence, and integrity to turn things around. He has my absolute support.”...

Obamacare’s IPAB: When Government Takes Over Health Care, You Become A Budget Item
...How does IPAB achieve these cuts? The supporters of the law say, “It says right in the statute IPAB cannot ration.” But what IPAB can do, and in fact is their only option for controlling costs, is to cut reimbursement rates to doctors and hospitals. They decide what procedures are important, not your doctor, and they decide what Medicare will pay for them.

When services are no longer available to seniors because reimbursements for those procedures have been drastically cut, that’s rationing...

Scrolling around... October 16, 2012

Report: hundreds of Christians arrested in Iran
Up to 400 evangelical Protestants have been arrested in the last two weeks in Iran, according to a news site that chronicles the persecution of Christians. “We have learned that at least 100, but perhaps as many as 400 people, have been detained over the last 10 days,” said Firouz Khandjani, a leader in the evangelical house-church movement...

Edmonton Anglican diocese approves same sex union blessings
...After four hours of emotionally charged debate in the crowded hall at St. Matthias Church, more than 200 delegates passed the motion by a healthy majority. With it, Edmonton became the seventh diocese among 30 in the country to take the step, which some Anglicans find controversial and others a long time in coming...

Boy conceived after father's death not entitled to Social Security, court rules
A young boy who was conceived from preserved sperm after his father's death is not entitled to Social Security benefits under Utah law, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday.

"For the reasons we explain in this opinion, an agreement leaving preserved frozen semen to the deceased donor's wife does not, without more, confer on the donor the status of a parent for purposes of Social Security benefits," Justice Ronald Nehring wrote in the unanimous decision...

Doctors Maintain Unborn Babies Feel Pain
..."Not only does this law protect babies in the womb who feel horrific pain upon being torn apart in an abortion, the law is constitutional because it protects mothers from risky abortions, and it protects society from the barbaric effects of abortions that cause horrific pain to babies," he continues...

Pakistani teen shot by Taliban becomes 'daughter of the nation'
The Pakistani teen who has become a symbol of hope and defiance since Taliban thugs shot her in the head for advocating education for girls touched down in the United Kingdom Monday, where doctors will rebuild her shattered skull.

Malala Yousufzai, 14, who was shot in the head Oct. 9, left Pakistan Monday morning in a specially-equipped air ambulance provided by the United Arab Emirates after doctors in her homeland managed to remove a bullet from her head. She faces more delicate operations and intensive rehabilitation, but may be buoyed by the knowledge that millions in Pakistan and around the world have embraced her as a heroine and martyr. The shooting of Malala and two of her classmates as they returned home from school prompted tens of thousands to rally in support of her in Karachi Sunday. Some Pakistanis have expressed hope that the government would respond to the attack by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies...

Botched abortion epidemic: 3rd abortion injury at Boston Planned Parenthood
A lawsuit filed on September 5, 2012, shows evidence that Planned Parenthood of Boston botched an abortion on a patient that caused her to be transported to a local hospital three hours later. This is the third known medical emergency at Planned Parenthood of Boston since January of last year...

Quebec: Pro-abortion protesters storm church chanting, ‘If Mary had aborted, we wouldn’t have this nonsense’

 A Quebec pro-life conference was interrupted last weekend when about a dozen pro-abortion protesters stormed the evangelical church in which it was held and began chanting blasphemous slogans in front of the barricaded doors of the conference hall. Police had to bring in reinforcements to remove the protesters...

Wow! Rotating 3D nebula

October 8th, 2012

A little over 2000 light years away, toward the constellation of Cepheus, is a place where stars are being born. It’s a nebula, a gas cloud, and it’s called IC 1396. It’s monstrous, well over a hundred light years across – even at its tremendous distance, it’s wider than six full Moons in our sky.

Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio observed IC 1396, making a gorgeous image of it. But he wasn’t satisfied just doing that. He’d been playing with making 3D images for some time, and decided this might be a good opportunity to make a model of the structure of the nebula, and then create an animated GIF of it.  more...

How to wreck a church

Anglican Mainstream
October 15, 2012
Richard Bewes

IT HAS BEEN TRIED ACROSS THE CENTURIES – in public arenas, through mob violence and by official banning. In the first three centuries of the New Testament church, ten massive persecutions took place, and the Roman emperor Diocletian even had a medal struck – inscribed with the boast, ‘The Christian religion is destroyed, and the worship of the gods is restored.’ But – as Bishop William Greer of Manchester once told his critic during a TV interview – “The church will stand at the grave of the BBC, the ITV and all other institutions knocking around the world today.” Those might sound like brave words only, were it not for the assurance of Jesus Christ that the gates of hell itself will not prevail against the Church.

We Christians today are astonished, not so much at the ever-continuing advance in the 2.3 billion-strong family of Jesus Christ worldwide, but rather at the amazing failure of our critics to learn from history. Naturally we weep when a Janani Luwum, or a Mehdi Dibaj is martyred. Such martyrs are numbered by the thousand today, as they were twenty centuries ago. But the sweep of civilization indicates that the greater the pressure on the church from its outside persecutors, the stronger tends to be its growth.

The atheist Philip Pulman has declared, ‘Without a doubt Christianity will cease to exist in a few years.’ He might have done better to heed the historian, T.R. Glover, ‘The final disappearance of Christianity has been prophesied so often as to be no longer interesting.’
The rest-excellent! photo by Elliot Bennett

A.S. Haley: Oral Arguments Tomorrow in Texas and Virginia

October 15, 2012

On October 16, beginning at 9 a.m. Central (Daylight) Time, the Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two Episcopal church property cases: first (starting at 9:00) will be The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al. v. The Episcopal Church, et al., Case No. 11-0265. You can find downloadable versions of all the briefs (including amici briefs) at this link. The Court's official summary of what is at stake in the case is as follows:

The principal issue in this case is essentially the same ownership question as that in 11-0332, Robert Masterson, et al. v. Diocese of Northwest Texas, et al., set to be argued the same day: whether in Texas the a diocese seeking to leave the U.S. Episcopal Church or the larger Episcopal governing entity owns the church property in the diocese and whether ownership should be decided by "neutral principles" using established trust and property law and taking account of deeds, the governing language employed by a local church and the larger denomination, or by "compulsory deference", determining where church members place ultimate authority over property use.

The other case, referred to in the summary of the Fort Worth case just given, is Robert Masterson, et al. v. Diocese of Northwest Texas, et al., Case Nhttp://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2012/10/oral-arguments-tomorrow-in-texas-and.htmlo. 11-0332 (briefs may be downloaded here).

the rest

The Nurse, The Extremist, The Survivor

The... Single... Most... POWERFUL...Pro-Life Ad...EVER
... The background: In Illinois, Barack Obama voted four times against a bill that would have provided protections to babies born alive after surviving attempted abortions. Here was his quote explaining what he was opposing: " If that fetus, or child - however way you want to describe it - is now outside the mother's womb and the doctor continues to think that its nonviable but there's, lets say, movement or some indication that, in fact, they're not just coming up limp and dead, they would then have to call a second physician to monitor and check off and make sure that this is not a live child that could be saved. Is that correct?"...

Ontario Official: Catholic Schools Can’t Teach “Misogynistic” Pro-life
The Education Minister of Ontario, Canada — a professing Catholic who sends her children to Catholic schools — declared October 10 that the province’s publicly funded Catholic schools may not teach students that abortion is wrong because such teaching amounts to “misogyny,” which is prohibited in schools under a controversial anti-bullying law...

Scrolling around...October 15, 2012

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released
The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years...

Obama's Great Alaska Shutout-Interior bans drilling on 11.5 million acres of 'petroleum reserve.'
President Obama is campaigning as a champion of the oil and gas boom he's had nothing to do with, and even as his regulators try to stifle it. The latest example is the Interior Department's little-noticed August decision to close off from drilling nearly half of the 23.5 million acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

The area is called the National Petroleum Reserve because in 1976 Congress designated it as a strategic oil and natural gas stockpile to meet the "energy needs of the nation." Alaska favors exploration in nearly the entire reserve. The feds had been reviewing four potential development plans, and the state of Alaska had strongly objected to the most restrictive of the four. Sure enough, that was the plan Interior chose...

Germany facing power blackouts
Germany could be struck by power blackouts this winter as the country struggles with a shift to renewable energy the economy minister has warned...

Old-Fashioned Control Systems Make U.S. Power Grids, Water Plants a Hacking Target
Critical infrastructure is at risk of a cyberattack because of systems that haven't kept pace with Internet threats...

Occupy London Activists Chain Selves To Pulpit at St. Paul's Cathedral
Several supporters of the anti-corporate Occupy movement chained themselves to the pulpit of St. Paul's Cathedral during a service Sunday in an action marking the anniversary of its now-dismantled protest camp outside the London landmark.

The Dean of St. Paul's, David Ison, said he was taking an evening prayer service when "four young women dressed in white" chained themselves to the structure.

"It will be a long, cold night if they want to stay there," he said...

'2016: Obama's America' to Screen at Churches Before DVD Release
A hit documentary film challenging President Obama will be screened in tax-exempt churches, whether the IRS likes it or not...

Court Rejects Name Change To "ChristIsKing"
In Matter of Nawadiuko, (City of NY Civil Ct., Oct. 1, 2012), a New York trial court denied an application by a family to change their name from Nwadiuko to "ChristIsKing". The court identified two concerns...

Pakistani girl shot by Taliban now in UK for care
A teenage Pakistani activist shot in the head by the Taliban arrived in the United Kingdom on Monday for more specialized medical care and to protect her from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants.

The attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest a week ago has horrified people across the South Asian country and abroad. It has also sparked hope that the Pakistani government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies....

Boris says marriage is a relic of the ‘Stone Age’
London Mayor Boris Johnson says the nation needs “to move beyond the Stone Age” by redefining marriage.

He supports David Cameron’s plan to rewrite the meaning of marriage, saying: “frankly I can’t see what the fuss is about.”

He made the dismissive remarks in an article for The Independent, a newspaper which is actively campaigning for marriage to be redefined...

Study shows $1.2 trillion gap for public pensions
The largest 100 public pension funds have around $1.2 trillion of unfunded liabilities, about $300 billion above the nearly $900 billion they reported themselves, according to a new actuarial study to be released on Monday.

The pension systems reported a median funding level of 75.1 percent. The study by the actuarial firm Milliman, which used different ways to value assets and measure liabilities, finds an aggregate level of funding of 67.8 percent...

Iran Detains Seven More Christians in Church Raid
Authorities in Iran's Fars Province arrested seven Christians in a church raid on Friday, even as five other Christian converts who were detained eight months ago from the same province will face trial on Monday. Over 300 Christians have been arbitrarily arrested and detained over the last two years.

Security personnel on Friday evening raided a house church belonging to the Church of Iran denomination in the city of Shiraz, and detained seven Christians, U.K.-based charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported...