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The generations following the sin of Adam and Eve proceeded upon a path of moral degeneration. Cain, in a jealous rage, impulsively killed his brother Abel. In the next generation, Tuvel-Kain perfected the crime of Cain through manufacturing weapons. Then, Lemach boasted to his wives of committing pre-meditative murder. Idolatry flourished during the time of Enosh. Organized crime was established by a group of hoodlums called "The sons of El-ohim." Sexual perversion was rampant in Noah's generation. Torah (Biblical) tradition teaches that there are three cardinal sins that a person should choose death rather than be forced to commit. They...

You may think racism means prejudging or discriminating against people because of their race. All right: can you define race? Go on, try it. Or host a party and challenge your guests to come up with an explanation that doesn't start a fight. Is race a biological classification, an ethnic one, a religious one, a geographic one, or what? If the meaning of race is slippery, how precise can this term it feeds - racism - be? And if the definition is what enables us to evaluate the facts, where does all this leave us? Racism today belongs to a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The leading Judiciary Committee Republican is charging that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is "out of the mainstream" of legal thinking and has a very activist judicial profile.

- see the video - The president proved yesterday he will not tolerate distractions from his hefty political agenda -- at least not those coming from pesky insects. President Obama addressed issues ranging from health care to financial industry reform in a lengthy interview on CNBC on Tuesday, but he was interrupted by a fly persistently buzzing around his head. "Hey! Get out of here," Mr. Obama said. After a few irritated swats, the president zeroed in on the pest and patiently waited for it to land on his hand. He gave it a quick smack and watched it fall...

Continuing the newfound theme of liberals proclaiming Rush Limbaugh the leader of the GOP (more on that here), activist group Americans United for Change has announced it will begin airing a TV ad dedicated, almost solely, to making that claim, calling on Republicans to reject Limbaugh's politics.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is proposing a "truth commission" to investigate abuses of detainees, politically inspired moves at the Justice Department, and whole range of decisions made during the Bush administration. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the primary goal of the commission would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials, but said the inquiry should reach far beyond misdeeds at the Justice Department under Bush to include matters of Iraq prewar intelligence and the Defense Department. Leahy outlined his suggestion for a "truth and reconciliation" commission during a speech at Georgetown...

Do you sing in the car? Or shout at the bonehead on your radio? If so, you could get pulled over. That's one of the potentical consequences of a stupid suggestion this week -- by the self-proclaimed National Safety Council -- that cell phones be banned in cars. They want them done away with. They say that the piecemeal banning of cell phones -- mostly in our most liberal states -- doesn't go far enough. They won't be happy until every cell phone in every car is turned off or broken. Specifically, they say that talking on a cell phone...

Has Harry Reid Ever Read the Constitution? I ask in regard to the 17th amendment. The 17th amendment is one of my least favorite amendments but ignoring it is not an improvement nor is it legal to ignore it. First, for clarity I post how the Constitution directed the election of Senators prior to the 17th amendment. Article. 1, Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof , for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. The state legislature would choose the state’s Senators...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roland Burris said Wednesday he should be able to join the Senate "very shortly," after talking to newly supportive Democratic leaders and working on lingering legal obstacles. Talking to reporters on the second day of a Washington power odyssey that would intimidate many, the 71-year-old Burris declared himself happy and said he was pleased with his meeting with Sens. Harry Reid and Dick Durbin. "My whole interest in this experience is to be prepared" to lead Illinois, Burris said, "and very shortly I will have the opportunity to do that." Burris' legal issues include a pending decision...

The Roland Burris circus took a ludicrous turn today as Harry Reid and Senate Democrats threw the fate of the former Illinois attorney general, who was appointed by disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill the unexpired term of President-elect Barack Obama last week, back to Illinois and the office of Secretary of State Jesse White. It was White who refused to sign off on Burris, rejecting the paperwork on the appointment while making it clear he would not certify any candidate appointed by a governor who tried to to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder. At the same...

Blago's Pick Says He Doesn't Want Confrontation, Will Consult With Lawyers...

LANSING, Mich. – Democratic candidate Barack Obama doesn't want the embattled mayor of Detroit on hand when Obama accepts the party's presidential nomination in Denver.

I wish you all the best. I have tried to post tributes to the Army, info on Obama's horrendous run for office and McCain's slightly less horrible attempt. I wish you all the best but FR is just as likely to exclude people from the deabte as anyone else. They have that right, freedom to cleave to whoever you like is a right I agree with but I am guessing I am not one Jim wants associate with. I wish you all the best but I am bowing out of this forum. Have a great life. God bless u all!

BATAVIA, N.Y. -- Five parents who asked to transfer their children out of Batavia High School classes with a transsexual teacher have been denied, according to city schools Superintendent Richard Stutzman. The written requests did not meet the guidelines set out by the district, Stutzman said Tuesday without providing specifics. "That's all between the school, the teacher, the parents," he said. Other students were allowed to adjust their schedules because their requests were based on changes in their academic programs, Stutzman said. Fall classes began Wednesday in Batavia, 31 miles southwest of Rochester. Diagnosed with a transsexual disorder, the teacher...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate began debate Monday on a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit the desecration of the American flag, the latest in a series of election-year votes pushed by the chamber's Republican leaders. Observers give the flag amendment a better chance of passing than the one to ban same-sex marriages that was defeated earlier this month. That was another vote aimed at mobilizing the GOP's conservative base before November's midterm elections. A vote is expected this week, before the Fourth of July congressional recess. Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, compared the measure to...

If anyone needs further proof - not that anyone does these days - that the Republican leadership in Congress is both desperate and clueless, it's the election-year revival of that mother of all non-issues: flag desecration. The U.S. House passed this tread-worn measure last year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it last week. Even though Congress has no shortage of real issues, ranging from the war in Iraq to global warming, clamoring for its attention, the full Senate will begin debate next week on a proposed constitutional amendment to solve a problem that doesn't exist. As if that weren't...

Flag Day 2006 was also the fifty-second anniversary of President Eisenhower signing “Joint Resolution 243,” which added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. At the Upper Senate Park, organizations like Concerned Women For America (CWA), The Religious Freedom Coalition, Eagle Forum, Ask For America, and The Traditional Values Coalition held a press conference alongside Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ), Representative Todd Akin (R-MO), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) to urge Congress to pass the Pledge Protection Act. Representative Akin and Senator Kyl are sponsoring the bills in their respective houses that would protect the...

WASHINGTON -- Sometime between now and the Fourth of July, the Senate plans to revisit what over the course of 17 years has become a seasonal rite of patriotism on Capitol Hill: a vote on whether to amend the Constitution to ban protesters from burning the American flag. Each time, the arguments on both sides are passionate. Each time, the support needed to move ahead with an amendment falls short. But this year could be different, as two important trends cross paths. For one, proponents of the amendment appear to have more support than ever in the Senate. They say...

"Things aren't always as they seem" is an old saying with common sense. Wednesday is Flag Day. A week later the U.S. Senate will debate a proposed constitutional amendment that reads, "The Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The vote is expected to be close. The House of Representatives has already passed this amendment. The next step would be ratification by two-thirds of the states. All 50 state legislatures have indicated they would support the amendment. Our society has accepted 30-second sound bites for news. On the surface, the...

Only 26 percent of Americans believe that their country is headed in the right direction, according to an Associated Press poll released last week. But surely brighter days are coming, thanks to the farsighted leadership of the U.S. Senate. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), one of the leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, apparently believes that what our country really needs at this moment in its history — the thing that's gonna pull us out of our national funk and set us straight again — is an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bans flag burning....

Harris Campaign Calls on Nelson to Defend Sanctity of Marriage For Immediate Release June 6, 2006 Contact:  Chris Ingram   (813) 288-8400 (Tampa, Fla.) - The Katherine Harris for U.S. Senate campaign called on Senator Bill Nelson to support the Marriage Protection Amendment today. "I believe the majority of Americans strongly support the preservation of traditional marriage. We must never undermine the uniqueness of an institution that continues to serve as an essential thread in the fabric of our society. I support the passage of the Marriage Protection amendment being debated in the Senate," Congresswoman Harris said. Campaign spokesman Chris Ingram...

An ABC News poll finds that most Americans oppose gay marriage but markedly fewer — especially those outside George W. Bush's core supporters — would amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it. Opponents, however, are far more likely to call it a make-or-break issue in their vote for Congress — a finding that explains Bush's renewed push for a gay marriage ban. Among all Americans, 58 percent say gay marriage should be illegal, but fewer, 42 percent, say it rises to the level of amending the U.S. Constitution. Among conservative Republicans and evangelical white Protestants, though, opposition to gay marriage...

Governor Mitt Romney has sent this letter to every member of the Senate encouraging them to Vote "Yes" on this landmark peice of legislation--the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA). A few excerpts are below: "Americans are tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement, and we all wish to avoid hurtful disregard of the feelings of others. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage. Attaching the word marriage to the association of same-sex individuals mistakenly presumes that marriage is principally a...

by Mark Finkelstein June 6, 2006 While considerable attention focuses on Ann Coulter's more superficial charms, from a conservative perspective Ann's real beauty is her absolute refusal to buy into liberal logic, no matter how pervasive. That independence of mind was on display this morning during her interview with Matt Lauer. Ann was on to tout her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, released today on . . . 6/6/6 - sign of the devil and all that. The first example came in the the context of President Bush's current push for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay...

In a year it is wrestling with an out-of-control budget, a war going badly, and one impasse on immigration and another on its own ethics, the Senate is taking time out to debate altering the U.S. Constitution by adding the Marriage Protection Amendment. The amendment is widely predicted to fall short of the needed votes to amend the Constitution for only the 23rd time in its 217-year history _ 13th if you omit the original 10, the Bill of Rights _ and well it should. At its gravest level, the amendment would make a significant incursion into federalism and state's...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue - all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives. "Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all." The president was to make...

Today Mark Earley and I will be at the White House, meeting with President Bush and leaders of the pro-family movement. The president will then speak to the nation in support of the federal marriage amendment [Marriage Protection Amendment]. Thank God we have a president who supports this. I have discussed it with him several times, and I can tell you that he understands fully the social, cultural, and legal reasons why amending the Constitution is the only way to protect marriage. Unfortunately, a lot of politicians don’t get it. They argue that we do not need a marriage amendment....

In 1964, just one congressman from the Deep South, Atlanta's Charles Weltner, voted for the Civil Rights Act. For all practical purposes, his righteous leadership on civil rights — he also supported the Voting Rights Act — cost him his congressional career. In 1966, he resigned his seat rather than sign an act of loyalty to the segregationist Lester Maddox, as Georgia Democrats insisted. But some analysts believe he would have lost the race for re-election. Doing the right thing is difficult because it often means losing. And the typical politician is willing to lose anything — honor, integrity, dignity...

President Bush will promote a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a cause dear to his conservative backers, at a Rose Garden event Monday, the eve of a scheduled Senate vote on the issue. The amendment would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages. To become law, the proposal would need two-thirds support in the Senate and House, and then be ratified by at least 38 state legislatures. It stands little chance of passing the 100-member Senate, where proponents are struggling to get even 50 votes. Several Republicans oppose the measure, and so far only one Democrat — Sen. Ben Nelson (news,...

Karl Rove? Please. I couldn't care less. This week finds me thousands of miles from the Beltway in what I believe the ABC World News Tonight map designates as the Rest Of The Planet, an obscure beat the media can't seem to spare a correspondent for. But even if I was with the rest of the navel-gazers inside the Beltway I wouldn't be interested in who ''leaked'' the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame to the press. As her weirdly self-obsesssed husband Joseph C. Wilson IV conceded on CNN the other day, she wasn't a ''clandestine officer'' and, indeed, hadn't...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A jury decided Monday that Scott Peterson (news - web sites) should be executed for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, whose Christmas Eve disappearance two years ago was the opening act in a legal drama that captivated the nation. A cheer went up outside the courtroom as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days. The jury had two options in deciding the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman's fate: life in prison without parole or death by injection. Peterson clenched his jaw when the verdict was read and leaned over to...

Fox News...

Plates Killed By ‘Friend’ Hold onto your hats...it was Senator Tom McClintock who spoke against the bill that would allow Choose-Life Plates and had it killed in the Senate Transportation Committee on June 29! Yes, the same McClintock, whose staff referred to him as the “most pro-life Rep in Sacramento!” when I called. Really? Senator Kevin Murray (plates foe) actually stated he was going to abstain from voting and “just let the Committee decide”, which he did. It was McClintock who got into heavy debate with Senator James Brulte (defending the plate’s bill) and McClintock who led the charge against...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) top aide on judicial nominees is expected to announce his resignation at the end of this week — a sacrifice offered by the GOP leadership in hope of persuading the Democrats to wind down the fight over leaked Judiciary Committee memos. The aide, Manuel Miranda, had spearheaded the Republican effort to push President Bush’s judicial nominees through the Senate in the face of fierce Democratic opposition. Miranda declined a request for comment. But The Hill has learned that he agreed to resign under pressure from Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The Democrats...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- A study found that most drivers surveyed fiddle with their radios or engage in other distracting behavior, even when they're being watched as part of a study on distracted drivers.</p> <p>Cell phones were not the major distraction, the study found. Only 30 percent of the subjects used a cell phone while their vehicle was moving, compared with 97 percent who leaned over to reach for something and 91 percent who fiddled with radio controls.</p>

<p>Democratic State Controller Steve Westly on Monday urged California voters not to recall Gov. Gray Davis, calling the Oct. 7 election ``a distraction from good public policy'' that could cost the state an extra $1 billion in higher borrowing costs over the next three decades.</p>

A few days before the fall of Constantinople to the armies of Ottoman jihad, some six centuries ago, a strange debate was taking place inside the imperial city. Constantinople then had a very loud senate, stubborn theologians, and merciless philosophers. It was the heir to Greco-Roman civilization, but also host to hot debates — so hot that they effectively isolated the city's elites from the realities of then-world politics. The political establishment of the Eastern Rome was consumed in complex rhetoric — what historians would later call "Byzantine debate." Just days before the city fell to the Islamic armies...

<p>Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson pulled the plug Friday on contracts with friends, associates and former colleagues who were receiving up to $8,470 per month to provide consulting services to his office.</p> <p>Wesson's decision ended weeks of simmering controversy, inside and outside the Legislature, over open-ended contracts that did not stipulate what work must be done or set deadlines.</p>

<p>TAOS, N.M. — War protesters trashed the grounds around a northern New Mexico home owned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, placing "No War" stickers and throwing children's clothes around the property, authorities say.</p> <p>No arrests were made during the demonstration Thursday, said Lt. Eddie Martinez of the Taos County Sheriff's Department.</p>

Cell Phones Rank Sixth on List of Causes of Accidents By  Jennifer Warner  Reviewed By Brunilda  Nazario, MD on Friday, March 07, 2003WebMD Medical News March 7, 2003 -- Chatting on a cell phone while driving may have gotten a bad rap in recent years as a common cause of car crashes, but a new study shows cell phones can't hold a candle to good, old-fashioned rubbernecking when it comes to causing a highway pile up. In one of the largest studies to date on crashes involving distracted drivers, researchers found looking at other accidents, traffic, or roadside incidents caused the largest number...

A number of us have been playing a simple little game at www.nationstates.net. In this game you register a country name and join a region. You make decisions as 'issues' are presented to you which in turn effect your 'rankings' in the game. One of the things you cannot do is 'war' against other regions. However, for those who are interested, I've found an intersting little game that enables us to 'war' as a single nation. If you are interested in joining this new game please visit this link, download the software, register a username and then join the nation...