Church & State?

Girl, 6, thrown on fire for being ‘lowest class’

Want prayer in school, intelligent design, and other mergers of church & state?  Try Afghanistan where women aren’t allowed to read or go out after dark.  Try out India and enjoy that theocracy:

 http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/30/india.caste/index.html 

 A man [late teens], incensed that a 6-year-old girl chose to walk through a path reserved for upper caste villagers, pushed her into burning embers.

Hindus believe there are five main groups of people, four of which sprang from the body of the first man.  Dalits are considered so low in the social order that they don’t even rank among the four classes that make up the caste system.

“Dalits are seen to pollute higher caste people if they come in touch with them, hence the ‘untouchables,’. If a higher caste Hindu is touched by, or even had a Dalit’s shadow fall across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.”

 

I’m happy I was born into your relatively nice life here, b/c I could have been born a Dalit. 

Teach your kids religion and faith at home, that’s YOUR job.  The state should not be teaching children about faith and spirituality.  

Says GOP, “Balanced Budget? Psshh…that’s for Democrats!”

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration, moving to cope with soaring budget deficits, says it is bringing back the one-year Treasury bill that it stopped issuing seven years ago when the budget was in surplus. (7 years ago…budget surplus….Democrats…). 

The Repblicans have year after year spent more money than they have in their budget.  And borrowing from Commies?? These Republicans can’t say they’re “Reagan” followers – Ron would never have put us so far in debt to Communist governments and Arab dictators.  (He’d still put us deeply into debt with non-communist countries, of course).

The title “Fiscally Responsible” is now awarded to the Democrats. 

 
Source: http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Review: Blackberry Curve

The Blackberry Curve is sweet!

Pacman on the cheap

The last Pacman post said “If the trade is favorable” – and no doubt it’s favorable.  The Cowboys are taking a shot on Pacman and in return are giving up…a fourth round draft pick.  That’s a steal, with the “if’s”: If he’s re-instated and if he stays out of trouble.  The former is insured, we’ll get our pick back in 2009.  On the latter, he’s got no guaranteed money.  He’ll be as unpredictable as an injury or as a 1st round draft pick – there is risk everywhere.  Thumbs up to this deal. 

http://goearth.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/pacmantemptingpacmantempting

Nukes: Everywhere but Iraq

A top U.S. official said an alleged nuclear reactor was being built by Syria with North Korean design help and was weeks or months from being functional before Israeli jets destroyed it.

Guns and Religion are big in small towns? Say it ain’t so…

Obama said that – in the face of economic hardship – rural America has a tendency to “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”   So rural America contains a fair amount of bible-thumping, gun-waving citizens who aren’t big on foreigners - what’s the issue, isn’t that fairly common knowledge?   

Was he not supposed to generalize groups of voters?  From full time pundits to the guys on sports-talk radio, we’ve all been generalizing Americans.  We’ve generalized/summarized educated whites, educated blacks, blue-collar, Jews, Catholics, women, men, Latinos, gays – even wrestling fans.  

I’m certain that not all rural America is homogenous, just the same as all educated whites don’t vote the same and all Catholics don’t vote the same.   I assume the only problem is the word “cling”. 

If he had said that rural America feels that top issues are religion, guns, and immigration – would anyone bat an eye?  Are we in an uproar over semantics? 

 

Worst food inflation since H. Bush

U.S. seeing worst food inflation in 17 years

Associated Press
updated 6:18 p.m. CT, Tues., April. 15, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24127314

The U.S. is wrestling with the worst food inflation in 17 years, and analysts expect new data due on Wednesday to show it’s getting worse.

-  Analysts are forecasting that Wednesday’s Department of Labor report will show the Consumer Price Index rose at a 4 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, up from last year’s overall rise of 2.8 percent.

-  “I was talking to people who make $9 an hour, talking about how they might save $5 a week,” said Kathleen DiChiara, president and CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. “They really felt they couldn’t. That was before. Now, they have to.”  For some, that means adding an extra cup of water to their soup, watering down their milk, or giving their children soda because it’s cheaper than milk, DiChiara said.

 

Pacman…tempting?

The Dallas Cowboys are considering trading for Pacman Jones

Arkansas says: No more toddler weddings

Anyone, of any age could get married in Arkansas.  Funny, but not surprising?  To be fair, this was a mistake on the part of the law makers (but still very funny!).  
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23934694/?GT1=43001

What they meant was that you need to be 18, 16 if you’re not pregnant.  Now, if you’re knocked up and you’re 16, you’d don’t need parental consent - you’re clearly an established maker of excellent choices and parental consent is completely unnecessary.  Kids getting married at 16 – is this the law in most states?

Priorities in the War on Terror

If the war on terror was important to George Bush:

1. The Taliban would be up at the top of the list just behind Al-Qaeda.  The Taliban provided the training grounds and after the attacks, provided them sanctuary.    
   “The past two years have seen the highest number of foreign military casualties since the US-led invasion in 2001 forced the Taliban from power in Kabul.”
   “US and coalition military efforts have been hampered by a lack of troops and reconstruction resources”
   “Taliban militants planted hundreds of roadside bombs and conducted scores of suicide bomb attacks in 2007 in Afghanistan, contributing to a record year of violence that killed 6,000 people, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.”
   
2. The National Cyber Security Center (part of the Department of Homeland Security)  would not be headed up by someone with no experience in cyber security (think FEMA management).   Hmmm. 
   “The top cybersecurity official in the US government, the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s newly announced National Cyber Security Center, is a man with no government experience and no security experience. “
    
3. The head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) would not be a vacant post for 6 months.  John Redd was ousted by the Bush Administration in Ocotber of 2007.  As of March 2007, the position has gone unfilled.  This is center of our nation’s anti-terror organization.  Redd showed lackluster support for the mess in Iraq and 2 days later decided he should spend time with his family and less time working.  Hmmm. 
4. The chair of the Homeland Security Council (part of the Department of Homeland Security) would not be vacant for the past 2 months. This is a top Whitehouse appointed position, created by George Bush. 

Sources:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKISL26840120080329 
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav040108f.shtml 
http://www.newsweek.com/id/124117?tid=relatedcl
http://www.newsweek.com/id/124117?tid=relatedcl
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080328-meet-the-new-us-cybersecurity-czar.html