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Locked on 01/30/2005 12:18:25 AM PST by Lead Moderator, reason:
Thread Twenty-four here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331735/posts |
Posted on 12/23/2004 10:30:10 PM PST by nwctwx
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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05010036.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com
Sunday, January 9, 2005
BBC CHARGED WITH GIVING CHRISTIANS DOUBLE WHAMMY:
Group Calls for Suspension of BBC2 Controller
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
LONDON (ANS) -- Britain’s Christian conservatives charged the BBC with delivering a double whammy to their faith on Saturday night by simultaneously broadcasting insults to evangelical Christianity on both BBC2 and BBC1.
In a press release, England’s Christian Alliance Party (www.cpalliance.net/index.asp) reported that while “Jerry Springer the Opera” was being broadcast on BBC2, actor/comedian Billy Connolly was using four-letter expletives to attack ‘born-again Christians’ on BBC1, demanding to know where a '(expletive) lion was when it was needed.’” (Pictured: Springer Opera (BBC)).
Speaking over the weekend on BBC radio and television news, Christian People’s Alliance (CPA) leader Alan Craig said the BBC needs to listen to the public outrage it has caused through its broadcasts.
Craig also called for the suspension of BBC2 Controller Roly Keating, for what Craig called “breaching the BBC's own guidelines for decency and good taste by scheduling ‘Jerry Springer - The Opera.’ Craig said an internal investigation needs to launched by the BBC’s Board of Governors.
The CPA Leader also addressed the 500-strong protest outside the BBC Television Centre at White City on Friday and Saturday and was invited by the BBC into the building to view the program before broadcast. Craig condemned the show as being “deliberately and provocatively offensive.”
Speaking in the press release, Craig said “All normal, sensitive Christians will find the show obscene and blasphemous. Jesus is portrayed as an overweight, half-dressed, mincing and facetious homosexual. Roly Keating knows what he is doing: he has stated publicly that he intends ‘to push back the boundaries of taste and decency.’ The numerous number of swear words only added to the offense.”
The BBC would not dare to treat Mohammed in this fashion, Craig said.
He added, “Christians do not expect a public service broadcaster funded by the licence-fee to mock Jesus Christ like this. The actions of the BBC show that stronger control is needed and this must be brought in during the Royal Charter renewal process.”
Craig condemned the threats of violence made to BBC staff. In a BBC television interview Craig said that Christians are “tolerant and opposed to the use of violence.”
However, the release said that Craig criticized BBC management for “ignoring” the thousands of people who contacted them voicing objections to the Springer opera. That left Christians no choice, Craig said, but to take to the streets.
Some Indian believers were also behind Craig and the stand taken by his organization. In an e-mail to ANS, Rev. Isaac Newton Johnson of the Voice of Christians Evangelical Church said the screening of the opera “has sent a shock wave and anger amongst faithful Christians at (our church).”
Johnson called the Springer opera “a big game plan of Satan to pollute everyone’s mind to sin against God and to attract all the world into the hell ... (It is) the most salacious blasphemous play ... hurting the sentiments of not only U.K. Christians but all faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ the world over which we condemned in the strongest terms...”
A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT
Some Christians had a very different point of view to the one expressed by the CPA and Johnson. In a press release, the director of Ekklesia (www.ekklesia.co.uk), a self-described “think- tank that promotes radical theological ideas in public life” said Christians have missed a golden opportunity to debate important moral and ethical issues by their protesting the screening of the Springer opera.
Jonathan Bartley said, “During the opera, the character representing Jesus is challenged to respond to accusations of injustice and make sense of the world’s problems. His response is to say ‘respect me’ without giving any meaningful answer or explanation to his accusers. Through their protests, Christian campaigners have reinforced the very stereotypes of God and Jesus Christ that they are protesting against. Christians would have done far better to take the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the important moral issues of life, relationships, justice and the problem of evil, that the opera raises.”
BBC ASKS FOR ON LINE INPUT
On its website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4154385.stm), the BBC conducted an online poll asking readers whether they thought “Jerry Springer-The Opera” should have been aired.
One comment read, “I find that the BBC is now taking the rights of its viewers away from them. When over 40,000 have said no to the Jerry Springer Opera and they still insist on showing it. I believe that Christians have the right to complain as we are just as much as part of the community as everyone else.”
However, someone else wrote that the BBC should not avoid controversy. “As a public service broadcaster it needs to appeal to, and cater for, a wide and varied audience. Although a show like this does not appeal to everybody it does appeal to a large part of the BBC audience. These people have a right to see this type of program, in the same way as that small number who has a right to object. However, an objection does not mean a program should not be aired; the viewer at the end of the day has the final say with the off button.”
Another contributor e-mailed the BBC to say, “I think that this just shows just low the standards in this country are falling that the BBC feels it right to show such filth. Once this is shown it lowers the standard that broadcasters will go to even further. Who is going to make a stand in broadcasting and say enough?”
A Scottish viewer wrote, “My objection to this show is that it shows Christians and their God other than they are. In so doing the program projects a false image and influences religious views in the country. This is against the BBC Charter and brings the BBC into conflict with the groups it misrepresents. By legitimizing publicly funded attacks on faith groups, the BBC is setting a dangerous precedent that could lead to increased religious intolerance in this country.”
Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jgreynalds@aol.com. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at assistcomm@cs.com.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
PERSECUTION.org: Current Christian Persecution Articles
http://www.persecution.org
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143835,00.html
"Oil-for-Food Audits Ignite Debate"
Sunday, January 09, 2005
AP
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NEW YORK — Internal U.N. audits sent to the director of the Iraqi Oil-for-Food program (search) uncovered extensive mismanagement of multimillion-dollar deals with contractors and fraudulent paperwork by its employees, according to copies of some of the reports obtained by The Associated Press.
More than 50 audits, which were carried out from 1996 to 2003 by the U.N. watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, have been a source of contention between the United Nations and members of Congress examining allegations of corruption in the humanitarian program."
Positively swamped with other stuff bookmark
Fire investigators lead probe of underground explosions
Indianapolis Power & Light Co. crews on Sunday began inspecting underground electrical lines, hoping to prevent more Downtown explosions.
Market Street between Capitol Avenue and Illinois Street will remain closed to vehicles and pedestrians indefinitely while IPL and city investigators probe the cause of Saturday's blasts, said Steve Campbell, a spokesman for Mayor Bart Peterson.
"The good news is that there doesn't appear to be a gas leak," he said.
Three times in nine days, underground explosions rattled buildings Downtown, causing power outages and evacuations.
Indianapolis Fire Department investigators are leading the probe, and "we're confident IFD is taking the right steps," Campbell said.
Three people suffered minor injuries in Saturday's explosions, which heavily damaged Bookland, 137 W. Market St.
Investigators began manhole inspections near the RCA Dome and Indiana Convention Center. There are about 1,000 manholes Downtown, and the inspection process is expected to take three weeks to a month, said Greg Fennig, IPL's vice president of public affairs.
Specially trained IPL workers inspected 160 manholes Sunday and only once found electrical lines showing signs of minor deterioration, Fennig said.
He said secondary power lines carrying 120 volts are generally bundled in fours and encased in conduits about the size of an average person's wrist.
Those lines vary widely in age but are designed to be submerged.
Fennig said unusual weather the past several weeks, including a heavy snow and liberal use of salt to keep roads clear, followed by unusually heavy rains and a second snow, could have contributed to the unusual events.
Those circumstances apparently set the stage for explosions Wednesday that left part of Downtown without power for more than four hours.
A fire in a privately owned transformer in the 200 block of East Ohio Street on Dec. 31 was unrelated, Fennig said.
Saturday's explosions, he said, appear to have occurred beneath Market Street and in the basement of the Bookland building.
But Fennig said utility and fire investigators are still unsure of the sequence of those events and how they were related.
The result is known, however.
A 3-inch concrete floor in Bookland was buckled, and a steel safety door leading to a rear alley was blown off its hinges and bent.
There was a greater police presence in the area Sunday as more than 50,000 football fans headed to the RCA Dome, just three blocks south of Bookland. Those fans saw the Indianapolis Colts thrash the Denver Broncos 49-24 in an American Football Conference wild-card game.
Hundreds of people hurrying south on Illinois Street by the barriers at Market Street before the game seemed unruffled by Saturday's explosions.
But a few expressed concerns.
"I think it's a little scary, especially when you see trucks out and about looking and scanning to see what could possibly happen," said 25-year-old Broad Ripple resident Melissa King.
Middie Stump, 57, Avon, a Colts season ticket holder for 20 years, thought a friend was kidding when he mentioned the explosions.
"She thought I was just jerking with her, I guess," said Don Miller, 53, Greenwood. "It concerns me a little bit with all the people down here. I'm not sure how they know that they've cordoned off the right area."
Miller figured the problem would repeat itself.
"They haven't found out where the problem is yet, so it's probably going to happen again," Miller said. "I hope nobody gets hurt."
However, some people flouted the warnings to stay away.
Justin Johnson, 26, who lives in Broad Ripple, was walking on West Market Street with a friend Sunday morning.
"I have health insurance," he said. "And if it blows up, I'm sure I'll be covered by the city."
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/208317-4262-102.html
Great light! Bought one for myself for Christmas . . .
sounds like a scene from the andromeda strain . . .
Are you kidding me?!?
You'll never hear that one on the news! WOW. Stay safe Peace!!!
'http://news.com.com/Microsoft+launches+anti-spyware+beta/2100-1029_3-5514899.html?tag=nefd.ac
"Microsoft launches anti-spyware beta"
I have been using this for several months on many pcs that were near hopeless, and the recovery is astounding. I use ad-aware, spybot, and then this.
"Microsoft liked it so much they bought the company".
might go buy another light - came in handy for ice-storm power losses this weekend...not sure why other companies aren't jumping on this.
The guy was interviewed on television. He's in critical condition but can talk for short periods of time.
It's likely that those people will return to houses that have been severely damaged - inside and out.
Pakistan arrests Al Qaeda suspects
No point in capturing Bin Laden, terrorism will continue anyway
Held Afghan judge admits Al Qaeda suspect visited him
Wives of terror suspects live like widows
Pamphlets call for assassasinations
Al Jazeera not to bow to pressure
Afghan militant group appoints new leader
Looks like "its" hitting the fan at CBS!
Sort of on topic. Found this over at Jill's website. For those who also like to play ZOT with the trolls, here is info from trollville.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.net/arab_arena.htm
Goes to show they can read (spelling optional), too bad their thought processes are so twisted. Like all fanatics, they skew the meaning of everything to fit their agenda and absolve themselves of consequences.
bookmark
washingtonpost.com
Inaugural Security Draws on Latest Technologies
Intelligence to Stream Into Command Center From 50 Police Agencies Aloft and on the Ground
By Sari Horwitz and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, January 10, 2005; Page A01
The nerve center for the most heavily guarded presidential inauguration in history will not be in Washington, where President Bush will take the oath of office, but 25 miles away in a futuristic command post in Northern Virginia.
Inside a gleaming steel-and-marble complex, the Secret Service and 50 federal, state and local agencies will monitor action in the sky, on the ground and in the subway system. Giant plasma screens will beam in live video from helicopters and cameras at the U.S. Capitol, along the parade route and at other potential trouble spots. Officials will be able to track fighter jets patrolling the skies, call up three-dimensional maps of downtown, even project the plume of any chemical release.
One top police official likened the new facility to a set from the "Star Wars" movies. It is one of many signs that Bush's second inauguration Jan. 20 will take security in Washington to a new level, using expertise and equipment developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"This is the Super Bowl for us," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent James W. Rice II. "Everyone on every team is dressed up and playing in the game. And the bench is very, very deep."
The agents and officers at the swearing-in and along the parade route will have access to the latest tools. "Every piece of technology that exists will be a part of this," said Rice, who oversees the National Capital Response Squad.
Law enforcement officials are building on their experience from other high-security events, including the presidential nominating conventions in New York and Boston, dedication of the National World War II Memorial and the state funeral for former president Ronald Reagan.
"If this was the January after 9/11, there would be a lot more angst," said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer. "But we have been continually ratcheting up our ability to prepare for large events."
Led by the Secret Service, authorities began planning eight months ago for the first post-9/11 inauguration. They have an array of resources that were not available four years ago, including new communications technology and advanced methods of screening.
Officials say they know of no specific threats relating to the inauguration and the evening balls, and some leaders, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), have urged that the city be kept as open as possible. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said last week that intelligence monitors are picking up less terrorist threat chatter, in general, than a year ago. But authorities are equipped for a wide range of scenarios.
On Thursday, for example, law enforcement and intelligence officials gathered for four hours on Capitol Hill to "war-game" how they would respond to a fire at the Capitol, a suicide bomber or another crisis. Security officials say the most likely terrorist threat is a truck bomb -- one of the reasons they are barring vehicles from a wide swath of downtown Washington on Inauguration Day. One federal official said that Pennsylvania Avenue, and streets within four blocks of it, will be closed to traffic between 20th Street NW and the east side of the Capitol.
Ridge and other officials are expected to provide details about street closures and announce some of the other security measures tomorrow.
D.C. police and federal officials are meeting daily to finalize security details, from decisions about where police will stand to the size and location of security fences and the arrival and departure of dignitaries.
The noontime swearing-in at the Capitol and the parade that will follow on Pennsylvania Avenue will draw tens of thousands of people, including a large number of protesters. They will have to pass through unprecedented layers of security.
D.C. police plan to erect roadblocks and screen pedestrians around an area covering more than 100 square blocks in the center of official Washington. People will have to pass through at least one of the 22 checkpoints along the parade route and through metal detectors.
Protesters will be allowed to demonstrate in seven areas, but signs cannot be attached to anything that could be used as a weapon. No large backpacks, camera bags, thermos bottles, coolers, picnic baskets, strollers or umbrellas will be allowed on the parade route or the Capitol grounds.
Some people will be watched closely even before getting near a police checkpoint. Metro Transit Police officers have been trained to identify suspicious riders by looking for certain characteristics and patterns, such as people who avoid eye contact or loiter in the stations.
More than 4,600 law enforcement officers will be posted along the parade route. They will include hundreds of undercover officers in the crowd, as well as sharpshooters with rifles on rooftops. An army of Secret Service agents will be inside and on top of buildings along or off Pennsylvania Avenue.
Some of the most critical components of the security plan will be less evident to the public.
John P. Malone, special agent in charge of the Washington field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said his agency is bringing in certified bomb technicians and about 20 explosives-detecting dogs from across the country to sweep cars and buildings.
The military will have bomb jammers -- devices that have been used in Iraq and can block or delay someone using a cell phone or other remote gadget from detonating an explosive. Other military assets will be in place, such as engineering companies specializing in rescuing victims of building collapses and forces equipped to deal with a chemical or biological attack.
The anti-terror preparations include the use of mobile and stationary chemical and biological sensors that will sniff the air in subway stations, on the Mall, in buildings and on the streets.
In case of a biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear incident, scientists at Department of Energy laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists, Environmental Protection Agency cleanup crews and military and NASA experts will be placed on standby across the country.
Software models developed by the agencies will be tied to the biological and chemical sensors across the city and to wind and radiation monitors downtown, providing detailed alerts and airflow monitoring.
"If we had a release of sarin gas on the Mall, not only will the sensors on the Mall pick it up, we will know the height and density, its direction and how far it has spread," said one federal official. "We did not have this in place before 9/11."
Military radar will monitor the sky from ground stations throughout the city and aircraft aloft.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it will triple the no-fly zone over Washington that now prohibits small aircraft within 16 miles of the Washington Monument.
Private flights will be banned from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Inauguration Day over the Baltimore-Washington area, defined as the region within 23 miles of Reagan National and Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International airports.
Violators may be intercepted by military fighter jets or customs aircraft and diverted for questioning by agents at regional airports in Easton or Carroll County, Md., or Stafford.
The dramatic expansion of flight restrictions is designed to avoid a repeat of the June 9 incident in which an errant transponder beacon aboard a plane carrying Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) mistakenly prompted security officials to evacuate the Capitol an hour before the memorial service for Reagan.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command will have increased air patrols over Washington by multiple jet fighters. The inability of one pair of fighters to identify the Fletcher aircraft in time contributed to the June incident.
Before, during and after the inauguration, D.C. police and U.S. Park Police helicopters will hover overhead, able to beam live images from the scene. Those images will complement the video from several hundred surveillance cameras.
The surveillance will be monitored by authorities at various command centers run by the many agencies working on security.
The main one is the Multi-Agency Coordination Center in Fairfax County, the new facility that is being used as a joint field office by the Secret Service for the inauguration. It is one example of the hundreds of millions of dollars invested by the federal government since 2001 in information technology for homeland security.
Laid out over one floor, the center is jammed with plasma television screens and other visual and information technologies, along with classified and unclassified computer networks and communications equipment, according to several federal security officials.
The Secret Service, Capitol Police and other agencies will be able to view three-dimensional maps of downtown derived from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a Department of Homeland Security official said.
"It's pretty spectacular," said Gainer, the Capitol Police chief.
"It is as big and glamorous as anything I've seen in the business," he said.
My translation (of the translation!) from Jill's site of this ABHA person's experience posting at FreeRepublic:
________________________
Yesterday, it occurred to me to write in a foreign forum as a matter of curiosity and exploration. I don't write well in English forums, but decided to carry out the trial in a forum inside FreeRepublic.
Then I wrote directly on a provocative subject.
And I claimed that hundreds of hotels that provide forbidden entertainment, and also nude beaches were the main reasons for the earthquake.
Definitely, within three minutes there were more than 45 responses. And no one paid any attention to me.
After three minutes, the supervisor called me a hindrance and kicked me out!!!
The responses exceeded 100 in minutes, but I could not participate because I had been defined as a hindrance.
Many of the printed responses exercised an intellectual terrorism - an extremist Western secularism, but I did not get a similar freedom of opinion.
REPLY:
From freedom (one gets) the prevention of freedom for your enemies.
_______________________
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
