"When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?' But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, 'You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'] And they went on to another village."  Luke 9:51-56

It seems that the Muslim radicals see it as their god given task to kill as many non-Muslims as they can in the name of Allah. American media, politicians and Muslims try to convince us that Muslims serve the same god as Christians and Jews. This is absolutely not true. God would have to be schizophrenic to tell Muslims to kill Christians and Jews and for Christians and Jews to refrain from killing the innocent. You would have the greatest oxymoron if you tried to say this. It simply is not true.

Published: 27 November 2009

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy  Newspapers

Over  the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines,  sailors and Air Force personnel have given their  lives in the terrible duty that is war.   Thousands more have come home on stretchers,  horribly wounded and facing months or years in  military  hospitals.

This  week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend  and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert  Bateman, who recently completed a yearlong tour  of duty in Iraq and is now back at the  Pentagon.

Here's  Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known  ceremony that fills the halls of the Army  corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause  and many tears every Friday morning.  It  first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media  critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media  Matters for America Website.

"It is  110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of  the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is  newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway  is broad, and the lighting is bright.  At  this instant the entire length of the corridor  is packed with officers, a few sergeants and  some civilians, all crammed tightly three and  four deep against the walls. There are  thousands here.

This  hallway, more than any other, is the `Army'  hallway.  The G3 offices line one side, G2  the other, G8 is around the corner.  All  Army.  Moderate conversations flow in a low  buzz.  Friends who may not have seen each  other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each  other, cross the way and  renew.

Everyone  shifts to ensure an open path remains down the  center.  The air conditioning system was  not designed for this press of bodies in this  area.

The  temperature is rising already.  Nobody  cares.  "10:36 hours: The clapping starts  at the E-Ring.  That is the outermost of  the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest  to the entrance to the building.  This  clapping is low, sustained, hearty.  It is  applause with a deep emotion behind it as it  moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

"A  steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at  the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who  marks the forward edge with his presence.   He is the first. He is missing the greater part  of one leg, and some of his wounds are still  suppurating.  By his age I expect that he  is a private, or perhaps a private first  class.

"Captains,  majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet  his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to  soldier.  Three years ago when I described  one of these events, those lining the hallways  were somewhat different.  The applause a  little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not  having shared in the burden ...  yet.

"Now  almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the  man in the wheelchair, also a combat  veteran.  This steadies the applause, but I  think deepens the sentiment.  We have all  been there now.  The soldier's chair is  pushed by, I believe, a full  colonel.

"Behind  him, and stretching the length from Rings E to  A, come more of his peers, each private,  corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a  field grade officer.

"11:00  hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause.   My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at  how stupid that sounds in my own head.  My  hands hurt...  Please!  Shut up and  clap.  For twenty-four minutes, soldier  after soldier has come down this hallway - 20,  25, 30....  Fifty-three legs come with them,  and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this  hall came 30 solid hearts.

They  pass down this corridor of officers and  applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at  which they are the guests of honor, hosted by  the generals. Some are wheeled along....   Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to  march as best they can with their chin held up,  down this hallway, through this most unique  audience.  Some are catching handshakes and  smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July  parade.  More than a couple of them seem  amazed and are smiling  shyly.

"There  are families with them as well: the 18-year-old  war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's  wheelchair and not quite understanding why her  husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew  up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is  crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who  have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on  their son's behalf.  No man in that  hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the  silent tears on more than a few cheeks.  An  Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better  see.  A couple of the officers in this  crowd have themselves been a part of this parade  in the past.

These  are our men, broken in body they may be, but  they are our brothers, and we welcome them  home.   This parade has gone  on, every single Friday, all year long, for more  than four years.

"Did  you know that?

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate too themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears FROM the truth and will turn aside to MYTHS."  2 Timothy 3:2-3

It could be “the most thorough study ever of a single organism,” and what is the unsurprising conclusion? “[E]ven the simplest creatures are more complex than scientists suspected,” reports Wired’s Brandon Keim.

German and Spanish scientists have conducted a study of the organism Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a microbe considered extremely “simple” compared to most life-forms. With only a fifth as many genes as E. coli, M. pneumoniae is a good starting point for biologists to learn more about how cells work. The surprise, however, is that its genetic workings are “much more subtle and intricate than were previously considered possible in bacteria,” write two University of Arizona biologists in a Science commentary on the research.

The team studying M. pneumoniae spent time documenting the proteins used by the microbes, recording gene activity, mapping the microbe’s physical structure, and taking note of the chemical reactions inside the organism. “What emerged was a picture of surprising complexity,” Keim writes. The findings challenge scientists’ ideas about how genes work, showing that, as Keim explains,

Groups of genes thought to work in unison did so only intermittently. At other times they worked in isolation, or in unexpected configurations.

Just as importantly, the study showed that the 3-D arrangement of the genome is crucial to cellular function. More information is stored in genes than in its base pairs. “Linear mapping of genes to function rarely considers how a cell actually accomplishes the processes,” write the University of Arizona scientists, who add, “There is no such thing as a ‘simple’ bacterium.”

Anne-Claude Gavin of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, who co-led the project, explained, “What we’ve learned is that if you want to understand any cell and the protein complexes it makes, you can’t infer what happens from the order the genes are in.”

Her colleague Peer Bork added, “There were a lot of surprises. Although it’s a very tiny genome, it’s much more complicated than we thought.”

Planned Parenthood drops suit

By Tom Strode - Dec 1, 2009 - comment

Planned Parenthood has dropped a lawsuit against a former clinic director who quit her job after viewing an abortion by means of an ultrasound machine.

Abby Johnson, 29, turned in her resignation Oct. 6 after working for eight years at the Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Tex. She began participating in pro-life prayer vigils with the Coalition for Life after her departure from the clinic.

Planned Parenthood said in its lawsuit Johnson broke a confidentiality agreement and an employment contract, according to Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which gave her legal assistance.

“Like so many Planned Parenthood lawsuits, this lawsuit was baseless, so we are pleased that it has been withdrawn,” said Steven Aden, senior legal counsel for ADF.

Johnson told Fox News she had a “change of heart” after watching on a sonogram an unborn child “crumple” as he was vacuumed from the mother’s womb.

“I just thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought, ‘That’s it,’” Johnson told KBTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Bryan. She told Fox, “I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart . . . a spiritual conversion.”

Johnson already had become disillusioned with her job, saying her regional supervisor had urged her in recent months to find ways to increase profits by producing more abortions, she told Fox.

“Every meeting that we had was, ‘We don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough money – we’ve got to keep these abortions coming,’” Johnson said, according to Fox.

Veracruz has become the 17th Mexican state to outlaw most abortions and has initiated a process that may result in a federal constitutional amendment to ban the procedure.

Legislators in Veracruz voted 39-6 for a bill that defines life as beginning at conception and permits exceptions for abortions in the cases of a threat to the mother’s life, pregnancy by rape or a deformity in the unborn child, according to the Associated Press.

The Nov. 17 action means more than half of Mexico’s 32 states have adopted pro-life laws since Mexico City’s legislature approved an abortion rights law in April 2007. That law permits abortions in Mexico City during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

by Kim Trobee, editor

Study details the effects of porn on marriages, children and communities.

Pornography distorts people's concept of relationships, which leads to altered sexual attitudes and behavior.  That's the finding of a study released today by Citizens for Community Values and the Family Research Council.

"The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community" considered a broad spectrum of research.  It found addiction to pornographic materials undermines marriage, which in turn, undermines social stability.

Pat Fagan, senior fellow at the Family Research Council, said children who are affected are likely to continue the pattern.

"If the children realize their father is using pornography," he said, "that has a massive deleterious effect on the child's notion of sexual fidelity in the family and of what marriage is all about."

Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, pointed out that the study also links pornography with other destructive forces in the community.

"Child sex offenders are more likely to view porn regularly," he said, "or to be involved in its distribution."