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UN Plan To Give Bugs, Trees Same Rights As Humans
www.canada.com


Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.

The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.

The wording may yet evolve, but the general structure is meant to mirror Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, which Bolivian President Evo Morales enacted in January.

That document speaks of the country's natural resources as "blessings," and grants the Earth a series of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air; the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities; and the right to be free from pollution.

It also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth, and provides the planet with an ombudsman whose job is to hear nature's complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including the state.

"If you want to have balance, and you think that the only (entities) who have rights are humans or companies, then how can you reach balance?" Pablo Salon, Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, told Postmedia News. "But if you recognize that nature too has rights, and (if you provide) legal forms to protect and preserve those rights, then you can achieve balance."

The application of the law appears destined to pose new challenges for companies operating in the country, which is rich in natural resources, including natural gas and lithium, but remains one of the poorest in Latin America.

But while Salon said his country just seeks to achieve "harmony" with nature, he signalled that mining and other companies may come under greater scrutiny.

"We're not saying, for example, you cannot eat meat because you know you are going to go against the rights of a cow," he said. "But when human activity develops at a certain scale that you (cause to) disappear a species, then you are really altering the vital cycles of nature or of Mother Earth. Of course, you need a mine to extract iron or zinc, but there are limits."

Bolivia is a country with a large indigenous population, whose traditional belief systems took on greater resonance following the election of Morales, Latin America's first indigenous president.

In a 2008 pamphlet his entourage distributed at the UN as he attended a summit there, 10 "commandments" are set out as Bolivia's plan to "save the planet" — beginning with the need "to end capitalism."

Reflecting indigenous traditional beliefs, the proposed global treaty says humans have caused "severe destruction . . . that is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred."

It also says that "Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all human beings."

In indigenous Andean culture, the Earth deity known as Pachamama is the centre of all life, and humans are considered equal to all other entities.

The UN debate begins two days before the UN's recognition April 22 of the second International Mother Earth Day — another Morales-led initiative.

Canadian activist Maude Barlow is among global environmentalists backing the drive with a book the group will launch in New York during the UN debate: Nature Has Rights.

"It's going to have huge resonance around the world," Barlow said of the campaign. "It's going to start first with these southern countries trying to protect their land and their people from exploitation, but I think it will be grabbed onto by communities in our countries, for example, fighting the tarsands in Alberta."

Ecuador, which also has a large indigenous population, has enshrined similar aims in its Constitution — but the Bolivian law is said to be "stronger."

Ecuador is among countries that have already been supportive of the Bolivian initiative, along with Nicaragua, Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Electrician faces sack for displaying Christian cross in his van
An electrician and former soldier faces the sack for displaying a small palm cross in the window of his company van.

12:14AM BST 17 Apr 2011

Colin Atkinson, 64, from Wakefield, has been called to a disciplinary hearing at the housing association where he has worked for 15 years.

His bosses at the publicly funded Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) have demanded he remove the eight inch long cross made from woven palm leaves that sits on his dashboard.

The organisation claims the cross may cause offence but says it strongly promotes "inclusive" policies and allows employees to wear religious symbols at work.

It has provided stalls at gay pride events, held "diversity days" for travellers, and has allowed other staff to display photographs of Che Guevera, the revolutionary leader, in their office.

Mr Atkinson, who is a regular worshipper at church, said: “I have worked in the coal mines and served in the Army in Northern Ireland and I have never suffered such stress
 
“The treatment of Christians in this country is becoming diabolical. It is political correctness taken to the extreme.

“I have never been so full of resolve. I am determined to stand up for my rights. If they sack me, so be it. But I am standing up for my faith.”

Mr Atkinson said he was first asked to remove the last year. When he refused the same request was made by several different managers.

In one meeting with senior managers he was told by the company’s equality and diversity manager that the cross “gives the impression that WDH is a Christian organisation”.

He has since been told that managers will hold a full disciplinary hearing in May.

Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, which is backing Mr Atkinson, said: “This smacks of something deeply illiberal and remarkably intolerant. Is this the kind of society the British public want to live in?

‘The cross is a profound symbol of God’s love for all of us. We should not be embarrassed about it.”

Wakefield District Housing said: “We do not allow employees to display any personal representations in our vehicles, although they are free to do so upon their person.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further about this individual case.”

Mr Atkinson’s battle follows a series of similar cases involving Christians who claim they are being victimised because of their faith.

Moonbattery
April 28, 2011
Calling Pets "Pets" Is a Thought Crime

It's time for a new edition of the Newspeak dictionary. According to the pointy-headed circus clowns who pass down surrealist moral judgments from atop their ivory towers, our current vocabulary oppresses animals:

Animal lovers should stop calling their furry or feathered friends "pets" because the term is insulting, leading academics claim.
Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as "companion animals" while owners should be known as "human carers", they insist.
Other forbidden terms include "critters" and "beasts." Pet owners are not to be referred to as "owners," because this "harks back to a previous age" when animals were considered to be animals.

The term "wildlife" is not to be used because "For most, 'wildness' is synonymous with uncivilized, unrestrained, barbarous existence." In actuality, academics have discovered that tigers and hyenas sit around tea tables in the jungle, sipping Earl Grey with their pinkies raised.

Certain idiomatic expressions also have to go:

Phrases such as "sly as a fox, "eat like a pig" or "drunk as a skunk" are all unfair to animals, they claim.
With all this verbal abuse hurled at their sensitive feelings, you can see why Obama's Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein wants animals to be provided with lawyers so they can sue us.

I guess calling these people ridiculous is out, too.

To say the least!

Funny, my animals don't care what I call them as long as they get fed, watered, walked, and played with! ::)

Study Suggests That Winnie the Pooh Isn't Gender Equal, But Does it Matter?
foxnews.com

A comprehensive study of traditional children’s book characters has determined that Pooh Corner may be rife with gender inequality.

Dr. Janice McCabe, a sociologist at Florida State University, examined nearly 6,000 children’s books between 1900 and 2000 and determined the stories have a definitive gender bias and a disproportionate representation of genders.

“We found that males are represented more frequently than females in the titles and the central characters in the book,” McCabe told Fox News Radio.

Fifty seven percent of the children’s stories featured male characters, 31 percent featured female characters and the remainder had animal characters of unknown gender identity, according to the study.

Curious George, perhaps?

McCabe said she was surprised that modern-day children’s stories don’t include more female characters.

“I had kind of expected that books would start off in 1900 being unequal and become more equal over time,” she said.

“We were surprised by the historical patterns and by the animals. The fact that the animals were the most unequal and even in the 1990s there were still two male animals to every one female animal.”

McCabe said gender matters in children’s stories because it’s in part how they learn about gender.

“These findings reinforce the belief that female characters are less important, less interesting than male characters which has implications for how both boys and girls feel about themselves and each other in relationships,” she said.

But some parents believe the study is off the mark. “This is crazy,” said Bryan Thrower, the parent of a 17-month-old in Florence, S.C. “Are they upset because Mary had a garden and Old MacDonald had a farm? This is more politically correct nonsense.”

But McCabe said the pattern also exists in other children’s media including cartoons, coloring books, and G-rated films. “A lot of times this is invisible to people,” she said, encouraging parents to pay attention to gender when selecting books and reading material for their children. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t read books about men and boys,” she said. “Instead, just think about the gender of particular books and be aware of it.”

Oh my gosh, woman!  I hope we didn't give you a grant for that study!

Ariz. Sheriff: Feds Order Release of Illegals to Phony Up Numbers
newsmax.com

The U.S. Border Patrol has told its agents to stop arresting illegal aliens crossing the border from Mexico to keep the illegal immigration numbers down, Arizona Sheriff Larry Dever tells Newsmax.

He also charges that Attorney General Eric Holder is “holding hands with the ACLU” to protect illegal aliens from prosecution, says illegals are committing “heinous crimes” across America every day, and calls claims that the federal government should be solely responsible for controlling illegal immigration “balderdash.”

Dever is sheriff of Cochise County, which shares an 83-mile border with Mexico, and he says his Border Patrol sector is responsible for half of all illegal aliens caught trying to enter the country and halt the narcotics entering the United States.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, he was asked about the Obama administration’s bragging that the border is more secure than ever.

“For the secretary of homeland security to say the border is more secure than ever, well, I’ve been there forever and there was a happier time than what it is today. We have a long, long way to go.

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid and buy into 'this border is secure' nonsense.

“There’s a bad element in the mix of the aliens that are crossing that border and they don’t stay there, they move into communities throughout the country. And every day there are travesties and heinous crimes being committed by those people. If we don’t stop it at the border, it’s just going to continue to grow.”

Dever recently told Congress that in one district in Texas, illegals are allowed to be caught crossing the border 14 times before being charged with a felony, and federal smuggling charges are not considered unless at least six illegal aliens are being smuggled into the country.

“It doesn’t surprise me because we’ve been seeing that every day in Arizona, with artificial thresholds for narcotics, for human smuggling,” he tells Newsmax.

“For that to be issued as a written solid order, it’s outrageous.”

He also explains how he has heard that the Border Patrol has told officers to stop arresting Mexican illegals to keep official illegal immigration figures down.

“That comes from agents on the ground, who have told me, told my deputies, told citizens in the area.

“They have in the past been instructed to scare people back or turn them back south versus arresting them.”

Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher’s has denied that agents have been told not to arrest Mexican illegals. Dever responds: “I tend to believe there is no written order to that effect. But if your agents on the ground have that perception and that understanding, then you need to go back and change it.

“If they’re lying, shame on them, and shame on me for bringing it up. But frankly, my staff, when they heard this, they said what’s the big deal? We’ve been hearing this forever. And people who live in my county say the same things.

“So something’s going on and it needs to be rectified and fixed so these people are brought to justice.”

Dever tells Newsmax that the Mexican drug cartels are freely operating many miles from the U.S.-Mexican border.

“You can go up to 70 miles north in Pinal County, which isn’t even a border county, and the Bureau of Land Management put up signs on public land warning people not to travel there because of the threat from drug cartels.

“If you travel into the recreational areas in my county, those same signs are up warning people they could encounter drug and human smuggling. I think we ought to point the signs south and tell the folks who are coming here that this is not a safe place for you to come.”

Referring to “roadblocks” Eric Holder has been erecting against Arizona’s attempts to deal with the immigration problem, Dever says: “He’s the guy who sued us, sued the state of Arizona, holding hands with the ACLU. It doesn’t do any good to arrest people if all you’re going to do is kick them back. If they’re not going to be prosecuted and held accountable, where’s the teeth in the enforcement effort?”

When Arizona passed its tough anti-illegal immigration legislation last year, the ACLU “sued every Arizona sheriff and every Arizona county attorney independently to enjoin us from enforcing the law should it pass constitutional muster,” Dever adds.

“Then the Department of Justice sued the state of Arizona. Here’s what’s absolutely bizarre and hypocritical: The Department of Homeland Security since Sept. 11, 2001, has been on an outreach effort to empower and partner with state and local law enforcement to help defend and protect our homeland.

“When it comes to gun-running, money-laundering, kidnapping, murder, all those border-related crimes that we have, they wrap their arms around us and say let’s go get these guys. When it comes to illegal immigration, they sue us. They say back off, that is our sole responsibility. And I say balderdash.”

Dever encourages Americans to “keep pressure on your congressional representatives” to deal effectively with illegal immigration. “It’s beginning to work. It’s beginning to take hold.”

Are you KIDDING me?

WOW! - I just found this thread. OUTRAGEOUS!

I guess they need to get the number of illegal aliens up to vote for Obama in the next election.

I think you're right!  I sure hope that there is alot more scrutiny at the polls this time around!

Scrutiny in Illinois doesn't help. All it takes here to register to vote is to prove someone is an Illinois resident and all that takes is a billing envelope from the local power company with your name and an address on it. That has been seen to be easy to fake.

We would probably be angry if we knew how much voting fraud there is. And we know that folks like ACORN actually encouraged voting fraud. Further, the politicians know that the system is corrupt, and there is a contest on how to use the fraud to their best advantage.

Entrepreneur offers care for pets whose owners have been `raptured'
canada.com

Bart Centre does not believe in heaven, but he's pretty sure that if there is a heaven, your pet is not going there.

After all, he points out, "All Dogs Go to Heaven" is the name of an animated movie, not a line from the Bible.

Not that Bart believes in the Bible. Or God. He is an atheist, and proudly so. But he knows that plenty of people do believe in God and do believe in heaven. And some of them believe in the Rapture, the day when true Christians will be called up to Jesus Christ. Some people - including a group that put ads on the backs of buses in our area - think the Rapture is coming May 21.

The Rapture could leave a lot of dogs and cats looking longingly at their food bowls after their owners have floated off to heaven. That's where Bart comes in.

In 2009, he launched Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA. Bart guarantees that if or when the Rapture comes he or one of his 44 contractors in 26 states will drive to your home within 24 hours, collect your dog, cat, bird, rabbit or small caged mammal, and adopt it. (Rapture rescue services for horses, camels, llamas and donkeys are limited to New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho and Montana.)

The cost is $135, plus $20 per additional animal. Payable upfront, of course, and good for 10 years.

"Right now, we have over 250 clients," said Bart, 62, who is retired from a major retailer and pens anti-religion books under the name Dromedary Hump. Most customers are in the Bible Belt. Bart said he can handle relatively secular western Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, where he lives, all by himself.

Bart says he has carefully screened all the rescuers. They have to love animals, of course, but just as important is that they don't love Jesus. For obvious reasons, they're all atheists.

"These are people not likely to be Raptured under any circumstances," Bart said. "Not that we think anybody is going anywhere anyway, which we make perfectly clear on our Web site."

After a background check, each rescuer must satisfy Bart by blaspheming in accordance with Mark 3:29, the part of the New Testament that reads: "But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."

Said Bart: "We leave it up to the imagination of the rescuer to come up with a blasphemy that would be offensive to a Holy Spirit - if there were one."

He wouldn't tell me what sort of blasphemies his rescuers have committed. "I can tell you it involves language that most religious people would find hair-raisingly offensive. . . . If the Holy Spirit wants to beam people up who take Its name in vain, more power to Him, I say."

Bart said all sorts of people contact him, mostly atheists who want to offer their services. (About 8,000 at last count.) He gets grief from people who say Jesus will make sure their pets are taken care of, come what may. ("God didn't take care of the animals during the flood," Bart tells them. Not that he thinks there was a flood.) He also hears from folks angry that he's taking money from fundamentalist Christians under false pretences.

"Who's providing the false pretences?" he said. "I do not promote the Rapture. If I were promoting it, then soliciting people to take my services, I could see that being a scam. I let the religious people promote it. I am offering them peace of mind. We can commit to you that we have the resources and infrastructure to rescue your pet from certain slow starvation or thirst, at just over a dollar a month. I do not feel like I'm taking advantage. I am satisfying a demand."

Bart thinks it's a pretty good deal.

"Who knows whether I'm taking advantage of them," he asked, "or they're taking advantage of me?"

Wow! - What a money-making opportunity.   ;)

Instead of worrying about gettting his ticket to ride, this guy is thinking about what kind of scam he run now!

PA to Pay Terrorists in Israeli Prisons Salaries And Look Who is Financing It
israelnationalnews.com


The Palestinian Authority passed a law last month granting all PA residents and Israeli Arabs imprisoned by Israel for terror crimes a monthly salary, Palestinian Media Watch reports.

According to PMW, the PA has defined by law which residents and Israeli Arabs would be deemed "prisoners" as "Anyone imprisoned in the occupation's [Israel's] prisons as a result of his participation in the struggle against the occupation."

In other words, all PA residents in Israeli prisons for terror crimes are officially added to the PA payroll. According to the definition in the PA law, PA car thieves in Israeli prisons will not receive a salary, but Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers will.

The PA also gives a salary to Israeli Arabs convicted of terror crimes against Israel - the country of which they are citizens. PA benefits to Israeli Arab terrorists, in fact, are greater than the ones extended to PA resident terrorists.

Additionally, those serving more than 20-year sentences will receive a greater PA salary than prisoners serving shorter sentences, the new PA law establishes. Salaries are to be paid from the day of arrest until release.

More than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently serving time in Israeli prisons for terror-related offenses, PMW says.

Among those now eligible are Abdullah Barghouti, serving 67 life sentences; Hassan Salameh, serving 38 life sentences; and Jamal Abu Al-Hijja, serving nine life sentences, all of whom are imprisoned for planning suicide bombings - three terrorists PMW recently reported as being called "heroic" by the official PA daily.

Who's Paying?

PMW noted the new PA law stipulates that payment of salaries "will be implemented... on the basis of available sources of funding." When the PA is short of cash for salaries, the salaries to the prisoners will be cut.

The PA has reported that the US, the EU, France, Britain, Ireland, Norway, Japan, India and the World Bank have all given money to the PA for its general budget in 2010-2011.

Such direct funding could be part of the "available sources" for terrorist salaries, or could free money elsewhere in the PA budget that could be used for these salaries, PMW says.

The list provided by PMW is not exhaustive as it relies solely on reports in the official PA daily. The PA receives financial aid from many other donors as well.

Recently, the EU announced the transfer of 45 million euros to the PA for salaries: "Some EUR 45 million of the funds from today's decision will go towards salaries and pensions of vital workers, mainly doctors, nurses and teachers."

In November 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the transfer of an additional grant to the PA's general budget: "After the transfer of the $150 million, the sum which the American administration will have transferred as direct budgetary aid to the PA for 2010 totals $225 million."

Although the EU, US and other donors are not intentionally funding salaries for terrorists, PMW says, their funding of other PA salaries and the budget makes money available in the general budget to pay terrorist salaries.

This Palestinian Authority law was enacted before the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. It was published in the official PA Registry on April 13, 2011

It's nice to know how our tax dollars are being spent, especially considering that the money is needed here.

No kidding.  And it's infuriating that we would give money to any terrorist group or country!  It's insane!  If we would just drill here and get refinery's going and side up with Israel who has oil also, we could cut of all ties with known and suspect countries and be done with it.  Not to mention have some covering of our Lord because we support Israel.  Not that American will escape judement because we have a huge moral issue but it's better than the way things are heading right now.

I agree completely and think this is a sign of the times. Things sure are RIPE for God to usher in the Tribulation Period. Sadly, I think that things are going to get much worse. For Christians, that means we're closer to being caught up in the air to be with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.