”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.
But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.
Note the location of Wasilla in the upper right portion of the map.
The Knik Arm Bridge is not, obviously, a "bridge to [Palin's] hometown of Wasilla," nor does it "link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents." Wasilla is many miles away from the proposed bridge, and, in fact, the quickest route from Wasilla to Anchorage may be the existing one, even if the proposed new bridge is built. The Associated Press just made up those inflammatory statements to try to prejudice you against Sarah Palin and to help the Obama campaign.
The governor initially championed the first so-called Bridge to Nowhere, which would have connected the southeastern Alaska town of Ketchikan to its airport on nearby Gravina Island. She later pulled the plug on the project after it became a national symbol of extravagant federal spending. [emphasis added]
It appears that the following story is “conservative” news or, even worse, “Christian” news.
I cannot figure out why this is the case. Readers, perhaps you can enlighten me.
It seems, to me, that this is a story that combines elements of women’s rights and freedom of religion, both of which are strong themes in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Old-fashioned liberals used to have strong feelings about these kinds of human-rights issues.
Here is a short report from a Christian news source. Notice, however, that the report originated with mainstream-media sources in the region:Reports are coming in of increasing persecution of Christian believers in the Saudi Arabia. A Saudi man recently cut the tongue of his daughter and burned her to death for converting to Christianity, according to a report by the United Arab Emirates-based Gulf News. The victim frequently wrote on various Web site blogs about her conversion from Islam. It is believed that she converted to Christianity after learning about the faith on the Internet and through Christian media.
The girl’s father is an employee of Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the arm of the government that enforces the nation’s prohibition of Christianity and conversion to Christianity. Sources close to the victim said that the father was being investigated for “honour killing” rather than murder, Gulf News reported. Shariah-ruled Saudi Arabia, where all Christian worship is forbidden, is ranked No. 2 on Open Doors’ 2007 World Watch List of nations where Christians are persecuted for their faith.
Under the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, apostasy is punishable by death if the accused does not recant.
I think they spent months trying to figure out how they can position Obama as better qualified than McCain, and basically came up with the fact that Obama can type.
Sarah Palin? Can’t keep her solemn oath of devotion to her husband and had sex with his employee. Sarah Palin? Accidentally got pregnant at age 43 and the tax payers of Alaska have to pay for the care of her disabled child. Sarah Palin? Unable to teach her 16 year old daughter right from wrong and now another teenager is pregnant.
The SEICUS Guidelines For Children Between The Ages Of 5 And 8.
* The Full Text Of S.B. 99 Included Changes That Would Offer Sex Education To Children Beginning In Kindergarten. “Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.” (S.B. 99: Illinois Senate Health And Human Services Committee, Passed, 7-4-0, 3/6/03, Obama Voted Yea) -[emphasis mine-admin]
Each body part has a correct name and a specific function.
• A person’s genitals, reproductive organs, and genes determine whether the person is male or female.
• A boy/man has nipples, a penis, a scrotum, and testicles.
• A girl/woman has breasts, nipples, a vulva, a clitoris, a vagina, a uterus, and ovaries.
• Some sexual or reproductive organs, such as penises and vulvas, are external or on the outside of the body while others, such as ovaries and testicles, are internal or inside the body.
• Both boys and girls have body parts that feel good when touched.
• Bodies change as children grow older.
• Puberty is a time of physical and emotional change that happens as children become teenagers.
• People are able to have children only after they have reached puberty.
• Men and women have reproductive organs that enable them to have a child.
• Men and women have specific cells in their bodies (sperm cells and egg cells) that enable them to
reproduce.
• Reproduction requires that a sperm and egg join.
• Vaginal intercourse – when a penis is placed inside a vagina – is the most common way for a sperm and egg to join.
• When a woman is pregnant, the fetus grows inside her body in her uterus.
• A woman can be pregnant with more than one fetus at a time.
• Babies usually come out of a woman’s body through an opening called a vagina.
• Some babies are born by an operation called a Caesarian Section.
• A woman’s breasts can provide milk for a baby.
• Not all men and women have children.
• People who cannot have children may choose to adopt.
• Individual bodies are different sizes, shapes, and colors.
• All bodies are equally special, including those that are disabled.
• Differences make us unique.
• Good health habits, such as eating well and exercising, can improve the way a person feels about
his or her body.
• Each person can be proud of his/her body.
• Human beings can love people of the same gender and people of another gender.
• Some people are heterosexual, which means they can be attracted to and fall in love with someone
of another gender.
• Some people are homosexual, which means they can be attracted to and fall in love with someone
of the same gender.
• Homosexual men and women are also known as gay men and lesbians.
• People deserve respect regardless of who they are attracted to.
• Making fun of people by calling them gay (e.g. “homo,” “fag,” “queer”) is disrespectful and hurtful.
• Biological sex refers to whether a person has male or female genitals and/or chromosomes.
• Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or a combination of these.
• Gender identity is just one part of who a person is.
• Gender roles refer to the way society expects people to behave based on their biological sex.
• Making fun of people for not acting the way society expects them to based on their biological sex is disrespectful and hurtful.
• A family consists of two or more people who care for each
other in many ways.
• There are different kinds of families.
• Children may live with one or more parents or caregivers including biological parents, step-parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, grandparents, friends, or other combinations of adults.
• All members of a family may not live in the same place.
• The makeup of individual families may change over time.
• Each member of a family has something unique to contribute.
• Families have rules to help members live together.
• Family members take care of each other.
• Many adults may help care for children.
• Family members show love for each other.
• Change in a family may make its members happy or sad.
• When a baby is born or a child is adopted into a family, some parts of life will change for family members.
• People can have many friends or just a few.
• A person can have different types of friends.
• Friends spend time together and get to know each other.
• Friendships depend on honesty.
• Friends respect and appreciate each other.
• Friends can feel angry with each other and still be friends.
• Friends sometimes hurt each other’s feelings.
• Friends forgive each other.
• Friends share feelings with each other.
• Friends can help each other.
• Friends can be male and female.
• Friends can be younger and older.
• Love means having deep and warm feelings about oneself and others.
• People can experience different types of love.
• People express love differently to their parents, families, and friends.
• People can experience different loving relationships throughout their lives.
• Dating is when two people who are romantically attracted to each other spend their free time together.
• When children become teenagers, they spend more time with their friends and may begin to date.
• Some adults, including single parents, may date.
• Two people may decide to marry or make a lifetime commitment to each other because they love each other and want to share their lives with each other.
• Many men and women will marry.
• Many people live in lifetime committed relationships, even though they may not be legally married.
• Two people of the same gender can live in loving, lifetime committed relationships.
• Most people who marry intend the relationship to be lifelong.
• People who are married or committed to each other may get divorced or break up if they decide they do not want to be together anymore.
• When parents divorce or break up, children may live with one or both parents or with other family members.
• Divorce and break-ups are usually difficult for families.
• After a divorce or break-up, parents and children continue their lives in new ways and can be happy again.
• Children are not able to get their separated or divorced parents back together regardless of how much they want that to happen.
• Children are not to blame for their parents’ separations or divorces.
• Many people want to be parents.
• Raising children is an adult role.
• Raising children requires great effort, resources, time, and patience.
• People who have children need to provide for them.
• Raising children can be a wonderful experience.
• Adults become parents in several ways: having biological children, adopting children, becoming a
step-parent, or becoming a guardian or foster parent.
• People who have or adopt children are responsible for loving and taking care of them.
• Parents who adopt, love their children as much as biological parents love theirs.
• Values are strong feelings or beliefs about important issues.
• Individuals and families have a variety of values.
• Children learn most of their values from parents, other family members, community, cultural and religious teachings, and their peers.
• Everybody has to make decisions.
• Small children make many decisions, such as what clothes to wear, which toys to play with, or who to be friends with.
• Children need help from adults to make some decisions.
• All decisions have consequences, positive and/or negative.
• Decision-making is a skill that can be improved.
• People communicate in many ways.
• People speak, write, sign, or show how they feel with facial expressions and body language.
• Communication is necessary in human relationships.
• Everyone, including children, has rights.
• Telling trusted people about one’s feeling and needs is acceptable.
• Asking is often the first step to getting what one wants or needs.
• Children sometimes have to do things they do not want to do because their parents or other adults say so.
• Negotiation requires give and take on the part of all people involved.
• Good negotiation can enhance relationships and friendships.
• Sharing is a type of negotiation.
• Family members and friends usually try to help one another.
• If parents cannot help, one can ask another family member, a teacher, religious leader, guidance counselor, a friend’s parent, or another trusted adult.
• Most children are curious about their bodies.
• Bodies can feel good when touched.
• Touching and rubbing one’s own genitals to feel good is called masturbation.
• Some boys and girls masturbate and others do not.
• Masturbation should be done in a private place.
• People often kiss, hug, touch, and engage in other sexual behaviors with one another to show caring and to feel good.
• Both girls and boys may discover that their bodies feel good when touched.
• Girls and boys need to take care of their bodies during childhood and adolescence.
• Like other body parts, the genitals need care.
• Some people have children and others do not.
• Each family can decide how many children to have, if any.
• A pregnant woman must take extra care of her health with exercise, healthy foods, and frequent visits to her healthcare provider.
• Most babies are born healthy.
• Smoking, drinking alcohol, and using other drugs can hurt a fetus before it is born.
• Sometimes women become pregnant when they do not want to be or are unable to care for a child.
• Sexually transmitted diseases are caused by germs such as bacteria and viruses.
• There are many types of sexually transmitted diseases.
• People who do not engage in certain behaviors do not get STDs.
• A small number of children are born with STDs that they get from their mothers during pregnancy or birth.
• The most common ways for a person to get an STD is to participate in sexual behavior or share a needle with another person who is already infected with an STD.
• Children who find needles on the ground should not touch them and should tell an adult.
• HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
• Once a person gets HIV, he/she will have it for the rest of his/her life.
• HIV causes AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
• People who have HIV or AIDS are more at risk of getting infections, diseases, and other illnesses.
• People with HIV who work hard to stay healthy can live for a very long time.
• There are medicines that people with HIV or AIDS can take to help them stay healthier and live longer.
• People who do not engage in certain behaviors do not get HIV or AIDS.
• A small number of children are born with HIV that they get from their mothers during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding,
• The most common ways for a person to get HIV is to participate in sexual behavior or share a needle with another person who is already infected with HIV.
• A person cannot become infected with HIV by being around, touching, or hugging someone who has HIV or AIDS.
• HIV is found in the blood of infected people; it is never a good idea to touch another person’s blood.
• Children who find needles on the ground should not touch them and should tell an adult.
• One’s body belongs to oneself.
• There are parts of one’s body that are considered to be private, including one’s mouth, nipples, breasts, chest, penis, scrotum, vagina, vulva, and buttocks.
• No one should touch the private parts of a child’s body except for health reasons or to clean them.
• Children should not touch the private parts of other people’s bodies.
• Child sexual abuse is when someone touches the private parts of a child’s body without a health or hygiene reason.
• Sexual abuse can also occur when someone asks a child to touch the private parts of his/her body.
• Both boys/men and girls/women can be sexually abused.
• Everyone, including children, has the right to tell others not to touch their body when they do not want to be touched.
• If a child experiences unwanted or uncomfortable touching, he/she should tell a trusted adult, even
if he/she was told to keep it a secret.
• Children can be sexually abused by a stranger or by someone they know.
• A child is never at fault if a person – even a family member – touches him/her in a way that is wrong or uncomfortable.
• If a stranger tries to get a child to go with him/her, the child should run and tell a parent, teacher, neighbor, or other adult.
• Most people would never abuse children.
• Girls and boys have many similarities and a few differences.
• Some people may expect or demand that boys and girls behave in certain ways, but this is beginning to change.
• Both women and men can be involved and caring parents.
• Boys and girls can do the same chores at home.
• Men and women are capable of doing almost all the same jobs.
• Some men and women may be told that certain jobs and tasks are only for women or only for men, but this is beginning to change.
• Some families go to a church, mosque, or synagogue to worship; some families do not.
• Religions teach people how to love each other, how to behave, and what is right and wrong.
• Different religions may promote similar or different values.
• Individuals differ in the way they think, act, look, and live.
• Talking about differences helps people understand each other better.
• The belief that all members of a group will behave the same way is called a stereotype.
• Some information on television, in the movies, in books and magazines, on the radio, and on the
Internet is true and some is not.
• Some commercials, television shows, movies, and magazines make people and things look different
or better than they really are.
• Some television programs, movies, and websites are not appropriate for young children.
GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing in Georgia?
PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.
We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
“In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. “She’s a whiz on the keyboard, and I’m so laborious,” McCain admits.”
John McCain is mocked as an out-of-touch, out-of-date computer illiterate in a television commercial out Friday from Barack Obama as the Democrat begins his sharpest barrage yet on McCain's long Washington career.
The new fighting spirit comes as McCain has been gaining in the polls and some Democrats have been expressing concern the Obama campaign has not been aggressive enough.
McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain’s encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He’s an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.
It's hard to say just when universities ceased to believe that education was a worthwhile mission. But that they have done so is beyond question. Among many signs of this reality is the anxiety to redefine the university's task. After all, educators who no longer expect or demand serious intellectual effort from their students are bound to look elsewhere for ways to justify their existence and that of their institutions. Enter the language of "community engagement," "outreach," "social justice," and "equity" (to name just a few of the terms now used as rallying cries on many campuses).
If anyone has doubts that behind these grand terms lies the degradation of academic life, a look at procedures for recruiting new faculty is a good place to observe the university's priorities. At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where I teach, a document both sublime and ridiculous advises us how to go about determining if applicants have what it takes to work here. Along with the usual lists of questions that may or may not be asked, the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity provides some crucial guidelines in a document titled Supplemental Search Instructions....Parentheses are used to indicate that one or more of the following words are missing: Minorities, Blacks, Hispanics, Native-American; Women; economically disadvantaged persons; disabled persons; veterans or disabled veterans; homosexuals, gays, lesbians; protected groups; affirmative action groups, etc.
How have you demonstrated your commitment to (____) issues in your current position?
Which of your achievements in the area of equity for (____) gives you the most satisfaction?
How would you demonstrate your concern for equity for (____) if you were hired?
In your opinion, what are the three major problems for (____) on your campus?
How are general issues in higher education related to (____) issues? What is the link?
Describe activities--include articles, interviews, and speeches--in which you have taken part that demonstrate a public commitment to equity.
In your current position, have you ever seen a (____ ) treated unfairly? How would/did you handle it?
In your current position, what is your relationship to the affirmative action officer? Have you ever sought his or her help in recruiting?
"The willful omission of one or more words so the meaning of the statement is no longer understood but that the statement suits the needs of the writer in launching an ad hominem attack whether or not the construction is truthful or grammatically complete."
