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The Iraqi information minister, Said al-Sahaf, was still telling Western journalists that the treacherous infidel jackals of the US army had, in fact, killed themselves by swallowing poison, at the time the first looting of antiquities in Baghdad took place. For some Iraqis, clearly, it was not enough to celebrate liberation from Saddam’s cruel and iniquitous yoke simply by throwing garlands of flowers at advancing US marines. Far better, far more impressive, was the idea of heading straight for the Iraqi National Museum in downtown Baghdad with a pick-axe handle and a crowbar and a Kalashnikov or two. Once there,...

Chill, People Sheesh! The American Bishops come out with some tentative document (promulgated by who? with what force? binding on the faithful how?) whose very first word is "Reflections" (hint: rumination, cogitation, thinking, working through, not the Final Word) and half my readers are ready to leave the Church. One of them posts the link and says "Let the excuses begin". Not surprisingly, he later condemns the document (one wonders if he'd read it before posting the link). Others are rending their garments and saying things like "This USCCB document is therefore fundamentally flawed, and dare I say, heretical. Moreover,...

VATICAN LIKELY TO REJECT US BISHOPS' DALLAS PLAN VATICAN, Aug 14, 02 (CWNews.com) -- The Vatican will not grant approval to the norms adopted by the US bishops' conference for the discipline of sexual offenders, informed sources have told CWNews.com.The US bishops' policies, adopted during a June meeting in Dallas, will require substantial changes before they can win the necessary approval from Rome, sources say. If the Vatican does refuse to approve the US bishops' proposal in its current form, that decision will be motivated not by any desire to protect priests who are guilty of sexual abuse, but by...

Pull quotes from middle of essay ...I think John Paul II's and the Church's primary concern is for souls. There is no easy choice. If one acts with principle but excludes a corresponding prudence or foresight as to result (as Luther and Calvin did), then one barges ahead and slashes away at all the heretics and de facto schismatics. The pope wants the same result that people who ask this question do: how to have an orthodox Church and how to retain as many souls in the Church (and for ultimate salvation) as possible. He thinks it will take a...

The advertisement for a student-loan company features a picture of a nun in a veil with the legend "If you're a nun, then you're probably not a student." The movie "Jeffrey" includes a trash-talking priest sexually propositioning a man in a church sacristy. One can readily venture into novelty stores and buy a "Boxing Nun" handpuppet or, if that's out of stock, perhaps a "Nunzilla" windup doll. "Late-Nite Catechism," a play that features a sadistic sister in the classroom, has become a favorite of local theaters across the country. Since last fall nine Catholic churches in Brooklyn, N.Y., have been ...

There is considerable confusion about the Catholic teaching of salvation. I found this on the internet. It was written by a former Presbyterian who became Catholic as an adult. It should be easy to understand he explains the docterine very well. ......... The phrase (in Latin, "Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus" or "Outside the Church there is no salvation") is a very ancient one, going back to the very early days of Christianity. It was originally meant to affirm the necessity of baptism and Christian faith at a time when (a) A number of Christians were being tempted under torture to ...

In many criminal cases eyewitness testimony can be an extremely important part of the evidence which is considered. Police and juries are more likely to believe witnesses who identify someone in a lineup with a high degree of confidence than witnesses who say they are less sure. Unfortunately, how confident people are about making an identification doesn't necessarily reflect how accurate their identification is. In fact, a witness’s degree of certainty is quite malleable and can easily become "inflated", according to SSHRC-funded research by psychologist Elizabeth Brimacombe. She found that confidence levels can be influenced by external factors that have ...

At a stroke, most of northern Afghanistan in more or less US-friendly hands. The Taliban's hold on Kabul looking shaky. Herat, the Taliban-held capital of the west,is under threat. Could the war in Afghanistan be almost over? In fact, for the US-led international coalition, the hard part of the war against the Taliban may be about to begin. In statements over the weekend, the Northern Alliance leadership warned that Kabul was as far as its troops would go. If the US and its coalition partners want to fight the Taliban in their strongholds of Jalalabad and Kandahar, they must find ...

<p>In the 6 months after Pearl Harbor, the USA and its allies were humiliated all over the Pacific. Gaum and Wake Island, the Philippines and Singapore, one after another, all fell to the Japanese. Not until the Battle of Midway in June 1942 did victory arrive.</p>

In this week's New Yorker, journalist Seymour Hersh questions the apparent success of the United States' first major ground action in the Afghanistan war, a two-pronged "special operations" (that is, commando) attack last month on a Taliban airbase and on a complex of buildings sometimes used by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Although the Pentagon presented the operation as successful (intelligence was collected at both sites), the sizzle of the Hersh piece is his conclusion that it was a "near-disaster" that left the U.S. military "rethinking" the future of such special operations inside Afghanistan. Because of Hersh's reputation for good sourcing, ...

Afghanistan Hijacked By William Saletan Posted Thursday, November 8, 2001, at 2:57 PM PT On Sept. 11, agents of the al-Qaida terrorist network hijacked four planes and used three of them to kill 5,000 Americans. The fourth plane crashed short of its target. Afterward, U.S. officials disclosed that if the fourth plane had made it to Washington, D.C., they would have shot it down. They were prepared to kill some civilians, if necessary, in order to prevent the terrorists from killing many more. A similar scenario is now unfolding in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida and its Taliban agents have hijacked a nation, ...

Source: Bin Laden's Family Cutting Ties With Carlyle Investment Firm in U.S. WASHINGTON (AP) - Osama bin Laden's wealthy family in Saudi Arabia is cutting its financial ties with the Carlyle Group, a politically-connected U.S. private investment firm, by mutual agreement, a source familiar with the relationship said Friday. The bin Laden family decided to sell its investment worth $2.02 million back to the firm mainly because of public controversy over its stake in a Carlyle fund that invests in buyouts of military and aerospace companies, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source was confirming a ...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 25 -- U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies, hobbled by weak contacts and deep distrust, have failed to engineer any significant defections from the military ranks of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, according to officials familiar with the efforts. The failure to lure defectors is a major setback for a central aspect of the strategy to topple the radical Islamic militia, the officials said. Intelligence operatives trying to undermine the Taliban in Afghanistan's southern and eastern provinces have met "stiff resistance" from even the most ardently anti-Taliban tribal leaders, senior Pakistani intelligence officials said. (Click the source url for the ...

Can somebody please explain to me why in the heck the SCOFLA would even consider counting only those 10,000 or ballots currently in dispute in Miami-Dade? Am I correct that the Canvassing Board was pulling out and counting under-votes in mostly black/and or heavily Democratic precincts and got to about 10,000 then stopped counting just as they got to the Cuban precincts where it would be expected that Bush would pick up votes...at which time the Congresswoman representing the Cuban area hit the ceiling and the pubbie observers started their "mob action," yelling "Let us in." I don't understand how ...

An excerpt from the body of the essay: "Paradoxically, many of the most socially and economically successful people are the most bitter and tormented. Many of them express their bitterness in a diffuse attack upon the American social and economic system to the point of virtually making war on every aspect of American society. The resentment and antagonistic liberalism of many successful actors, musicians, entertainment personalities and other public figures is well known. In contrast to the general population, an incredible 87-89 percent of the news media voted for George McGovern in 1972 as a deliberate slap in this country's ...

As a basic philosophical principle, there comes a point at which if two people or groups of people are at such extreme variance in their most fundamental perceptions and interpretations of the world around them, then this variation can only be explained in terms of at least one of the people or groups having some sort of serious mental disorder. For example, if one person points to an object on my desk as an ash tray while another person seriously insists it is a hippopotamus, the issue is really not related to intellectual difference or even anything that can be ...

Two weeks after Americans chose a new president on Nov. 7, the Democratic Party is still trying to change the vote count. Responding to this unusual situation, The Wall Street Journal called on Republicans not to allow Democrats to steal the election and with it the Constitution. The editorial, "The Squeamish GOP," indicates that the Journal does not think the Republicans have what it takes to defend their president-elect and the American Constitution. Obviously, the Democrats think likewise, or they would not so brazenly steal an election in broad daylight with the connivance of the media and the Democratic Florida ...

If any of you have ever seen Law Professor Viet Dinh you know how sharp he is! I am sure he worked on our side on some of the Clinton scandals. I saw him on TV and have read some interviews with him. He is awsome! Anyway he was on BOP discussing the FSC ruling and the SCOTUS filing. Go check it out.

Rush is not going to accept any calls from whiners. It is NOT productive! Says Bush was GREAT IN HIS STATEMENT!

I just can't take watching TV. And we all can't watch every channel at once. What are they saying out there in TV-land? Please report.