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Faith is apparently the buzzword of the moment, as the wolf-pack media attacks a world-renowned figure's religious resolve while, at least for now, giving another major female a pass on the political motivations of her publicized beliefs. Time magazine's Aug. 23 article "Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith" posits that Mother Teresa's dedication to God wasn't exactly what it seemed. Atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of the anti-Mother Teresa book "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice" (Verso, 1997), embraced the hype, heralding her as a fellow unbeliever. And one seemingly clueless blogger for the Chicago Tribune asked: "Can saints...

Friday, August 31, 2007The Tony Snow Standard Of Being A Press Secretary Posted by: Duane R. Patterson  at 7:51 PM Link to Video At the very beginning of today's press conference, it was disclosed that Tony Snow would be stepping down as Press Secretary on September 14th, being replaced by longtime deputy press secretary Dana Perino.  When Tony did start fielding questions, there was one interchange that showed the class of Tony Snow, and why he will be missed very much at the White House. It was a very interesting political day. Not only did Snow announce, but Virginia Senator...

Today Corporate Social Responsibility is synonymous with environmental responsibility. Environmental responsibility, of course, means that a company accepts that global warming is occurring; man (particularly modern business) is the primary reason why global warming is occurring; the consequences of global warming will be disastrous for planet Earth; and consequently, businesses should be willing to sacrifice anything in the name of environmental responsibility. From this perspective, the cap & trade regulations that Congress will be considering this Fall are a small price to pay to repent for our past environmental sins. Before we accept our environmental flagellation, it is worth wondering...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Social Security Administration cannot start sending out letters to employers next week containing notification of more serious penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a federal judge ruled Friday. Ruling on a lawsuit by the nation's largest federation of labor unions against the U.S. government, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the so-called "no-match" letters from going out as planned starting Tuesday. The AFL-CIO lawsuit, filed this week, claims that new Department of Homeland Security rules outlined in accompanying letters threaten to violate workers' rights and unfairly burden employers. Chesney said the...

If Canada's national health-care system is so dang wonderful, why are so many Canadians coming to America to pay for their own medical care? Why is the hip replacement center of Canada in Ohio -- at the Cleveland Clinic, where 10 percent of its international patients are Canadians? Why is the Brain and Spine Clinic in Buffalo serving about 10 border-crossing Canadians a week? Why did a Calgary woman recently have to drive several hundred miles to Great Falls, Mont., to give birth to her quadruplets? It's simple. As the market-oriented Fraser Institute in Vancouver, B.C., can tell you, Canada's...

On a hot, steamy morning, dozens of young women made a hurried walk from the parking lot to the front door of Mississippi's last abortion clinic. Greeting them outside the Jackson Women's Health Organization were about 10 anti-abortion activists, some carrying signs with gruesome pictures of aborted fetuses.

An official state inspection of Arizona public schools reveals that many students are being taught English by Spanish-speaking teachers whose command of English is so poor that the officials can barely understand them. The recent inspection revealed teachers providing instruction in Spanish instead of the legally required English, students unable to answer questions in English, and teachers' instructions such as "Sometimes, you are not gonna know some." The results of the inspections were reported by the Arizona Republic, which concluded hundreds of students in the state are trying to learn English from teachers who don't know the language. The inspections...

STUART, Fla. – The battle over a South Florida business ordered out of its location purportedly because the tenant speaks English and not Spanish is now headed for the legal system. Tom McKenna, who recently sold his Seacoast Water Care business to a competitor, told WND he now plans to sue his landlord for discrimination. "Not reverse discrimination, but discrimination," McKenna said. "I'm being discriminated against whether I'm Hispanic or whether I'm English. The fact that somebody's singling me out because I don't speak a specific language or I don't fit their criteria of what I should be in this...

The past week witnessed two more suicide attempts from the Western world. The first was when CNN ran three shows on religious fundamentalism, making the appallingly relativistic and fatuous argument that the Christian, Jewish and Islamic varieties were not only similar but equally hazardous. At almost the same time The Washington Post and several other newspapers in North America refused to run an instalment of the highly popular Opus cartoon because they feared it might offend Muslims. The strip showed the eccentric faddist character Lola Granola in a headscarf, telling her boyfriend that she wants to be a radical Islamist....

POSH lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC - previously prominent during the Republican debate when he argued in favour of severing ties with the British, using a British accent acquired during many decades living in Britain - believes Australia needs a Bill of Rights. "Australia is the only country without a Bill of Rights," Robertson said this week, Britishly. "We are alone among advanced liberal democracies in not having a Bill of Rights which has a presumption in favour of freedom of expression." A fine idea, Geoffo. But who would compose such a Bill? Ideally we'd be able to go back 150...

A Burning Man participant was found dead this morning, hanging from the inside of a two-story high tent, according to Mark Pirtle, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Land Management. The apparent suicide would be the festival's first in its 21 year history, Pirtle said. Pershing County coroners are investigating the scene and preparing to remove the body. Pirtle said the man was hanging for two hours before anyone in the large tent thought to bring him down. "His friends thought he was doing an art piece," Pirtle said. A makeshift morgue is being set up at the...

You're a liberal. You've identified a problem -- the massive loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States; a net loss of 4.6 million jobs over the last 20 years. You've even done a decent job of identifying the causes of the problem: "Companies lose market share to foreign low-cost producers . . . or move their operations overseas in search of lower wages . . . or apply production techniques that require fewer workers." So, what's your solution? Measures like reducing taxes and regulation to make U.S. manufacturers more competitive, perhaps? Of course not! Remember, you're a liberal. No,...

China 'has 120m hepatitis B carriers' By Shan Juan (China Daily) Updated: 2007-09-01 09:04 At least 120 million people in China have become carriers of the hepatitis B virus out of the 700 million people who once were infected with it, a senior health official said on Friday. Hao Yang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's disease control and prevention bureau, revealed the figure at a ceremony unveiling a free hepatitis B vaccination project for 320,000 primary school students in northwest China's Qinghai Province. But he did not elaborate on details like major transmission channels and geographical distribution. "Prevention...

WASHINGTON -- Although U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and military would likely overwhelm their forces, Tehran could still rely on a host of weapons, from covert terror campaigns to long-range missiles, to retaliate against an American attack. While Iran's aging conventional military forces have little hope of succesfully maintaining combat against U.S. forces in the Gulf in the case of U.S. bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities, a quick attack by Tehran on ships in the Persian Gulf, and support of anti-American militias in Iraq and Afghanistan, could prove a real threat. French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday warned that...

Charting the Mekong's Changes The nets yield almost no fish today, the same as yesterday and the day before that. For generations, Bun Neang's family has depended on the bounty of Cambodia's Tonle Sap, a vast lake fed by one of the world's greatest rivers, the Mekong. Two decades ago, his father could rely on a daily catch totaling about 65 lbs. (30 kg). When the water gods were feeling particularly charitable, he would land a Mekong catfish, a massive bottom-feeder that can weigh as much as a tiger. But today, when Bun Neang dips his net into the caramel-hued...

Nine weeks have passed since Jason Scowden boarded a bus in Tampa for basic training, nine hellish weeks of hikes and pushups, blisters and blood in the Georgia hills. The kid who grew up playing PlayStation and watching Jackass learned to kick down doors and roll grenades, to fire antitank missiles and sniper rifles. The man marching past his mother now, marching closer to war, is not the kid who got on that bus.

DURHAM - Judge W. Osmond Smith III sentenced disbarred District Attorney Mike Nifong to 24 hours in jail for intentionally lying in court, an action designed to serve more as a deterrent than a punishment. Nifong, already stripped of his law license for his misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case, is to report to the Durham County Jail at 9 a.m. Friday and stay behind bars until 9 a.m. Saturday.

SWANTON – A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Agent assigned to the Swanton Sector fired his weapon at an unknown driver who Thursday morning struck him with his vehicle near Alburgh Springs. Another agent, hurrying to aid his colleague, was involved in an auto accident. The unidentified agent had stopped the vehicle, a gray SUV that had entered the country illegally from Canada, officials from the agency said. As the agent approached the vehicle, the driver put the SUV in gear and hit the agent twice. The agent, who was uninjured, fired one round from his weapon into...

New polls show Hillary Clinton holds a strong lead over her Democratic rivals in Michigan, but the picture on the Republican side isn't as clear. Forty percent of likely Democratic presidential primary voters polled by Lansing-based EPIC-M-R-A say they'd pick Clinton, while 21 percent backed Barack Obama and 16 percent favored John Edwards. Thirteen percent say they're undecided. Among likely Republican presidential primary voters, Mitt Romney was the favorite of 25 percent, while 23 percent picked Rudolph Giuliani. Fred Thompson, who plans to officially launch his campaign next Thursday, was backed by 16 percent, while 15 percent said they'd choose...

President Bush on Friday pledged to help homeowners behind on their payments as a way to stem the nation's deepening mortgage crisis. The move is particularly significant in South Florida, where thousands of people face foreclosure after stretching to buy properties they couldn't afford. Bush said he will let the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages for low- and middle-income residents, guarantee loans for delinquent borrowers. That will allow them to avoid foreclosure and refinance at more favorable interest rates. Those eligible must meet specific criteria, including a history of having made on-time payments before getting into trouble with risky...