Immoral behavior

[Maryjane]

Immoral behavior is as if it is normal..can you imagine that people do not even blush at immoral behavior but find wqys to justify it..We pay taxes so that immoral behavior is called a disease and a disability that we actually pay for through our taxes..The church has to strand again for what is authentic Christianity not a watered down feel good that does not even blush at the sin that is accepted in the church today..The prosperity preachers are having to submit their donor list because of the lifestyle they live through money that is taken by ill gain from the innocent..This is immoral behavior in the church that has causes countless people to turn away from God because of false preaching without being given the true gospel..Ther eare those who call themselves healers that hire actors to pretend they are healed..God is exposing these to alll. God is preparing His people and dividing the wheat from the tares. 

[nChrist]

Amen MaryJane!

Sister, this is sickening, especially considering the confusion caused for the lost watching. A lot of things these days actually amount to circus side-shows and carnival games. The lost would be MUCH better off by hearing the GOOD NEWS from very plain Christians who simply love JESUS CHRIST as LORD and SAVIOUR. The Apostle Paul spoke about the importance of knowing little more than CHRIST and HIM Crucified! GOD has work for all of us to do!.

GOOD NEWS!

1:  Romans 3:10 NASB  as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

2:  Romans 3:23  NASB  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

3:  Romans 5:12  NASB  Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--

4:  Romans 6:23  NASB  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

5:  Romans 1:18  NASB  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

6:  Romans 3:20  NASB  because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

7:  Romans 3:27  NASB  Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

8:  Romans 5:8-9  NASB  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

9:  Romans 2:4  NASB  Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

10:  Romans 3:22  NASB  even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

11:  Romans 3:28  NASB  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

12:  Romans 10:9  NASB  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

13:  Romans 4:21  NASB  and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

14:  Romans 4:24 NASB  but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

15:  Romans 5:1  NASB  Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

16:  Romans 10:10  NASB  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

17:  Romans 10:13  NASB  for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Thanks be unto GOD for HIS unspeakable GIFT!, JESUS CHRIST, our Lord and Saviour forever!

[Shammu]

Carter, Annan to Head Peace Mission

2 days ago

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — The council of world leaders launched by former President Nelson Mandela is sending a three-person team to help ease tensions in the troubled Middle East, the organization known as The Elders said Friday.

Former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Irish president Mary Robinson will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia from April 13-21.

Launched last year to celebrate Mandela's 89th birthday, the group of 12 world leaders is dedicated to fostering peace and resolving global crises.

Annan noted his recent mission to Kenya in which he mediated a power-sharing agreement in the country's disputed presidential election.

"I have just completed an intense and grueling negotiation in Kenya and learned that conflict is easier than peace, but persistence makes peace possible," said Annan, adding that he was "acutely sensitive to the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in the mind of many in the Middle East."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs The Elders, appealed to the Israelis and Palestinians to stop the "cycle of violence."

Tutu said he condemned "unequivocally the dastardly" attack Thursday by a Palestinian gunman on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem that killed eight Israeli students.

He also "equally vehemently" condemned the deaths of civilians in the recent Israeli offensive on Gaza. The campaign, in which more than 120 Palestinians have been killed, targeted militants who have been barraging southern Israel with rockets.

"Peace will not come from the barrel of a gun, as we learned in South Africa," he said. "Peace will only come when the inexorable cycle of reprisal provoking counter reprisal, ad nauseam ends. When the inalienable rights of all, Israeli and Palestinian, are recognized and respected."

Carter, Annan to Head Peace Mission
~~~~~~~~~

Well they have both sided with the palestinians, so they're already off on the wrong foot. Carters most recent junk shows he is against Israel just like so many others.Whatever comes out of his mouth seems to do nothing but raise my blood pressure lately.

Whatever peace these people dream up, Israel's gonna get the short end of the bargain.

[Shammu]

A record 3,000 late abortions in Britain

By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:55pm GMT 08/03/2008

The number of late abortions in Britain has reached a record level, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Almost 3,000 were carried out on women who were at least 20 weeks pregnant, according to the latest annual figures in England and Wales, representing a 44 per cent increase in less than a decade.
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The vast majority were for "lifestyle" reasons; less than a quarter were because of a risk that the child would be born handicapped.

The figures come amid rising concern over the current 24-week time limit for legal abortions. Campaigners who cite research showing improved survival rates for very premature babies, combined with evidence suggesting young foetuses can feel pain, are putting pressure on MPs ahead of a crucial debate on the issue next month.

MPs are planning to add amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to reduce the limit to 20 or 21 weeks. David Cameron, the Tory leader, has said he would back such a change.

Doctors yesterday blamed failings in sex education for the rise in late abortions. Dr Trevor Stammers, a practising GP from the charity Family Youth Concern, said the Government's approach had left the present generation of young women with the impression that abortions were "like having an appendix out".

He blamed "a very casual attitude towards sex, which is aided and abetted by the medical profession". He said: "Women get the idea it's a trivial matter and as a result they are much more cavalier about presenting to their GP late."

Abortion providers said the rise in late terminations - from 2,041 in 1997 to 2,948 in 2006 - showed that some women were leading increasingly "out-of-control" lives.

Ann Furedi, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: "Sometimes it's women who haven't recognised the symptoms of pregnancy.

"Sometimes it is about women who are living very out-of-control lives, often with alcohol or drug problems, and sometimes it's about women whose lives have suddenly changed, whose guy has suddenly left them, so that a wanted pregnancy becomes unwanted."

But Ms Furedi described the rise as "not necessarily bad news" given that "these are the very women for whom it would be a disaster if they were compelled to continue unwanted pregnancies".

Last month, research published by University College London Hospital showed that survival rates for babies born alive between 22 and 25 weeks had increased from 32 to 71 per cent, in under two decades.

In January, Professor Sunny Anand, a foetal pain expert, presented MPs with a study showing that foetuses can feel pain from 20 weeks, showing changes in their expression, and the withdrawal of limbs from painful stimulation.

A record 3,000 late abortions in Britain

[Shammu]

Obama's pastor denounces United States
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 3/14/2008 12:30:00 PM

Obama and PastorDemocratic presidential frontrunner Senator Barack Obama's longtime relationship with his former pastor and spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright is coming under increasing scrutiny from some national media outlets.

ABC, MSNBC and Fox News have been airing excerpts from some of Pastor Wright's sermons, including one in 2003 when he denounced the United States for its treatment of blacks. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America," shouts Wright. "No, no, no, not God Bless America -- God d___ America, it's in the Bible for killing innocent people."
 
Wright has also raised eyebrows for saying 9/11 was a case of "America's chickens coming home to roost" and that Zionism has an element of "white racism." In addition, he has accused the government of infecting black Americans with HIV.

New Jersey pastor Clenard Childress, founder of the website BlackGenocide.org, says Wright has a long history of spewing anti-American rhetoric and mocking anyone who disagrees with his radical views. "The hypocrisy of that is that he often talks about American policies that have killed innocent people, but yet he and Barack Obama endorse the abortion industry's agenda," he notes. "[The abortion industry] targets African-Americans and has killed far more than 9/11 or many of the other atrocities that he talks about."
 
Childress says if the mainstream demands more in-depth answers from Senator Obama (D-Illinois) regarding Wright, the pastor will likely resign from Obama's presidential campaign. The pastor believes the Illinois senator needs to do more than just say he does not always agree with Pastor Wright.
 
"[H]e needs to say [that] indeed he does not agree with the mockery of other Republicans and people who do not have his views [and that] he is not in agreement with the root cause of 9/11," Childress contends.
 
But according to Childress, the media may not push the issue. "There are many things that Barack Obama could do," he continues, "but as I stated, he'll wait to see [if the] mainstream media is going to give him a pass on this, like they have been doing for quite some time; or [if they will] demand answers and demand some type of explanation, which mainstream media has not done."
 
Wright, who has said Jesus was a black man who was killed by rich white people, has stated from his pulpit that Senator Hillary Clinton does not understand the struggles of African Americans because she has never been called the "n-word."

Obama's pastor denounces United States

[Shammu]

Perhaps he would like to denounce his American citizenship and move to some 3rd World Country if he is so unhappy and mistreated here? I would say, give him and his followers a one way ticket to any African Nation of their choosing.... (see my sigline)

The words coming out of his mouth are very different from the words Jesus would say. Jesus taught love, this man teaches hate. Sounds islamic, doesn't it.......

[Shammu]

Pope Issues Strong Appeal for Peace in Iraq

Sunday , March 16, 2008

VATICAN CITY  —
Pope Benedict XVI denounced the 5-year-old Iraqi war and issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in the country Sunday, days after the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul was found dead.

"Enough with the slaughters. Enough with the violence. Enough with the hatred in Iraq!" Benedict said to applause at the end of Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square.

On Thursday, the body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was found near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, from where he had been abducted on Feb. 29. No one has claimed responsibility, but al-Qaida retains its last urban stronghold in the area.

Benedict has called Rahho's death an "inhuman act of violence" that offended human dignity.

On Sunday, Benedict praised Rahho for his loyalty to Christ and refusal to abandon his flock despite many threats and difficulties.

He recalled that Rahho's death came as the Catholic Church opened Holy Week, the most solemn week in the liturgical calendar, in which the faithful recall the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Benedict said Rahho's dedication to the Church and his death compelled him to "raise a strong and sorrowful cry" to denounce the violence in Iraq spawned by the war that he said had destroyed civilian life.

"At the same time, I make an appeal to the Iraqi people, who for the past five years have borne the consequences of a war that provoked the breakup of their civil and social life," Benedict said.

He urged them to raise their heads and reconstruct their life through "reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and coexistence among tribal, ethnic and religious groups."

The Vatican strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In its aftermath, Benedict has frequently criticized attacks against Iraqi Christians by Islamic extremists. Last year, he urged U.S. President George W. Bush to keep the safety of Iraqi Christians in mind.

Benedict is due to preside over a memorial service at the Vatican on Monday in honor of Rahho. Typically, the pope only presides over such services when a cardinal dies.

The pontiff's appeal for peace came at the end of his Palm Sunday Mass. Over the next week, Benedict will preside over the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and the celebration of Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday.

At the start of Mass, Benedict blessed palms and olive branches with holy water and then processed through St. Peter's Square, wearing intricate, red- and gold-brocaded vestments and clutching a woven palm frond.

In his homily, Benedict urged the faithful to follow God with the innocence and purity of a child's heart.

"To recognize God, we must abandon the pride that dazzles us, that seeks to push us away from God," he said. To find God, he said, "we must learn to see with a young heart, one which isn't blocked by prejudice and dazzled by interests."

Sunday also marked a lead-up celebration to the Catholic Church's annual World Youth Day, and young people were very much on hand during the open-air service on a blustery spring day. A few hundred carried massive palm fronds at the start of the procession through the square.

Benedict plans to attend World Youth Day itself in Sydney, Australia, in July.

Pope Issues Strong Appeal for Peace in Iraq

[Shammu]

Secret talks for churches in Saudi Arabia, says report

Vatican City, 17 March(AKI) - Secret negotiations are taking place between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia to allow Christian churches in the strictly Muslim country, reports the Italian daily, La Stampa.

The Vatican is negotiating with Saudi Arabia for "authorisation to build Catholic churches," says archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, papal nuncio of Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, Bahrein and the United Arab Emirates.

According to La Stampa, the secret talks, favoured by Saudi King Abdullah, have been taking place for several weeks and are considered an unprecedented for the Catholic church.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Pope Benedict XVI (photo) pledged in November to work for peace and closer religious ties at a historic meeting at the Vatican in Rome.

It was the first official visit by a Saudi monarch to the Holy See and the meeting lasted for thirty minutes.

The Italian newspaper claimed on Monday that up to 900,000 Catholics live in Saudi Arabia, all of them expatriate workers.

"If we get official authorisation to build the first church, it will be an historic achievement, a clear step forward from a social, cultural and religious point of view," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, quoted in La Stampa.

It is forbidden to practise Christianity in public in Saudi Arabia and illegal to bring symbols from religions other than Islam into the country. Bibles and crucifixes must be left at the border.

The secret talks seem to have been taking place while Qatar's first Catholic Church was inaugurated in the area of Abu Hamour near the capital, Doha.

Rome on the other hand, has Europe's biggest mosque, inaugurated in 1995.

Vatican: Secret talks for churches in Saudi Arabia, says report

[Shammu]

Saudi Scholar on Al-Aqsa TV: By Allah, We Won't Be Satisfied Even If All Jews are Killed

March 13, 2008
Saudi Scholar Dr. Walid Al-Rashudi on Al-Aqsa TV: 50-60 People Perished in Jewish Holocaust; By Allah, We Will Not Be Satisfied Even If All Jews Are Killed

Saudi Scholar Dr. Walid Al-Rashudi: 50-60 People Perished in Jewish Holocaust. The Killing of All the Jews Will Not Be Satisfactory Compensation for the "Real Holocaust" in Gaza

Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Dr. Walid Al-Rashudi, head of the Department of Islamic Studies at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008.

Walid Al-Rashudi: One of the important things that we must tell people is that what is going on in Palestine today is a real holocaust. This is the real holocaust. A holocaust is not the burning of 50-60 Jews in Germany or Switzerland, but the Jews continue to call it the Holocaust. In case you don't know, let me tell you that more than 90% of the Muslims in the world do not know that the Jews receive reparations from Germany and Switzerland for the so-called Holocaust affair. We believe that there was indeed a holocaust, but how many died? 50-60 people? Afterwards, they used it to blackmail these two countries.

So what are we supposed to say in the face of the Gaza holocaust? What compensation will satisfy us? By Allah, we will not be satisfied even if all the Jews are killed.

Saudi Scholar on Al-Aqsa TV: By Allah, We Won't Be Satisfied Even If All Jews are Killed

[nChrist]

Perhaps he would like to denounce his American citizenship and move to some 3rd World Country if he is so unhappy and mistreated here? I would say, give him and his followers a one way ticket to any African Nation of their choosing.... (see my sigline)

The words coming out of his mouth are very different from the words Jesus would say. Jesus taught love, this man teaches hate. Sounds islamic, doesn't it.......

Brother Bob,

I listened to parts of several speeches from this guy that he called sermons, and I couldn't believe it. YES - it did sound Islamic, and there wasn't a word said about GOD or the HOLY BIBLE. I couldn't believe that he was talking about any part of this country. Hinting that we make them take DOPE and COMMIT CRIMES because of the color of their skin is lunacy. Sooner or later, regardless of color or ethnicity, people have to take responsibility for their own actions. I'm a Heinz 57 variety of Scotch - Irish - Cherokee. Most of us do grow up and know there are good and bad consequences for good and bad actions. Most of my Black friends have grown up a long time ago.

I wonder if this guy thinks that he's actually helping Obama. Obama needs to grow up also.

[Shammu]

Agents Seize 411 Bottles of Rattlesnake-Infused Vodka in Texas Raid

Tuesday , March 18, 2008

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officials were rattled last Thursday by the discovery of over 400 bottles of illegal booze, each containing a 10-inch rattlesnake in the bottle, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

After receiving a tip several weeks ago, TABC agents raided Bayou Bob’s Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch in Palo Pinto County after the reptile-infused vodka was sold to undercover agents, the paper reported. 411 bottles of the serpent sauce were seized.

“In my 20 years with the TABC, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sgt. Charlie Cloud told the Star-Telegram.

TABC officials told the Star-Telegram that they plan to file charges this week for the sale of alcohol without a permit and possession of alcohol with the intent to sell. Penalties for those charges include up to a year in the county jail and fines up to $1,000 upon conviction.

Infusing alcohol with snakes or scorpions is believed to possess aphrodisiac properties, TABC officials told the paper. The practice, in which alcohol is poured over the body of a snake or scorpion, is popular in Asian cultures.

Agents Seize 411 Bottles of Rattlesnake-Infused Vodka in Texas Raid
~~~~~~~~~~~

All I can say is EEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nChrist]

           ROFL!

So that's why I had the driving URGE to SLITHER OFF INTO THE WOODS.

     

[Shammu]

Extremists target aid groups in Pakistan

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer Tue Mar 18, 2:19 PM ET

MANSEHRA, Pakistan - Long-haired gunmen burst into the white stone building and killed four charity workers helping earthquake victims, then wrecked the office with grenades and set it on fire. Police came, but did not intervene.

In a tactic reminiscent of neighboring Afghanistan, Islamic militants are attacking aid groups in the Pakistan's volatile northwest, and local authorities appear incapable — or unwilling — to stop them.

The threat has forced several foreign agencies to scale back assistance to survivors of the October 2005 earthquake that killed at least 78,000 people and left 3 million homeless — risking the region's recovery from the worst natural disaster in the country's history.

The Feb. 25 attack on employees of Plan International, a British-based charity that focuses on helping children, was the worst in a series of threats and assaults on aid workers in the northern mountains where Taliban-style militants have expanded their reach in the past year.

Nearly a month later, menacing letters are still being sent to aid organizations. Although all four victims in Mansehra were Pakistani men, Islamic extremists despise the aid groups because they employ women and work for women's rights.

Local officials in Mansehra, who spoke on condition they not be identified for fear of retaliation, said letters from extremists distributed March 13 and 14 also warned schools to make sure girls are covered from head to toe and to avoid coeducation.

The militants also may be trying to discredit Pakistan's central government, and to enforce a radical religious agenda in a conservative region where jihadist-linked groups were themselves a source of aid after the quake.

Police accuse a local militant, Mohiuddin Shakir, who goes by the alias Mujahid, of masterminding the attack last month on the aid office in Mansehra. He has not been arrested.

Shakir, a former member of an al-Qaida-linked group, has criminal charges against him in Pakistan dating back to 2002, including for murder, according to police records obtained by The Associated Press.

Shakir now leads a jihadist group called Lashkar-e-Ababeel, named after small birds that the Quran says threw stones to defeat an army of 60,000 warriors who sought to destroy Mecca in the 7th century.

Last summer, Shakir wrote a letter to newspapers warning international aid groups about hiring women and warning women to wear an all-encompassing veil.

Yet Abdul Ershad, an officer investigating the attack, said that as recently as late 2007, Shakir had a working arrangement with police in his hometown of Phulra not far from Mansehra. To advance his agenda, he would tell police about residents involved in "un-Islamic" activities — like men selling pornographic videos and socializing with women — and police would arrest them, Ershad said.

Brig. Waqas Iqbal Raja, the chief security official for the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, acknowledged a growing presence of extremists in the quake zone, including some militants displaced by an army offensive against supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric in neighboring Swat district.

Tribal elders have promised to help protect aid workers, and Raja said he has advised the workers to keep a low profile and stay off the roads at night.

He could not explain why Shakir was still at large.

"I wouldn't want to comment why he is still free. But there were definitely some lapses in police procedure and protection," Raja said.

Distrustful residents did not alert police when six or seven militants with long hair and their faces hidden behind scarves descended in broad daylight on the Plan International compound. The militants ordered the security guard to leave.

Sajjad Mahmood, a clerk working next door, said police arrived after 30 minutes and just stood outside the gate while the assailants were inside. When the gunmen emerged, police did not try to stop them, he said.

"Everyone is scared," said Naeem Awan, whose nearby hair salon had its windows blown out by the force of grenades lobbed by the militants. "They can open fire and attack people and get away. How is it possible?"

Since the attack, aid organizations have withdrawn their female field workers. Authorities are asking them to move their offices into a gated community in Mansehra with its own police post.

Despite the additional security, officials of three international aid groups said they wanted to keep working but felt they could not rely on local police for protection. The officials requested anonymity because they did not want to risk problems by publicly criticizing Pakistani authorities.

Women employees say they fear for their safety.

"It was a real act of brutality and you feel very worried, and still there is no real arrangements from the police for security," said Aneela Tobassam, a Pakistani worker for U.S.-based Mercy Corps who provides vocational training to women. Even inside her office, Tobassam, an ethnic Pashtun, wears a large shawl covering her head.

"I don't feel safe outside right now, but I won't leave. I will stay here and I will do my work even if for now it is inside the office," she said.

The intimidation of aid groups has increased in recent months. They have received anonymous threats, and last October two attacks in nearby Battagram district forced a temporary suspension of relief operations.

There was a bombing outside the office of a local charity, Strengthening Participatory Organization, which wounded eight people. Attackers also sprayed the compound of CARE International with automatic gunfire, but no one was hurt.

Fear that militants are targeting foreigners and their organizations increased over the weekend when a bomb killed a Turkish woman at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Twelve other people were wounded, including four Americans.

The quake-hit region, next to Pakistan's part of disputed Kashmir, has long been a haven for militant groups with links to the Pakistani military and intelligence service. The groups have waged a 20-year insurgency in India's portion of Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region.

The extremist-linked group Jamaat-e-Dawa, a successor to the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, was among the first to help quake victims after the disaster and worked closely with the Pakistan military. It and banned groups like Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen set up medical camps alongside an extensive, and widely welcomed, international relief effort.

Graham Strong, country director for U.S.-based World Vision, which heads an umbrella group of 20 international aid organizations operating in Pakistan, voiced concern that aid workers here will face the same problem as in Afghanistan.

During nearly four years working there, Strong saw the ability of charities to work dwindle due to lawlessness, government incompetence and Taliban assaults that police failed to stop.

"I hope we are not going down the same road here," Strong said in Islamabad. "We are generally concerned that things might be changing."

Extremists target aid groups in Pakistan

[Shammu]

Riots in Athens as millions strike
Wed March 19, 2008

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and firebombs in central Athens during a nationwide general strike Wednesday by millions of Greeks protesting government pension reforms.

An estimated 100,000 people marched in downtown Athens, and when the demonstration ended, groups of anarchists fought running battles with riot police in the capital. Clouds of tear gas hung over Exarhia Square and cafe customers scrambled for cover.

Clashes had broken out during the march when a group of demonstrators threw two or three fire bombs and rocks at riot police outside Parliament, and police responded with tear gas.

About 8,000 people also marched in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where protesters set fire to two banks and three automatic teller machines. No injuries were immediately reported in either Athens or Thessaloniki.

Wednesday's walkout, like two other general strikes since December, shut down public services and forced the cancellation of dozens of flights.

"We're marching for a socially just pension system," Socialist opposition leader and former Foreign Minister George Papandreou told AP Television News earlier as he marched through downtown Athens.

He accused the government of eroding "the most basic of pension rights," particularly for women, while offering tax cuts for the rich and benefits for large corporations.

"It's unacceptable. We're fighting and we hope we can win this fight for a much better and much safer Greece," he said.

Opinion polls show most Greeks oppose reforms to the fractured and debt-ridden pension system that would unify pension and health funds, raise the effective retirement age for women and working mothers, and create both incentives and disincentives to keep employees working longer.

"No to the continued robbing of our pension funds and rights," read a banner carried by protesters in Athens. "We will not back down," read another.

Hospital doctors, air traffic controllers, teachers, port workers, hotel employees and gas station workers joined others already striking this week over the fiercely contested reforms.

Thousands of Greek workers walked out Tuesday when a 24-hour strike by rail workers also brought subway and train transport in Athens to a standstill. Banks shut down and most courts were empty because of a weeklong lawyers' strike.

Mounds of trash continued to pile up on city streets Wednesday because of a garbage collectors' strike, while strikes by employees at the main power company have caused rolling blackouts for the past two weeks.

Since winning re-election in September, the government has pushed to change the pension system, warning that it could collapse in a few years' time if it is not reformed.

Yiannis Panagopoulos, head of one of the two main labor unions, GSEE, said unions would continue to resist the changes, even if they are voted into law Thursday.

"The battle doesn't stop with the vote on the legislation," he said Tuesday. "The legislation needs to be implemented when it becomes law. And there resistance will reach its climax."

Riots in Athens as millions strike

[Shammu]

California leads the way on sex education

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

It has happened again. California has led the way. This time our neighbor to the south has adopted its first ever standard for what students should be learning about sex education.

The announcement comes a few days after a head-turning study on American teenagers and sexually-transmitted diseases. The recently released federal study discovered that one in four teenage girls has at least one sexually transmitted disease (STD).

Subsequently, a whole lot of parents are asking when children should learn about sex education. How young, many ask, is too young? The California State Board of Education had decided that students should start in fifth grade to learn about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

It's reported that four years ago, California state legislators passed a law requiring sex education to be "medically accurate, objective and respectful of gay and lesbian youth." Those who advocated for the new ruling not only want relevant information but to teach the state's six million plus students the skills and procedures requisite to avoiding unhealthy and sometimes life-threatening diseases at present and often later in life.

Fifth graders will learn about STDs while middle school teachers will communicate education about rape and sexual assault. High school curricula will include information about condoms and the morning-after pill.

Absolutely predictable, the conservative nonprofit Campaign for Children and Families immediately began criticizing the new sex education curricula. There as elsewhere, they oppose abortion and same sex marriage and, in this context, encourage abstinence as the best protection against sexual disease and unwanted pregnancy. However, common sense and knowledge of human nature having prevailed some time ago, California state law already prohibits abstinence-only sex education.

Taking this action was apparently no easy decision for the California State Board of Education as it took it two years to discuss and agree on the new curricula. Meanwhile, it's unclear when the fifth grade lessons on STDs will start.

Presumably, teachers will need training and new materials must be developed. When underway, the sex education subject matter will be integrated into current health classes that also include class time devoted to the subjects of drugs and violence. Would it not be grand if the Oregon Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction took a clue from this progressive approach in California to consider a more modern and effective approach to sex education here!

California leads the way on sex education