News Item: After overwhelming chest-pounding and other inflamatory behavior, the Democrats were told to put up or shut up. 3 congressmen voted to begin a military pullout of Iraq. 403 voted against the idea. The Dems accused the Republicans with performing a political stunt in calling their bluff. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Tex.), who spent seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said U.S. forces in Iraq "need our full support." He added: "They need to have full faith that a few naysayers in Washington won't cut and run and leave them high and dry."
The Democrats who honestly believe we should begin a military pullout should have supported this Republican sponsored measure or write one themselves. Given they are unwilling to do either, they should get out of the way and shut up.

I'm real confused. Nothing personal now.....but.....Why do all these gay song writers compose and sing songs about their presumed heterosexual relationships? Barry Manilow, Elton John and others. I mean for the last 25 yrs, how can Elton sing stuff like "Tiny Dancer" and be satisfied with the experience? Is all of this about deceit for the almighty dollar? Or is this a wishful thought on their parts? I have never seen this addressed in interviews or discussion groups.

We have a handful of professional ministers who are blogging with us under the religion category. They each have fascinations for PreChistian Philosophers and dubious Bishops centuries after Christ's church organization was extinguished. Being professional, they blog more than your standard religious blogger. They are aware of the membership losses evident in their particular orthodox denominations. God's purposes roll on where the truth is found. They are so attracted to Aristotle because his goal was the journey toward non-contradiction rather than Truth. That is his fundamental tenet. Truth was secondary to him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle ---------- As an Genuine Christian, truth is vital to me. -------------The Pharisees of old questioned Jesus using Aristotle's method, trying to cross him. They weren't interested in the truth, given He was in plenty of trouble because was telling too much of it. They knew the truth had already convicted them. In using the tenets of Aristotle, political leaders (prodded by the Pharisees) were getting Christ to appear contradictory by figuring out ways to get him to cross himself to their satisfaction. That was all that was necessary to have him KILLED. This is the game of our blogstreaming latter day Pharisees who require a discussion based upon the method of Aristotle and other philosophers of the time.--------------- By the way, what do you recall was Christ's response to the questions from those vipers? It was Silence. ------------------------- Not referencing Paul or Christ or Moses, or David, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or James in real gospel doctrine discussions, they want a debate that avoids the Truth.

Vietnam study shows bird flu virus mutating - media
The Daily Star (Malaysia) ^ | November 13, 2005

HANOI (Reuters) - Scientists in Vietnam, where bird flu has killed 42 people, said the deadly H5N1 influenza virus had mutated into a more dangerous form that could breed more effectively in mammals, state media reported on Sunday.

The online newspaper Vnexpress quoted Cao Bao Van, director of the Molecule Biology Department of the Pasteur Institute, Vietnam's centre of bird flu research, as saying the decoding of 24 samples of the virus taken from poultry and humans showed significant antigen variation.

An antigen is any foreign substance that stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies.

A Vietnamese man seen standing behind a red cross at the National Institute for Clinical Research in Tropical Medicine, a hospice for infected bird flu patients, in Hanoi, Vietnam, inb this November 11, 2005 file photo. (REUTERS/Kham) Van said the study had showed an antigenic shift involving major antigenic changes of the influenza surface proteins, the HA and NA molecules. These changes can result in the appearance of pandemic viruses.

Van said the study had also found a mutation of the PB2 gene in a virus sample from a patient in Dong Thap, southern Vietnam, who died earlier this year. The mutation allows more effective breeding of the virus in mammals. ...The virus had developed resistance to anti-flu agents Amatadine and Rimantadine.

Vietnam, where the H5N1 virus has hit nine of the country's 64 provinces since returning in early October, has recorded 92 cases of human bird flu infection and 42 death.

"She passed away, but not because I intentionally tried to kill her

Thursday, November 10, 2005
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

The pasty mixture of chili powder and water tasted "gross," but a young Irving mother facing capital murder charges testified Thursday that she didn't think it was dangerous to mold it around her infant daughter's thumb and force her to swallow it to break her thumb-sucking habit.

Speaking in her own defense on the third day of testimony in her capital murder trial, Angela Disabella said she placed the pepper mixture on her daughter's thumb several times over about an hour before the baby began to choke in May 2004

Nearly 6 months old, Kira was not yet ready to eat soft food, but Ms. Disabella, 21, said she was not concerned as the globs of brownish red pepper disappeared in the baby's mouth.

"I thought it was working," she said. "As soon as she'd put her thumb in her mouth she'd take it out. ... She'd make this weird smile."

The powder eventually clogged Kira's throat and lungs entirely, causing her suffocation death, according to court testimony.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Patricia Hogue, Ms. Disabella denied that she caused the baby's death.

"She passed away, but not because I intentionally tried to kill her," she said.

Ms. Disabella acknowledged having a troubled adolescence and young-adult life. She didn't complete the ninth grade and ran away at age 16. She also said she had been a danger to herself at times, mutilating her arms with knives and trying to kill herself on several occasions.

Although the baby had gained less than a pound in the nearly six months that she lived, Ms. Disabella said she fed her according to what she read in books and magazines. She said she didn't always have formula.

"I went by what the book said. I tried to do my best," she said.

Prosecutors have charged that the baby's suffocation was the culmination of a string of neglect and abuse the baby suffered in her short life.

Besides being malnourished, the baby suffered two fractured ribs about a month before she died.

A medical investigator testified that the rib injuries were likely caused by blunt-force abuse.

If convicted of capital murder, Ms. Disabella will face an automatic life sentence in prison. Jurors will likely also have the option of considering lesser charges of causing serious bodily injury to a child by recklessness or negligence.

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Accompanied by the unmistakable whisperings of the Spirit, I know there are many that would join me in providing aid to Ms. Disabella (above). However, she probably wishes she were a Mexican Citizen right now, ah - bein' the type to run. However, on our part compassion should rule.
What I propose for this young lady is that we help her to care about the quality of her life and the lives around her. The excerpts of testimony available to me are sufficient to end the trial right now. She needs to be placed in a program that will provide her a life changing journey of healing and discovery.
She needs to visit the Institution of Intentional Living. The Institution of Intentional Living is an experimental learning community open to all we have diagnosed as chronically self-focused. Here she will find individuals interested in psychological, spiritual and personal transformation. She will become awakened. We offer many informal seminars and workshops, as well as individual counseling. We recognize in this institution that it is the human connection that is our greatest need. Our lifelong Enrichment Program is found in various locations throughout the United States, where we explore psycho-spiritual trauma in a protected environment, culminating in the process of conscious aging, suffering, and dying. Today will be the first day of the rest of your miserable life, Angela.