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ANAHEIM, CA - Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says it's "heresy" to believe that an individual can be saved through a sinner's prayer of repentance. In her opening address to the church's General Conference in California, Jefferts Schori called that "the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God." The presiding bishop said that view is "caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus." According to Schori, it is heresy to believe that an individual's prayer...

The relentlessly sanctimonious Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now may not deserve its carefully cultivated image as a defender of the poor. That's because the group has become the leading cheerleader for a controversial real estate development that is slated to use eminent domain to remove the poor people it claims to represent. ACORN, which has long prided itself on fighting the so-called gentrification of neighborhoods as rising property values force the poor to move, has also taken money from the project's developer and signed a binding agreement forcing it to stand behind the project no matter what. In...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has bumped back the deadline until Sept. 28 for the six committees working on a comprehensive climate change and energy bill. "This was always going to be a huge undertaking," Reid spokesman Jim Manley told reporters yesterday following a meeting in the Capitol with the Senate committee leaders and President Obama's top energy adviser, Carol Browner. "The timeline has shifted slightly, to get them more involved." Originally, Reid wanted the Environment and Public Works Committee and other panels that deal with tax, agriculture, energy and foreign relation issues to have their work done by Sept....

If nothing else, this illustrates how the celebration of an event can become more about the tradition of celebrating than about the event itself: In a temper-filled tempest, the Bristol Fourth of July Committee has barred the Rhode Island Tea Party from taking part in the annual Independence Day parade next year — or any other year. Marina Peterson, treasurer of the organization — it opposes government spending and new taxes — said she was told "not to waste the stamp to send in an application" to appear again in the Bristol parade, which the town says dates to 1785...

Martin cites an article from the Internet ezine www.WorldNetDaily.com that collects conflicting claims about the actual hospital where Barack Obama was born. "Where's the truth?" asks Martin? "Does anyone in Hawai'i care about the truth? Or don’t they care that Hawai'i is increasingly looking like Obama's own 'gangster republic?'" WND.com has carried new concerns about media "swapping" of Obama's birth location, see: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=103465 [Best document view is usually at www.ContrarianCommentary.com] ANDY MARTIN Petitioner Pro Se NATIONAL LITIGATION CENTER Post Office Box 1851 New York, NY 10150-1851 Toll-free tel. (866) 70-6-2639 Toll-free fax (866) 707-2639 E-mail: AndyMart20@aol.com (text only) Additional courtesy...

End of article .... The word "populist" could mean many things, both good and bad. To my mind, Palin currently has both good and bad populist qualities. But these include the very best quality: a real, visceral identification, amounting to love, for the people who actually do America's work, take America's risks, raise America's children, and believe in God. These people are held in contempt by the progressive elites -- they are tax fodder -- just as Palin is held in contempt, as "Caribou Barbie." Quite frankly, she has scores to settle, and on behalf of all those people. That...

Travis McGee, screen name of author Matthew Bracken, will be on the Peter Boyles Show next hour to discuss his new book, "Foreign Enemies And Traitors." To listen live, click the streaming button on the right side of the KHOW home page link here.

BOSTON (AP) — Two former managers of a Big Dig contractor pleaded guilty Wednesday to being part of a conspiracy to deliver substandard concrete to the massive highway project. Six former managers of Aggregate Industries NE Inc. were indicted in 2006 on charges they falsified records to hide the inferior quality of more than 5,000 truckloads of concrete. They were accused of recycling concrete that was too old or already rejected by inspectors and in some cases double-billing for the loads.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told the House Intelligence Committee that the agency had misled and “concealed significant actions from all members of Congress” dating back to 2001 and continuing until late June, according to a letter from seven Democrats on the panel. The letter was dated June 26, two days after Panetta appeared before a closed door session with the committee and it asked that the CIA chief “correct” his statement from May 15 that “it is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress.”

GOP Rep.: House Dems Need Babysitter Posted by Daniel Carty (CBS) The ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said the flap between Democrats and CIA Director Leon Panetta over whether the intelligence agency lied to lawmakers is "bizarre" and shows the Democrats lack leadership. "[Republicans are] just kind of sitting on the sidelines. We're trying to focus on national security policy, national security issues, and the Democrats, from my perspective, are looking for some adult supervision. There's no leadership here at all. … This is very, very bizarre," Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra said on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday....

In her book Que Pense Allah de l'Europe?, Iranian thinker and French writer Chahdortt Djavann presents first the views of the proponents of the veil. There are those Muslim women who say, "The veil represents my religion, my culture and my identity. It is a sign of modesty, of self-respect, of submission to God. It is a religious duty written in the Koran... [I wear it] out of my own free will..." She also presents the opinions of European intellectuals who defend the veil on the basis of "the right to be different" and "religious freedom," and who ask, for...

Lisa Kantorski took the call from the person who claimed to be a front-desk clerk about a gas leak in their hotel ... She frantically relayed the information to her husband, Mark, an Indian River County deputy. ... pranksters — whose tricks are sweeping the nation. The unknown protagonists dupe otherwise rational people into doing outrageous things, including driving trucks through storefronts and breaking hotel windows to test fire alarms.

Egyptian authorities said they arrested 25 radical Islamic terrorists who were planning a terror attack at the Suez Canal. The chief of the crew is a member of Al-Qaida, security officials said, while the rest were Egyptian citizens. Most were technicians and engineers. Authorities say the group was planning to remotely set off explosives on ships plying the canal, using cell phones. They were also planning to damage or destroy oil pipelines running beneath the canal. The group had undergone intensive training in terrorist tactics and fighting, including learning how to build car bombs.

The city's willingness to cooperate with such people constitutes a betrayal of the local Muslim community. Last weekend marked a milestone in the history of interfaith relations in Boston (as noted in Michael Felsen's 'Walls and Bridges' - in Monday's Jerusalem Post). On Friday, local Muslims, public officials, and interfaith leaders celebrated the opening of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury - a religious complex paid for largely by the Saudis and run by what federal authorities describe as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Some milestone! The city has helped the Wahhabi clerical establishment -...

If seat belts save lives, how come you’re not dead? For days now, horrified Nanny Staters have been wringing their hands over the fact that Massachusetts - liberal Massachusetts! - has the lowest rate of seat belt use in the nation. Lower, even, than those yahoos up in New Hampshire, and they don’t even have a mandatory seat belt law. This recent spate of “viewing with alarm” is inspired by the handful of roadway deaths over the weekend where seat belts were not in use. Across the state, only 67 percent of drivers are buckling up. There’s death, destruction and...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell in the latest weekly data, after seasonal adjustment, while continuing claims hit a record high, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The number of initial claims in the week ending July 4 fell 52,000 to 565,000 - the lowest level since January - as the manufacturing layoffs, predominantly automotive, that had been expected have already occurred at some companies, according to the Labor Department, which added that some seasonally expected layoffs may come later or not at all. The four-week average of initial claims fell 10,000 to 606,000. For the week...

He talks to Sean Hannity.

An ancient fossil crocodile coated in armadillo-like body armor was unveiled yesterday at an environmental museum in Brazil. Dubbed Armadillosuchus arrudai, the newly described species of crocodile roamed the arid interior of Brazil about 90 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, scientists said. It was 6.6 feet (2 meters) long, weighed about 265 pounds (120 kilograms), and had a relatively wide head with a narrow, toothy snout.

Jury's out.

Comments by U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden about a possible Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities were directed at Iran and meant to distinguish the U.S. from Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top national security adviser said Wednesday. "Also, American leaders are signaling Iran that the U.S. is still interested in diplomatic engagement," the adviser, Uzi Arad, told The Associated Press. Speaking to ABC-TV on Sunday, Biden appeared to depart from his previous comment that an Israeli attack on Iran would be ill-advised, saying: "Israel can determine for itself - it's a sovereign nation -...