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Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth - normally solid allies of the Speaker from San Francisco – called out the House Democrats’ special-interest handouts last month, stating that Pelosi’s energy tax is “the triumph of industry influence over the public interest.” And Clive Crook, writing in the Financial Times this week, noted that Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax “creates a vastly complicated apparatus, a playground for special interests and rent-seekers, a minefield of unintended consequences – and the bottom line for all that is business as usual.”

An Oopart (Out Of Place ARTifact) is a term applied to dozens of prehistoric objects found in various places around the world that, given their level of technology, are completely at odds with their determined age based on physical, chemical, and/or geological evidence. Ooparts often are frustrating to conventional scientists and a delight to adventurous investigators and individuals interested in alternative scientific theories. In the Ural Mountains of Siberia, a stone tablet was found by a physics and mathematics professor of Bashkir State University, Alexandr Chuvyrov. Weighing in at nearly a ton, the three-layer tablet bears a striking topographical resemblance...

Jakarta, Indonesia- Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral) of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) Archbishop of Australia and New Zealand arrived in Indonesia today and served a liturgy in Jakarta were he ordained 2 Indonesians deacons to the Priesthood. During the course of his visit to Indonesia His Eminence will ordain 4 priests and 1 deacon. In the ROCOR mission of Indonesia there are already over 2500 Indonesian Orthodox parishioners. The Dean of the Indonesian Orthodox mission Archimandrite Daniel Byantoro held a press-conference with www.pravoslavie.ru to describe the difficult situation in the rapidly...

Warrnambool, Australia – On the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 1st Eccumenical council, the Russian Orthodox community in the Australian city of Warrnambool celebrated their Parish feast day and a 10 year jubilee since the day the parish was converted from a historical Anglican Church to a thriving Russian Orthodox Parish. In mark of this event, Protopriest Michael Protopopov gives an interview to www.pravoslavie.ru to discuss the reasons why Catholics, Protestants and Anglicans are deserting their churches.

An investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission warned superiors as far back as 2004 about irregularities at Bernard L. Madoff's financial management firm, but she was told to focus on an unrelated matter, according to agency documents and sources familiar with the investigation. Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, a lawyer in the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, sent e-mails to a supervisor, saying information provided by Madoff during her review didn't add up and suggesting a set of questions to ask his firm, documents show. Several of these questions directly challenged Madoff activities that much later turned out to be...

Last month, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, revoked its official recognition of the student Democratic group on campus, saying that the Democratic Party platform conflicted with the university's Christian principles. Following purported complaints from trustees, parents, and (perhaps most significantly) donors, Student Affairs Vice President Mark Hine sent an e-mail to Brian Diaz, president of the College Democrats, saying that the university was "unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by Liberty University." "By using Liberty University and Democrat in the name," Hine wrote, "the two are associated and the goals...

WASHINGTON – Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers. The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.

We should remember the concept of God-given rights when our elected representatives pas - without reading it - a massive, 1500-page bill that will control virtually every aspect of our daily lives. The House of Representatives rushed to pass this bill, which grants wide powers to the President.

A previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260 million years ago has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds. The eruption in the Emeishan province of south-west China unleashed around half a million cubic kilometres of lava, covering an area 5 times the size of Wales, and wiping out marine life around the world. Unusually, scientists were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the eruption and directly link it to a mass extinction event in the study published in Science. This is because the eruptions occurred in a shallow sea – meaning...

Gov: State's deficit has grown to $26.3 billion Matthew Yi, Richard Procter,Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that the state's deficit has grown by $2 billion - to $26.3 billion due to the Legislature's failure to pass a comprehensive solution to solve the state's shortfall. The Republican governor also declared a fiscal emergency, citing the Legislature's inability to pass a plan by last night's midnight deadline. The fiscal emergency means that under Proposition 58, lawmakers will have 45 days to adopt a plan to close the deficit. If they fail to meet...

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July 2, 2009                                 Thursday of the Thirteenth Week                                in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 22:1b-19 God put Abraham to the test.He called to him, "Abraham!""Here I am," he replied.Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,and go to the land of Moriah.There you shall offer him up as a burnt offeringon a height that I will point out to you."Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey,took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well,and with the...

June 29, 2009   Mr. GRRRRR   Re: The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, H.R. 2454   Dear Friend:   Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), H.R. 2454.   For 2009, our top goal should be energy independence.  I support exploring for energy off our coasts, expanding nuclear power and building a natural gas pipeline across Canada to lower heating costs in the Midwest - an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy.    As a Navy veteran, I think is time to set America's policy towards defunding Middle Eastern dictatorships by cutting...

Liberals: Are They Born That Way?July 1, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I gotta deal with something here. August 1st will be 21 years. And for about 20 of these -- maybe 21 of the 21 and-a-half years, there hasn't been a day go by that I haven't been asked, "Rush, why are liberals the way they are?" Now, you take a look at the Supreme Court decision on the Ricci case, the firefighters in New Haven, four human beings, four Americans saw no discrimination against the white firefighters in the case when it was obvious. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for...

On the same day Republicans surrendered a symbolically significant seat in the Senate, the Sarah Palin wars erupted again inside the party. Leaks followed by trash-talking followed by recriminations. The latest Palin flare-up began in Vanity Fair with a lengthy article by Todd S. Purdum examining the Alaska governor's past and her potential future. The controversy migrated instantly to the Web and the blogs -- it was, in fact, made for the viral communication that dominates today's politics -- and became even more intense, nasty and personal. The Palin controversy highlights personal enmities and strategic disagreements among Republicans. The victory...

  Saint Thomas the Apostle   Saint Thomas, a First Century Jew, is thought to have come from Galilee, of humble origins. His name is Syrian and literally means "twin". This is why you often see him referred to as Didymus, Greek for twin. We do not know how he first came to Our Lord's attention; it is not thought that he was a fisherman like Peter and his kinfolk, but rather a carpenter like St. Joseph. His symbol is the carpenter's square and he is the patron of builders. Tradition is our guide here and while we must...

What better way to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Sony's iconic Walkman than to ask a teenager for some feedback on the device? The BBC couldn't think of one, and neither can I. I like to imagine that the experience was similar to an archaeologist rediscovering how a recently excavated artifact was employed thousands of years ago. But I'm well aware that it must have been different for 13-year-old Scott Campbell, who co-edits his own news Web site. For one, teenage impatience must have stood in the place where I fantasize scientific curiosity should have been. "My dad had told...

St. Thomas the Apostle (First Century)   CaravaggioImage courtesy of ChristusRex The Apostle St Thomas (also called Didymus, 'twin') is the subject of a masterly character sketch in St John's Gospel. It is important because he is not unlike many well-meaning people of today who have received a technical education and nothing else, and believe only what they can see and touch. He comes to notice when, against the protests of the frightened disciples, Jesus insists on returning to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead. Thomas, loyal and pessimistic, enlists the others to go too, 'that we may die...

Attorneys for the FLDS say a settlement proposal filed by fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan requires sect members to violate their religious beliefs by accepting property they consider consecrated to God. The sect asks 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg to craft a settlement based on proposals made by the sect and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, which includes a "moment of choice" in which trust participants can decide to either accept title to homes or leave their properties under religious management. Those proposals are based on a "fundamental premise that there are sincere and actual religious beliefs and practices that will...

Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taliban territory. Operation River Liberty, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region. Lt Colonel Christian Cabassis addresses Marines before the offensive In swiftly seizing the valley, commanders hope to accomplish within hours what NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and by doing so...