the myth about global warming

Notice I did not write: the myth of global warming, but rather the myth "about" global warming. It is getting a little warmer lately. But if you believe the scientists whose work led to the conclusions in this article, it simply has nothing to do with human activity, and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Barack Hussein said Friday that opponents of his energy bill are disputing the evidence of global warming in a cynical ploy to undermine efforts to curb pollution and steer the nation to greener energy sources. Obama says some opponents "make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change ..." For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers oppose reducing emissions by allowing companies to buy and sell permits to pollute, a system known as cap and trade. [This "cap & trade" thing is a whole other fiasco for separate discussion in another post.]

___________________________________________

Below I have included excerpts from another "cynical claim" that contradicts the myth that human industry is causing "global warming" ... and the accompanying myth that humans can affect any significant change in the world's average temperature. I think this author and his colleagues know a little something about the subject (review his credentials at the end).

Twin Ice Cores from Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change, More

---

Earth in Space, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 1996, pp. 12-13. © 1996 American Geophysical Union. Permission is hereby granted to journalists to use this material so long as credit is given, and to teachers to use this material in classrooms.

---

Locked within two cores of ancient ice is evidence of unprecedented swings in Earth's climate throughout the ages. These icy archives tell us that large, rapid, global change is more the norm for the Earth's climate than is stasis.

by R. Alley, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; P. Mayewski, University of New Hampshire, Durham; D. Peel, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England; and B. Stauffer, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Two projects conducted from 1989 to 1993 collected parallel ice cores just 30 kilometers apart from the central part of the Greenland ice sheet. Each core is more than 3 kilometers deep and extends back 110,000 years. Scientists who have studied the cores agree that the Earth experienced large, rapid, regional-to-global climate oscillations through most of the last 110,000 years, of a scale that agricultural- and industrial-age humans did not face. Though a few of the stadial/interstadial oscillations such as the Younger Dryas event were known for decades, many more were found in the first Greenland deep ice cores, but most of the oscillations occurred in ice from close to bedrock where flow may have disturbed the climatic record. In the new cores, these events are recorded far enough above the bed that ice flow is unlikely to have altered the early section of the 110,000-year climatic record. The almost perfect match back to this date between records from the two cores should dispel any lingering doubt about the climatic origin of the events.

These millennial-scale events represent large climate deviations that probably include change in temperature of many degrees Celsius, twofold changes in snow accumulation, large changes in how much wind-blown dust and sea salt were carried by the atmosphere, and large changes in methane concentration. Changes during these events commonly occur over decades or less. Shifts in the patterns of atmospheric circulation could explain the rapidity and magnitude of these events. Most recently, subtle versions of these rapid climate change events were identified through the reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns in the Holocene portion of the Greenland ice record. Major climatic change events are also recorded in the isotopic temperature record of the Vostok core from central East Antarctica, but not as clearly as in cores from Greenland.

Ice Cores Challenge Standing Theories

Initial interpretation of the ice cores indicated that the large, rapid climate oscillations that dominate the record of the last 110,000 years also persisted through the previous warm period, the Eemian, which took place about 120,000–130,000 years ago. Both cores also show rapid oscillations in climate during that time period, but with different timing and character. In both cores, there is evidence of ice flow beginning at or slightly above the depth at which difference in their climate records appears—roughly 2800 m, or approximately 110,000 years ago. Ice flow disturbs the climate record by allowing ice from different layers to mix. The amounts of gases in both cores differ from those of the Vostok, Antarctica core, where the Eemian era ice is undisturbed by ice flow. Much remains to be learned about Eemian climate from these cores. Just as they were needed to confirm the rapid oscillations observed in older cores, a core from a site where the Eemian is farther above the bed and thus is less subject to flow disturbance will provide the best information. Scientists are already looking at sites in North Greenland and Antarctica capable of delivering such records.

Measurements of gas-bubble compositions from Antarctic cores provide the best paleorecords of CO₂₂ in the Greenland ice is more complex than interpreting it in the Antarctic ice. However, the results do not question earlier findings about the increase of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration at the end of the last glaciation and a steady increase since the beginning of the industrial age. concentrations. Greenlandic records indicate some unexplained "noise"—data that may be added by random processes not related to the true environmental record or just plain high-frequency unexplained data—possibly related to chemical reactions with the more abundant carbonate dust in Greenland ice. Scientists agree that interpreting the record of CO

Ice Cores Lead to Progress in Related Research

Great progress is being made on more basic science as well. The ability to count annual layers in the cores well into the glacial period and probably through 110,000 years will help to answer questions about the timing of the glacial periods and the usefulness of radiocarbon calibrations. The use of volcanic markers (such as dust and certain gases) and atmospheric-oxygen isotopic ratios to determine the ages of ice cores and ocean records greatly extends scientists' ability to map climate changes and understand their causes.

Reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns and their changes over time from chemical indicators and dust sources provides new insight into the large, rapid changes documented in the cores. Vigorous work on the air-snow transfer function for chemicals and particulates is clarifying the significance of the paleoclimatic records. Glacier geophysics and flow modeling, coupled with physical and electrical studies of ice cores, are leading to better understanding of the ice cores and ice-sheet behavior, and possible contributions to sea level change. Many studies are underway to help understand the Greenland record in more detail. Scientists expect to use the cores to learn more about changes in atmospheric acids, past extraterrestrial impacts, humankind's influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere, and details of Holocene climate variability.

Source: Eos, May 28, 1996, p. 209.

the Author of this article (Paul Mayewski)...

was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 5, 1946. He received a B.A. with Honors from the Department of Geological Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1968, a Ph.D. from the Institute of Polar Studies and the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the Ohio State University in 1973, and from 1973–1975 was a postdoctoral student in the Institute for Quaternary Studies at the University of Maine at Orono. He joined the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire in 1975 and was appointed full professor in 1985.

Today his research team provides a primary building block for one of the better-known global change facilities in the world, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. As Director of Climate Change Research Center, which he founded, he has led more than 25 expeditions to the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Himalayas. His early research in the Antarctic was honored by the naming of an Antarctic mountain, Mayewski Peak. Many of these expeditions entered uncharted regions and resulted in the ascent of several previously unclimbed peaks in the Antarctic. His expeditions to the Arctic as chief scientist of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two from 1987 to 1993 resulted in the recovery of a more than 110,000-year long record of climate change that is now recognized as vitally important to the understanding of climate change. [Recognized by, apparently, everyone except Al Gore and Barack Obama.]

What Next? .. Invade Somalia?

Did anyone even know the U.S. has commandos fighting in Somalia?

While the U.S. military is busy chasing its tail in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrorists are re-locating their "headquarters" to Africa.

So what's our next brilliant move? Invade and occupy Somalia? How about Sudan?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Somalia is being hijacked by al-Qaida-linked terrorists who are better organized and more highly motivated than the ineffectual government in Mogadishu, and Sudan could be the next nation to fall under their influence, Ethiopia warned Saturday.

"It is time that we abandon the fiction that this is a war just among Somalis. It is not," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Ato Seyoum Mesfin said in a pessimistic speech before the General Assembly.

"Somalia is being hijacked by foreign fighters who have no inhibition in proclaiming that their agenda has nothing to do with Somalia. Theirs is an ambition that goes well beyond Somalia, and they say it out loud and clear," said Mesfin.

Last week, two stolen U.N. vehicles packed with explosives blew up at an African Union peacekeeping base in Somalia, killing 21 people, including 17 Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers. Markings on the cars meant they were not subject to the usual security checks. Al-Shabab, a local Islamic militia with foreign fighters in its ranks, said the Sept. 17 bombing was in retaliation for a U.S. commando raid on Sept. 14 that killed al-Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in southern Somalia. It has released a video pledging allegiance to al-Qaida and showing foreign trainers moving among its fighters.

"As the latest horrific suicide attack ... has shown, those destroying Somalia are being emboldened, and their supporters rewarded," Mesfin said. On the other hand, "The international community is being stingy even with symbolic steps to show resolve against extremists and spoilers in Somalia," he said.
[Interesting how Mr. Obama, the first African-American president -- and whose father was actually born there -- seems to give Africa the same attention everyone else has over the years: little to none.]

"It is critical that the international community wakes up before the hijacking of Somalia by extremism is fully consummated," Mesfin said. Mesfin warned Sudan could be the next domino.
"The Horn of Africa cannot afford the consequence of failure in the Sudan peace process."

sTOP oBJECTING tO oUR uNGODLIY bEHAVIOR ... oR dIE!

What did I just finish saying about people being punished
for asserting that homosexuality is wrong?

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked Washington state officials from releasing the names of people who signed referendum petitions asking voters to approve or reject the so-called "everything but marriage" law, which grants registered domestic partners the same legal rights as married couples.

Last Thursday, the appeals court reversed a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma to block release of the petitions. Settle held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers. In its brief order, the 9th Circuit panel said Settle used the wrong legal standard in granting the preliminary injunction that barred release of the petitions, and that the injunction therefore must be reversed.

Conservative Christian groups that sponsored R-71 want to keep the signed petitions out of public view because they fear harassment from gay-rights supporters [people who engage in, and who encourage other people to engage in, homosexual acts], some of whom have allegedly destroyed the personal property of petition signers and even issued death threats.

Can You Hear Me Now?

They move from cell phone conversation to text message to tweet to website to i-tune ... and then start all over again. This generation seems incapable of contemplation. And that is a very bad thing. Because if one is incapable of quiet contemplation, then one is equally incapable of hearing “God’s voice” on a consistent basis.

We are raising a generation of rude, anti-social, easily distracted exhibitionists who are terrified of silence and completely incapable of quiet contemplation and prayer. And I’m not even talking about unbelievers here. Of course, they won’t be able to recognize God’s voice. I am referring to the generations being raised by professing Christians.>

Raising God-fearing children (who will become God-fearing adults) is about so much more than just dragging them to church and “saying prayers” at bedtime. It begins with things as fundamental as teaching them how to think. Not what to think, but how to think.

A child — a person — must practice being quiet and still with his own thoughts. A child must be encouraged to be contemplative. A child must have role models who are comfortable with quietness, stillness and silence, role models who pray (and not just the talking kind of prayer, but also the waiting and listening kind).

Children must be taught to hear and to recognize God’s still, small voice.

It appears to me, however, that we are raising a generation of people who are incapable of that.

From Christianity Today.com:

Feb. 27, 2007

Crowded Loneliness

& Quiet Contemplation

By Sam O’Neal

Last week, I had the privilege of representing Building Small Groups at the first-ever Purpose Driven Small Groups conference, hosted by Saddleback Church in sunny Lake Forest, California. Because the Purpose Driven folks were running the show, I’ve returned home with a great deal of useful information, almost all of it nicely packaged into acronyms and “pathways.”

But I was most impressed by two presentations that drifted outside the Purpose Driven model. Both of them picked up the gauntlet thrown down by noted church consultant Lyle E. Schaller, who said: “The biggest challenge facing the church is to address the fragmentation and discontinuity of the American lifestyle.”

[One was] a workshop I spotted on Wednesday afternoon. It was called “Be Still.” The presenters for the workshop were Judge Reinhold and his wife, Amy. You may be familiar with Judge from his roles in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Beverly Hills Cop. He was also Aaron, the “close-talker” from Seinfeld. I just had to check out what he was going to say.

It turns out that he and his wife have produced a documentary on contemplative prayer with Scripture, otherwise known as lectio divina. The DVD, also called Be Still, features some of the most prominent Christian thinkers of our time - Dallas Willard, Calvin Miller, Beth Moore, Max Lucado, and Jerry Root, among others.

And yet, as much as I appreciated what each of those people had to say, what I found most valuable was taking the final 10 minutes to practice the discipline of lectio divina myself. The experience was very, very cool.

I alternated between listening to [scriptures read aloud on CD] and sitting quietly for several minutes at a time, allowing the Holy Spirit to seep through the tangled clutter of my thoughts and nurture me with his Word. I was surprised at how natural the experience was - at how easily the words of Jesus settled into a place of prominence once I pushed everything else out of the way.

the myth about
global warming

Notice I did not write: the myth of global warming, but rather the myth "about" global warming.
It is getting a little warmer lately. But if you believe the scientists whose work led to the conclusions in this article, it simply has nothing to do with human activity, and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Barack Hussein said Friday that opponents of his energy bill are disputing the evidence of global warming in a cynical ploy to undermine efforts to curb pollution and steer the nation to greener energy sources. Obama says some opponents "make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change ..." For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers oppose reducing emissions by allowing companies to buy and sell permits to pollute, a system known as cap and trade.  [This "cap & trade" thing is a whole other fiasco for separate discussion in another post.]

___________________________________________ 

 Below I have included excerpts from another "cynical claim" that contradicts the myth that human industry is causing "global warming" ... and the accompanying myth that humans can affect any significant change in the world's average temperature. I think this author and his colleagues know a little something about the subject (review his credentials at the end). 

Twin Ice Cores From Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change, More

---

Earth in Space, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 1996, pp. 12-13. © 1996 American Geophysical Union. Permission is hereby granted to journalists to use this material so long as credit is given, and to teachers to use this material in classrooms.

---

Locked within two cores of ancient ice is evidence of unprecedented swings in Earth's climate throughout the ages. These icy archives tell us that large, rapid, global change is more the norm for the Earth's climate than is stasis.

by R. Alley, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; P. Mayewski, University of New Hampshire, Durham; D. Peel, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England; and B. Stauffer, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Two projects conducted from 1989 to 1993 collected parallel ice cores just 30 kilometers apart from the central part of the Greenland ice sheet. Each core is more than 3 kilometers deep and extends back 110,000 years. Scientists who have studied the cores agree that the Earth experienced large, rapid, regional-to-global climate oscillations through most of the last 110,000 years, of a scale that agricultural- and industrial-age humans did not face. Though a few of the stadial/interstadial oscillations such as the Younger Dryas event were known for decades, many more were found in the first Greenland deep ice cores, but most of the oscillations occurred in ice from close to bedrock where flow may have disturbed the climatic record. In the new cores, these events are recorded far enough above the bed that ice flow is unlikely to have altered the early section of the 110,000-year climatic record. The almost perfect match back to this date between records from the two cores should dispel any lingering doubt about the climatic origin of the events.

These millennial-scale events represent large climate deviations that probably include change in temperature of many degrees Celsius, twofold changes in snow accumulation, large changes in how much wind-blown dust and sea salt were carried by the atmosphere, and large changes in methane concentration. Changes during these events commonly occur over decades or less. Shifts in the patterns of atmospheric circulation could explain the rapidity and magnitude of these events. Most recently, subtle versions of these rapid climate change events were identified through the reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns in the Holocene portion of the Greenland ice record. Major climatic change events are also recorded in the isotopic temperature record of the Vostok core from central East Antarctica, but not as clearly as in cores from Greenland.

Ice Cores Challenge Standing Theories

Initial interpretation of the ice cores indicated that the large, rapid climate oscillations that dominate the record of the last 110,000 years also persisted through the previous warm period, the Eemian, which took place about 120,000–130,000 years ago. Both cores also show rapid oscillations in climate during that time period, but with different timing and character. In both cores, there is evidence of ice flow beginning at or slightly above the depth at which difference in their climate records appears—roughly 2800 m, or approximately 110,000 years ago. Ice flow disturbs the climate record by allowing ice from different layers to mix. The amounts of gases in both cores differ from those of the Vostok, Antarctica core, where the Eemian era ice is undisturbed by ice flow. Much remains to be learned about Eemian climate from these cores. Just as they were needed to confirm the rapid oscillations observed in older cores, a core from a site where the Eemian is farther above the bed and thus is less subject to flow disturbance will provide the best information. Scientists are already looking at sites in North Greenland and Antarctica capable of delivering such records.
    Measurements of gas-bubble compositions from Antarctic cores provide the best paleorecords of CO₂₂ in the Greenland ice is more complex than interpreting it in the Antarctic ice. However, the results do not question earlier findings about the increase of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration at the end of the last glaciation and a steady increase since the beginning of the industrial age. concentrations. Greenlandic records indicate some unexplained "noise"—data that may be added by random processes not related to the true environmental record or just plain high-frequency unexplained data—possibly related to chemical reactions with the more abundant carbonate dust in Greenland ice. Scientists agree that interpreting the record of CO

Ice Cores Lead to Progress in Related Research

Great progress is being made on more basic science as well. The ability to count annual layers in the cores well into the glacial period and probably through 110,000 years will help to answer questions about the timing of the glacial periods and the usefulness of radiocarbon calibrations. The use of volcanic markers (such as dust and certain gases) and atmospheric-oxygen isotopic ratios to determine the ages of ice cores and ocean records greatly extends scientists' ability to map climate changes and understand their causes.
    Reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns and their changes over time from chemical indicators and dust sources provides new insight into the large, rapid changes documented in the cores. Vigorous work on the air-snow transfer function for chemicals and particulates is clarifying the significance of the paleoclimatic records. Glacier geophysics and flow modeling, coupled with physical and electrical studies of ice cores, are leading to better understanding of the ice cores and ice-sheet behavior, and possible contributions to sea level change. Many studies are underway to help understand the Greenland record in more detail. Scientists expect to use the cores to learn more about changes in atmospheric acids, past extraterrestrial impacts, humankind's influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere, and details of Holocene climate variability.
Source: Eos, May 28, 1996, p. 209.

the Author of this article (Paul Mayewski)...

was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 5, 1946. He received a B.A. with Honors from the Department of Geological Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1968, a Ph.D. from the Institute of Polar Studies and the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the Ohio State University in 1973, and from 1973–1975 was a postdoctoral student in the Institute for Quaternary Studies at the University of Maine at Orono. He joined the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire in 1975 and was appointed full professor in 1985.
Today his research team provides a primary building block for one of the better-known global change facilities in the world, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. As Director of Climate Change Research Center, which he founded, he has led more than 25 expeditions to the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Himalayas. His early research in the Antarctic was honored by the naming of an Antarctic mountain, Mayewski Peak. Many of these expeditions entered uncharted regions and resulted in the ascent of several previously unclimbed peaks in the Antarctic. His expeditions to the Arctic as chief scientist of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two from 1987 to 1993 resulted in the recovery of a more than 110,000-year long record of climate change that is now recognized as vitally important to the understanding of climate change.  [Recognized by, apparently, everyone except Al Gore and Barack Obama.]


  

Brother Baa-aa-rock is serving Kool-Aid, if you'd like to join him in a drink. 
Washington (DC) AP -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday dangled $5 billion in federal grants to states willing to undertake a top-to-bottom overhaul of their schools in support of White House priorities.

Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill included the education grants - more money than any president has ever had for overhauling schools - for which states can compete. Only Education Secretary Arne Duncan - not Congress - has control over who gets it. And only some states, perhaps 10 to 20, will actually get the money.

The administration can't really tell states and schools what to do, since education has been largely a state and local responsibility throughout the history of the U.S. But the grants give Obama considerable leverage. He sees the test score data and charter schools, which are publicly funded but independent of local school boards, as solutions to the problems that plague public education.

[Of course, Barack has also been seeing fairies and unicorns flying around the Oval Office, so ... ?]

The national teachers unions disagree. They say student achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test and say it's a mistake to rely so heavily on charter schools.

_______________________________________________________________

The national teachers unions disagrees because they don't want to be held accountable for their laziness and failures. Period. That's why teachers' unions exists: to prevent public school teachers from being held accountable. My experience is: if the pay of public school teachers was actually tied to performance (real performance), then only about one in every twenty would earn enough to pay his or her rent.

The public school system should be abolished for all but the poorest of the poor. Every other parent should have to either pay for their children's education ... or teach them personally.
Yes. It would be a huge sacrifice. The parents' "standard of living" might even drop a level or two (if you measure standard of living by how many "toys" and much junk you can purchase and accumulate over the course of your lifetime). So what? Our real standard of living would collectively improve. The standard that is measured by integrity, sacrifice, building strong relationships with one's children, and passing on lessons of character.

The law? Providing your own children with an education would be mandatory, and one would have to show a case of true hardship to be permitted to send one's child to a "public school". Otherwise,  the free market (and parents' willingness to sacrifice for their children) would determine quality of education. If Bob down the street would rather spend his money on a new car or a gigantic television than on getting his child a better education ... fine. My kids will govern his when they all grow up.
As it should be.

Besides ... the public school system has become the enemy of Jesus Christ. I do not now understand, nor have I ever understood) why any true believer -- any devout Christian -- would send his or her child to a public school. It is an abomination, and shirking of one's duty as a Christian parent. Why not just skip all the pretense and send them to a school that openly teaches them to worship Satan? The people who run the public school systems, who set their policies and approve or disapprove their curricula, hate the God of the Bible.

Now, don't get all offended yet. I'm not referring to every individual teacher or principal or administrator or lunch lady. I am referring to the ones who govern the schools. No, not local school boards. The federal bureaucrats who populate the Education Department, and the lawyers who populate the offices of the ACLU. That's who sets policy and approves or disapproves curricula.

the homosexual homeland

It started in 1994 with the lesbian bride of Frankenstein, Janet Reno, and is about to become very commonplace. Homosexuals from around the world are beginning to immigrate to the United States of Gomorrah.

STOP!  Don't delete this before you read it!
Please read this article all the way through ... if you can do it without throwing up or smashing your computer in disgust.

You know how Israel is the "homeland" for the "ingathering" of Jews?
Well, homosexuals are making the United States the homeland for the ingathering of homosexuals and other freaks (i.e. "transgender").

Do you want to understand why God's blessing and protection is being removed from this country?
You need not look any further than this single issue. About this subject, God's attitude has not changed from the Old Testament to the New.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- For weeks, Nathaniel Cunningham and his boyfriend secretly lived together in rural Jamaica. [I CAN ALREADY TELL THIS IS GOING TO BE A SWEET STORY ... and not slanted at all to portray homosexuality in a favorable or sympathetic light.]
They showed no affection in public and rarely spoke to neighbors.
Then one morning, Cunningham picked up a local newspaper with a front-page story under the headline, "Homosexuals Move into Residential Neighborhood." His address was listed below.
For days afterward, Cunningham said an angry mob gathered on his lawn hurling rocks and bricks and calling them "batty boys" - a Jamaican slang term for gay. Eventually, the pair grabbed what they could and fled on foot.

The story was one of many that Cunningham, now 32 and living in Worcester, recently shared with a federal immigration judge in his successful bid to win asylum in the United States. And it's similar to other stories cited by a small but growing number of other gay, lesbian and transgender asylum seekers who are using U.S. immigration courts to argue that their sexual orientation makes it too dangerous for them to return home.

"I had no choice," said Andre Azevedo, 39, a transgender man from Brazil who recently won asylum and now lives in New York. "Where I'm from, heterosexual men practice hate crimes against us like a sport, and the police do nothing to stop it."

Since 1994, sexual orientation has been grounds for asylum in the United States. That's when former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno [Frankenstein's lesbian bride] ruled in a case that persecution based on sexual orientation could be potential grounds for asylum.

Until recently, those grounds have been rarely used and such cases represent only a fraction of all asylum cases. But now immigrant and gay activists say more asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are citing sexual orientation as reasons for seeking asylum. Activists say the asylum seekers are escaping rape, persecution, violence, and threats of death from places where homosexuality is either outlawed or strongly, socially shunned.

Federal immigration law allows individuals asylum if they can prove a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin based upon race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Those applying for asylum are already in the United States, legally or illegally.

No one knows for sure just how many have sought asylum on sexual orientation grounds. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services doesn't keep data on asylum cases won on that basis.

Still, last year Immigration Equality, a New York-based nonprofit group that helps gay clients with immigration cases, successfully won 55 asylum cases using sexual orientation as grounds, a record for the organization, said the group's legal director Victoria Neilson. That's up from 30 wins in 2007 and 27 in 2006, Neilson said.

And a Worcester, Mass.-based nonprofit group, Lutheran Social Services [God is holy ... and angry about this people], has recently won five cases and is looking to help others. "I think more people are finding out that this is an option," said Lisa Laurel Weinberg, an attorney with the group.

However, not all cases for asylum based on sexual orientation have been successful. For example, a gay Brazilian man who was married in Massachusetts and whose American husband remains in the state was recently denied asylum by the Obama administration on humanitarian grounds, despite pleas from Sen. John Kerry. Genesio "Junior" Januario Oliveira had originally requested asylum because he was raped as a teenager, but an immigration judge denied the application, saying Oliveira repeatedly said in the hearing that he "was never physically harmed" by anyone in Brazil.
He was forced to return to Brazil in 2007.

Cunningham said he decided to file for asylum after working for a few years in the United States on a work visa. Cunningham said he conducted research online but couldn't find an immigration group to help him with the case. "One group said my case clashed with their Christian values."
[Oh, how "non-diverse" that group must be! What horribly unenlightened people.]

Many gay rights groups, he said, also had limited services for immigrants.
It wasn't until Cunningham connected with Jozefina Lantz, the director of immigrant services at Lutheran Social Services [these are the people with "itching ears" to whom Paul refers in 2 Timothy 4:3], that Cunningham gained support.

To win, however, Cunningham had to revisit painful moments of running from mobs in Jamaica. Even the police would point him out for persecution, he said. In successfully arguing Cunningham's case for asylum, Weinberg also said Jamaica's sodomy laws banning sex between men and "dancehall" music - whose lyrics often advocate violence against gays - made life for Cunningham unbearable.

Cunningham won asylum in January 2008.
During his asylum hearing, Azevedo had to recall violent episodes in Brazil when he and a group of transsexuals were attacked in bars. He recalled a transgender woman set on fire. Each time Azevedo said he went to police about an attack or a threat, the officers didn't even bother to file a report.
"I had such a horrific experience," said Azevedo, who was granted asylum in July. "I was always in fear of being raped, maybe even killed."

After winning their cases, both Cunningham and Azevedo have become advocates for other asylum-seekers by giving them counseling and directing them toward legal help.
In Worcester, for example, Cunningham has helped a Lebanese and three others Jamaicans win asylum with the legal help provided by the Lutheran Social Services' "LGBT Human Rights Protection Project." Another case, involving an Ugandan woman, is pending in the courts.

...I'm thinking that maybe child molesters should start seeking asylum from other countries where sexually assaulting children is either outlawed or strongly, socially shunned. What do you think?

Hey. I have an idea! Instead of wasting money and troops in Afghanistan, let's invade Massachussetts and kick somebody's ass (starting with John Kerry and Lutheran Social Services).

a justified stigma

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year. 

In 1987, the Department of Health and Human Services added the disease to the list of communicable diseases that disqualified a person from entering the U.S.

More than 56,000 new infections are reported every year in the United States.

Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality (an organization that promotes immigration for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive people). "Now, those families can be reunited, and the United States can put its mouth where its money is: ending the stigma that perpetuates HIV transmission, supporting science and welcoming those who seek to build a life in this country."

[How touching, Rachel. I think I'm gonna cry.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gee. That's just swell. Thanks Barack Hussein for yet another brilliant decision.

ONE little clarification though: It is not the stigma that perpetuates HIV transmission. It is, in the vast majority of cases, perverted, impenitent and reckless sexual behavior that perpetuates THE transmission of HIV.

There should be a stigma attached to it. It is a completely justified stigma. Unless you are among the miniscule percentage of infected people who got that way from a blood transfusion or from your mother at birth, you've earned your suffering. You've certainly been warned enough times.

How shocking for a Christian to say such harsh things!
That's what you're being tempted to think ... right?
Oh, grow up -- SPIRITUALLY. Jesus said many things just as "harsh". It's just not culturally or "politically" correct to emphasize (or even to mention) those kinds of statements anymore in this watered down, God-is-like-Santa-Claus western brand of Christianity.

Of course God will forgive you if you repent ... but that doesn't mean you won't have to suffer the natural (as opposed to eternal) consequences of your sin.
I follow the same reasoning here as someone who has been convicted of a heinous murder and is sitting in prison for the remainder of his (or her) life, with no possibility of parole. If he (or she) repents, then he (or she) will be forgiven by God and spared from hell -- granted eternal life, but he (or she) will still have to suffer the "natural" consequences (punishment) for the crime committed.

Another applicable analogy: If you insist on playing with fire after being warned over and over again, then don't cry foul when you get burned. And if you make a habit or lifestyle of starting fires (in other words, become a practicing arsonist), then don't expect to live free of "stigma" ... and don't expect to be welcomed into our communities with open arms ... or even more absurdly, to insist that you have the right to be welcomed with open arms.




 

If you can't change the law honestly, playing by the rules ...
well, then just change it anyway, in the obscure gray recesses of government bureaucracy.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal housing officials [bureaucrats who do not have the legal authority to do this] said Wednesday they're developing regulations to ensure that gays and lesbians aren't denied access to federally subsidized housing based on their sexual orientation. The department announced that the regulations concerning HUD's housing and voucher programs would clarify that the term "family" also applies to lesbian and gay couples.

The Housing and Urban Development Department will also commission a first-ever nationwide study to determine the extent of discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing sales and rental programs.

Officials said the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale and rental of homes, doesn't specifically cite gays and lesbians when it comes to the groups protected. The department wants to make sure that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people are treated the same as everyone else when it comes to eligibility for housing programs.

The extent of such discrimination is unknown [but we intend to spend millions of taxpayer dollars fabricating "evidence" and inventing "studies" to prove that] "it undoubtedly exists", said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and that must end," said Donovan. Department officials pointed to a [single, unverified] study from Michigan's Fair Housing Centers that found nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated differently when trying to buy or rent a home.

 

a CAMEL through the EYE of the NEEDLE
 
Howard Buffett.
Ever heard of him?
Son of Susie and Warren Buffett.
Photographer. Philanthropist. Billionaire.
No?
I hadn't either, until seeing Charlie Rose interview him the other night.
What a wonderful man.
He proves that, although it is exceedingly rare, one can be super-rich and still sincerely serve Jesus Christ.

Howard Buffett farming in Burandi, Africa (photo: WSJ)

Howard Buffett, son of famed Wall Street guru and billionaire Warren Buffett, is spending not just his finances but also his life fighting hunger in Africa.


According to the Wall Street Journal:

It was ordained that Howard and his two siblings would see the family fortune given away rather than have it to spend on themselves.

His father, who lives far below his means in a modest Omaha house, has argued publicly that it does little good for society when children inherit great wealth by virtue of an ‘ovarian lottery’…Of his middle child, he says, ‘he’s got my money and his mother’s heart’…

It’s hard to measure the impact of Howard Buffett’s foundation, something Mr. Buffett himself acknowledges. He does most of the work finding and visiting projects…. He employs eight people, mostly in administrative roles. One man is based in South Africa overseeing research on Mr. Buffett’s 6,000 acres of farmland outside Johannesburg. It was there on a wildlife preserve that he set up that a cheetah bit him.

Mr. Buffett figures his foundation’s projects have helped about 1.5 million Africans so far. He hopes that the crop-breeding work he is supporting will eventually help millions more African farmers feed their families.

P.S.
A thoughtful post from Jill Carattini of Ravi Zacharias Ministries.
Here’s the nut of it:

In our impervious boxes and minimalist depictions of the Christian story, we comfortably live as if in our own world, blind and unconcerned with the world of suffering around us, intent to tell our feel-good stories while withdrawing from the harder scenes of life…

In reality, the stories Jesus left us with are so much more than wishful thinking and his proclamations of the kingdom among us are far from declarations of escapism.

The story of Rachel weeping for her slaughtered children and Lazarus waiting in agony at the gate of someone who could make a difference are two stories among many that refuse to let us sweep the suffering of the world under the rug of unimportance. The fact that they are included in the gospel that brings us the hope of Christ …

For Christ brings the kind of hope that can reach even the most hopeless among us. And Jesus hasn’t overlooked the suffering of the world anymore than he has invited his followers to do so; it is a part of the very story we tell.

Thus, precisely because the faith we proclaim is not a drug that anesthetizes or a dream that deludes, we must tell the whole story and not merely the parts that lessen our own pain. We must also live as people watchful and ready to be near those who weep and wait–the poor, the demoralized, and the suffering.
There are far too many Rachels who are still weeping and Lazaruses who are still waiting, waiting for men and women of faith to be the good news they proclaim.


 

HATE WHAT IS EVIL

Do headlines and stories like these offend you?
 

They should.

Federal official says time is right for gay rights

ORLANDO (AP) -- The climate for passing gay civil rights laws has never been better... “and shame on us if we don't succeed," said John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. His speech at the Orlando conference came a day before President Barack Obama was set to address the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group.

Gay rights advocates march on DC

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.

Jason Yanowitz, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Chicago, held his daughter, 5-year-old Amira, on his shoulders. His partner, Annie, had their 2-year-old son, Isiah, in a stroller. Yanowitz said more straight people were turning out to show their support for gay rights. "For all I know, she's gay or he's gay," he added, pointing to his children.

Excuse me while I throw up.

These poor, pathetic, deluded people have exchanged the truth for a lie. In Romans 1:26-28, the apostle Paul describes a very similar culture: "Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."

I hate what John Berry and Jason Yanowitz represent (not the men, themselves, but what they are promoting and advocating).

Romans 12:9 commands us to "hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

Have you been so desensitized over the years that you simply accept this as the status quo?

But is homosexuality "evil"?
"Do not be deceived: ... neither homosexuals nor the greedy ...nor slanderers ...will inherit the kingdom of God. --1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Open your Bible. Read it for yourself.
If it is bad enough to keep a person out of heaven, to prevent a person from obtaining eternal life, is that bad enough to qualify as evil?

Now let me ask you again: Do you hate what this man represents -- the evil that he advocates and promotes?

Or are you afraid of being called "intolerant"?
The sinners' favorite attack word. 

Many people, including Christians, are so afraid of being "called names" (like "bigoted" or "homophobic" or "intolerant") that they are unwilling to speak up against even the most vile sin.

Romans 12:2 urges you to "not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The rest of the world interprets your silence on issues like this as tacit approval. At the very least, you are tolerating the official promotion of evil. Why do you think homosexuals have made so much "progress" in this country recently? Because they have been doing all the public speaking, while Christians attend their church meetings and Bible studies and spend all their time talking to each other.

Preface to the good news: Hell and the Lake of Fire are real and many souls will burn.
The Good News: We can be spared from it, rescued ... saved.

"Do not be surprised if the world hates you."  --1 John 3:13
Are you willing to be hated by "the world" (by unbelievers), or will you remain silent in order to secure its approval?

Would you call homosexuality evil, wrong, perverted or sinful if your employer, or your neighbors or the government threatened to publish what you said for all the world to read?

What if they threatened to alienate you socially?

What if they threatened to fire you from your job?

And what if they threatened to prosecute you for a "hate crime"?

These may be more than just hypothetical questions in the very near future.
This society is moving toward officially punishing people for asserting that homosexual behavior is sin. We already unofficially punish people for it.

By the way, I refuse to use the ridiculous euphemism "gay", because there is NOTHING gay about burning in a lake of fire.

Me?

I admit it.

I announce it.

I agree with God.

I am INTOLERANT of homosexuality.

It's wrong ... and, yes, it does hurt other people.  When someone gets shut out of heaven, that hurts ... in the most extreme sense.

To be perfectly clear about this: While I denounce homosexual behavior, and denounce the promotion of such behavior and lifestyles, I do not condemn homosexuals themselves.
There's a significant difference.


 

SELF-PROMOTING HOT DOGS
 ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- The rule was put in place in the mid-1990s when then-Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley was head of the NCAA rules committee. Fourteen years later, the now-retired Dooley still believes it's a much-needed roadblock to some of the antics that go on in the NFL - even though he was at Saturday night's game cheering on the Bulldogs.

"A player such as T.O. has no place in college football," he said, referring to flamboyant receiver Terrell Owens, who took end zone celebrations to new levels. "It's a good rule for college football. I think it has really helped us from going down the path we were going. There's no telling what we would have today if we didn't have that rule."

The rule, which falls under the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, basically covers any actions that are directed at the fans, draw attention to an individual player or taunt an opponent.

"These guys are watching the pros. That's what they're imitating. And they're thinking, 'If the pros can do it and get away with it, they think it's cute and it draws attention to themselves, why shouldn't we be able to do it?'" the former coach said. "But I don't think that's what college football ought to be."

Well, guess what? ... I don't think that's what pro football ought to be either.
I rarely watch a professional football game any more for that very reason: because I can't stand to see all those guys drawing attention to themselves every time they do nothing more than make a tackle or catch a pass. Big deal. Isn't that your job? Isn't that why they pay you so much money? So you made a tackle. Get over yourself and realize that its a team game. There were ten other teammates involved in that play, you immature, self-centered punk.

It didn't bother me as much when I was playing, because I could just make a mental note of who was doing all the "hot-dogging" and then do my best to "punish" him for it later in the game by putting my helmet right in his ear hole at bone-jarring velocity. And I usually succeeded. But to just sit there and watch those muscle-headed idiots jump around the field and jerk off in front of 50,000 people (people who are dumb enough to get excited and cheer for them when they act that way) ... no thanks.

  

verbal exhibitionism

They move from cell phone conversation to text message to tweet to website to i-tune to ... and then start all over again. This generation seems incapable of contemplation. And that is a very bad thing. Because if one is incapable of quiet contemplation, then one is equally incapable of hearing God's voice on a consistent basis.

I understand that the endless stream of gadgets and technology have prevented the latest generation from learning how to think, how to focus, how to concentrate and how to be comfortable with quietness. I even understand people wanting to be constantly distracted from their own self-doubt and self-loathing. But what I do not understand is the pandemic of verbal exhibitionism.

What I do not understand is why this generation has decided that the rest of us must be forced to listen to their endless, empty drivel.

Why must the rest of us be forced to overhear all their inappropriately public cell phone conversations? Without saying it in so many words, they all seem to be screaming: "Hey everybody, look at me! Look at me! Listen to what I think. Hey everybody, I'm cool, too. Pay attention to me.
Hey everybody, I know how to talk very loudly on a cell phone. Do you wanna listen?!"

 ... NO. As a matter of fact, we don't.

This new pandemic of verbal exhibitionism is downright infantile.
Apparently, somebody's mommy or daddy didn't pay enough attention to him or her.

We are raising a generation of insecure, immature, easily distracted exhibitionists who are terrified of silence and completely incapable of quiet contemplation and prayer.
And I'm not talking about unbelievers here. Of course, they won't be able to recognize God's voice.
I am referring to the generations being raised by professing Christians.

Raising God-fearing children (who will become God-fearing adults) is about so much more than just dragging them to church and "saying prayers" at bedtime. It begins with things as fundamental as teaching them how to think. Not what to think, but how to think. A child -- a person -- must practice being quiet and still with his own thoughts. A child must be encouraged to be contemplative. A child must have role models who are comfortable with quietness, stillness and silence, role models who pray (and not just the talking kind of prayer, but also the waiting and listening kind).

Children must be taught to hear and to recognize God's still, small voice.

It appears to me, however, that we are raising a generation of people who are incapable of that.

 

 
it has begun

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- World leaders on Friday issued sweeping promises to fix a malfunctioning global economic system in hopes of heading off future financial meltdowns. President Barack Obama said actions taken so far "brought the global economy back from the brink. We leave here today confident and united".

The leaders agreed to keep stimulus plans, which include government spending and low interest rates, generally in place in their respective countries for now to avoid derailing still-fragile recoveries. Obama had pressed for just such a course and praised the decision.

"Our coordinated stimulus plans played an indispensable role in averting catastrophe. Now we must make sure that when growth returns, jobs do, too," he said at a wrap-up news conference. "That's why we will continue our stimulus efforts until our people are back to work and phase them out when our recovery is strong."

In a statement, all the G-20 leaders declared major progress from what they called their coordinated efforts and "forceful response. It worked," they said. [What a load of self-congratulatory b...]

Although many of the pronouncements and actions taken by the leaders lacked specifics or details on follow-through [Gee ... I wonder why], leaders were bold in pronouncing the gathering - the third G-20 summit in a year - as a big success.

"There was unanimity around the table that the errors of the past won't happen again," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy. 
[Here's the problem with that statement: The errors "of the past" are already happening again, you ridiculous liar.]

"The old system of international economic cooperation is over. The new system, as of today, has begun," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, referring to a decision to enhance the status for the Group of 20 to make it the lead group for dealing with future international economic issues, eclipsing the older, Western-dominated Group of Eight.  [A new world economic system. Hmmm? Any of this starting to sound familiar yet?]