Immoral behavior

[Shammu]

Minorities fear trend from California gay marriage ban
Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:46am EST

By Peter Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's gay marriage ban could open the door to legal discrimination against unpopular groups if the state Supreme Court allows the voter-approved measure to stand, blacks, Latinos, Asians and other minorities said. (They sneak it in now and then act like it's a fact later. DW)

The November 4 vote, supporting an end to legal same-sex marriage in the most populous U.S. state, has caused a nationwide furor as opponents of the measure decry what they consider a civil rights violation.

California's highest court agreed on November 19 to hear a challenge, based on whether the state constitution requires support from the legislature -- as well as a majority vote of the people -- to strip rights from any group. (If they get away with this then it will lead to all kinds of stuff. Pedophiles wanting protection as a minority.  DW)

The court had recognized such marriages in May, and about 20,000 same-sex couples wed before the November vote. Those marriages may now hang in the balance. Connecticut and Massachusetts are the only states that allow gay marriage.

Legal scholars say the measure, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, breaks new ground by limiting the courts' ability to protect minorities.

"They could take away any right from any group," said University of Southern California Law Professor David Cruz, who filed a brief in favor of gay marriage in an earlier case.

EQUAL PROTECTION 'SUBVERSION'

The ban, California Proposition 8, amended the constitution with 52 percent support -- less than is required to approve some state bond measures.

"The entire purpose behind the constitutional principle of equal protection would be subverted if the constitutional protection of unpopular minorities were subject to simple majority rule," read a brief by black, Asian and Hispanic groups challenging the ban. "This case is not simply about gay and lesbian equality."

It is unlikely that relatively liberal California would approve restrictions on racial and religious minorities, especially ones that clash with the protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, Cruz and others say.

"We are past that as a realistic matter. We just elected an African-American president, for Christ's sake," said University of California, Berkeley, law professor Jesse Choper, who also filed on behalf of gay advocates in the original gay marriage case.

Other groups -- from prisoners to undocumented workers -- might not have public opinion on their side.

"The history of California demonstrates with sobering clarity the potential for disfavored minorities to be subjected to oppression by hostile majorities," the minority groups say in their brief, pointing to segregation laws and one excluding Asian-Americans from land ownership as examples.

'TRACK RECORD'

"It is not hypothetical. It's a track record," said Stanford University law professor Jane Schacter, who has not filed briefs in the case.

Indeed, a central argument in support of the gay marriage ban is that majority-vote constitutional amendments can change rights.

"That power is broad and deep and, by nature, populist. It has often been used to be make significant changes in state government and to override judicial interpretations of the Constitution with which the people disagree -- including interpretations involving basic constitutional rights," lawyer Andrew Pugno argued in court papers.

He also argued that defining marriage as between a man and a woman simply re-established the situation before the court recognized gay marriage in May.

The California high court could hear arguments in March. Berkeley's Choper says it will be an uphill battle to persuade the judges that the measure requires legislative action.

Choper said he understands why the groups are fighting the ban and he is sympathetic, "but that's not the way the system works."

Minorities fear trend from California gay marriage ban

[Shammu]

Gunmen open fire in Mumbai, killing at least 78
4 mins ago

MUMBAI, India – A top state official says at least 78 people have been killed and 200 have been injured when gunmen opened fire on a crowded Mumbai train station, luxury hotels and a restaurant popular with tourists.

Johnny Joseph, chief secretary for Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, says the death toll could rise further.

The gunmen attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station in southern Mumbai and Leopold's restaurant, a Mumbai landmark, along with the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels.

Gunmen open fire in Mumbai, killing at least 78

[Soldier4Christ]

Gunmen open fire in Mumbai, killing at least 78

I have heard the following comment:

It isn't clear yet what motivated the attacks

5 different times on TV so far, from various liberals including Alan Colmes and three Democrat Senators and have seen it in a number of news articles on the web. The same ones refuse to call this attacking group what they are ... islamists, terrorists, followers of sharia law. It is this sort of insane, naive? cover up that prevents an effective strategy to fight this war that most of them even refuse to call a war. It is a war folks, these groups have declared it a war themselves and all because of a deep hatred for any that are not muslims willing to cowtow to them and their sharia law.

I even heard some them say that this is all in another country and isn't even about us. Take the blindfolds off people. This is about hatred for us. This is just a sampling of more to come and we will be in the very midst of it.

[Shammu]

Hostages said dead in Mumbai Jewish center
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer Ravi Nessman, Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago

MUMBAI, India – Commandos who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group found the bodies of five hostages inside, including a New York rabbi and his wife, officials said, as a fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.

More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including at least 14 foreigners.

Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow giant holes in the wall.

Inside, though, were five dead hostages.

A delegation from Israel's ZAKA emergency medical services unit entered the building after the raid and reported through an Indian aide that five hostages and two gunmen were dead, a ZAKA spokesman in Israel said. The spokesman had no information on the hostages' identities or whether there were wounded inside.

Jewish law requires the burial of a dead person's entire body, and the mission of the ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteers is to rescue the living — and in the case of the dead, carry out the task of gathering up all collectable pieces of flesh and blood.

Numerous local media reports, quoting top military officials, also said five hostages and two gunmen had been killed in the Jewish center.

The airborne assault on the center run by the Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions as forces cleared it floor by floor.

Late Friday, Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, said that Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were among the dead.

Holtzberg was one of at least three Americans killed in the attacks. Rivka was born in Israel and lived for many years in New York but it was not immediately clear if she had U.S. citizenship.

The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out of the center by an employee, and is now with his grandparents.

By Friday evening, at least nine gunmen had been killed and one had been arrested, said R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital. Media reports said one or two were thought to still be in the Taj Mahal.

Patil said a total of more than 150 people had been killed and 370 injured. Local officials said earlier that 22 foreigners were killed, but that number could not be confirmed.

After hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions Friday at the Taj Mahal, a hotel with 565 rooms, the battle heated up at dusk when Indian forces began launching grenades at the hotel, where at least one militant was believed to be holed up inside a ballroom, officials said.

CNN reported the government had cut off their live transmissions from the scene in Mumbai. Authorities have asked not to show live footage of their battle with the militants because they believe the gunmen were monitoring the news. Most channels have largely obliged.

Commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi earlier in the day.

"The hotel is under our control," J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit, told reporters, adding that 24 bodies had been found. Dozens of people — including a man clutching a baby — had been evacuated from Oberoi earlier Friday.

Security officials said their operations were almost over.

"It's just a matter of a few hours that we'll be able to wrap up things," Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj told reporters Friday morning.

The group rescued from the Oberoi, many holding passports, included at least two Americans, a Briton, two Japanese nationals and several Indians. Some carried luggage with Canadian flags. One man in a chef's uniform was holding a small baby. About 20 airline crew members were freed, including staff from Lufthansa and Air France.

"I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife," said Mark Abell, with a huge smile on his face after emerging from the hotel. Abell, from Britain, had locked himself in his room during the siege.

The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked.

Late Thursday, after about 400 people had been brought out of the Taj hotel, officials said it had been cleared of gunmen, but they later said two to three more were still inside with about 15 civilians.

Early Friday, Thamburaj, the security official, said at least one gunman was still alive inside the hotel and had cut of electricity on the floor where he was hiding. Shortly after that announcement, another round of explosions and gunfire were heard coming from the hotel.

On Friday, India's foreign minister pointed an accusing finger across the border at rival Pakistan.

"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the western city of Jodhpur.

"Proof cannot be disclosed at this time," he said, adding that Pakistan had assured New Delhi it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against India. India has long accused Islamabad of allowing militant Muslim groups, particularly those fighting in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, to train and take shelter in Pakistan. Mukherjee's carefully phrased comments appeared to indicate he was accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not Pakistan itself.

Earlier Friday, Pakistan's Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, in Islamabad, denied involvement by his country: "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents."

Indian home minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunmen had been identified as a Pakistani and Patil, the Maharashtra state official, said: "It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan."

Neither provided further details.

Pakistan's government said Friday that it will send its spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to help probe the attacks.

The gunmen apparently came to Mumbai by boat, and Indian forces expanded their investigation to the sea. Authorities stopped a cargo ship off the western coast of Gujarat that had sailed from Saudi Arabia and handed it over to police for investigation, said Navy Capt. Manohar Nambiar.

They also stopped a cargo ship that had come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan, but released it when nothing suspicious was found on board.

The British government, meanwhile, was investigating whether some of the attackers could be British citizens with links to Pakistan or the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, a British security official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

The gunmen were well-prepared, apparently scouting some targets ahead of time and carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy.

"It's obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that," an unidentified member of India's Marine Commando unit told reporters, his face wrapped in a black mask. He said the men were "very determined and remorseless" and ready for a long siege. One backpack they found had 400 rounds of ammunition inside.

He said the Taj was filled with terrified civilians, making it very difficult for the commandos to fire on the gunmen.

"To try and avoid civilian casualties we had to be so much more careful," he said, adding that hotel was a grim sight. "Bodies were strewn all over the place, and there was blood everywhere."

A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still working out final details.

India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.

These attacks were more sophisticated — and more brazen.

They began at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, one of the world's busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes — the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all.

Hostages said dead in Mumbai Jewish center

[Shammu]

Another Shephard slain, but no outcry follows
'Silence of homosexuals is deafening when it comes to their own murdering innocent people'
Posted: November 28, 2008
1:35 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A pro-family organization in Pennsylvania is raising questions about the lack of outrage over the murder of a man named Shephard in a dispute involving homosexuality.

No, not Matthew Shepard, whose murder in Wyoming a decade ago has been used by "gay" activists ever since as a reason to demand enhanced "hate" crimes for anyone who perpetrates criminal activity against a homosexual.

This case involves an innocent man who was murdered by a homosexual when the victim resisted his attacker's sexual advances.

The latest case involves Jason Shephard, 23, who was attacked and killed by Bill Smithson, an openly homosexual man, who slipped the victim the date rape drug GHD and attempted to rape him.

"When the young man resisted his sexual advances, he was strangled," reported the American Family Association of Pennsylvania.

"The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), remembers another Shepard who was murdered 10 years ago in the state of Wyoming and homosexual activists used that murder to push for hate crimes laws to include 'sexual orientation,' the organization said yesterday, following Smithson's sentencing to life in prison.

But unlike with Matthew Shepard's death, there's been no outcry from the ranks of homosexual activists.

"The silence of homosexuals is deafening when it comes to their own murdering innocent people. The murders of both Matthew Shepard and Jason Shephard were tragic, but one murder is being used by homosexual activists to push their agenda of special rights. No additional laws are needed – murder is murder, but apparently the murder of Matthew Shepard was more important for those pushing an agenda," said Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

The organization reported homosexual activists say that Matthew Shepard was specifically targeted to be killed because he was homosexual, yet the evidence shows something else.

"An ABC 20/20 investigation which included interviews with the two murderers revealed that Shepard's murder resulted from a botched robbery," the organization said.

In fact, a commentary by John Aman, a writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and author of the book, "Ten Truths About Hate Crimes Laws," reveals the truth about the case.

"It was the perfect 'hate crime.' Backers of hate-crime legislation in Washington – and their allies in the homosexual lobby – could not have hoped for anything better. Suddenly, here was evidence of America's 'hate-crime epidemic' blasted to the nation and the world via wall-to-wall media coverage. The need to pass hate crime legislation immediately was evident." he wrote.

"Matthew Shepard, it was reported, had died at the hands of two bigots enraged by his homosexuality. They mercilessly beat him with a .357 magnum pistol, stole $30 and left him tied to a split-rail fence outside Laramie, Wyo. Alone, in near-freezing nighttime temperatures, the 21-year-old college student fell into a coma and was not found until 18 hours later. He died on Oct. 12, 1998, six days after the brutal attack," he continued.

"Homosexual-rights groups, some in the media and even a few politicians charged that Christians who oppose homosexuality were to blame for Matthew Shepard's death. Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest homosexual advocacy group, charged on NBC's 'Today' show that Shepard was murdered because 'people's minds have been twisted with cruel stereotypes about gay and lesbian people.' Birch blamed a pro-family ad campaign featuring men and women who had left homosexuality, for having 'poisoned' the atmosphere," Aman wrote.

Learn about the brilliant marketing techniques being used by "gay rights" activists – read David Kupelian's controversial blockbuster, "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom."

Even today, Aman noted, Matthew Shepard's name is synonymous with the campaign to enact hate-crime laws. Supporters of the "Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007" want to add "sexual orientation" to the list of groups granted special protection from so-called hate crimes, he said.

Only the story isn't accurate.

Money for drugs, not 'homophobia,' was the motive for Matthew Shepard's murder, Aman noted. The ABC report said Aaron McKinney, sentenced in 1999 to two life sentences for Shepard's murder, was on a sleepless week-long methamphetamine binge and in search of money for more drugs when he and his accomplice, Russell Henderson, met Shepard at a bar.

McKinney himself has said, "All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him."

Henderson also denied the hate-crime charge. "It's not because me and Aaron had anything against gays or anything like that," he said.

The American Family Association of Pennsylvania said there are similar instiances. In Benton County, Ark., 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhizing was sodomized by two homosexuals and allowed to die in his own vomit in 1999, the group said.

"Jason Shephard was a young college student targeted by a homosexual man to fulfill his sexual desires. Homosexual activists are silent on this murder – yet they still use Matthew Shepard as the poster child for their campaign to write 'sexual orientation' into hate crimes laws. Hate crime laws are not needed - Wyoming still does not have one and Pennsylvania's was thrown out this summer," the organization said.

"Matthew Shepard's murderers are spending the rest of their lives behind bars just as the murderers of Jason Shepherd, Jesse Dirkhising and Mary Stachowicz are. Murder is murder and increased penalties for attacking a specially protected group listed in a hate crimes law is a waste of everyone's time and resources. Such a law creates unequal protection under the law," said Gramley.

According to Philly.com, a website for the Inquirer and Daily News, Smithson, during his trial and sentencing, never admitted to the murder, nor did he express sorrow to the victim's parents.

He blamed his behavior on his struggles with drugs, too.

Testimony at his trial revealed he held a ligature around his victim's neck for up to two minutes after he lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen, assuring his death.

WND also reported after voters in Florida, Arizona and California joined residents of 27 other states with constitutional protections for traditional marriage – and homosexual activists responded with terroristic threats against Christians and their churches.

"Burn their ***** churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers," wrote "World O Jeff" on the JoeMyGod blogspot after California officials declared Proposition 8 had been approved by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. Confirmation on voter approval of amendments in Florida and Arizona came earlier.

The amendments in all three states essentially limit marriage to one man and one woman. In California, the measure states the only marriages "valid and recognized" in the state are those between one man and one woman.

On a blog website, "Tread" wrote, "I hope the No on 8 people have a long list and long knives."

Another contributor to the JoeMyGod website said, "While financially I supported the Vote No, and was vocal to everyone and anyone who would listen, I have never considered being a violent radical extremist for our equal rights. But now I think maybe I should consider becoming one. Perhaps that is the only thing that will affect the change we so desperately need and deserve."

A contributor identifying himself as "Joe" said, "I swear, I'd murder people with my bare hands this morning."

Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for Liberty Counsel, called the statements "hate crimes" for their intent to create violence against someone based on their beliefs.

"This is not just a matter of some people blowing off steam because they're not happy with a political outcome. This is criminal activity," he said. "The homosexual lobby is always calling for 'tolerance' and 'diversity' and playing the role of victim. They claim to deplore violence and 'hate.' Here we have homosexuals inciting, and directly threatening, violence against Christians."

[Shammu]

Vatican thanks Muslims for returning God to Europe
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
November 28, 2008

PARIS (Reuters) - A senior Vatican cardinal has thanked Muslims for bringing God back into the public sphere in Europe and said believers of different faiths had no option but to engage in interreligious dialogue.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Catholic Church's department for interfaith contacts, said religion was now talked and written about more than ever before in today's Europe.

"It's thanks to the Muslims," he said in a speech printed in Friday's L'Osservatore Romano, the official daily of the Vatican. "Muslims, having become a significant minority in Europe, were the ones who demanded space for God in society."

Vatican officials have long bemoaned the secularisation of Europe, where church attendance has dwindled dramatically in recent decades, and urged a return to its historically Christian roots. But Tauran said no society had only one faith.

"We live in multicultural and multireligious societies, that's obvious," he told a meeting of Catholic theologians in Naples. "There is no civilisation that is religiously pure."

Tauran's positive speech on interfaith dialogue came after a remark by Pope Benedict prompted media speculation that the Vatican was losing interest in it. Some Jewish leaders reacted with expressions of concern and the Vatican denied any change.

The "return of God" is clearly seen in Tauran's native France, where Europe's largest Muslim minority has brought faith questions such as women's headscarves into the political debate after decades when they were considered strictly private issues.

"GOD IS AT WORK IN ALL"

Tauran said religions were "condemned to dialogue," a practice he called "the search for understanding between two subjects, with the help of reason, in view of a common interpretation of their agreement and disagreement."

That seemed to clarify Benedict's statement on Sunday that interfaith dialogue was "not possible in the strict sense of the word". Church officials said a strict definition would include the option that one side is ultimately convinced by the other.

Dialogue participants could not give up their religious convictions, Tauran said, but should be open to learning about the positive aspects of each others' faith.

"Every religion has its own identity, but I agree to consider that God is at work in all, in the souls of those who search for him sincerely," he said. "Interreligious dialogue rallies all who are on the path to God or to the Absolute."

The uncertainty about the Vatican view coincided with increasing contacts among world religions.

Early this month, the Vatican held a pioneering conference with a delegation from the "Common Word" group of Muslim scholars who invited Christian churches to a new dialogue.

A week later, Saudi King Abdullah gathered world leaders at the United Nations as part of a dialogue he launched with a conference of faith leaders in Madrid last July.

Christianity and Islam are the world's two largest faiths, with two billion and 1.3 billion followers respectively. The latest interfaith efforts are meant to counter growing tensions between these two after the Sept. 11 attacks.

An Indian prelate, speaking after the Mumbai attacks began, said in Rome that a lack of courage to meet across faith lines was often behind religious violence in his country.

Archbishop Felix Machado of Nashik diocese, just east of Mumbai, told Italian priests the violence was caused by "inequality, a lack of justice and understanding and, above all, a lack of courage to dialogue," the Vatican daily reported.

Vatican thanks Muslims for returning God to Europe

[Shammu]

R.C.C. itself has no clue about Jesus. Who He is and why Jesus is the only answer for man. They are so busy wanting to "go with the flow" that they have left the reasoning of our Faith behind. Throughout the entire article is quote after quote about getting along and nothing about Jesus!!

Now you want to talk strange, that is strange!!

[Shammu]

Abortion rates rocket to record high as Britain set to overtake US
By Daniel Martin
28th November 2008

The number of women having an abortion in England and Wales exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year.

There has been an increased figure almost every year since the legalisation of abortion in 1967 – and the indications are this year's figure will be even higher.

Britain's termination rate is already the highest in Western Europe, and if trends continue it will bypass the U.S. within a decade as the place where the greatest proportion of births are terminated.

The shocking figures came just months after MPs rejected moves to restrict abortion to under 20 weeks only, in a bid to call a halt to the year-on-year rises.

The limit for social abortions stayed at 24 weeks.

Pro-life MPs say the figures prove that abortion has become so commonplace that hundreds of women are using it as a form of contraception.

Nadine Dorries, Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said: 'Abortion is wrongly seen as an easy and trouble-free way of ending a pregnancy. It has moved from a resource that women turn to in an emergency and a point of crisis to becoming a form of contraception.

'This has been brought about as a result of an ill-conceived notion that it is just a minor procedure with no side or lasting effects, but this is not the case.'

The Office for National Statistics revealed yesterday that there were 205,600 abortions last year, with 198,500 carried out on Britons and the rest on women who had travelled from other countries.

Most abortions – 57,000 – were carried out on the 20 to 24 age group. However, there were 4,400 on the under-16s and 700 on those aged more than 45. Some 62.7 per cent of abortions were performed within nine weeks.

In the first six months of 2008, there were 105,000 abortions, slightly more than half last year's figure, indicating the annual total is likely to exceed that of 2007.

Pro-life campaigners are also becoming increasingly concerned with the number of repeat abortions.

The most recent figures for this from 2006 show that nearly 4,000 women have had four or more abortions – and dozens have had eight or more. There were 82 teenagers on their third abortion.

Overall, the number of women having repeat abortions has reached record levels.

In 2006, 59,687 abortions were performed in England on women who had already had one.

A third of terminations are now repeats, and the number has gone up by 5 per cent in two years.

Abortion rates rocket to record high as Britain set to overtake US

[Shammu]

292 Kids Killed as Terrorists
by Maayana Miskin A7News

Almost 300 children have been killed while taking part in terrorist attacks over the past eight years, a new study conducted by Palestinian Authority researcher Mahdi Jaradat has revealed. A total of 3,973 PA Arabs died in the past eight years while committing acts of terrorism, he found.

Fatah had the most fatalities, with a total of 1,437 terrorists, 128 of them children, killed since September 28, 2000. Hamas was in second place with 1,410 killed in the same time period, 96 of them minors. Fifty-three children were killed while taking part in Islamic Jihad operations, five were killed as members of the PFLP, four died with the DFLP, and three with PRC.

Women, too

Women were increasingly numbered among terrorists as well. A total of 95 women were killed while carrying out attacks, Jaradat found. Thirty-four women were killed working with Hamas, and 30 with Fatah. Islamic Jihad, which had a much lower casualty rate than Hamas and Fatah overall, counted 24 women among its casualties.

Hamas carried out more suicide bombings than any other group over the past eight years, with a total of 72. Islamic Jihad was next with 48 suicide bombings, and Fatah was third with 42. Each of the three groups used women as suicide bombers, a move that was initially controversial due to traditional Muslim views that saw warfare as out of bounds for women.

According to the IDF, 29 suicide bombers were PA youths under the age of 18. Several youths as young as 14 and 15 have been caught attempting to approach checkpoints with bombs. One such would-be bomber told soldiers that terrorists offered him NIS 100 to transport explosives; another said terrorists had threatened him and told him they would accuse him of providing information to Israeli security forces—a capital offense in PA-controlled areas—if he did not do as they said. A third youth arrested while wearing a bomb belt was mentally disabled. He was safely disarmed.

Incitement

Israeli and American researchers have warned that many PA youths are encouraged to die as terrorists. While more blatant incitement to murder and death as a terrorist can be found in media outlets such as Hamas' TV station for children, another common source of incitement and hate is PA textbooks, which often leave Israel off of Middle East maps and hail slain terrorists as “martyrs.”

Respect for child suicide attackers can be found within the PA parliament as well: Legislator Maryam Farhat, more commonly known as Umm Nidal, sent three of her sons to commit suicide attacks. One was only 17 when he took part in a suicide attack in the town of Atzmona in which five Israeli teens were murdered.

292 Kids Killed as Terrorists

[nChrist]

Pastor Roger Said:

I even heard some them say that this is all in another country and isn't even about us. Take the blindfolds off people. This is about hatred for us. This is just a sampling of more to come and we will be in the very midst of it.

YES - radical Islam is all about getting rid of us, and they don't mince their words! The threats have been open and BOLD since the 80s. They were completely serious then, and they are trying to execute their plans today. They will execute their plans unless they are stopped! After all, we stand in the way of them taking over the world. We will continue to stand in their way, with or without organized governments behind us. I'll remember and practice the words of our Founders, "Give me liberty or give me death." I doubt that any of us will go as lambs to the slaughter unless we feel led to do so by GOD! Regardless, GOD'S WILL is going to be done! We can read all about it in GOD'S WORD. There is nothing wrong with a Christian defending his family and himself. There is no hint of a Christian being a warmonger in defense, even in preemptive defense.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Isaiah 11:6-9 NASB  And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

[nChrist]

R.C.C. itself has no clue about Jesus. Who He is and why Jesus is the only answer for man. They are so busy wanting to "go with the flow" that they have left the reasoning of our Faith behind. Throughout the entire article is quote after quote about getting along and nothing about Jesus!!

Now you want to talk strange, that is strange!!

We are watching so-called religions becoming humanistic and starting to worship men and themselves. These are signs of the time we live in, and worse is yet to come.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Acts 2:46-47 NASB  Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The day will come when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and THE CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST will be raptured HOME to GLORY! The 'GREAT RESTRAINER" will be removed, and the devil will roam free! That time might be soon.

[Shammu]

Voodoo festival offers respite in troubled year
In the U.S., Haitians enjoy a condensed version of 'sacred carnival'
Nov. 29, 2008

MIAMI - Goat meat stewing on the stove and sweet potatoes baking in the oven. Cooked fish, complete with bones and eyeballs. Spicy peppers soaked in bottles of rum.

The food is an offering to the spirits expected to dance among the revelers at Voodoo priest Erol Josue's Miami home that night.

Josue's belief: Provide spiritual sustenance to both the living and dead in Haiti and the U.S. to help the linked communities cope with disasters that have embroiled them the past year. Worldwide economic turmoil, the ruin and death left in Haiti by four tropical storms and a school collapse that killed 90 all have left an imprint.

Josue's night-long celebration of the dead, a condensed version of the two-day festival in Haiti that opened November, was repeated in other homes in Haitian-American communities during the month. Vodouisants believe the Gede, or the dead, rituals honor their ancestors and the spirits and help clear the pain of recent tragedies. About 1 million Haitians live in the U.S., most in Florida. Large communities are also in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

"Artists and advocates for Haiti have been doing relief concerts to bring money for Haiti, which is very good, but as a spiritual person, as a priest, I think first of all we have to pay respect for our brothers and sisters, for those souls who have died," Josue said.

Hours before the "sacred carnival," Josue and a handful of vodouisants gathered before a small altar to pay special homage to the nearly 800 storm victims and those killed in the Nov. 7 school collapse.

He had expected at least 20 people for the daytime service.

Many hoarding extra cash
But many have reserved their extra cash to help relatives in impoverished Haiti. They told Josue they couldn't afford the gas for driving to the outskirts of Miami twice in the same day. And when they came for the night service, they would wear the same black and purple clothes they had on last year, not being afford new things.

"And there's only one goat," Josue said and sighed.

In the past, many guests laid offerings on the altars adorned with decorative skulls in black top hats. This year, they spent what they could to honor the dead, while still trying to support the living, Josue said.

"I don't think the Gede will be offended," Josue said. "They will be concerned about the condition of the world, because they have a lot of work to do now."

Voodoo, a blend of Christian tenets and African religions, was sanctioned as an official religion in Haiti in 2003. It is widely practiced in the Caribbean country of nearly 9 million people, and emigrants continue traditions fused by slaves in Haiti's colonial past.

Believers look to the celebration of the dead as a way to relinquish the pain of the past year and "start the new year with a positive attitude and let go of anything that is going to weigh you down physically and emotionally," Raymonde Baptiste of Miami said after the requiem at Josue's home. "This is a way of moving on."

Worries left at the door
All worries seemed to be abandoned at Josue's front door by 10 p.m., when the festivities began. About 75 people, from young adult to old, crammed into his living room, emptied of its furnishings to make room for four conga drummers and a central pole draped in black and purple, the colors of death and strength. More guests, including a few wearing skull T-shirts, spilled onto a sun porch and into the front hallway.

Josue and a few initiates, now dressed in black and purple, began calling the spirits with dancing and singing around the pole. When the spirits overtook their bodies, they staggered and lurched in the small space, supported by the outstretched arms of the crowd.

The drummers maintained an upbeat, sometimes frenzied pace well into the early morning. The air grew thick with incense and the sweaty crush of guests joining the other dancers in the hip-swiveling gyrations that reflect the Gede's joking, vulgar nature.

The Gede festival, believers say, is a time to say and do things usually discouraged the rest of the year. It's just the fix for a tough year at home in the U.S., and at home in Haiti. Haitians abroad sent about $1.83 billion home last year, amounting to about 35 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

"When you do the Gede, it's like therapy," said Ingrid Llera, a Voodoo priestess who lives in Homestead, Florida. "You just let it all out."

Voodoo festival offers respite in troubled year

[Shammu]

Police Reviewing Video to Identify Shoppers in Wal-Mart Stampede That Killed Worker

Saturday , November 29, 2008

NEW YORK —
Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify people who trampled on a Wal-Mart worker killed when a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down.

Criminal charges were still possible, but identifying anyone in the store's videos may prove difficult, said Nassau County police spokesman Detective Lt. Michael Fleming on Friday.

Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours. It reopened shortly after 1 p.m.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. called the incident a "tragic situation" and said it had tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.

"Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred," senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted."

But Fleming said the store didn't have enough security.

Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the employee, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of Queens, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.

"This crowd was out of control," said Fleming, who described the scene as "utter chaos."

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,"' she said. "They kept shopping."

The 34-year-old Damour was taken to Franklin Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.

Damour came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store, Wal-Mart said.

The 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone. At least three other people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.

Suffolk County police said a shopper at a Wal-Mart in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of the Valley Stream location, reported being trampled by overeager customers at around the same time Damour was killed. The woman suffered minor injuries but finished shopping before she filed the report, police said.

Wal-Mart security varies by store. Officials wouldn't say how many security workers were at the Valley Stream location.

The retail giant has rigorously resisted being unionized. But the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 termed the death "avoidable" and called for federal and state labor authorities to investigate. Union president Bruce Both said the store had failed to provide a safe workplace.

The National Retail Federation, the industry's largest group, was unaware of any other store workers ever dying on the job in the post-Thanksgiving rush, spokeswoman Ellen Davis said.

Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day stores broke into profitability for the full year.

Many stores open early and stay open late on Black Friday. The Valley Stream Wal-Mart usually opens at 9 a.m.

Items on sale at the Wal-Mart store included a $798 Samsung 50-inch plasma HDTV, a Bissel compact upright vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.

The store was crowded Friday afternoon after the store reopened, but shoppers were more subdued. It wasn't immediately clear whether there was additional security.

Police Reviewing Video to Identify Shoppers in Wal-Mart Stampede That Killed Worker

[Shammu]

These people do need to be charged, for murdering this worker at Wal-mart. Christmas is NOT about how much you can charge, but of Christ's birth!! People need to start REMEMBER that we celebrate the BIRTH of OUR SAVIOR, not presents!!

[Soldier4Christ]

New 'Bible': Heterosexuality is sin
'There are many different versions; I don't see why we can't have one'
Posted: December 02, 2008
9:25 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A filmmaker who recently released an independent project about a formula that turns all heterosexuals into "gays" now has announced he's working on "The Princess Diana Bible" in which "God" ordains homosexuality as the better lifestyle.

"There are many different versions of the Bible; I don't see why we can't have one," stated Max Mitchell in a statement on a website for his new project.

The "gay Bible," produced by the New Mexico-based Revision Studios, states God instructs "it is better to be gay than straight."

Mitchell said he developed the idea for the "Bible" from his new movie project, called "Horror in the Wind," in which an airborne substance "reverses the world's sexual orientation."

He said it's named "The Princess Diana Bible" because of Diana's "many good works."

The website offers a preview of the project, which is forecast to be available in 2009.

In Mitchell's version, Genesis talks about Aida and Eve:

    "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first. And Aida said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of me. Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.' And they were both naked, the woman and her wife, and were not ashamed."

The new version continues:

    And Eve conceived, and bore Cain, and said, we have created a child in God’s image. And God said the male was different than the woman because he was fathered by the serpent. … And Eve again conceived with the serpent and bore Cain's brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

According to the pro-homosexual website Queerty.com, Mitchell has described his work as divinely inspired.

"Jesus was gay. In Biblical times homosexual relationships were so commonplace that no one gave it a second thought. It was heterosexuality that was considered sinful," he told the website.

On the website's comment page, one participant said, "Aida and Eve are a breath of fresh air upon the face of repressed homosexulity (sic) in America. Finally, a version of the bible everyone can relate to."

At Belieftnet.com, a commentator expressed opposition to the project.

"Every once in a while, art doesn't transcend truth as much as it distorts it, and that's where I draw the line. Hence my opposition to the upcoming 'Princess Diana Bible.'

"This book is inspired by a political agenda and one person's desire to contort not only the text but the very context of it to suit his own perspective. That, you may say, is what commentators do – and perhaps even translators – but this guy is making himself an 'author,' which makes it a book, not a Bible," the commentator wrote.

____________

How much more of this garbage must we endure. Lord please come soon!