Thursday, June 28, 2012
A third of Earthlings believe in UFOs, would befriend aliens
USA Today
Aliens often compete with superheroes, vampires and zombies to top hit movie lists — but more than a third of Americans say UFOs are not a fantasy.
That's the word from a new National Geographic Channel study finding that 80 million Americans are certain UFOs exist and that one in 10 believe they've spotted one.
"We wanted the pulse on people's opinions," says Brad Dancer, senior vice president of research and digital media for National Geographic. "We wanted to get a sense of how Americans view UFOs, what people believe and how mainstream pop culture may or may not be playing into their opinions on it."
The results are in: Seventeen percent of Americans don't believe UFOs exist, 36% think they do, and 48% aren't sure.
The survey was commissioned for National Geographic Channel's series Chasing UFOs, premiering Friday at 9 p.m. ET.
About 79% of those surveyed think the government has kept information about UFOs a secret from the public, and 55% believe there are real-life Men in Black-style agents who threaten people who spot UFOs.
So what if they stopped by? The survey shows:
•22% would try to befriend the alien, 15% would run away, 13% would lock their doors, and only 2% would try to inflict bodily harm.
•If angry aliens did attack Earth, 21% would call the Hulk in to deal with it, 12% would call Batman, and 8% would call Spider-Man.
•Nearly 65% think Barack Obama would be better suited than Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion.
Extraterrestrial beings could not be reached for comment.
The Queen’s Meeting With Ex-IRA Commander Martin McGuinness Stirs Emotions
TIME World
On a late summer morning in 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten, a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, boarded a small fishing boat on the coast of Ireland along with his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. The group was only a few hundred yards from shore when a remote-controlled bomb, hidden in the craft the previous night, was detonated. The boat was blown to pieces and Mountbatten, his 14-year-old grandson, and a 15-year-old boatman were killed. Another passenger, the Baroness Brabourne, later died from her injuries.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary group took credit for the assassination soon after, releasing a statement that read: “This operation is one of the discriminate ways we can bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country.”
On Wednesday, nearly 33 years after Mountbatten’s death, the Queen, who was reportedly close to her cousin, met with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness in Belfast. Though allegedly with the IRA at the time of Mountbatten’s death, McGuinness is now an MP for Sinn Féin, the Irish republican party (which contests elections both in Ireland and Northern Ireland), and the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. The significance of the meeting, as well as the handshake the two shared—labeled “historic” and “a milestone” by commentators—has resonated throughout Ireland and the U.K.
Peter Sheridan, the chief executive of Co-operation Ireland, a charity that focuses on fostering peace in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, saw the handshake as an “act of reconciliation.” Though symbolic, Sheridan felt the meeting between the monarch and McGuinness acknowledged a willingness to confront the conflict. “I think this generation has a responsibility to deal with these issues and not leave it until the next generation to address,” he says.
But the event has stirred up memories of recent history for both the British and the Irish.
Shocking as the death of Mountbatten was, the attack was one of many carried out by the IRA during their campaign. (Only a few hours after his death, the group ambushed and killed 18 British Army soldiers near the Northern Ireland border.) And though the IRA was the most prominent, it was only one of several paramilitary groups that operated in the region. In Northern Ireland, the period of conflict that claimed more than 3500 lives, known as the Troubles, was marked by routine sectarian violence as the predominantly Catholic republicans warred against the mostly Protestant loyalists.
Even after the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement — which promised Ireland’s input into Northern Ireland’s governance, while also stating that the region would remain a part of the UK so long as the majority in Northern Ireland favored it – was signed, it was another decade before widespread paramilitary violence had run its course.
Irish-Anglo relations have come a long way since the throes of the Troubles. The Queen’s visit to the Republic of Ireland last year – a first for the monarch – was widely deemed a success. Yet the meeting between the former IRA-chief and the monarch was met with some resistance.
Anger towards McGuinness was readily apparent in the days leading up to the event. Writing in the Daily Mail, Andrew Pierce argued that David Cameron had goaded the Queen into meeting “a terrible man on British soil.” He claimed that the meeting was political opportunism on McGuinness’s part, a cheap attempt to piggyback off the success of the Queen’s previous visit.
Reverend Peter Mullen, a priest with the Church of England, took to the Daily Telegraph to vent his disgust: “The vision of our gracious Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year being obliged to extend her noble hand to ‘Commander’ Martin McGuinness is enough to turn the stomach.”
But it was scenes reminiscent of decades past that truly highlighted opposition. On Tuesday night, more than a hundred protesters took to the streets of Belfast, using gasoline bombs to vandalize property and injure police officers. While police said they didn’t believe the violence was orchestrated, reports that an earlier clash had erupted over an Irish flag and anti-royalist signs point to a simmering disaffection. The turmoil prompted police to section off a one-mile exclusion zone around the meeting place.
While McGuinness met with the Queen with the official support of the Sinn Fein party, not all republicans were pleased. The handshake could be a political gamble for McGuinness, according to Dr. Tony Craig, a modern history lecturer at Staffordshire University and the author of the book Crisis of Confidence: Anglo-Irish Relations of the Early Troubles. “A significant minority of Sinn Fein’s supporters would view this as an act of feudality to the monarchy.”
Craig added that backlash from paramilitary and vigilante groups that still operate in Northern Ireland was a possibility. Though McGuinness has publicly said that the meeting with the monarch was a symbolic gesture towards unionists in Northern Ireland and Ireland, Craig pointed out that there are many “anti-royalists” in the party and “there is the potential that McGuinness has underestimated the republican-ness of republicans.”
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary group took credit for the assassination soon after, releasing a statement that read: “This operation is one of the discriminate ways we can bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country.”
On Wednesday, nearly 33 years after Mountbatten’s death, the Queen, who was reportedly close to her cousin, met with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness in Belfast. Though allegedly with the IRA at the time of Mountbatten’s death, McGuinness is now an MP for Sinn Féin, the Irish republican party (which contests elections both in Ireland and Northern Ireland), and the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. The significance of the meeting, as well as the handshake the two shared—labeled “historic” and “a milestone” by commentators—has resonated throughout Ireland and the U.K.
Peter Sheridan, the chief executive of Co-operation Ireland, a charity that focuses on fostering peace in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, saw the handshake as an “act of reconciliation.” Though symbolic, Sheridan felt the meeting between the monarch and McGuinness acknowledged a willingness to confront the conflict. “I think this generation has a responsibility to deal with these issues and not leave it until the next generation to address,” he says.
But the event has stirred up memories of recent history for both the British and the Irish.
Shocking as the death of Mountbatten was, the attack was one of many carried out by the IRA during their campaign. (Only a few hours after his death, the group ambushed and killed 18 British Army soldiers near the Northern Ireland border.) And though the IRA was the most prominent, it was only one of several paramilitary groups that operated in the region. In Northern Ireland, the period of conflict that claimed more than 3500 lives, known as the Troubles, was marked by routine sectarian violence as the predominantly Catholic republicans warred against the mostly Protestant loyalists.
Even after the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement — which promised Ireland’s input into Northern Ireland’s governance, while also stating that the region would remain a part of the UK so long as the majority in Northern Ireland favored it – was signed, it was another decade before widespread paramilitary violence had run its course.
Irish-Anglo relations have come a long way since the throes of the Troubles. The Queen’s visit to the Republic of Ireland last year – a first for the monarch – was widely deemed a success. Yet the meeting between the former IRA-chief and the monarch was met with some resistance.
Anger towards McGuinness was readily apparent in the days leading up to the event. Writing in the Daily Mail, Andrew Pierce argued that David Cameron had goaded the Queen into meeting “a terrible man on British soil.” He claimed that the meeting was political opportunism on McGuinness’s part, a cheap attempt to piggyback off the success of the Queen’s previous visit.
Reverend Peter Mullen, a priest with the Church of England, took to the Daily Telegraph to vent his disgust: “The vision of our gracious Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year being obliged to extend her noble hand to ‘Commander’ Martin McGuinness is enough to turn the stomach.”
But it was scenes reminiscent of decades past that truly highlighted opposition. On Tuesday night, more than a hundred protesters took to the streets of Belfast, using gasoline bombs to vandalize property and injure police officers. While police said they didn’t believe the violence was orchestrated, reports that an earlier clash had erupted over an Irish flag and anti-royalist signs point to a simmering disaffection. The turmoil prompted police to section off a one-mile exclusion zone around the meeting place.
While McGuinness met with the Queen with the official support of the Sinn Fein party, not all republicans were pleased. The handshake could be a political gamble for McGuinness, according to Dr. Tony Craig, a modern history lecturer at Staffordshire University and the author of the book Crisis of Confidence: Anglo-Irish Relations of the Early Troubles. “A significant minority of Sinn Fein’s supporters would view this as an act of feudality to the monarchy.”
Craig added that backlash from paramilitary and vigilante groups that still operate in Northern Ireland was a possibility. Though McGuinness has publicly said that the meeting with the monarch was a symbolic gesture towards unionists in Northern Ireland and Ireland, Craig pointed out that there are many “anti-royalists” in the party and “there is the potential that McGuinness has underestimated the republican-ness of republicans.”
Catholic Charities mobilizes against growing Colorado fires
.- Both evacuees and residents of the Colorado Springs area are in “utter shock and disbelief” at the major fire threatening the outskirts of the city, a local Catholic Charities official says.
Rochelle Schlortt, communications director for Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, said the situation is “just scary.”
“You look up and you see the smoke or you see the flames. It’s like the entire mountainside is on fire,” she told CNA June 27.
Schlortt said the city's residents now “live in a fog of smoke,” which creates difficulties for anyone with respiratory problems, while others feel a “constant burning” in their eyes and throats.
“Smoke has literally descended and engulfed not only the Colorado Springs city but the entire El Paso county.”
Over 30,000 people have evacuated neighborhoods north and west of Colorado Springs, including parts of the Air Force Academy, to escape the Waldo Canyon Fire which began June 23. The fire has burned over 15,000 acres and was only five percent contained as of Wednesday morning, the Denver Post reports.
Colorado has suffered several major fires already this year.
Schlott explained that he first responders to the Colorado Springs fire are the Red Cross, which is setting up shelters, and the Salvation Army, which is providing evacuees with meals. At the request of the Salvation Army, the Colorado Springs Catholic Charities affiliate is helping to prepare and deliver several hundred meals per day.
The Catholic agency is supplying food to three shelters in Colorado Springs and one near the town of Divide. Road closures mean Divide is now a 2.5-hour drive from the city.
Schlortt said June 27 that the situation is “very fluid.”
“This fire is progressing and putting people out of their neighborhoods on an hourly basis.”
Joe Mahoney, executive director of Catholic Charities of Southern Colorado, said his Pueblo-based agency is collecting money to support the Colorado Springs affiliate’s operations.
Mahoney, a former disaster response officer for Catholic Charities USA, told CNA he is heading to Colorado Springs to provide assistance in person.
Schlortt said that every relief agency in Colorado Springs is responding. Many people are donating funds, volunteering and taking others into their homes.
“The entire community is just opening their hearts,” she said.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver has offered financial and staff assistance to its Colorado Springs counterpart to respond to the fires.
The Waldo Canyon Fire forced the cancellation of Sunday Mass at two parishes, the Colorado Catholic Herald reports. The novitiate for the Order of the Holy Cross in Cascade was evacuated, as was Mount St. Francis Nursing Home. Activities at St. Francis of Assisi Parish have been cancelled on orders of the fire department.
Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs offered prayers for those affected by the fire.
“We also pray for the firefighters and volunteers who are working hard to contain the wildfire and serve the needs of those affected,” he said June 26. “We are grateful for your courage, generosity and sacrifice, and we are heartened to see communities rallying together during this trying time.”
The bishop will lead a Holy Hour of prayer for fire victims and first responders on June 28 at 7 p.m. at downtown Colorado Springs’ St. Mary Cathedral.
Bishop James D. Conley, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Denver, has called for prayer and charitable assistance to the victims of the multiple fires in Colorado.
Schlortt also asked for prayers, saying “We need all the prayers we can get.”
Victims of other Colorado fires remain in need.
Catholic Charities of Denver is continuing to help evacuees of the High Park Fire in Larimer County in the mountains of northern Colorado. That fire, the second-largest in state history, began in a June 9 lightning strike. It burned over 87,000 acres and over 250 homes and is still only 65 percent contained. A 62-year-old woman died in the blaze, the Denver Post reports.
Last week, the Denver charity received emergency assistance grants totaling $20,000 from Catholic Charities USA and from United Way of Larimer County. It has also contributed $10,000 of its own funds to provide food, clothing, hotel accommodations and other personal items to the victims.
It is distributing aid in cooperation with the Red Cross and United Way. It is continuing to monitor the new fire in Boulder County, which is burning 230 acres and has prompted pre-evacuation warnings to over 2,000 phone numbers.
“Should the need arise for more extensive relief assistance, Catholic Charities is prepared to respond quickly and effectively to those needs,” the Denver agency said June 27.
Donations to support victims of the Colorado Springs fires may be made through the Catholic Charities of Central Colorado website http://ccharitiescc.org.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Vatican Upholds Fr. Frank Pavone's Appeal
Priests for Life
We are happy to announce that the Vatican has upheld Father Frank Pavone's appeal and has declared that Father Pavone is not now nor has ever been suspended. Father Pavone remains a priest in good standing all over the world.
We were confident all along that a just decision would be made by the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy. While we fully agree that Bishop Zurek has rightful authority over the priests of his diocese, we also see the urgent need for Father Pavone to be allowed to conduct his priestly ministry outside the diocese of Amarillo for the good of the pro-life movement. With regard to all inquiries relative to Father Pavone's status and the Diocese of Amarillo, we will continue to be as transparent as possible and place all communications and press releases on our public website. In this way we can best respect the rights and privacy of all concerned, particularly ecclesiastical authority and communications which are intended to be confidential at this time.
Senate deal would freeze student-loan rates for year
(Washington Post) More than 7 million college students could be spared higher loan rates under a deal reached Tuesday by Senate leaders.
The agreement would freeze the interest rate for a year, preventing it from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1, making college more affordable for students as tuition costs are rising.
lthough leaders in both parties said they favored the rate freeze, they argued about how to cover its $6 billion cost.
While they bickered, President Obama traveled the country to rally college students to press for congressional action. If the deal emerges from Congress intact, Obama is likely to take credit for having forced the issue to the front of the agenda, but Republicans have countered that an agreement could have been reached weeks ago had Democrats not decided to make it a campaign issue. Republicans say that Democrats slow-walked the negotiations to allow the president to paint the GOP as recalcitrant and willing to risk higher college costs.
The deal was announced Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who told reporters that they had worked out the arrangement but were still discussing how to push it through Congress in the final busy days before lawmakers leave Washington for a week-long Fourth of July holiday.
The proposal’s passage will be contingent upon an embrace from the GOP-held House, although McConnell indicated that he thinks the chamber’s leaders will favor the deal.
Reid told reporters Tuesday, “We basically have the student-loan issue worked out. The next question is: What do we put it on to make sure we can complete it?”
McConnell said that he and Reid “have an understanding we think will be acceptable to the House.”
In a statement, White House press secretary Jay Carney praised the agreement.
“We’re pleased that the Senate has reached a deal to keep rates low and continue offering hard-working students a fair shot at an affordable education,” he said. “Higher education has never been more important to getting a good job. That’s why President Obama has made stopping this rate hike and saving 7.4 million students an average of $1,000 a priority since his State of the Union and has repeatedly called on Congress to act.”
Carney said he hopes Congress will send a bill to the president soon.
The compromise has appeared a near-
inevitability for weeks — since Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney joined Obama in calling for Congress to keep rates from doubling on July 1.
Democrats think the issue has energized the youth vote and allowed the party to build support with students’ middle-class parents. But Republicans said that Obama has made no effort to negotiate a deal, even as he campaigns nationwide on the issue.
McConnell reiterated Tuesday that Obama has been “largely uninvolved” in student-loan talks. Reid countered that the president’s leadership has been key to keeping the issue alive, noting his repeated public comments on the subject, including at a high school in New Hampshire on Monday. He said that House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) had told fellow Republicans in a private meeting late last month that he did not expect to reach a deal on the matter before July 1.
“We’re not willing to give up on this issue, and I am glad that my Republican colleagues have agreed we shouldn’t give up on this issue,” Reid said.
Republicans have been confident that the Senate will take the blame if no deal is reached and rates increase.
The House had approved a GOP-backed bill to pay for the rate freeze by eliminating a preventive-care fund created by Obama’s health-care law. That measure did not receive the 60 votes necessary to advance in the Senate. But neither did a competing Democratic proposal to pay for the student loan item by closing a tax loophole that allows some small-business executives to avoid payroll taxes.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said House leaders will review the Senate proposal. But McConnell’s assertion that the deal would find favor in the House suggests that Republicans on both sides of the Capitol are prepared to sign off on it.
Aides in both parties and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) confirmed the details of the deal.
The extension would be paid for by raising premiums for federal pension insurance, an idea acceptable to businesses because rules on how companies calculate their pension liabilities would be changed. A senior Democratic aide said the pension proposals, which came from Reid, would generate $5.5 billion.
Meanwhile, students would be limited in how long they could receive a federally subsidized loan to 150 percent of their program length — so, six years for a four-year undergraduate degree — a suggestion from Republicans. The aide said that proposal would raise $1.2 billion.
Senators said they must decide whether to link the student-loan deal to a two-year measure that would extend highway funding, which also will expire July 1.
Linking the two would allow swifter passage through the House and Senate. But a deal on the highway bill remains touch and go, and the loan deal may need to proceed separately.
“We’re very close to having everything done,” Reid said. “But until we get everything done, nothing’s done.”
SSPX letter indicates refusal of Vatican reconciliation effort
The June 25 letter, written by the society’s general secretary, Fr. Christian Thouvenot, informs leaders within the society that the groups’ superior general, Bishop Bernard Fellay, found the Vatican’s offer “clearly unacceptable” at a meeting earlier this month.
After years of negotiations, the society – which broke with Rome in 1988 – had been considering a Vatican offer that would have brought it back into the Church as a Personal Prelature, which functions as a jurisdiction without geographical boundaries.
The society was being asked to agree to certain doctrinal teachings specified by the Vatican, including full acceptance of the Second Vatican Council.
Pope Benedict XVI’s efforts to reach out to the Society of St. Pius X have been ongoing.
On June 26, the pope appointed Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, titular archbishop of Oregon City, as vice president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” which has been responsible for leading conciliatory talks with the group.
Three years of negotiations had yielded a “Doctrinal Preamble” from the Vatican last fall, intended to pave a way to overcome disagreements over doctrine between Rome and the society.
Fr. Thouvenot’s letter said that Bishop Fellay had replied with a different version of the preamble in April that had “seemed to satisfy the Supreme Pontiff,” according to “several” sources.
According to the letter, however, Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented the bishop’s proposal on June 13, but “amended” in such a way that the bishop “immediately informed him that he could not sign this new document.”
The Society of St. Pius X will discuss the matter at its next general meeting, said Fr. Thouvenot.
He added that Bishop Richard Williamson - a controversial society prelate who caused an uproar several years ago when he denied the atrocities of the Holocaust - is being prohibited from attending that meeting “due to his stand calling to rebellion and for continually repeated disobedience.”
Chinese officials linked to forced-abortion scandal punished
The scandal erupted this month after graphic photos of the grieving mother and her aborted seven-month fetus spread online. The case in Shaanxi province, west of Beijing, drew new anger over the enforcement of family-planning rules, even bringing condemnation from a newspaper linked to the Communist Party.
Following the outcry, a municipal government investigation found that forcing the young woman to terminate her pregnancy so late in its term violated her rights, the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday. The township also illegally demanded an approximately $6,200 payment for a certificate allowing her to have a second child, which her family did not pay, the report stated.
The investigation found that officials "used crude means to violate her intentions," Xinhua reported.
The head of family planning in Zhenping county has been removed from his post, Xinhua reported. Other township, county and hospital officials were also punished, including another Zhenping family-planning official, who was given "administrative demerits," the news agency reported.
While punishments are reportedly being meted out to local officials, the Shaanxi family is said to be suffering a backlash for speaking out on the explosive case. The husband of the grieving mother has been beaten and forced into hiding, while other family members have been labeled traitors and kept under close surveillance, his sister told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
Although the Shaanxi case has created a furor in China, "the case was unusual only in the publicity that the photographs generated," The Times' Barbara Demick recently wrote, reporting on a forced abortion that led to the death of a mother in Lijin. Forced abortions and sterilizations infuriate villagers there:
Walk into the village's one general store and a group of men lets loose a stream of expletives about the coercive methods used by family planning officials. It is not that the men are morally opposed to abortion, they say, or even to limits on family size, but to the violence that often accompanies enforcement.
"I support the family planning policy, but not their methods," said Ji Shuqiang, 42, working behind the cash register at the village store. "If they find a woman who's pregnant, no matter how far along, they'll make you have an abortion."
Similar abuses were exposed by Chen Guangcheng, the blind attorney who escaped house arrest and holed up in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing seeking help before China allowed him to study in the United States.
More flee as Colorado fire sends 2-mile wall of flame down ridge
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for the town of Crystola and part of Woodland Park after more than 32,000 people had to flee on Tuesday. How many new evacuees were moving out was not immediately available.
Fire crews had expected more weather trouble on Wednesday and by early afternoon scanner traffic confirmed the fire was still in full force.
The fire is moving down a ridge toward Teller County, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported, citing communications from an emergency services scanner. "It's huge," said the voice over the scanner. "I would estimate two-three miles in width."
"As of right now I cannot hold this hill," was another exchange, referring to the burning Blodgett Peak near the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Heavy smoke made for unhealthy air in and around the city. After jumping fire lines Tuesday, the towering blaze has now burned more than 24 square miles and an undetermined number of homes.
While crews should get a break from the heat, a forecast for thunderstorms could mean unpredictable winds.
"We expect further trouble from the weather today," incident commander Rich Harvey said at a press briefing. "We do expect all of our lines to be challenged today."
Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown called the Waldo Canyon Fire a "monster event" that is "not even remotely close to being contained." The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The White House, meanwhile, said President Barack Obama would tour the area on Friday to offer his support.
Tuesday night, the community of Mountain Shadows, northwest of Colorado Springs, appeared to be enveloped in an orange glow.
People were "freaking out" as they fled Tuesday night, local resident Kathleen Tillman told the Denver Post. "You are driving through smoke. It is completely pitch black, and there is tons of ash dropping on the road."
"This is a fire of epic proportions," Brown said at a briefing Tuesday night.
"It was like looking at the worst movie set you could imagine," Gov. John Hickenlooper added after flying over the fire. "It's almost surreal. You look at that, and it's like nothing I've seen before."
Brown insisted that "many, many homes" were saved by firefighters.
Hickenlooper told anxious residents that "we have all the support of the U.S. government. We have all the support of the state of Colorado. And we want everybody here to know that."
He emphasized that Colorado was open to tourism, saying various fires had affected just a half-percent of all public lands and perhaps 400 of 10,000 campground sites.
Among the evacuees were cadets and staff living in one section of the sprawling U.S. Air Force Academy. Flames crested a ridge high above the campus on Tuesday, forcing more than 2,100 residents there to flee.
A new class of 1,045 cadets will still check in on Thursday but at a different section of the campus. The academy said the entire campus would be closed Wednesday to all visitors and non-essential staff.
Colorado is battling 12 large fires, its worst fire season in history, and other states across the West are being taxed as well.
To the north in Boulder County, 26 homes were evacuated Tuesday when lightning sparked a wildfire. No structures were immediately threatened, but the National Center for Atmospheric Research closed as a precaution.
Wildfires leave Colorado tourism high and dry
The state's largest blaze is the 136-square-mile High Park Fire, which has destroyed 257 homes and killed one woman. That fire was triggered by lightning on June 9 and is nearly contained.
Most of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana have seen red flag warnings in recent days, meaning extreme fire danger.
The West is seeing "a super-heated spike on top of a decades-long warming trend," Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the National Climatic Data Center, told the Associated Press.
Although the fire season got off to an early start in the West, the number of fires and acreage burned nationwide is still below the 10-year average for this time of year.
Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - June 27, 2012
Talking about the "things that matter most" on June 27
4:00 – Debating Same-Sex Marriage
Polls and election results show Americans sharply divided on same-sex “marriage,” and the controversy is unlikely to subside anytime soon. Taking a "point/counterpoint" approach, John Corvino (a philosopher and prominent gay advocate) and Maggie Gallagher (a nationally syndicated columnist and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage) explore fundamental questions: What is marriage for? Is sexual difference essential to it? Why does the government sanction it? What are the implications of same-sex marriage for children's welfare, for religious freedom, and for our understanding of marriage itself? We host a debate.
5:00 – Direct to My Desk – The Dangers of “Self-Styled Spiritualism” – Oprah, Olsteen, Chopra, “The Secret,” Tolle, and Many More
4:00 – Debating Same-Sex Marriage
Polls and election results show Americans sharply divided on same-sex “marriage,” and the controversy is unlikely to subside anytime soon. Taking a "point/counterpoint" approach, John Corvino (a philosopher and prominent gay advocate) and Maggie Gallagher (a nationally syndicated columnist and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage) explore fundamental questions: What is marriage for? Is sexual difference essential to it? Why does the government sanction it? What are the implications of same-sex marriage for children's welfare, for religious freedom, and for our understanding of marriage itself? We host a debate.
5:00 – Direct to My Desk – The Dangers of “Self-Styled Spiritualism” – Oprah, Olsteen, Chopra, “The Secret,” Tolle, and Many More
Senate Bill Outlaws Spanking
Home School Legal Defense Association
A bill that would make it a crime for a parent to spank a child is moving quickly through the Delaware General Assembly.
Senate Bill 234, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Patricia M. Blevins (District 7), creates a definition of the term “physical injury” in the child abuse and neglect laws to include “pain.” Currently the law permits a parent to use force to punish a child for misconduct, but it prohibits any act that is likely to cause or does cause physical injury. By redefining “physical injury” to include the infliction of pain on a child, spanking would become a crime in Delaware punishable by imprisonment.
Under the proposed law, a parent causing “physical injury” (e.g., pain) to a child under age 18 would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor and subject to one year in prison. A parent causing pain to a child who was three years of age or younger would be guilty of a class G felony and subject to two years in prison.
This bill passed the Senate unanimously on June 19, 2012, by a vote of 21–0.
If this bill passes, Delaware would become the first state in the nation to outlaw corporal discipline of children by their parents.
Home School Legal Defense Association opposes this bill as a violation of the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, including the long-recognized right to administer reasonable corporal discipline. HSLDA is working with the Delaware Home Education Association and the Delaware Family Policy Council in an effort to bring about a defeat of this legislation.
US court upholds agency's global warming rules
The rules, which had been challenged by industry groups and several states, will reduce emissions of six heat-trapping gases from large industrial facilities such as factories and power plants, as well as from automobile tailpipes.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington said that the Environmental Protection Agency was "unambiguously correct" in using existing federal law to address global warming, denying two of the challenges to four separate regulations and dismissing the others.
Michael Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said no one expected the sweeping decision issued by the court Tuesday, and said the move was exceeded in importance only by the Supreme Court ruling five years ago.
It also lands during a presidential election year where there are sharp differences between the two candidates when it comes to how best to deal with global warming.
President Barack Obama's administration has come under fierce criticism from Republicans, including his probable opponent Mitt Romney, for pushing ahead with the regulations after Congress failed to pass climate legislation, and after the Bush administration resisted such steps.
In 2009, the EPA concluded that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, triggering controls on automobiles and other large sources. But the administration has always said it preferred to address global warming through a new law.
Carol Browner, Obama's former energy and climate adviser, said the decision "should put an end, once and for all, to any questions about the EPA's legal authority to protect us from dangerous industrial carbon pollution," adding that it was a "devastating blow" to those who challenge the scientific evidence of climate change.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called the ruling a "strong validation" of the approach the agency has taken.
The court "found that EPA followed both the science and the law in taking common-sense, reasonable actions to address the very real threat of climate change by limiting greenhouse gas pollution from the largest sources," Jackson said in a statement.
At a meeting in New Hampshire last year Romney, said it was a mistake for the EPA to be involved in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas.
"My view is that the EPA is getting into carbon and regulating carbon has gone beyond the original intent of the legislation, and I would not go there," he said.
The court on Tuesday seemed to disagree with Romney's assessment when it denied two challenges to the administration's rules, including one arguing that the agency erred in concluding greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. Lawyers for the industry groups and states argued that the EPA should have considered the policy implications of regulating heat-trapping gases along with the science. They also questioned the agency's reliance on a body of scientific evidence that they said included significant uncertainties.
The judges -- Chief Judge David Sentelle, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, and David Tatel and Judith Rogers, both appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton -- flatly rejected those arguments.
"This is how science works," the unsigned opinion said. "EPA is not required to re-prove the existence of the atom every time it approaches a scientific question."
Industry groups vowed to fight on.
"Today's ruling is a setback for businesses facing damaging regulations from the EPA," said Jay Timmons, president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers. "We will be considering all of our legal options when it comes to halting these devastating regulations. The debate to address climate change should take place in the U.S. Congress and should foster economic growth and job creation, not impose additional burdens on businesses."
Environmentalists, meanwhile, called it a landmark decision for global warming policy, which has been repeatedly targeted by the Republican-controlled House.
"Today's ruling by the court confirms that EPA's common-sense solutions to address climate pollution are firmly anchored in science and law," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund.
The court also dismissed complaints against two other regulations dealing with pollution from new factories and other industrial facilities. The plaintiffs had argued that the EPA misused the Clean Air Act by only requiring controls on the largest sources, when the law explicitly states that much smaller sources should also be covered.
The judges, when presented with these arguments in February, cautioned the industry groups and states to be careful what they wished for. If EPA chose to follow the letter of the law, they said, greenhouse gas regulations would place even more of a burden on industry and other businesses.
Obama: 4 Years Isn't Enough to Fix the Bush Economy
The Fiscal Times
So far, President Barack Obama has not been able to convince most Americans that they are better off than they were four years ago. His next step may be to try to convince them that they would be worse off under his Republican rival, Mitt Romney. In an economic speech on Thursday that could set the tone for months of campaigning, Obama is not likely to unveil new ideas to boost the economy and create new jobs, according to Democrats familiar with the preparations for the address.
Instead, he will make the case that he needs four more years to undo the damage left by George W. Bush, his Republican predecessor in the White House, and argue that a President Romney would bring back the weak financial regulation and budget-busting tax cuts of the Bush years. Obama already is making this argument to small groups of supporters. "The last thing we want to do is return to the very policies that got us into this mess," he said at a fundraiser in Baltimore on Tuesday.
The strategy carries risks for Obama. Too much finger-pointing could diminish his presidential status and lead voters to question whether he is ducking responsibility, analysts say. The strategy defies the widely held view among political analysts that most voters decide whether to fire or re-hire an incumbent president based on his own record. And an overly negative campaign could invite unflattering contrast with the "hope and change" motto that carried Obama to victory in 2008.
But many Democrats believe that Obama must put his achievements into context by explaining that he has spent his first term digging out from a disaster that was brought on by a Republican presidency. They point out that the recovery hasn't been any more lackluster than those that followed recessions in 2001 and 1991; the difference is that the economy is digging out of a much deeper hole.
The 69,000 jobs added last month, while not nearly enough, should be measured against the 800,000 jobs that disappeared the month Obama took office, Democratic activists say.
"Even though 2007 was five years ago, it's very important to explain to people how we got to where we are," said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats also are aware that while Romney remains largely undefined to many voters, the budget-slashing policies of the former Massachusetts governor's fellow Republicans in Congress have spooked many Americans.
Democrats also see some evidence that the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney's record as a private equity executive may be resonating with voters despite the objections of prominent Democratic allies such as former President Bill Clinton.
A slew of weak data has led economists in recent weeks to ratchet back their expectations for U.S. economic growth. A Reuters poll published on Wednesday found economists expect the nation's Gross Domestic Product to expand at only a 2 percent annual rate in the second quarter. Projections for hiring also have been cut. According to the poll, the economy is likely to add an average of 147,000 jobs a month between now and October, too few to make much of a dent in the nation's 8.2 percent jobless rate.
So far, President Barack Obama has not been able to convince most Americans that they are better off than they were four years ago. His next step may be to try to convince them that they would be worse off under his Republican rival, Mitt Romney. In an economic speech on Thursday that could set the tone for months of campaigning, Obama is not likely to unveil new ideas to boost the economy and create new jobs, according to Democrats familiar with the preparations for the address.
Instead, he will make the case that he needs four more years to undo the damage left by George W. Bush, his Republican predecessor in the White House, and argue that a President Romney would bring back the weak financial regulation and budget-busting tax cuts of the Bush years. Obama already is making this argument to small groups of supporters. "The last thing we want to do is return to the very policies that got us into this mess," he said at a fundraiser in Baltimore on Tuesday.
The strategy carries risks for Obama. Too much finger-pointing could diminish his presidential status and lead voters to question whether he is ducking responsibility, analysts say. The strategy defies the widely held view among political analysts that most voters decide whether to fire or re-hire an incumbent president based on his own record. And an overly negative campaign could invite unflattering contrast with the "hope and change" motto that carried Obama to victory in 2008.
But many Democrats believe that Obama must put his achievements into context by explaining that he has spent his first term digging out from a disaster that was brought on by a Republican presidency. They point out that the recovery hasn't been any more lackluster than those that followed recessions in 2001 and 1991; the difference is that the economy is digging out of a much deeper hole.
The 69,000 jobs added last month, while not nearly enough, should be measured against the 800,000 jobs that disappeared the month Obama took office, Democratic activists say.
"Even though 2007 was five years ago, it's very important to explain to people how we got to where we are," said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats also are aware that while Romney remains largely undefined to many voters, the budget-slashing policies of the former Massachusetts governor's fellow Republicans in Congress have spooked many Americans.
Democrats also see some evidence that the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney's record as a private equity executive may be resonating with voters despite the objections of prominent Democratic allies such as former President Bill Clinton.
A slew of weak data has led economists in recent weeks to ratchet back their expectations for U.S. economic growth. A Reuters poll published on Wednesday found economists expect the nation's Gross Domestic Product to expand at only a 2 percent annual rate in the second quarter. Projections for hiring also have been cut. According to the poll, the economy is likely to add an average of 147,000 jobs a month between now and October, too few to make much of a dent in the nation's 8.2 percent jobless rate.
As the economic recovery threatens to stall for the third summer in a row,
voters are registering deep doubts about Obama's leadership, according to a
Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. More now believe Romney would be
stronger than Obama in dealing with the economy and creating jobs.
A White House news conference on Friday compounded Obama's problems when he said that the U.S. private sector is doing "just fine." The gaffe obscured his larger point that Republican-backed austerity has undercut the recovery by forcing layoffs of teachers and other public employees. "I don't think the president, for all of his narrative gifts, which are enormous, has done a very good job up to now of integrating the economic difficulties of recent years into a broader story about the future of the American economy," said William Galston, a former adviser to Clinton.
Democrats believe that Obama already has laid out plenty of ideas for improving the economy that have been blocked by Republicans in Congress, such as spending to improve the nation's transportation network and helping local governments avoid further layoffs of teachers and firefighters.
Obama will face a near-certain loss in the November 6 election if he does not shift the campaign's storyline away from his economic track record, three Democratic strategists wrote in a memo released on Tuesday. "We will face an impossible headwind in November if we do not move to a new narrative, one that contextualizes the recovery but, more importantly, focuses on what we will do to make a better future for the middle class," strategists Stan Greenberg, James Carville and Erica Seifert wrote.
In focus groups, voters told the three strategists that they have seen little evidence of an economic turnaround as they struggle to pay for basic necessities. "You need to see it in the grocery stores. You need to see it at the gas stations. You need, the consumer needs, to see the result and there's no result of that yet," an unidentified woman in Columbus, Ohio, told the strategists.
Democrats see Thursday's speech as a chance for Obama to rise above the chatter of the 24-hour news cycle and show voters how his policies will make their lives better. "He's got to be able to talk to people in concrete terms about what his record has meant to them," said Linda Peek Schacht, who handled communications for Democratic President Jimmy Carter's failed re-election bid in 1980, when Carter lost to Ronald Reagan.
The setting for Thursday's speech should help. Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland has won praise for retraining programs that steer laid-off workers to new careers in biotechnology, wind power and advanced automotive manufacturing, industries that Obama frequently cites as the types of industries that will create good middle-class jobs in an era of heightened global competition.
"It's a very successful institution that's a good forum for the president's message. It's likely to appeal to voters whose support he needs," said University of Akron political science professor John Green.
Obama will be able to point to inspirational examples of people who have gone through tough times and turned their lives around, and argue that government investments in education benefit the economy as a whole. He'll be able to say that he has called for greater funding for community colleges, and point out that Romney's fellow Republicans in Congress have passed a budget that would slash job-training funds while cutting taxes for the wealthy.
This wouldn't be a new theme for Obama: He raised similar points in an April 18 visit to another community college in nearby Elyria, Ohio. "Right now, we have two competing visions of our future, and the choice could not be clearer," he said at Lorain County Community College. "These folks on the other side, I am sure they are patriots; I'm sure they're sincere in terms of what they say. But their theory, I believe, is wrong."
A White House news conference on Friday compounded Obama's problems when he said that the U.S. private sector is doing "just fine." The gaffe obscured his larger point that Republican-backed austerity has undercut the recovery by forcing layoffs of teachers and other public employees. "I don't think the president, for all of his narrative gifts, which are enormous, has done a very good job up to now of integrating the economic difficulties of recent years into a broader story about the future of the American economy," said William Galston, a former adviser to Clinton.
Democrats believe that Obama already has laid out plenty of ideas for improving the economy that have been blocked by Republicans in Congress, such as spending to improve the nation's transportation network and helping local governments avoid further layoffs of teachers and firefighters.
Obama will face a near-certain loss in the November 6 election if he does not shift the campaign's storyline away from his economic track record, three Democratic strategists wrote in a memo released on Tuesday. "We will face an impossible headwind in November if we do not move to a new narrative, one that contextualizes the recovery but, more importantly, focuses on what we will do to make a better future for the middle class," strategists Stan Greenberg, James Carville and Erica Seifert wrote.
In focus groups, voters told the three strategists that they have seen little evidence of an economic turnaround as they struggle to pay for basic necessities. "You need to see it in the grocery stores. You need to see it at the gas stations. You need, the consumer needs, to see the result and there's no result of that yet," an unidentified woman in Columbus, Ohio, told the strategists.
Democrats see Thursday's speech as a chance for Obama to rise above the chatter of the 24-hour news cycle and show voters how his policies will make their lives better. "He's got to be able to talk to people in concrete terms about what his record has meant to them," said Linda Peek Schacht, who handled communications for Democratic President Jimmy Carter's failed re-election bid in 1980, when Carter lost to Ronald Reagan.
The setting for Thursday's speech should help. Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland has won praise for retraining programs that steer laid-off workers to new careers in biotechnology, wind power and advanced automotive manufacturing, industries that Obama frequently cites as the types of industries that will create good middle-class jobs in an era of heightened global competition.
"It's a very successful institution that's a good forum for the president's message. It's likely to appeal to voters whose support he needs," said University of Akron political science professor John Green.
Obama will be able to point to inspirational examples of people who have gone through tough times and turned their lives around, and argue that government investments in education benefit the economy as a whole. He'll be able to say that he has called for greater funding for community colleges, and point out that Romney's fellow Republicans in Congress have passed a budget that would slash job-training funds while cutting taxes for the wealthy.
This wouldn't be a new theme for Obama: He raised similar points in an April 18 visit to another community college in nearby Elyria, Ohio. "Right now, we have two competing visions of our future, and the choice could not be clearer," he said at Lorain County Community College. "These folks on the other side, I am sure they are patriots; I'm sure they're sincere in terms of what they say. But their theory, I believe, is wrong."
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
American Muslims Stone Christians in Dearborn, MI
This anti-Christian violence in Dearborn is bad enough. To make matters worse, the Dearborn police say that they don't have the manpower to escort the Christian group through the crowd safely, therefore they must leave the festival. But when the Christian group leaves, somehow the police department comes up with at least a dozen police officers who are available to pull the Christian group's van over in a traffic stop.
‘Get in line’ or ‘resign’ Admiral tells military chaplain
Life Site News 
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although the U.S. Military fight and die to uphold freedom, high-level military chaplains report they are increasingly being denied freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. There is also alarm about the negative effects on troop morale over the undoing of the 237-years’ practice of providing traditional religious support for U.S. soldiers.
“We were promised that we would see no change - very little change,” says Col. Ron Crews, alluding to a two-star officer’s assurance that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would not impede the ministry of military chaplains. That promise, he says, has not been kept.
Col. Crews, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, was speaking at a panel along with military chaplains and religious freedom activists during the 2012 National Religious Freedom Conference in Washington D.C on May 24.
The panelists agreed that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and other policies have made it difficult, if not a punishable offense, for military chaplains to read passages of Leviticus, pray aloud in the name of God at a soldier’s funeral, or preside over traditional services.
Col. Crews recounted an interchange in 2010 between Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a military chaplain. While Adm. Mullen was briefing the troops on what the repeal might look like, the chaplain asked if those with “biblical views that homosexuality is a sin [would] still be protected to express those views?”
Adm. Mullen reportedly responded, “Chaplain, if you can’t get in line with this policy, resign your commission.”
Another chaplain’s promotion was unexpectedly rescinded, said the colonel. The reason: forwarding an email sent by a fellow chaplain that was critical of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. Due to this action he was told he would need to be “more closely supervised.”
Yet another chaplain wished for his chapel to be considered “sacred space” and not used to officiate same-sex marriages. He was told that despite his wishes, his chapel would be “sexual neutral territory.”
After Chaplain (Major General) Douglas Carver, the U.S. Army’s Chief Chaplain, called for a day of prayer and fasting “in keeping with your religious traditions,” the Military Religious Foundation (MRF) “wanted him fired,” said Col. Jacob Goldstein, a panelist and senior U.S. Army Jewish chaplain. He added that despite the MRF’s claims that this was offensive to Jewish people, “this fasting follows in our tradition.”
Chaplains are not the only ones feeling pressure. Veteran’s Affairs officials told veteran honor guards that mentioning God in prayer was not acceptable. It took a Temporary Restraining Order from U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes and four months of litigation for the name of God to again be permissible.
Four months was not soon enough to prevent heartbreak to the widows of the fallen. Lisa Ward, the widow of a war veteran, made a promise to her husband - in the event of his death, he would receive the full burial ritual. But arriving to bury her husband and fulfill her promise, she was told the full burial ritual was against federal government regulations. The ritual mentioned God.
“I can’t redo my husband’s funeral,” she said with tears in her eyes.
One federal official, speaking on behalf of the Houston National Cemetery, said that prayers must be “inclusive.” Another asked a veteran to submit his public prayers in writing for approval. Finally, a judge ruled, “In this country, we don’t tell our pastors how to pray.”
But these legal victories do little to reassure believers. Kelly Shackelford, a panelist at the National Religious Freedom Conference and president and CEO of Liberty Institute, said, “The speed at which we are falling is much quicker than I have ever seen,” referring to the amount of religious freedom complaints that his office receives.
Shackelford’s office is the largest non-profit law firm in America, which deals solely with defending religious liberty. Still, there are too many cases for his office to handle. Over a period of ten years, he says he has experienced the most change in the past year and a half.
More religious freedom complaints are piling up. But Shackelford said that his office can’t provide any help unless people are willing to take a stand and work through a litigation process. He ended his talk declaring, “We need to stand in a Christ-like manner, but whether we stand or not is not an option.”
Military chaplains have received a stipend for their military duties since the U.S. military’s founding. General George Washington commenting on this practice said, “It is necessary that we provide them [the military] with a spiritual substance.”
For 237 years it has been considered essential to provide U.S. troops with moral and spiritual counsel. Gen. Major Carver sought to demonstrate this importance by recounting of a soldier’s experience.
A young private was aboard the torpedo-hit USAT Dorchester on February 3, 1943. Surrounded by the dead and debris, the vessel sinking lower, he later said of the event, “I could hear the chaplains preaching courage, their voices were the only thing that gave me hope and kept me going.”
“We were promised that we would see no change - very little change,” says Col. Ron Crews, alluding to a two-star officer’s assurance that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would not impede the ministry of military chaplains. That promise, he says, has not been kept.
Col. Crews, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, was speaking at a panel along with military chaplains and religious freedom activists during the 2012 National Religious Freedom Conference in Washington D.C on May 24.
Col. Crews recounted an interchange in 2010 between Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a military chaplain. While Adm. Mullen was briefing the troops on what the repeal might look like, the chaplain asked if those with “biblical views that homosexuality is a sin [would] still be protected to express those views?”
Adm. Mullen reportedly responded, “Chaplain, if you can’t get in line with this policy, resign your commission.”
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Yet another chaplain wished for his chapel to be considered “sacred space” and not used to officiate same-sex marriages. He was told that despite his wishes, his chapel would be “sexual neutral territory.”
After Chaplain (Major General) Douglas Carver, the U.S. Army’s Chief Chaplain, called for a day of prayer and fasting “in keeping with your religious traditions,” the Military Religious Foundation (MRF) “wanted him fired,” said Col. Jacob Goldstein, a panelist and senior U.S. Army Jewish chaplain. He added that despite the MRF’s claims that this was offensive to Jewish people, “this fasting follows in our tradition.”
Chaplains are not the only ones feeling pressure. Veteran’s Affairs officials told veteran honor guards that mentioning God in prayer was not acceptable. It took a Temporary Restraining Order from U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes and four months of litigation for the name of God to again be permissible.
Four months was not soon enough to prevent heartbreak to the widows of the fallen. Lisa Ward, the widow of a war veteran, made a promise to her husband - in the event of his death, he would receive the full burial ritual. But arriving to bury her husband and fulfill her promise, she was told the full burial ritual was against federal government regulations. The ritual mentioned God.
“I can’t redo my husband’s funeral,” she said with tears in her eyes.
But these legal victories do little to reassure believers. Kelly Shackelford, a panelist at the National Religious Freedom Conference and president and CEO of Liberty Institute, said, “The speed at which we are falling is much quicker than I have ever seen,” referring to the amount of religious freedom complaints that his office receives.
Shackelford’s office is the largest non-profit law firm in America, which deals solely with defending religious liberty. Still, there are too many cases for his office to handle. Over a period of ten years, he says he has experienced the most change in the past year and a half.
More religious freedom complaints are piling up. But Shackelford said that his office can’t provide any help unless people are willing to take a stand and work through a litigation process. He ended his talk declaring, “We need to stand in a Christ-like manner, but whether we stand or not is not an option.”
Military chaplains have received a stipend for their military duties since the U.S. military’s founding. General George Washington commenting on this practice said, “It is necessary that we provide them [the military] with a spiritual substance.”
For 237 years it has been considered essential to provide U.S. troops with moral and spiritual counsel. Gen. Major Carver sought to demonstrate this importance by recounting of a soldier’s experience.
A young private was aboard the torpedo-hit USAT Dorchester on February 3, 1943. Surrounded by the dead and debris, the vessel sinking lower, he later said of the event, “I could hear the chaplains preaching courage, their voices were the only thing that gave me hope and kept me going.”
Pro-life school bus firebombed in Rockford, local media ignore the incident
The interior of the bombed-out bus.
Life Site News A school bus covered in pro-life images that used to drive children to a local abortion clinic to pray was firebombed Friday night, report local advocates, who say the media have been negligent in covering the incident.
The bus, owned by Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy, suffered extensive damage after vandals threw more than one device through the vehicle’s windows. Photos show some of the seats reduced to little more than metal frame and ash. The driver’s area was also bombed, and appears to be unusable.
The bus is well known in the area for the images on its windows, which include several Catholic images, as well as pictures of unborn children.
Local leader Kevin Rilott told LifeSiteNews.com via telephone Monday that the pro-life community was “pretty upset” about the destruction. Rilott used to regularly protest at the notoriously anti-Christian Northern Illinois Women’s Center (NIWC) abortion mill in Rockford, famous for the mocking and blasphemous messages in its windows, which closed permanently this year following an investigation by health officials.
“We thought we’d be past all this, but apparently not,” he said.
Rilott said that, although the owners of the vehicle have yet to assess whether the bus can be salvaged, it doesn’t seem possible. When he touched the dashboard area, “it was brittle, and my hands were covered in soot,” he said.
In a video of the incident posted on the local pro-life blog, Rilott complained that the Rockford Register Star at first declined to do a story - but chose to run a piece this weekend highlighting an attack on the now-closed abortion mill that occurred 12 years ago. It also ran a story about another vehicle that was firebombed at about the same time as the bus.
Rilott said his group “tried all weekend” to get a story from the Star. “We did hear finally today they started to make some inquiries,” he said, although he expressed concern that it would be given little prominence. The Star has previously declined to report NIWC’s history of harassing pro-life witnesses.
The local pro-lifer said on the blog that he believed the firebombing could have been in retaliation for the closing of NIWC.
“It’s interesting that abortion supporters in Rockford not only kill children in the womb but may well have destroyed a school bus used by children as an act of revenge for the closing of their child killing center,” he wrote.
Although the bus no longer regularly takes children to NIWC following its closure, the owners have been using it for other Catholic events, and were planning to take a trip to the shuttered mill for a prayer of thanksgiving.
“I think in some ways this is a sign that things are going in the right way, when they do stupid acts of violence like this,” Rilott told LSN.
The owners of the bus, which originally cost about $5,000-$6,000 used, are taking donations to repair or replace the vehicle, he said.
Contact:
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy
3218 11TH STREET
ROCKFORD, IL 61109
1-815-399-3021
OLSHA@COMCAST.NET
Four health care questions the Supreme Court is asking
(CBS News) The Supreme Court this week will rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, adding a new chapter to the debate over the health care overhaul. The court, however, isn't just going to vote up or down on the issue -- there are a number of questions it has to answer.
Here's a look at the questions before the court:
1. Can the court rule on the law's constitutionality, or does it have to wait until 2015?
Before it heard arguments over the health care law's constitutionality, the Supreme Court in March asked whether now is even the appropriate time to take up the case.
The 1867 Anti-Injunction Act bars most lawsuits challenging a tax that hasn't been paid. The individual mandate, which requires all Americans to purchase insurance, doesn't kick in until 2014, meaning no one has paid the fine (or "tax," as some may call it) for failing to purchase insurance -- thus, as the argument goes, the current case may be invalid.
If the court decides the Anti-Injunction Act applies to the health care law, the case could be argued in 2015, once someone has actually paid a fine.
Most parties watching the case, however -- and even Mr. Obama's Justice Department -- believe that the Anti-Injunction Act doesn't apply here. "It's pretty much a slam dunk they're going to hear the case," Robert Alt, senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Hotsheet in March.
2. Is the mandate constitutional?
If the court decides it can rule on the case now, the primary question is whether the individual mandate is constitutional, or whether the government oversteps its authority by compelling every person to either get insurance or pay a fine.
As many as 28 states filed lawsuits calling the mandate unconstitutional, and one federal appellate court agreed with that assessment. Two other federal appellate courts have upheld the law.
This question strikes at the heart of the opposition to Mr. Obama's reforms: Most Americans disapprove of the mandate, according to CBS News/New York Times polling, and seven in 10 want the entire law or at least the mandate overturned.
3. If the mandate is unconstitutional, can other parts of the law survive without it?
Question No. 2 also happens to strike at the "heart" of the law itself, as some, like Justice Antonin Scalia, have called the mandate. If the court strikes down the mandate, it will have to decide whether other parts can survive without it -- and if so, which parts.
During the March hearings, Scalia suggested he was inclined to just throw out the whole law. "My approach would say if you take the heart out of the statute, the statute's gone," he said.
After winning the White House, President Obama told Congress a mandate was an essential part of improving the nation's health care system. The administration argued to the Supreme Court that without the mandate, two other provisions -- "guaranteed issue" and "community rating" -- won't work and should be thrown out.
Guaranteed issue, which is nearly twice as popular among the public than the individual mandate, requires health insurers to cover everyone who applies for coverage, regardless of pre-existing conditions. Community rating requires insurers to offer plans within the same price range to all customers, regardless of factors like age.
Many health care experts argue that without the mandate, health care costs would spiral out of control, but the true impact of keeping the rest of the law in place without the mandate is up for debate.
4. Is the expansion of Medicaid constitutional?
In addition to the individual mandate, the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of a provision from the Affordable Care Act that would greatly expand Medicaid.
Currently, Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides health care to certain poor Americans, such as children and the elderly. In 2014, the Affordable Care Act opens up Medicaid to anyone with an income under 138 percent of the federal poverty line.
The federal government is expected to pay for the vast majority of the Medicaid expansion, but 26 states argued that paying their portion of the expansion will be an unfair burden. If a state chose not to expand the program as the law requires, it would have to opt out of Medicaid completely -- something no state could afford to do.
Emotional goodbye for young Italian mother who died for unborn child
At 28 years of age, Chiara was happily married to Enrico Petrillo. They had already suffered the loss of two children in recent years who died from birth defects. The couple became popular speakers at pro-life events, in which they shared their testimony about the few minutes they were able to spend with their children, David and Maria, before they died.
In 2010, Chiara became pregnant for the third time, and according to doctors the child was developing normally. However, Chiara was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and was advised to begin receiving treatment that would have posed a risk to her pregnancy.
Chiara decided to protect the baby – named Francisco – and opted to forgo treatment until after his birth, which took place on May 30, 2011.
Her cancer quickly progressed and eventually she lost sight in one eye. After a year-long battle Chiara died on June 13, surrounded by her loved ones and convinced that she would be reunited with her two children in heaven.
“I am going to heaven to take care of Maria and David, you stay here with Dad. I will pray for you,” Chiara said in a letter for Francisco that she wrote one week before her death.
The funeral Mass was celebrated by the Vicar General of Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, who recalled Chiara as “the second Gianna Beretta,” the 20th century saint who sacrificed her life in similar circumstances to save her unborn baby.
Chiara’s spiritual director, Father Vito, delivered the homily and remembered Chiara as a young woman who chose to risk her own life in order to be an example to other pregnant women, “a testimony that could save so many people,” he said.
Chiara’s husband, Enrico, said he experienced “a story of love on the cross.” Speaking to Vatican Radio, he said that they learned from their three children that there is no difference in a life that lasts 30 minutes or 100 years.
“It was wonderful to discover this love that grew more and more in the face of so many problems,” he said.
“We grew more and more in love with each other and Jesus. We were never disappointed by this love, and for this reason, we never lost time, even though those around us said, 'Wait, don’t be in a hurry to have another child,'” Enrico said.
The world today encourages people to make wrong choices about the unborn, the sick and the elderly, he noted, “but the Lord responds with stories like ours.”
“We are the ones who like to philosophize about life, about who created it, and therefore, in the end, we confuse ourselves in wanting to become the owners of life and to escape from the cross the Lord gives us,” he continued.
“The truth is that this cross – if you embrace it with Christ – ceases to be as ugly as it looks. If you trust in him, you discover that this fire, this cross, does not burn, and that peace can be found in suffering and joy in death,” Enrico explained.
“I spent a lot of time this year reflecting on this phrase from the Gospel that says the Lord gives a cross that is sweet and a burden that is light. When I would look at Chiara when she was about to die, I obviously became very upset. But I mustered the courage and a few hours before – it was about eight in the morning, Chiara died at noon – I asked her.
I said: 'But Chiara, my love, is this cross really sweet, like the Lord says? She looked at me and she smiled, and in a soft voice she said, 'Yes, Enrico, it is very sweet.' In this sense, the entire family didn’t see Chiara die peacefully, but happily, which is totally different,” Ernico said.
When his son grows up, he added, he will tell him “how beautiful it is to let oneself be loved by God, because if you feel loved you can do anything,” and this is “the most important thing in life: to let yourself be loved in order to love and die happy.”
“I will tell him that this is what his mother, Chiara, did. She allowed herself to be loved, and in a certain sense, I think she loved everyone in this way. I feel her more alive than ever. To be able to see her die happy was to me a challenge to death.”
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