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Sooner or later, students of abiogenesis will encounter Darwin's 1871 letter to Joseph Hooker with his speculations on the spontaneous generation of life. He was returning some pamphlets which triggered the reaction: "I am always delighted to see a word in favour of Pangenesis, which some day, I believe, will have a resurrection." The next paragraph has his "big if" dream: ...

From Cantor's office: Below is a list of 31 Democrats, from coast-to-coast & north to south, who have listened to their constituents and joined Republicans in a bipartisan fashion to oppose Speaker Pelosi’s trillion dollar plus overhaul of the nation’s health care system (Updated is bold): 1. Rep. John Adler (NJ) 2. Rep. Brian Baird (WA) 3. Rep. John Barrow (GA) 4. Rep. Dan Boren (OK) 5. Rep. Rick Boucher (VA) 6. Rep. Allen Boyd (FL) 7. Rep. Bobby Bright (AL) 8. Rep. Travis Childers (MS) 9. Rep. Artur Davis (AL) 10. Rep. Chet Edwards (TX) 11. Rep. Bart Gordon...

Artificially engendered humans have long been a science fiction staple - from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Huxley's Brave New World and, most recently, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island - their heroes dehumanised figures depicted amid bleak, biotechnologically devastated landscapes. But in the year of Darwin's bicentenary, science fact presses hard on the heels of science fiction. Three decades since Louise Brown, the first 'test tube baby', woke to the world, breakthroughs are now trumpeted almost every month. Chinese scientists recently announced that they had cloned the first animals from skin cells. Earlier,...

Worshippers at one of Britain’s biggest mosques reacted to the Fort Hood shooting yesterday by saying Muslims who serve in the Armed Forces are complicit in killing their “brothers and sisters” in Afghanistan. However, a Muslim ex-soldier who twice served in Afghanistan said that the shooting could not be justified by any mainstream interpretation of Islam. Speaking to The Times after Friday prayers at East London mosque, young Muslim men said the lives of those who follow Islam were of more value than those of non-believers. They gave only their first names, claiming that the authorities might place them under...

Tuesday night the plans of Barack Obama and the democrat/communist party took some severe blows in New Jersey and Virginia. A strong message was sent by the American people that we are not pleased with Obama’s perverted vision for America. That he and his democrat/communist party are on the wrong track. So who is the focus of White House greaseball David Axelrod? Sarah Palin! That’s right, Palin; the so-called supposed insignificant, washed up “quitter.” I mean that’s what the democrat/communists and their lap dogs in the media shout all day every day. For such an insignificant woman, Sarah sure does...

Inevitably, it seems, films about the end of the world generate much discussion — and, often, controversy. Five months ago, hype about the soon-to-be-released disaster film, 2012 (trailer), prompted me to publish a piece under the headline, How Would the Governments of Our Planet Prepare Six Billion People for the End of the World? Today, I came across more “buzz” about the film set for release Nov. 13 that prompts me to write about it again.

CNA STAFF, Nov 6, 2009 / 11:58 am (CNA).- Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, spoke to CNA about the victory of Question 1 in Maine, which repeals previous legislation legalizing gay ‘marriage.’ Gallagher said that the victory, which defies statistics and expectations, “is very heartening to marriage supporters and disappointing to gay ‘marriage’ advocates.” Noting that the supporters of same-sex marriage were surprised and upset by this victory, Gallagher analyzed the circumstances leading up to the election. “The gay marriage advocates,” she told CNA on Thursday, “had a three-year head start. They put millions into building...

Why Evolutionary-Based Science Is A Menace To Scientific Research, Discovery, and Progress Evolutionary-based research always begins with the inaccurate and unscientific presupposition that the Theory of Evolution, i.e. the Big Bang, the spontaneous generation of life, and common descent, is true. Due to this systemic problem, scientific discovery and progress is severely hampered, not to mention the hundreds of millions of research dollars that are squandered every year. In a time in which almost ANY alternative thought is given a platform, the evolution industry is silencing dissenting scientific evidence, even when it’s from fellow evolutionists! See the growing list of...

Ironically, in his latest book “Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie”, Cramer documents the fact that the decline of the visibility of the firearm in modern life has coincided with the rise of gun control. And yet he is asking us to conceal our firearms. Come on Clayton, you don’t hide apple pie.

There are a handful of political poisons that conservatives fall victim to swallowing that inevitably lead to "death" at the polls. I could talk about the lack of political fortitude (call it like it is), or even the inability, to articulate a clear and concise message to the people in a world where cryptic political double-speak is considered graceful, but for today, the focus is placed on the importance of who should be, and who should not be, allowed to walk under the banner of the Conservative Movement. Liberals always hate the analogy, "birds of a feather flock together," because...

As a talk-radio host officially banned in Britain for "fostering hatred," Michael Savage has unearthed a greater story from the ooze -- revealed in the very title of his new book, "Banned in Britain: Beating the Liberal Blacklist." Indeed, Mr. Savage contends that some nefarious "trans-Atlantic occlusion" was afoot in the decision to place him on a list of undesirables that included terrorists and murderers. And the book is just the beginning. "A petition will be circulated in Congress next week by concerned lawmakers. They will demand that the U.S. State Department act on my behalf as an American citizen...

The Traditional Anglican Communion’s province in Great Britain has become the first to accept Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans. All its members voted unanimously to come into communion with Rome under the terms of the new provision, which allows them to retain their Anglican patrimony. An undated statement on the province’s website reads: “That this Assembly, representing the Traditional Anglican Communion in Great Britain, offers its joyful thanks to Pope Benedict XVI for his forthcoming Apostolic Constitution allowing the corporate reunion of Anglicans with the Holy See, and requests the Primate and College of Bishops of the Traditional...

RADFEST 2004: MIDWEST SOCIAL FORUM FRIDAY, JUNE 44:00-5:15 REGISTRATION Education Center5:15-6:30 DINNER Dining Hall6:45-9:00 PLENARY PANEL Education "LATINOS/AS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC ABC JUSTICE" Christine Neumann-Ortiz , Voces de la Frontera, Milwaukee Teofilo Reyes, Labor Notes, Transnationals Information Exchange, Chicago Graciela Sánchez, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, San Antonio Renée Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco9:15-? Musical Entertainment Outdoor AmphitheatreThroughout "CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION VS. GLOBAL JUSTICE GUERRILLA PHOTO Conference EXHIBIT" Education Orin Langelle, Global Justice Ecology Project Building An evolving exhibit of photographs from the most recent mobilizations against corporate globalization. The exhibit includes photographs documenting...

Previous Page The Daily Walk of Shame: Ayn Rand http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/11/04/the-daily-walk-of-shame-ayn-rand.aspx Alyce LomaxNovember 4, 2009This Motley Fool series examines things that just aren't right in the world of finance and investing. Here's what's got us riled today. If something's bugging you, too -- and we suspect it is -- go ahead and unload in the comments section below.Today's subject: Economic philosopher Ayn Rand died in 1982, but her legacy remains very much alive. Unfortunately, some people in positions of power have used parts of her Objectivist teachings to rationalize their own dysfunctional, damaging behavior. I definitely agree with the benefits...

The ideal of the coolly rational scientific observer, completely independent, free of all preconceived theories, prior philosophical, ethical and religious commitments, doing investigations and coming to dispassionate, unbiased conclusions that constitute truth, is nowadays regarded by serious philosophers of science (and, indeed, most scientists) as a simplistic myth...

We lived in D.C. for 3+ years back in the 60s -- when it was, compared to now, little more than a country village. We frequently visited the National Archives to spent time with and marvel at the Declaration and Constitution. Each time we climbed the steps, I would glance up at the motto over the portico: "WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE." Just a fancy way of uttering the universal truth from Scriptures that "There is nothing new under the sun." I offer THESE words from Mr. Franklin (who admitted to having borrowed them from the Greek Admiral Themistocles) advising...

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) appeared on Fox News Channel this morning (see video) to discuss the unprecedented actions taken by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) this morning. According to Inhofe, ranking member of the committee, Senator Boxer reported out S. 1733, the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill, without one member of the minority party present, a clear violation of longstanding committee rules.

All evolutionary attempts to explain morality ultimately miss the point. They seek to explain morality, but even at their best what they explain is not morality at all. Imagine a shopkeeper who routinely increases his profits by cheating his customers. So smoothly does he do this that he is never exposed and his reputation remains unimpeached. Even though the man is successful in the game of survival, if he has a conscience it will be nagging at him from the inside. It may not be strong enough to make him change his ways, but it will at least make him...

It's good to see the modern Left still maintains the intellectual dexterity it exhibited when it hewed to the ever-changing Stalinist party line in the 1930s. On MSNBC's The Ed Show, Nation magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel took the bold position that Senate Democrats must "bust the filibuster," ending the right of the minority party to stall important legislation -- a position totally at odds with that of...Katrina vanden Heuvel. Katrina told Ed: We need the president to take a stand that is bold, honest, courageous, clear, forceful, unequivocal, to tell those senators on the Democratic side they have...

The 2009 Democratic party playbook hinged on three elements, Obama's charisma, painting the Republican party as radicals, and relying on ACORN style Get Out the Vote operations. If the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia were to be seen as a way of taking the pulse of Obama’s popularity, the White House spin machine has to be just about ready for a trip to the ER. Obama’s people were already braced for a loss in Virginia, writing off Deeds for being insufficiently willing to turn over his campaign and office to Obama’s people to do with as they please....

Morality is both a universal and a surprising fact about human nature. When I say that morality is universal I am not referring to this or that moral code. In fact, I am not referring to an external moral code at all. Rather, I am referring to morality as the voice within, the interior source that Adam Smith called the “impartial spectator.” Morality in this sense is an uncoercive but authoritative judge. It has no power to compel us, but it speaks with unquestioned authority. Of course we can and frequently do reject what morality commands, but when we do...

...For "2012," Emmerich set his sites on destroying the some biggest landmarks around the world, from Rome to Rio. But there's one place that Emmerich wanted to demolish but didn't: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca. It's the focus of prayers and the site of the Hajj, the biggest, most important pilgrimage in Islam. "Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," the filmmaker told scifiwire.com. "But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right."...

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky Vintage; Reissue edition (October 23, 1989) Buy It An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer! Saul Alinsky wrote the book on American radicalism - two books, in fact: a 1945 best-seller, "Reveille for Radicals" and "Rules for Radicals" in 1971. The "Reveille" title page quotes Thomas Paine... "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul." Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the...

For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. Air Force has relieved the commander of a combat wing. This time it was the 5th Bomb Wing, a B-52 outfit. Previously, the commander of one of the three Minuteman ICBM wings was relieved. The three missile wings control 450 American Minuteman III ICBMs. In this case, two other senior officers were also relieved (one of them the guy in charge of the Wing Maintenance Squadron.) In both cases, the reason was "loss of confidence in his ability to command". That's milspeak for "too many little things have gone...

Rome, Italy, Nov 4, 2009 / 10:21 am (CNA).- Italy’s Minister of Education, Mariastella Gelmini, has rejected the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of removing crucifixes from public schools.  She stated, “Nobody, much less a European court that is steeped in ideology, will be allowed to strip our identity away.” The court ruled the presence of crucifixes in classrooms could be a “bother” to students who practice other faiths or who are atheists and that the State should abstain from imposing beliefs in public places. “Religious neutrality should be observed in the context of public...

Bryan, TX (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood is attempting to silence a former abortion center director who quit working for the abortion business after seeing an ultrasound of an abortion procedure. Officials with the group are pushing a request for a restraining order on Abby Johnson and a pro-life group that helped her conversion.Johnson had been the director of the Planned Parenthood center in this southeast Texas city that is home to Texas A&M University.She turned in her resignation on October 6 after years of a local pro-life group helping her see the problem with abortion. After the ultrasound, she decided...

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards Washington D.C., Nov 4, 2009 / 03:44 pm (CNA).- Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent an urgent message this week to the group's base asking for pro-abortion Catholics to defy the U.S. bishops, who are campaigning against the current versions of health care legislation on Capitol Hill because they fund abortion.In the email, Richards says that “as I write this, the bishops have asked all the Catholics in the country to contact their legislators, asking them to alter current health care legislation to include anti-choice amendments.” “The bishops have inserted...

Heh. No doubt the RNC response was to insist that they were merely local races signifying nothing about the national mood. But Rahm was right that time, wasn’t he? [L]ooking back at First Read’s coverage the day after the 2005 New Jersey and Virginia contests, we had forgotten that Rahm Emanuel — then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and now White House chief of staff — had called us to argue the very point Republicans are now making: that the two gubernatorial contests say something about the upcoming midterms. Here’s what we wrote then: Democratic House campaign committee...

If there’s one thing liberal pundits are experts on these days it’s the sorry state of conservatism. The airwaves and op-ed pages brim with more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger lamentations on the GOP’s failure to get with President Barack Obama’s program, the party’s inevitable demographic demise and its thralldom to the demonic deities of the right - Limbaugh, Beck, Palin. Don’t look at the imploding Democrats. No, let’s all titter at the cannibalistic “civil war” on the right. Well, here’s what conservatives actually believe. After 15 or 20 years of steady moderation, many conservatives think it might be time to give their ideas a...

Darwin’s bulldog—Thomas H. Huxley --snip-- Huxley, although an unbeliever, was thoroughly familiar with the gospel, and had little time for Christians who compromised their position by supporting the anti-biblical belief of evolutionary naturalism. He wrote: ...

From a New York political observer: The biggest defeat for RINOs in New York wasn't the pre-election collapse of Dede Scozzafava in the 23rd CD. It was tonight's stunning victory by conservative Republican Rob Astorino in the race for County Executive of Westchester County—the affluent and heavily taxed suburb just north of NYC, which has been solidly Democratic for more than a decade. Astorino's victory is a stinging rebuke to the brand of New York Republicanism personified by Assemblywoman Scozzafava, former Gov. (and Westchester native son) George Pataki, and Westchester's famously liberal former state Sen. Nicky Spano of Yonkers, who...

FORT WORTH — A task force formed in the wake of the arrests at the Rainbow Lounge recommended a series of reforms Tuesday designed to give gay and lesbian residents equal treatment at City Hall. The City Council could vote on one recommendation next week, but it may take time to research the legal and financial aspects of others. Police and state liquor agents arrested five people in June at the Rainbow Lounge; one man was seriously injured while in custody. Many patrons said the police used excessive force and targeted the bar because it caters to gays. The results...

We all know the Rap on capitalism: That it is fundamentally greedy and immoral. That it enables the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor. That open markets are Darwinian places where the most ruthless unfairly crush smaller competitors and where the cost of vital products and services like health care and energy are almost beyond the reach of those who need them. Capitalism has also been blamed for a range of social ills--from air pollution to obesity. Not only have educated, successful people bought into capitalism's bad Rap, but the Rap is taught in our schools....

In Washington State, another referendum on gay couples' equality was also a squeaker. But in this one, gay couples won. The state's domestic partnership law grants gay couples all the rights of married couples at a state level. The usual forces tried to reverse it, as they tried in Maine. But in Washington, the gay side won by 51.1 to 48.9 percent. Again, it's such a slender margin, it's stupid to draw any vast conclusions. But I do want to point out that, from the perspective of just a decade ago, to have an even split on this question in...

"Thought crime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for awhile...but sooner or later they were bound to get you." (George Orwell, 1984) "The fact is we are witnessing an all-out drive to impose thought control that seeks to ban the ability - -the right - to think or speak for one's self. Thinking is becoming a crime." (“Globally Acceptable Truth and the Crime of Thinking”, Tom DeWeese, Address to the 10th Annual Freedom 21 Conference, 10/16/09) In an article entitled “Dems Undermine Free Speech in Hate Crimes Ploy,” the Washington Examiner exposes the...

Is there good without God? John Mark ReynoldsTheology 10.30.2009 Can people be good without God? How can people be good, in the moral and ethical sense, without being grounded in some sort of belief in a being which is greater than they are? Where do concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, come from if not from religion?Children often repeat ideas gained elsewhere as if they were their own profound insights. I remember in school “inventing” what I thought was a stunning new idea for propulsion only to be told that jet engines were, in fact, fairly common....

Ardipithecus ramidus is an extinct primate whose fossilized remains were first found along the Awash River in Ethiopia about fifteen years ago. Many fragments were collected, including shattered bones from a four-foot-tall female nicknamed "Ardi." She was chosen to represent her kind, apparently because of the comparative completeness of her remains. Now Ardi's discoverers believe they have collected enough data to reconstruct her history--but what does their data actually reveal? ...

Oct 29, 2009 — “Even the most ardent fan of Charles Darwin might be feeling weary as his anniversary year draws to a close,” remarked Clive Wynn in another issue of Nature celebrating his bicentennial. --snip-- The Editors are not done celebrating, though. They just began a 4-part essay series on how Darwin’s ideas were received around the world...

The conservative wahoo suggests: Here are ... the defining characteristics of "Neo-socialism". 1. A belief in the concept that capitalism has failed, but can be resuscitated by a new partnership between government and business. This new partnership will be inherently more fair to more people. 2. A belief that competition isn't necessarily bad, and that government can and should be permitted to compete with private industry. 3. A belief that big government isn't necessarily bad; what is bad is BAD big government. Big, effective government is desirable. 4. A belief in the transcendent quality of the world community while de-valuing...

These are exciting times if you're a grassroots conservative activist. After years of being taken for granted by a Republican Party leadership that simply assumed that we'd keep on voting for whatever leftist RINO they handpicked for us, a new paradigm seems to be in the making. The assumption that the GOP has to "move to the center" to be electable appears, as we speak, as if it is being proven untrue. Doug Hoffman, the insurgent conservative candidate in the NY-23 special congressional election, has successfully driven off the RINO candidate and now appears poised for victory over his Democrat...

Return to the Article November 03, 2009Twenty-five years after the Reagan landslideBy Bruce Walker Election Day, 1984 -- twenty five years ago -- many thought that the ideological battle of America was won. President Reagan, the disciple of "Mr. Conservative" Barry Goldwater ran against Walter Mondale, the disciple of "Mr. Liberal" Hubert Humphrey.  Reagan got into politics with "The Speech" endorsing Barry Goldwater.  Here is what Reagan said in 1964:  This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite...

"Dad, Obama's health care reform sounds good to me." "Why so, son?" "It'll pay for everybody's health care, like in Canada." "Nope. In fact, President Obama says only his critics claim his plan is like Canada's. But his plan will force people to buy insurance. If you don't buy it, you'll be hounded by the IRS." "What about those too poor to pay?" "They are covered right now by Medicaid, if they bother to sign up for it. About one fourth of the uninsured are already eligible for a government plan." "Obama's plan will get rid of the uninsured altogether."...

President Obama’s highly controversial Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, is concerned about the heterosexual indoctrination of children in our public schools. In his bizarre view: “we all know what’s promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country. And you know what, it doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But they’re still...

The Berlin Wall that came down 20 years ago this month was an apt symbol of communism. It represented a historically unprecedented effort to prevent people from "voting with their feet" and leaving a society they rejected...While greatly concerned with communism in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Americans -- hostile or sympathetic -- actually knew little about communism, and little is said here today about the unraveling of the Soviet empire. The media's fleeting attention to the momentous events of the late 1980s and early 1990s matched their earlier indifference to communist systems. There is little public awareness of...

In January the Republican Party was in shambles—it had been disgraced, dismissed and discarded by Americans. While party officials and operatives were licking their wounds after eight hard years of destroying the party label, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck went on the offense, cracked the national media’s protective shield of the President and exposed Obama as a committed Leftist with a radical agenda designed to bankrupt the nation. Their clarion call energized and excited the movement, and led to citizen revolts at town hall meetings and tea party rallies that have, at least temporarily, derailed Obama’s efforts to nationalize health...

Today Barack Hussein Obama is a million times more famous than Jeremy Glick, Todd Beamer or any of the other Flight 93 passengers who rushed the cockpit and prevented the terrorists from using their plane as guide missile. He is more famous than any of the firefighters, NYPD and PAPD police officers, as well as civilians who tried to save lives during the attacks of 9/11. He is of course vastly more famous than any of the soldiers who have died over the last eight years fighting terrorism...

Future of GOP and Moderate Republicans Uncertain ASSOCIATED PRESS November 1, 2009 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- In a Republican Party struggling to find its identity, the surprise withdrawal of the chosen GOP candidate for a New York congressional race -- forced by a rising conservative upstart -- renews a lingering national debate: Are moderates welcome in today's Grand Old Party? The question became even more relevant Sunday when the ex-candidate, state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, threw her support behind the Democrat in the race rather than the Conservative Party candidate favored by fellow Republicans. The GOP leadership insisted on Sunday political...

America's leading conservative voice on President Obama, politics, and himself.

An estimated 200 anti-socialism protesters carried signs and waved at passing motorists for more than two hours yesterday afternoon as they have almost every Saturday for six months at the intersection of Highways K and N in O’Fallon, Mo. Among those participating were three first-generation Americans who took time to share powerful messages every freedom-loving American should hear. Those messages appear in this video.

The D.C. City Council Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2009 / 03:10 am (CNA).- A Washington, D.C. City Council proposal to recognize same-sex “marriage” would redefine marriage and could force Catholic educational and charitable institutions to close or face lawsuits, burdensome regulation and the compromising of their faith, the Archdiocese of Washington has warned.The proposed law, called the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, redefines marriage as “the legally recognized union of two people.” It says a religious association or a non-profit associated with a religion shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, facilities or...