—>From the Rocky Mountain News:

Quote from a speech by Obama on Jul 2:

Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously. Study after study shows that students who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely to maintain that service as adults. So when I’m President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you’ll have done 17 weeks of service.

I would ask that you comtemplate what the Media and the Democrats would have said, if John McCain had made this speech.  The cries of “Fascist” would have been drowned out only by the references to creating a new “Hitler Youth”.

One of our contributers has elected to leave and has requested all of his posts be deleted. 

I pointed out my reluctance to do so as he has written some good things, and he responded:

Which I still have and can repost. I don't want to be around people who merit nothing more than swearing in the eyes of any reasonable, civilized person.

Obviously I disagree.  While the blog has been quiet lately, I still find the people who contribute to be of the highest caliber in ideas and in behavior.  The fact that you disagree with their politics should not warrant cursing and derision.

In truth Possum was frustrating in his extremism, but I valued that diversity.  I hope some other left winger offers to step in for balance.

Good luck Possum.

We don't quite know what to make of Christopher Hitchens' account of his recent "cosmetic makeover" at a West Coast Spa. Vanity Fair devotes many online pages to a blow by blow description of our second favorite grumbly, bearish Brit's attempt to stop smoking while shaving and showering, to swap out his proverbial British teeth for American ones to go with his newly acquired US citizenship, as well as what spa food he chewed with the old British ones. Eventually he goes in for a Brazilian form of hair removal upon his nether regions that would be disallowed if practiced on detainees in Guantanamo. But with his new Burt Lancaster-style gnashers he is able to silently grin and bear it.  (More …)

Well, while the Archibishop of Canterbury may be trying to “dumb down” christianity, the Archbishop of Wales seems to be on track:

In his Christmas message, the archbishop said: “Any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous.”

The archbishop said “atheistic fundamentalism” was a new phenomenon.

He said it advocated that religion in general and Christianity in particular have no substance, and that some view the faith as “superstitious nonsense”.

As well as leading to Christmas being called “Winterval,” the archbishop said “virulent, almost irrational” attacks on Christianity led to hospitals removing all Christian symbols from their chapels, and schools refusing to allow children to send Christmas cards with a Christian message.

He also said it led to things like “airlines refusing staff the freedom to wear a cross round their necks” - a reference to the row in which British Airways (BA) suspended an employee who insisted on wearing a cross necklace.

The Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching. Lately I’ve read blog posts about some disturbing trends, and followed links to stories that verify the post content. It seems that Thanksgiving is under attack.

Apparently the idea of the Thanksgiving holiday that I was raised with is wrong. Thanksgiving wasn’t all about the native Americans sharing the bounty with the pilgrims. At least not quite the way I was taught in school.

The happy myth that they were incapable buffoons that had to be saved by the noble savages and taught the basics of agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting that we were taught in school seems to me to be simply unlikely. A stupid people doesn’t have the capacity to plan and organize ocean voyages with sail powered vessels.

As you're planning your holiday shopping in the coming weeks, I'd like to suggest that you check out the Hunger Site .  Their shop has a variety of items: cards and stationary, apparel and jewelry, as well as housewares and folk wares from around the world.  If you have a greenie or altruistic young people on your shopping list you may find just the thing, as they have many items from communities who make their stuff in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable fashion and that benefit their local economy.  When you buy from their online shop it goes to a variety of charities, including Doctors Without Borders.  The purchase price of an item funds 25 cups of food or the purchase of a book for a literacy program in Nepal (pictured), Afghanistan, or Africa, or the purchase of a low fuel high output, locally made stove for Darfur refugees, to name just a few.  I like the idea of underwriting the education for two girls for a year in Afghanistan for only $20.  You can also donate the monthly salary of a teacher there, or a bit more pricey, pay to heat an Afghani school.  For the price of a sweater at K-Mart or a Coffee Maker at Fred Meyer you can purchase a pair of goats to increase a poor family's health and wealth, or enough seeds to put in a season's garden that will feed a whole family. Give it a peek if you shop online.    

It goes like this …

A'jad has a new idea for removing Israelis from the Middle East.  Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, using the occasion of Tehran's al Quds Day celebrations, suggested relocating all Israelis to the North Slope of Alaska and the Northern regions of Canada.  Links to story and a Reuters slide show of al Quds Day celebrations around the world here.

Gateway Pundit has been my main source of info and links on this ongoing example of the cruelty that man is capable of in the pursuit of power over his fellow man.

His latest post quotes Vaclav Havel:

In the coming days - perhaps even hours - the destiny of Burma (also known as Myanmar), and the fates of over 50 million Burmese, will be decided. Today’s crisis has been brewing for many years. But nobody knew with any precision just when open revolt against Burma’s military dictatorship would erupt.

I fear that, with only a few exceptions, most countries have been surprised and caught off guard - once again - by the rapid course that events have taken in Burma. So they seem to be completely unprepared for the crisis and thus at a loss as to what to do.