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Abstinence Program Loses Federal Funding:
A nationwide abstinence-only program that uses a silver ring to remind teens to refrain from pre-marital sex has lost federal funding with the settlement of a lawsuit alleging it used the money for Christian evangelization.
The Silver Ring Thing, which presents its message though comedy skits and music, has received more than $1 million in federal funding during the past three years.
But it
CNN.com - Judge with 3 wives kicked off bench - Feb 24, 2006:
A small-town judge with three wives was ordered removed from the bench by the Utah Supreme Court on Friday.
The court unanimously agreed with the findings of the state's Judicial Conduct Commission, which recommended the removal of Judge Walter Steed for violating the state's bigamy law.
Steed has served for 25 years on the Justice Court in the polygamist community of Hildale in southern Utah, where he ruled on such matters as drunken driving and domestic violence cases.
The commission last year sought his removal from the bench after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and had violated Utah's bigamy law.
Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.
Steed scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon to discuss the ruling.
The initial complaint against him was filed in 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, a group founded by women who had left the secretive colonies.
Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married -- or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it -- to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985.
The three women are sisters.
Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice in 1890.
About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects, are believed to be living in Utah, the Southwest, Mexico and Canada.
Today I have realized that my life is much like the Roomba self propelled floor vacuum. The little "creature" has an algorithm in it that tells it what to do when it hits something, like a chair leg, or other piece of furniture. It often backs up, spins around, bumps again, and repeats until it finds a way out.
I find this is a metaphor for my life, as, like the roomba, I find myself causing humorous antics as I try to release myself from self imposed stupidity.
And with this new brilliance, I will..... uh..... take a nap. Yeah!
So why did the airplane crash in the field? The simple explanation is "gravity." But, of course, there is much more to it. The stark headline from WTOP said, "BOWIE, Md. - Two men are dead and a woman is critically injured after their small plane crashed nose first into a field at Freeway Airport Wednesday during heavy snow." Again, that doesn't tell the whole story.
Why do I care? I didn't know any of the people involved in the crash. I didn't see it. It didn't occur at my airport. I didn't have a dream foretelling it. But I am a pilot, and as a pilot I have been confronted with many decisions, any one of which can begin a failure chain which could result in a similar fatal accident killing everyone in the aircraft. That, and someone I knew attempted to make that airport in similar bad weather, also chose not to go to a larger alternate airport, and also died.
So what happened here? In simple terms, a pilot chose to leave an airport in Warrenton, VA in a snow storm with very low clouds, enroute to Freeway Airport, located near Bowie, Maryland. He had two people on board a Cessna 172, and flew northeast, into weather that was not forecast to be very good. The pilot chose Freeway because he had a passenger to pick up there, despite the fact that Freeway airport's runway is 2400 feet long by 40 feet wide, which is not wide enough to include the wings on most aircraft. It is obstructed on one side by power lines. On a good day, it is a challenging airport. On a day with very low visibility in instrument conditions, it is not an airport I would even consider.
Today's pilot decided to fly what is called a "non precision" approach to this airport. A non precision approach is one where you must use instruments to bring you into the vicinity of the airport, where you then descend to the minimum descent altitude, and look out the window to see if you can see the airport. If you do not, you are required to "miss the approach" which means you must climb as quickly as you can and then either go to another airport, or try the approach again.
When the pilot radioed his intention to shoot the approach and land at Freeway, the Chief Flight Instructor at the airport told the news crew that he radioed back that it would not be advisable to attempt to land, and that the pilot should divert to Baltimore Washington International (which had a precision approach which guides the airplane to the runway by use of both direction and altitude guides).
The news reported that the aircraft "missed" the first approach, then came around for a second one. During the second approach, the pilot, likely because he could not see the runway, powered up to either go around again, or go to another airport. Approximately 300 feet from the end of the runway, the wreckage was found nose down, tail pointed at approximately a 45 degree angle.
I see Doug, asking me if he can help me pull my airplane out. Smiling, so excited he was flying traffic reporters. He wanted my approval for his great new job. He almost skipped away, walking on air. It was later that the plane he was flying with a reporter on board crashed while trying to reach Freeway Airport as fog was closing in. I saw the coverage of the accident, the flowers at our home airport where he flew out of, and the sad people wondering why.
I examined that accident, went over and over what perhaps Doug was thinking, why he would choose that place to put down when in danger instead of going to BWI. "Why didn't he just divert? Why did he try this tiny airport? Why did he die and the reporter live? Why?"
If this pilot today had read the reports of Doug's accident in 1998, perhaps he would have diverted to Baltimore rather than trying to land at Freeway. Perhaps he and his front seat passenger would be alive today, although inconveniencing his friend who was waiting to be picked up. Perhaps the woman from the back of the aircraft would not be in ICU right now. Perhaps a lot of things are possible. Unfortunately we'll never know what might have been. I can only hope that the next pilot may read THIS accident report before duplicating this accident.
I had an interesting conversation a few nights back on an IRC channel I frequent. The IRC channel was not about religion, however, the subject did come up, and it began a discussion between myself and someone that I have had an acquaintance for many years, who knows of my religious choices. The conversation made me think quite a bit about the misperceptions that others of limited religious knowledge hold towards Wiccans and Pagans. The various assumptions that are made about our beliefs, and our actions and feelings, can be quite disturbing, and indeed surprised and saddened me. I will try to classify some of the main points.
Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil
My conversational partner put a great deal of stock in attempting to get me to "admit" that some actions were evil in an attempt for me to make the leap into the idea that some people are evil, and therefore there is ultimate evil. The example he brought up was the case of Andrea Yates, who drowned her 5 children in a bathtub. This egregious case, as illustration, still doesn't cause me to judge the woman involved as "evil" though I can see little "good" in that particular act. I found it rather interesting that the illustration my companion chose was one of a Christian woman with Christian upbringing and moral code who disregarded that code to cause such horror.
It was quite clear that the lack of a pure black and pure white dichotomy in Wicca was of great concern to this person, and this assisted in his view that we were somehow then in lack of a moral code and therefore some type of danger to the community. Attempts to point him to the Rede and the Five Points of Wiccan Belief failed.
Evil Forces - Self Responsibility
Further into the conversation, I was asked whether Wicca believed in an "evil force that kills innocents." While ignoring the "guilty vs. innocent" paradigm for a moment, i had to wonder what that question really meant. Belief in a force outside one's control that can kill those who do not somehow "deserve it" is only possible with an underlying belief in ultimate good and ultimate evil. What but "ultimate evil" could possibly be responsible for killing an "innocent?"
Negating human responsibility for human actions, and pinning on an outside "evil force" is not something all Christians believe, obviously. However, it seemed clear that this particular Christian did indeed, as this seemed to be his only explanation for the possibility that a "good Christian woman" could murder her own children. It remains to be seen whether the Wiccan ideal of self-responsibility should be something for Christians to fear or to embrace, since the idea that a human being can go so totally off balance as to murder her own children is in itself rather mind altering. It may be of comfort that "it won't happen to me" if one believes that an outside force is responsible.
Think of the Children
A rather underhanded way of attempting to push someone into engaging in an argument (but a usually successful one) is by bringing up a possible danger to their children. My companion in discourse tried this as well, telling me that I was doing my child a disservice by bringing her up in a "non standard" religion. Every child believes herself to be an outcast and/or misfit to some extent, and telling a parent that their actions are further isolating that child is something that most parents would take quite seriously.
The argument went something like this: if a child is "different" in any way, then the child will be ostracized and otherwise isolated. Therefore, a parent must ensure that the child is seen as "just like everyone else" so that the other children do not pick on them.
Interesting argument, but again attempts to negate responsibility for bringing up one's own child not to be a bigot. If my child were African American, she would be different. Does this mean that I should ensure that she is brought up as "White" as possible so that other children don't pick on her? Or should I instead teach my children that it is wrong to treat African Americans, or any other people in a derogatory manner based on their attributes?
Of course, my counterpart would not answer the hypothetical of whether he would raise his children Mormon if he was suddenly transferred to Salt Lake City. He instead insisted that would never happen, therefore it should never be considered. He also did not address the demographics in my area, which are far less Christian than he might have thought, with many families of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim persuasion.
So, what lessons did I draw from all of this? First, it is very difficult to overcome a perception of us that has been built up through fear. Whether that fear is actually of US or rather of learning that a long standing belief is in error is something I am attempting to reconcile in my own mind. If people that you trust have told you ad infinitum that a certain practice is "evil" and you have based your world view on this, it can indeed by quite unnerving to be confronted with contrary evidence.
I believe that fear resulting from being confronted with contradictory ideas is, at its heart, the cause of much if not most human conflict, depending, of course, on how the information is presented. Here, I believe the most threatening idea to those who are psychically repressed is that they do not HAVE to be that way. Then one must address the corresponding fear that without an external gatekeeper, the formerly repressed individual would then somehow be without moral or ethical boundaries and go forth to do "bad things."
So how do we go about being non threatening, AND assure an individual that those who follow our path are not just waiting to cause serious harm to the fabric of the world as we roam around lacking an external force hanging over our heads to police our actions? In general, I feel that the best way to do this is to set an appropriate example in our dealings with others and with the world at large. That sometimes means that we don't "lead" with "I'm a Pagan, what are you going to DO about it?"
By doing good in our own lives, by being a good friend, a good parent, a good person, who offers something to others, who assists the greater community, and who then prove that we have our own internal moral codes governing our behavior that in no way threaten theirs, I believe we will allay a lot of the fear that comes with confronting new things, and thus clear the first hurdle of fear, and begin to consider what lies beneath. And, of course, this becomes the first step towards understanding.
She is at home and is recovering. The surgery went well. Thanks to everyone who assisted in any way, even if just thinking of her.
It's about time that people who are grieving are shielded from these crazies. Yes, they have the right to their speech, however, they do NOT have the right to invade a private ceremony with the only goal being to hurt people who are already suffering great loss.
States Eye Picketing At Soldiers' Funerals:
States are rushing to limit when and where people may protest at funerals — all because of a small Kansas church whose members picket soldiers' burials, arguing that Americans are dying for a country that harbors homosexuals.
During the 1990s, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., went around picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with protest signs that read, "God Hates Fags." But p
Rising Water Threatens Great Temples Of Egypt:
Some of the world's most precious archaeological treasures - the ancient Egyptian tombs and temples at Luxor - are being devastated by salt water that is eating their foundations, scientists have discovered.
The temples of Amun, Luxor and Karnak, designated World Heritage Sites, have survived 4,000 years of arid desert heat but are now being destroyed by rising ground water.
The threat has b
morons.org - Lesbian Harassed by Physician's Assistant:
Jamie Beiler, formerly of Kissimmee, Florida went to her doctor's office for a bronchitis checkup. Because her regular doctor was on vacation, she saw physician's assistant Dawn Pope-Wright. Pope-Wright apparently saw in Beiler's file that she is a lesbian, though it didn't come up during her checkup (probably because sexual orientation usually has little to do with bronchitis).
When Beiler picked up an envelope left for her by Pope-Wright at the checkout counter, she was alarmed to find photocopied pages of anti-gay propaganda, including bible verses condemning homosexuality, language calling homosexuality "sinful and sexually impure" and claims that God could help her "change".
Beiler's complaint to the state says the materials were "derogatory and offensive, and completely disrespected her right to dignity and privacy." Her complaint also names John R. Hartman, MD, who allegedly dismissed Beiler's concerns when she called the doctor's office to complain. She has filed a similar complaint with her insurer, Cigna HealthCare.
Such propaganda distribution could even be construed by some as medical malpractice, considering that every major medical and psychological association has condemned the practice of "therapy" to "cure" homosexuality, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers, according to 365gay.com. Such therapies are extremely unlikely to cure bronchitis.
---Nick
Interesting to find that someone who wished to squelch science isn't even a scientist. Not surprising, but interesting none the less.
"George C. Deutsch, who tried to muzzle top NASA climate scientist James Hansen and ordered NASA web designers to add the word 'theory' to every mention of the Big Bang, has resigned. the New York Times reports that NASA declines to discuss the reasons for his resignation, but that it came the same day that Texas A&M University, from which Deutsch claimed on his resume to have graduated, revealed that he had attended the university but did not complete his degree."
The New York Times reports it today, but as of yesterday, it was the Times that had unquestioningly passed along the falsehood of Deutsch's graduation, and it was the blog Scientific Activist whose investigation revealed he'd left before graduating to work on the Bush reelection campaign. For more on the 24-year-old political appointee's interesting viewpoints, see World O'Crap on Monday,we covered the anger over his attempts to squelch science-- something that, sadly, Jim Hansen has gotten used to .
Gee, let's rewrite science in accordance with what our invisible friends tell us. What's next? No, don't tell me. It might come true. *sigh*
Distressing to read in the New York Times that political appointees are trying to dictate how NASA reports science. I note that one White-House-appointed flack apparently wants “intelligent design” to be considered as an alternative to Big Bang cosmology. This is new and weird, since “intelligent design” has up until now been offered as an alternative to the theory of evolution.
There are of course no observational data at all to support the idea that the universe was intelligently designed. (It may well have been, but nothing in what we can observe cosmologically suggests this is so.)
Living out here, only 15 miles from DC, right next to Reston and McLean, but in the land of wells and septic, we have the choice of one (count em) entities that deliver crappy fast food. And, in fact, our local Dominos didn't deliver to our house when we first moved in, so I had to beg them to deliver, and tip them mightily in order to make them continue to bring us not terribly bad pizza when we were too hungry and lazy to fetch or cook. So it was yesterday, in the pouring rain, when Leslie arrived to visit her coven sister.
The pizza arrived. I rarely eat meat on my pizza, but Leslie wanted sausage (yes, it's all her fault :-)). The 1/2 sausage, 1/2 plain pizza arrived, and we both partook of the plain and the sausage. This, in retrospect, was a mistake.
Both of us are allergic to sulfa, sulfites, sulfates, etc. etc. Although the sausage listing found in tiny tiny tiny print on a pdf file from Dominos had no mention of sulfa type stuff per se, both of us became quite ill while the husband who is not allergic to sulfa, did not. The menu lists: pork, seasoning (spices, corn syrup solids, salt, paprika, garlic powder, chili pepper, disodium imosnaate, disodium guanylate, bha, bht, and citric acid, water, salt, disodium tripolyphosphate). Given that "spices" is listed first, I have a feeling they used tumeric, which is VERY HIGH in sulfa content.
So, either the local Dominos added sulfates of some kind, using a different type of sausage as the general Dominos franchise stuff, or they use tumeric, or, somehow we are totally allergic to something else on that lovely list of chemicals. In any case, we didn't have a great night.
This is an interesting one. The true question is, are other religious items allowed by Starbucks, including a Jewish yarmulke, crosses, Muslim headscarves, etc? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Wiccan Starbucks employee asked to remove pentacle:
On Dec. 15 Starbucks targeted one of our strongest Wobblies. Suley Ayala was told to take off her pentagram necklace, a symbol of her being Wicca. An assistant manager said that religious items can not be worn at work. Meanwhile we were forced to wear Christmas hats and listen to non-stop Christmas music.
Workers were sick and tired of the illegal anti-union activity and religious discrimination. Three union members walked off the floor and confronted our manager in the back room. This was to no avail and managers threatened to send people home. Management did change their reasoning, though. The problem was no longer that the necklace was a pentagram, but rather that it was now too big.
Yes, definitely... those ham picketing vegans are just SO dangerous. Why aren't they catching us some uh... terrorists? Maybe criminals? Even a jaywalker or two?
Boing Boing: Department of Homeland Security: ever-vigilant against vegan menace:
Department of Homeland Security: ever-vigilant against vegan menace
A vegan who picketed a ham store was surveilled by a Homeland Security spook, who arrested her for taking down his license-plate number. Tax-dollars well-spent. Nation well-defended. Once every person with a nonstandard dietary preference has been imprisoned, I'm sure we'll be able to leave our shoes on in the airport again.
An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of his unmarked government car.
"They told me if I didn't give over the piece of paper I would go to jail and I refused and I went to jail, and the piece of paper was taken away from me at the jail and the officer who transferred me said that was why I was arrested," Childs said on Wednesday...
"We believe that spying on American citizens for no good reason is fundamentally un-American, that it's not the place of the goverment or the best use of resources to spy on its own citizens and we want it to stop. We want the spies in our government to pack their bags, close up their notebooks, take their cameras home and not engage in the spying anymore," Gerald Weber of the ACLU of Georgia said during a news conference.
Link (Thanks, Saundra!)
Click here to join the ACLU, Click here to join EFF
EFF Sues AT&T to Stop Illegal Surveillance:
Telecom Collaborated with NSA to Spy on Customers
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Tuesday, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.
The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the president had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court. Over the ensuing weeks, it became clear that the NSA program has been intercepting and analyzing millions of Americans' communications, with the help of the country's largest phone and Internet companies.
Reporting has also indicated that those same companies—and AT&T specifically—have given the NSA direct access to their vast databases of communications records, including information about whom their customers have phoned or emailed with in the past. And yet little has been accomplished by this illegal spying: recent reports have shown that the data from this wholesale surveillance has done little more than waste FBI resources on dead leads.
"The NSA program is apparently the biggest fishing expedition ever devised, scanning millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails for 'suspicious' patterns, and it's the collaboration of US telecom companies like AT&T that makes it possible," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "When the government defends spying on Americans by saying, 'If you're talking to terrorists we want to know about it,' that's not even close to the whole story."
In the lawsuit, EFF alleges that AT&T, in addition to allowing the NSA direct access to the phone and Internet communications passing over its network, has given the government unfettered access to its over 300 terabyte "Daytona" database of caller information—one of the largest databases in the world.
"AT&T's customers reasonably expect that their communications are private and have long trusted AT&T to follow the law and protect that privacy. Unfortunately, AT&T has betrayed that trust," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "At the NSA's request, AT&T eviscerated the legal safeguards required by Congress and the courts with a keystroke."
By opening its network and databases to unrestricted spying by the government, EFF alleges that AT&T has violated the privacy of AT&T customers and the people they call and email, as well as broken longstanding communications privacy laws.
While other organizations are suing the government directly, EFF is seeking to protect Americans' privacy by stopping the collaboration of AT&T with the illegal NSA spying program and making it economically impossible for AT&T to continue to give its customers' information to the government.
"Congress has set up strong laws protecting the privacy of your communications, strictly limiting when telephone and Internet companies can subject your phone calls to government scrutiny," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "The companies that have betrayed their customers' trust by illegally handing the NSA direct access to their networks and databases must be brought to account. AT&T needs to put a sign on its door that reads, 'Come Back With a Warrant.'"
In the suit filed Tuesday, EFF is representing the class of all AT&T customers nationwide. EFF is seeking an injunction to stop AT&T participation in the illegal NSA program, as well as billions of dollars in damages for violation of federal privacy laws. Working with EFF in the lawsuit are the law firms Traber & Voorhees, and Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP.
For the full complaint:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/att-complaint.pdf
For more on EFF's suit:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
Contact:
Rebecca Jeschke
Media Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
rebecca@eff.org
CNN.com - Women sue Wal-Mart over contraception - Feb 1, 2006:
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Three Massachusetts women backed by pro-abortion rights groups sued Wal-Mart on Wednesday, saying the retail giant violated state law by failing to stock emergency contraception pills in its pharmacies.
The suit filed in Suffolk Superior Court seeks a court order compelling the company to stock the so-called "morning after pill," in its 48 Massachusetts pharmacies.
"Wal-Mart apparently thinks it is above the law," said Sam Perkins, a lawyer for the three plaintiffs.
A new state law that took effect late last year following heated debate among lawmakers requires all hospitals to provide the morning-after pill to rape victims. It also allows pharmacists to dispense the pill without a prescription, but does not require it.
The lawsuit, backed by abortion rights groups Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and Jane Doe Inc., argues Wal-Mart is violating a state policy that requires pharmacies to provide all "commonly prescribed medicines." They are suing to force compliance with the regulation through the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act.
Egyptologists Find War Goddess And Nubian King:
Egyptologists have discovered two 3,400-year-old statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet and a rare statue depicting a king with Nubian features, an archaeological conservation director said on Monday.
War goddess Sekhmet embodied the cruel powers of the sun, and was also responsible for both curing and causing illness. The excavation team believe the statues were excavated from elsewhere, t