The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state's education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.
MORE HERE!Friday, July 24, 2009
(07-24) 14:17 PDT Texarkana, Ark. (AP) --
Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and became an outfitter of the stars, was convicted Friday of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex. Alamo stood silently as the verdict was read, a contrast to his occasional mutterings during testimony. His five victims sat looking forward in the gallery. One, a woman he "married" at age 8, wiped away a tear.
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Two young children have been shot by their siblings in the space of 24 hours in the United States.
In Las Vegas, a two-year-old girl was in a critical condition after being shot by her four-year-old brother at their home, police said.
In South Carolina, a four-year-old boy was shot in the stomach by his three-year-old brother after the little boy found a gun.
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Offers of help are pouring in for an eight-year-old Liberian girl disowned by her own family in Phoenix, Arizona, after being raped by four boys.
The girl is under the care of the Arizona Child Protective Service (CPS) because her parents said she had shamed them, and they did not want her back.
Friday, July 24, 2009
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, still clinging to office after admitting to an extramarital affair, wrote in an opinion piece released Sunday that God will change him so he can emerge from the scandal a more humble and effective leader -- Associated PressYou know what God loves? Meddling. Meddling and poking and adjusting and maybe, just maybe, forgiving. Sometimes.
OK wait. What God really loves is meddling and poking and maybe forgiving, and also psychoanalyzing and scrutinizing and prying, gossiping and complaining and moderating, sighing and punishing and condemning, all while He shakes His big, shaggy head in your general direction at your various petty sins and misbehaviors every single day regarding pretty much every single thought you have.
Did you know this about God? Of course you did.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
How old were you the first time you had sex?
If you were a teenager when you "lost it," did you do it because you wanted social status or peer acceptance? For love? Was it your idea, or against your wishes? Or -- did you try it because you thought it might just feel really good? Like, you know, warm apple pie?
Chances are good that if you had first-time sex under the age of consent, it wasn't for reproductive reasons (though it's a typical unintended consequence. Ask Bristol Palin.) With your hormones in teenage overdrive and senses reeling, it's likely it was the pleasure principles, and not moral family factors, that had you dropping trou before you were barely legal.
HK: Various articles say you've trained in Shaolin Kenpo, Bjíquán, boxing, and kick boxing. Can you tell us what age you started and what motivated you? We're also interested in why you selected mostly Chinese disciplines, and if you trained in any traditionally Japanese martial arts.
TS: I think that the most important thing for martial arts is to have balance along your median line. Bjíquán makes your lower body stronger, which helps you keep your balance easily. So I started practicing that when I was 15 years old.
A woman was shot on a hotel toilet in Florida - by a bullet which fired when the woman in the next cubicle dropped her gun.
Janifer Bliss, 53, was hit in the lower left leg and taken to Tampa General Hospital with minor injuries, reports the Tampa Tribune.
Police said the woman in the next stall accidentally let her handgun slip out of her waist holster, and the weapon discharged when it hit the ground.
Police said the gun belonged to a 56-year-old woman who has a concealed weapons permit.
The case has been referred to the State Attorney's Office to determine if any charges will be filed.
Alcoholic drinks in a bar
Up to 375,000 registered gun owners in Arizona and Tennessee were today given the right to carry concealed guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, in the latest example of loosening gun laws in a country already renowned for its lax approach to firearms.
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| Korean actor Lee Joon-ki talks about his acting career. Although he has starred in just a handful of films, he is ranked as one of Korea’s biggest box office draws. By Jeong Chi-ho |
After debuting as a writer/director in 1996 with "D.A.N.G.A.N. Runner," a kinetic comedy of three men chasing each other around, Sabu has been a regular on international film circuits, and is especially liked by the Berlin International Film Festival where he has had six films screened in the past, of which two, "Monday" and "Kofuku no Kane," won awards.
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| Director Sabu |
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:47 AM on 13th July 2009
A 2.8ft rabbit who munches his way through £60 worth of food every week is bouncing his way into the record books.
Benny the Flemish Giant is vying for the title of world's longest rabbit, currently held at 2.6ft (81.5cm), by Amy, a Continental Giant who died in May.
And the two-year-old is on the right track to being crowned the title if his massive diet of vegetables, biscuits and treats is anything to go by.
Bouncing Benny, who needs at least 4ft of space to stretch his legs, has been living with owners Martin and Sharon Heather for the past year after being abandoned.
When Mr Heather saw him at Stadhampton Animal Sanctuary in Oxfordshire he begged his wife to let him take Benny home as a birthday present.
Benny the giant bunny, pictured with a smaller friend at his Oxfordshire home, is now in the running to be crowned the world's longest rabbit
They have seen the part-time employees clock out one last time and the foreign labourers' contracts not renewed. They know there is no staffing fat left to trim and have seen the axes beginning to fall in companies where previously the dark-suited salaryman has been untouchable.
The young man had to be rushed to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. The wound was disinfected to cleanse it before he was given a bed in an observation ward.
An underground youth culture in Japan which makes a rebellious fashion statement against traditional rules on eastern beauty, is taking hold on Britain's youth.
Japanese filmmaker/makeup FX artist Yoshihiro Nishimura (pictured) has tackled all sorts of genre staples and given them his own bizarre spin in his features, from the mutants of TOKYO GORE POLICE to the modern variations on traditional creatures in his new VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL. While presenting the world premiere of the latter at the currently running New York Asian Film Festival, Nishimura revealed he’ll be tackling the walking dead next.
Photo: Bilge Ebiri
Now in its eighth year, the New York Asian Film Festival has specialized in bringing some of the most artfully effed-up films in the world to the city’s eager audiences. This past weekend, we got to sit down with three of the festival’s honored guests, each of them an iconic figure in Japanese cult cinema. Yoshihiro Nishimura, a legendary director and effects artist who was premiering his latest film, the gore-drenched (and awesome-looking) Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl; Tak Sakaguchi, an action director and star who was premiering his directorial debut, Be a Man! Samurai School; and Noboru Iguchi, the director of such insane films as Machine Girl and RoboGeisha (we’re not being hyperbolic; check out the trailer for RoboGeisha here). They even brought props!
William IV: Illegitimate daughter was ancestor of David Cameron
It is the bible of the aristocracy... and has barely changed over the 173 years since it was first published.
But Burke's Peerage and Gentry is finally succumbing to the demands of the 21st century.
The guide, which lists the genealogy of every royal and aristocratic family in the Europe and the U.S., is to include illegitimate children for the first time.
An article by Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir laments that few of the films currently screening at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival will flicker on American screens after the prints have been spirited away to the other side of the world. Sure, but what the article doesn’t say, is that thanks to the boom Asian cinema experienced in the early 2000s, it not only has a permanent home in American art-houses, it’s also well on its way to losing that ridiculous moniker (why not just call it Half the World Cinema?).
 Joseph Ondieki, at the grave of his mother, who was burned as a witch
Villagers, many straight from their farms, and armed with machetes, sticks and axes, are shouting and crowding round in a big group in Kenya's fertile Kisii district. I can't see clearly what is going on, but heavy smoke is rising from the ground and a horrible stench fills the air. More people are streaming up the hill, some of them with firewood and maize stalks. Suddenly an old woman breaks from the crowd, screaming for mercy. Three or four people go after her, beat her and drag her back, pushing her onto - what I can now see - is a raging fire. | |
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 3:57 PM on 25th June 2009
Shocking footage of church elders carrying out a exorcism to cast a 'homosexual demon' from a teenage boy have been posted online.
The video shows the 16-year-old lying on the floor, his body convulsing, while members of a small Connecticut church stand over him.
'Rip it from his throat!' a woman yells. 'Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!'
Disturbing: Footage shows the teenager collapsed on the floor as church elders perform the 'exorcism'
