Archive for May 2009
What’s wrong with this picture?
Time has not healed all Katrina wounds
A FEMA trailer still sits in the front yard of a home in the Lakeview section of New Orleans. After repeated extensions, meant to give people more time to rebuild their storm-damaged homes or to find other more permanent places to stay, FEMA now appears ready to enforce its May 1 deadline. In notices to residents, the agency said it would seek Department of Justice help to repossess units that 2005 hurricane victims remain in after this weekend.
(AP Photo/Bill Haber)
LA Mayor: ‘This is a dark day in California’
Night and Day
Reaction to today’s California Supreme Court decision to uphold Proposition 8 was on both sides of the spectrum.
The Yes on 8 campaign released a statement that began: California voters won a major victory today as the California Supreme Court announced its decision to uphold Proposition 8 and leave the definition of traditional marriage in California’s constitution as decided by voters in the November, 2008 election.
However, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had a different take on today’s decision.
“This is a dark day, a dark day in California,” Villaraigosa said. “We are going to keep on working. We’re going to have a conversation in this state about restoring gay marriage.”
FULL STORY: LA CHURCH & STATE EXCLUSIVE
Chaplain: A promise to give full military honors
“Our veterans are dying at a rate of 1,600 a day. Because of the war on terrorism, our active and reserve forces are committed to preserving our democratic free society. As a result, 90 percent of America’s finest are buried without final military honors.” — Lt. Gen. Allen Baumann, National Commanding General of the U.S. Volunteers Joint Services Command
LA Church & State Examiner: A college is attempting to fill a military chaplain shortage with ‘Boots on Ground.’ Baumann has put out a call for volunteers to enter a chaplains program at Promise Christian University in Pasadena. (story)
Tracking…
Campus unrest: four jailed in Ohio. Home bible study harrassment? AND the final word on Ida.
Campus evangelists clash with police
Dispute over signs, 1st Amendment rights prompts 4 arrests, including felony charge
DAYTON, Ohio — (WorldNetDaily) A campus evangelism group is stunned today, as a ministry event at a community college in Ohio resulted in four members being arrested, one on a felony assault charge that the ministry’s leader claims is fabricated.
“I’ve done ministries like this at more than 200 universities,” said Jason Storms, director of Faithful Soldier School of Evangelism, a ministry of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee, Wis. “We train people to do evangelism, and I have never seen an incident like this.” …more
Photo: Sinclair Community College student Daniel Pollion is arrested on campus. (WorldNetDaily)
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San Diego official says home bible study needs permit
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – (Examiner.com) A legal rights group is reporting that a San Diego pastor and his wife were interrogated by a county official and warned they will face escalating fines if they continue to hold Bible studies in their home.
The Western Center for Law & Policy has been retained to represent the couple, according to a WorldNetDaily.com article published Friday. The names are being withheld until a demand letter can be filed on their behalf. …more
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Ida: Humankind’s Earliest Ancestor! (Not Really)
NEW YORK, NY — (TIME) From the beginning, Ida’s unveiling has been a master class in ballyhoo. A week ago, the first breathless press releases began to arrive, portending the presentation of the now famous 47-million-year-old primate fossil from Germany: “MEDIA ALERT,” the notice shouted in all caps. “WORLD-RENOWNED SCIENTISTS REVEAL A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC FIND THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.”
The press releases were followed by an international press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the publication of a book, The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor (Little, Brown), an ABC News exclusive and on May 25 a prime-time television special on the History Channel. Of the avalanche of media-related promotion, Jorn Hurum, a Norwegian paleontologist involved in Ida’s discovery, told the New York Times, “Any pop band is doing the same thing.” …more
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Media Love Turns to ‘Missing Link’ Ida
From Google to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, media types and hypes are falling head-over-heels over a 47-million year old primate fossil unveiled to the world Tuesday.
As LiveScience reporter Clara Moskowitz put it: You know science has made it big when the Google homepage logo is changed to celebrate a fossil finding and the mayor of New York shows up at a press conference to unveil it.
The LiveScience article continued:
The discovery was presented with much fanfare at a press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where researchers called the finding a “missing link” and a publisher from Little, Brown (which put out a related book called “The Link”) called it “a scientific discovery that will undoubtedly revolutionize how we understand our own evolution.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the finding an “astonishing breakthrough.”
Not so fast you Ida-lovin’ cousins
‘Ida’ an extinct primate – and that’s all blasts the online headline at OneNewsNow.com. The story by Allie Martin leads: The president of Answers in Genesis says an alleged new “missing link” found by scientists is nothing more than an extinct primate.
According to Associated Press, scientists said while the creature is not a direct ancestor of monkeys and humans, it provides a good indication of what that ancestor may have looked like.
More from the OneNewsNow story:
Ken Ham, president of the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, finds it ironic that the same scientists, in a research paper detailing their findings, toned down their pronouncements after pressure from colleagues in the scientific community.
“One of those reviewers said that…whether nor not it’s going to be a transitional form, or missing link, is a judgment for the scientific community,” Ham states. “And he’s quoted as saying that [issue] will be sorted out, or at least debated extensively in the community for years, once the paper is published.”
Ham says the fossil is similar to a modern lemur, and in no way resembles a human skeleton.
Watching the Ida spin is simply a matter of catching some headlines from around the world. Here’s an array of headlines and links to accompanying stories. You be the judge!
Ancient fossil may fill in evolutionary gray areas
Missing link in evolution found?
Let’s Not Go Ape Over Ida
Amid Media Circus, Scientists Doubt ‘Ida’ Is Your Ancestor
Fossil sheds light on primate evolution
Has the Missing Link Been Found?
And finally:
