Christians in the Crosshairs....

Christians in the Crosshairs....Stop anti-Christian Persecution


Jay Seculow of the ACLJ -American Center for Law and Justice

We've got an extremely grave problem on our hands.

In fact, Christians are literally being targeted by one of the most powerful Islamic organizations in the world.

This is urgent! Help the ACLJ's legal defense teams in the U.S. and Europe IMMEDIATELY answer this serious threat to your religious freedom with your generous gift of support right now.

Let me get straight to the matter ... The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest lobbying body of nations within the United Nations (U.N.) - including countries in the Middle East, Asia and even South America - is pushing an anti-Christian agenda with full force.

They're attempting to pass a sinister resolution called ''Combating Defamation of Religions.'' It sounds palatable -

However, a careful reading shows that it boldly targets men and women of faith, like you and me, who speak out - in any way - against Islam.

Your support is crucial! Please give your immediate online donation to help the ACLJ - along with our European affiliate - answer the OIC aggressively: Anti-Christian bigotry will not be tolerated!

Please understand, this radical proposal essentially discriminates against Christians sharing the Good News. It could make the proclamation of your faith an international crime - punishable by imprisonment ... even death.

When Supreme Court Justice Scalia said in a recent dissent, ''America is at war with radical Islamists,'' he was exactly right.

We are seeing worldwide persecution of Christians as part of the radical Muslim mission to ''take the world for Islam'' - by purging Christianity from the face of the earth.

In Saudi Arabia, a Muslim father violently cut out his young daughter's tongue and burned her alive upon learning she had become a Christian.
In Africa, a leading Gospel singer was seized, stuffed into a cargo box - with a single hole for air - and left for a month to go crazy or die. After two years, she was released, fled her captive country, and was granted political asylum in Denmark.
In Iran, a couple was tortured for reading the Bible.
Two men in Algeria were tried and convicted for possessing Christian books.
And today we face extremely dangerous threats everywhere because of the one posed by the OIC.

Make no mistake, the ACLJ is absolutely dedicated to combating this perilous resolution at the United Nations.

In fact, our European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) is officially recognized by the U.N. - which is absolutely critical right now as we work aggressively as your voice on this issue.

I am personally leading a team of ACLJ and ECLJ attorneys and staff researching, preparing reports and oral presentations - on your behalf, to protect your religious freedom.

We're calling on the U.N.'s High Commissioner of Human Rights to vehemently oppose this dangerous resolution and focus instead on improving existing international law to protect the religious beliefs of all individuals.

We'll begin hearings at the U.N. in just a few weeks, so I am turning to you for support. I am asking you, and every member of the ACLJ, to give an immediate generous tax-deductible contribution, and also to pray.

We need your support, in prayers and giving, as we launch our nationwide campaign to aggressively defeat this bold anti-Christian bigotry.

There is no other choice - we've got to win this battle for freedom at the U.N., or the ramifications for Christians will be staggering. Let me hear from you quickly. Thank you


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The ACLJ is an organization dedicated to the defense of constitutional liberties secured by law.

American Center for Law and Justice is a d/b/a for Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, Inc., a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, religious corporation as defined under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, specifically dedicated to the ideal that religious freedom and freedom of speech are inalienable, God-given rights. The Center's purpose is to educate, promulgate, conciliate, and where necessary, litigate, to ensure that those rights are protected under the law. The organization has participated in numerous cases before the Supreme Court, Federal Court of Appeals, Federal District Courts, and various state courts regarding freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Your gift is very much appreciated and fully deductible as a charitable contribution. A copy of our latest financial report may be obtained b y writing to us at P.O. Box 450349, Atlanta, GA 31145-0349.

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Climate Change, Global Warming - Mixing Science with Politics

Is Winter 2008 Making Climate Alarmists Question Global Warming?
By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
March 2, 2008 - 19:37 ET


For years, climate realists have been wondering how the global warming alarmists would react when the planet actually cooled, albeit for an unknown amount of time.

With the winter of 2008 ushering in record-cold temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere -- following similar, albeit mostly unreported, weather in the Southern Hemisphere's 2007 winter -- it seems the resolve of the believers has been a bit weakened, to say the least.

Take for example Sunday's New York Times article by environment reporter Andrew C. Revkin entitled "Climate Skeptics Seize on Cold Spell" (emphasis added throughout):

The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature.

It is no wonder that some scientists, opinion writers, political operatives and other people who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming have jumped on this as a teachable moment.

[...]

According to a host of climate experts, including some who question the extent and risks of global warming, it is mostly good old-fashioned weather, along with a cold kick from the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is in its La Niña phase for a few more months, a year after it was in the opposite warm El Niño pattern.

If anything else is afoot — like some cooling related to sunspot cycles or slow shifts in ocean and atmospheric patterns that can influence temperatures — an array of scientists who have staked out differing positions on the overall threat from global warming agree that there is no way to pinpoint whether such a new force is at work.

Interesting, wouldn't you agree? Sounds almost like the position of the realists.

After all, Revkin claimed "there is no way to pinpoint whether such a new force is at work" in driving down temperatures that have been observed in the past few months. Well, realists believe there's no way to "pinpoint" what forces are responsible for the global warming trend in the past 150 years.

Sounds like common ground, doesn't it?

To better define the realist view, such scientists, meteorologists, and climatologists feel that there are many factors impacting the weather, and that, despite claims by alarmists, there is absolutely no definitive proof that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is the primary culprit behind a slight rise in average global temperatures since 1850.

Yet, a problem arises from Revkin's "pinpoint" statement: if there's no way to determine exactly what's caused the sudden cooling that scientists have actually been able to observe the past eight months in both hemispheres, how can folks be so confident that carbon dioxide emissions have been the cause of rising temperatures that began a century before most of the alarmists were born?

Interesting conundrum, wouldn't you agree?

Read the rest of this intriguing column HERE

Russia's Invasion of Georgia

There is a website with a petition to the International Olympic Committee to revoke the site of Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympic games. This is one way that the world can pressure Russia in a peaceful way, to remove themselves from Georgia and to repair the damage they've caused. Another way is to boycott all Russian products. Russia must be shown that there are consequences to their actions.

The Georgians are our friends. They, more than most, sent more of their military to Iraq.

Please use the link to the right to go to Revoke the Games and sign the petition.

From the Mouths of Comedians...

Eric Hoffer said, "The mystery of our time is the inability of decent people to get angry."

I realize that sadness is a much safer emotion, but is it so necessary to have demonized anger in America?

"McCain? Hey, doesn't he have a temper? Yeah, I think I read that - ooh, I don't know about him. Can you trust a guy that gets mad?"

Can you trust a guy who doesn't get mad? Let's get a guy with a temper. Maybe spending five years in a box in Vietnam makes a man a little cranky. But it also gives you firsthand experience with "evildoers," and maybe we need a little more of that.

Bill Maher, 2002

Religious Persecution in the United States of America?

It is here and it is court ordered.....


Calif. court: Homosexual rights trump religious freedom

Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 8/19/2008 6:45:00 AM

The same California Supreme Court that created a "right" to homosexual "marriage" earlier this year has now ruled that the state may force healthcare professionals to provide services that support an immoral and physically dangerous lifestyle.

California's highest court was unanimous in its decision on Monday that Christian doctors may not refuse to perform artificial insemination for homosexual patients. (See "California court says no religious exemption for doctors") Attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), reacts to the ruling.

"This is a clear violation of the fundamental rights of individuals to live and practice their faith," he states bluntly. "Forcing doctors to have to choose between being a doctor and being a Christian in the State of California is an outrageous violation of the fundamental rights of every American to be able to practice their faith and not to have to leave their occupation because of it."

In the case in question, the Christian doctors refused to perform artificial insemination on a lesbian patient, but did refer her to another doctor who would perform the elective treatment. Dacus says that proves this suit was not about guaranteeing "healthcare" for homosexuals, but instead about punishing Christians for obeying God's Word.

"This is not about denying people services," the attorney argues. "This is, instead, about the 'thought police' attempting to censor Christian beliefs and Christian perspectives that don't agree with homosexuality. We're talking...about individuals being able to force doctors or other professionals to violate their faith in order to keep their job." And that, he adds, is a clear violation of the rights of individuals to be able to practice their expertise and, at the same time, not to have to deny their faith.

The PJI president says the ruling is quite broad and will apply to almost every profession in the state, meaning that Christian professionals and service providers -- childcare providers, for instance -- will be forced to provide services to homosexuals that support their immoral lifestyle and clearly violate biblical standards.

"For example, lawyers who are engaging in marriage and family law can now be forced to [execute] documents for homosexuals adopting children...," Dacus offers. "And individual with a wedding service, despite their Christian faith to the contrary, can now be forced to conduct wedding services and wedding preparations for lesbian or homosexual male couples."

Dacus says the case is certain to be appealed. "This just goes to show how critically important it is for us in the United States to have a Supreme Court that is not against those who practice the Christian faith but, instead, understands what the Constitution is about and [do] not engage in outrageous judicial activism," he says.

China 's Surplus of Sons: A Geopolitical Time Bomb

Michael Fragoso

The Olympics are here. Just as athletes from around the world enter into heated competition, China seeks to put its best foot forward in response to critics at home and abroad.

Among the criticisms is a quiet but serious challenge: the artificially high number of Chinese men compared with Chinese women. China should act expeditiously to correct the social and legal pressures that have converged to create this problem.

"Son preference" is a deep-seated, widespread problem in many cultures. In many parts of the world, having a son is integral to one's future financial and social wellbeing. Recent articles have tried to shed light on the problem in India-putting much blame on the ultrasound machines women use to determine the sex of their unborn children in order to decide whether they should abort a female fetus.

In China , however, the problem takes on a frightfully larger scope when "son preference" meets the notorious One Child policy. When the government only allows one child, it puts immense pressure on Chinese parents to determine the sex of their child in the womb, and terminate the pregnancy if it is a girl.

The unintended consequences of this government policy are staggering. The proportion of male births to female births (the "sex ratio") is not merely unusual, but alarming. Worldwide, there are already 100 million girls "missing" due to sex-selective abortion and female infanticide, according to the English medical journal The Lancet. Fifty million of these girls are thought to be from China . In many provinces, the sex ratio at birth is between 120 to 130 boys for every 100 girls; the natural number is about 104.

What will happen in future decades when these boys grow up and look for wives?

Among other things, such a situation would exacerbate the growing problem of sexual trafficking, which will surely have its hardest effect on the most vulnerable in the developing world as China grows richer.

Another serious threat is to regional stability and, by extension, international security. As Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer recently wrote in their prize-winning work on demography and security, Bare Branches, surplus male populations in a region often result in violence-through banditry, rioting, or militarization. The 6 to 5 male-female ratio in China means there are a lot of men who will not be able to start families. If history is any guide, they will either find less savory things to occupy their time, or find women through equally unsavory means.

China should work to prevent sex-selective abortions and fix the gender balance, not only to avoid social and political instability, but also because women and men are equal. The fundamental right to life exists regardless of one's gender.

The means to correct China 's gender imbalance will hopefully prove as peaceable and wholesome as those being undertaken by Korea , whose government, religious, and cultural leaders have worked together for years to increase the value of girls in their culture and erase "son preference." While China is engaged in the early stages of similar efforts, it can bolster them through changes in policy. An excellent step would be to enact and enforce laws that ban sex-selective abortion by targeting prenatal ultrasound use. Likewise, certain perceived economic causes for China 's tradition of son preference could be undercut by changes in China 's social-welfare networks. Most effective in balancing the sex ratio and affirming the rights of Chinese girls would be to abandon the odious one-child norm.

A tale from antiquity illustrates the potential tragedy of gender imbalance. Ancient Rome began as a refuge for fugitives, full of young, high-spirited men but utterly lacking in women. So Romulus held an athletic festival and encouraged guests to bring their wives and daughters. At a set time, able-bodied Romans seized the assembled women in an event now known as the Rape of the Sabine Women.

As China hosts the world, the world should make clear to the Chinese government how abhorrent its one-child policy is, as are its resultant sex-selective abortions. Let us take advantage of this opportunity and help the Chinese learn from the past to avoid demographic catastrophe and geopolitical instability in their future.

Michael Fragoso is a policy analyst with the Family Research Council. This article originally appeared in the October 19, 2007 edition of the Christian Science Monitor:

What Is It About August? - George Will

George Will, in his column about Russia's invasion of Georgia, has managed to indict the UN and Bill Richardson as well as illuminate McCain's wealth of knowledge and no nonsense approach to foreign policy especially in the face of a very real threat to world peace.

WASHINGTON -- Asked in 1957 what would determine his government's course, Harold Macmillan, Britain's new prime minister, replied, "Events, dear boy, events." Now, into America's trivializing presidential campaign, a pesky event has intruded -- a European war. Russian tanks, heavy artillery, strategic bombers, ballistic missiles and a naval blockade batter a European nation. We are not past such things after all. The end of history will be postponed, again.

Russia supports two provinces determined to secede from Georgia. Russia, with aspiring nations within its borders, generally opposes secessionists, as it did when America, which sometimes opposes secession (e.g., 1861-65), improvidently supported Kosovo's secession from Russia's ally Serbia. But Russia's aggression is really about the subordination of Georgia, a democratic, market-oriented U.S. ally. This is the recrudescence of Russia's dominance in what it calls the "near abroad." Ukraine, another nation guilty of being provocatively democratic near Russia, should tremble because there is not much America can do. It is a bystander at the bullying of an ally that might be about to undergo regime change.

Vladimir Putin, into whose soul President George W. Bush once peered and liked what he saw, has conspicuously conferred with Russia's military, thereby making his poodle, "President" Dmitry Medvedev, yet more risible. But big events reveal smallness, such as that of New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson.

On ABC's "This Week," Richardson, auditioning to be Barack Obama's running mate, disqualified himself. Clinging to the Obama campaign's talking points like a drunk to a lamppost, Richardson said this crisis proves the wisdom of Obama's zest for diplomacy, and that America should get the U.N. Security Council "to pass a strong resolution getting the Russians to show some restraint." Apparently Richardson was ambassador to the U.N. for 19 months without noticing that Russia has a Security Council veto.

This crisis illustrates, redundantly, the paralysis of the U.N. regarding major powers, hence regarding major events, and the fictitiousness of the European Union regarding foreign policy. Does this disturb Obama's serenity about the efficacy of diplomacy? Obama's second statement about the crisis, in which he tardily acknowledged Russia's invasion, underscored the folly of his first, which echoed the Bush administration's initial evenhandedness. "Now," said Obama, "is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint."

John McCain, the "life is real, life is earnest" candidate, says he has looked into Putin's eyes and seen "a K, a G and a B." But McCain owes the thug thanks, as does America's electorate. Putin has abruptly pulled the presidential campaign up from preoccupation with plumbing the shallows of John Edwards and wondering what "catharsis" is "owed" to disappointed Clintonites.

McCain, who has called upon Russia "to immediately and unconditionally ... withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory," favors expelling Russia from the G-8, and organizing a league of democracies to act where the U.N. is impotent, which is whenever the subject is important. But Georgia, whose desire for NATO membership had U.S. support, is not in NATO because some prospective members of McCain's league of democracies, e.g. Germany, thought that starting membership talks with Georgia would complicate the project of propitiating Russia. NATO is scheduled to review the question of Georgia's membership in December. Where now do Obama and McCain stand?

If Georgia were in NATO, would NATO now be at war with Russia? More likely, Russia would not be in Georgia. Only once in NATO's 59 years has the territory of a member been invaded -- the British Falklands, by Argentina, in 1982.

Please read the rest of the column by clicking HERE

Doctors vs Guns

This is worth reading....

Doctors:
(A) The number of doctors in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 17.14%.
Statistics: courtesy of the U.S.Dept of Health & Human Services

Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000 (yes! that's 80 million).
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.001875%.
Statistics: courtesy of the FBI

So statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, guns don't kill people, doctors do.

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EYERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR
Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!

Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.........

AGELESS WIT AND OBSERVATIONS

This just about sums it up.......



AGELESS WIT AND OBSERVATIONS
"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
...Mark Twain











Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress....But then I repeat myself.
...Mark Twain













I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
...Winston Churchill
















A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
...George Bernard Shaw












Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
...James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)









Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. ...Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University.








Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
...P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian















Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
...Frederic Bastiat, Economist (1801-1850)











Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
...Ronald Reagan (1986)












I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
...Will Rogers










If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
...P.J. O'Rourke











In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
...Voltaire (1764)











Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
...Pericles (430 B.C.)






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No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
...Mark Twain (1866)









Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
...Unknown











The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
...Ronald Reagan









The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
...Mark Twain









There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress.
...Mark Twain









What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
...Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)












A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

...Thomas Jefferson

An Affair to Remember - Chuck Norris

An Affair to Remember
08/12/2008

Now that John Edwards has admitted to his affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter, the big test looms again before the American public: Do we care? Do we think it matters? Do we believe that there should be any code of conduct or moral standard for those in public office, even if it is the highest one in the land?Justifications for political improprieties abound. There are historical ones: "Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, etc. had moral failures, so what's the big deal?" There are also personal ones: "We shouldn't judge. No one is perfect. Who are we to point fingers?"Don't misunderstand me. I believe in personal redemption. I myself have experienced it, as I wrote about in the chapter "A sin that became a blessing" in my autobiography, "Against All Odds," in which I discuss an adulterous one-night stand in the early '60s that resulted in my wonderful daughter Dina. That is why I hope, as he says, John Edwards truly has asked God and his wife for forgiveness, and I pray for their restoration and the long road that results from it.

But then again, John Edwards continues to minimize his culpability by playing linguistic and moral dodge ball. He lied to his closest colleagues and the public for nearly two years about the affair. And even in his confession last week, he doesn't call it a "lie," a "sin," an "affair" or "adultery." Rather, he repeatedly calls it merely a "mistake" or a "serious error in judgment." Is that all it is?

To read the rest of the column CLICK HERE