What a bargain: At a cost of a mere $100,000 or so, a northeastern college can take your child and transform him into a delicate flower incapable of handling opinions at odds with his own. It can close his mind and vacuum-seal it against opposing views. And it can, as a bonus, perhaps make him rude and incorrigible...
...The clamorous debate over a border wall has confronted President Vicente Fox of Mexico at every stop during a visit to the United States that began Tuesday. While he did not publicly endorse the idea, he made clear that his government was prepared to live with increased border security as long as it comes with measures that opened legal channels for the migration of Mexican workers.
Outside his government, several immigration experts have even begun floating the idea that real walls, not the porous ones that stand today, could be more an opportunity than an attack.
A wall could dissuade illegal immigrants from their perilous journeys across the Sonora Desert and force societies on both sides to confront their dependence on an industry characterized by exploitation, they say.
The old blame game — in which Mexico attributed illegal migration to the voracious American demand for labor and accused lawmakers of xenophobia — has given way to a far more soul-searching discussion, at least in quarters where policies are made and influenced, about how little Mexico has done to try to keep its people home.
"For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes, instead of describing them as actors in a national tragedy," said Jorge Santibáñez, president of the College of the Northern Border. "And it has boasted about the growth in remittances" — the money immigrants send home — "as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure."...
...We are now forced to deal with the complex task of getting a stable relationship between Unity and Diversity. We cannot over-indulge diversity to the point that it becomes a weed that chokes out unity; but neither should we provide such strict conditions for unity that we lose the advantages of diversity.
We had a policy--"United we stand; divided we fall"--and we combined this with the idea of a melting pot for citizenship to achieve one national indivisible. Lately, however, instead of emphasizing ways in which we can be alike, we yell loudly about our differences. We concentrate on past origins as if we are permanently tethered, clinging as hyphenated European-Americans, Asian-Americans, Afro-Americans--Why can't we all be just Americans?
The task of ensuring a healthy environment for our society, and protecting it against psychological pollution, is not beyond our powers...
The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.
...This combination of utilitarianism and Darwinism changed the way elites thought about the poor and the vulnerable. Instead of feeling an obligation to care for them, they increasingly felt free to target them in the name of the “greatest good.”
The most obvious example of this was the eugenics movement, started by Darwin’s cousin, which, in the name of “racial betterment,” sterilized and even killed those it deemed “defective.” But this targeting did not end with eugenics.
There are still many instances where a vulnerable class is being asked to sacrifice its well-being or even, as with embryos, its very existence, for the “greatest good.” These include children, families, the sick, prisoners, and the elderly. Over the next couple of weeks, Mark Earley and I will chronicle some of the more egregious examples of this targeting of the vulnerable in this series called “War on the Weak.”
Because it’s time for another blunt truth: Happiness obtained through the suffering of others is cruelty by another name.
Chances are you don't have any friends named Nevaeh. Chances are today's toddlers will.
In 1999, there were only eight newborn American girls named Nevaeh. Last year, it was the 70th-most-popular name for baby girls, ahead of Sara, Vanessa and Amanda.
The spectacular rise of Nevaeh (commonly pronounced nah-VAY-uh) has little precedent, name experts say. They watched it break into the top 1,000 of girls' names in 2001 at No. 266, the third-highest debut ever. Four years later it cracked the top 100 with 4,457 newborn Nevaehs, having made the fastest climb among all names in more than a century, the entire period for which the Social Security Administration has such records.
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The surge of Nevaeh can be traced to a single event: the appearance of a Christian rock star, Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D., on MTV in 2000 with his baby daughter, Nevaeh. "Heaven spelled backwards," he said.
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It's vintage boyhood and a miscellany of marvelous ideas: from kites and toboggans to workbenches and birdhouses, this collection of projects from Popular Mechanics' issues of long ago captures all the appeal of American ingenuity at the start of the last century.
With the rawest of materials, a minimum of technology, and a maximum of ingenuity, men and boys in the early 1900s dedicated themselves to crafting wonderful items, both practical and fanciful. It was a highly valued skill that revealed the measure of a man, and Popular Mechanics honored it and led the way in instructing these handy creators. Take a look back at those simpler, good old days—and at what we may have lost in our high-tech era—through these engaging projects, all published in the magazine during the first two decades of the 20th century. The range is simply amazing, and bound to appeal to woodworkers who love classic ideas. They include tools, like T-squares and sawhorses; an animal-proof gate latch and a birdhouse made from an old straw hat; household gadgets and handcrafted furniture; camping gear (including a screen door for a tent); and toys and games. And many of these appealing trellises, decoys, puzzles, and tents are quite doable today. Inveterate do-it-yourselfers will be astonished at the resourcefulness required to build a stove for a canoe and even a houseboat.
IN THE GULF OF MEXICO — As hundreds of veterans looked on solemnly, Navy divers blew holes in a retired aircraft carrier and sent the 888-foot USS Oriskany to the bottom of the sea today, forming the world's largest deliberately created artificial reef...
The musings of a homeschool mom, minister's wife, Bible class teacher, and mother's caretaker who quilts in her spare time, and occasionally has time for reading and writing blogs!
Jon brings my family real joy; he got us out of our heads and into our hearts and taught us so much about love. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to make this film, to share his wonderful personality and magical spirit with others. This is the story of our journey and how Jon has changed us for the better. I hope that our story offers others the many blessings that Jon has offered us...
The Teachings of Jon is a production of Waking Heart Films.What her 60-minute film does so unexpectedly and so well is to portray Jon as affectionate, lazy, messy, entertaining, imperious, but altogether a fun guy to hang with. It begins with vintage footage of Jon's reunion with his family [ed. note: Jon was in an institution until he was seven] – his father, Dr. Norm Owensby, a psychiatrist; his mother, Lou, a psychotherapist; older siblings Charlton and Jennice; and Jennifer. More recent scenes depict Jon at work – in a vocational center, where he gets paid to pull threads off cones from a local mill but goofs off a lot – and at play – swimming, intently folding paper, performing yoga poses, or playing with the rolling pins he gets for Christmas ("Jon doesn't do toys," says Lou Owensby). At the family dinner table, Jon uses his personal sign language – which combines emphatic clapping, chest-pounding and pointing – to demand more folding paper, call for his Furby, or just say "I love you." —Theodore Fischer, Current, Dec. 5, 2005
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two Australian miners trapped a kilometer underground for 14 days walked out of the mine on Tuesday defiantly thrusting their arms into the air after rescuers reached them shortly before dawn.
Miners Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, wearing mining helmets with their lamps shining brightly and yellow jackets walked confidently to a large board and removed their name cards — declaring they had ended their shift underground...
TRAPPED miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell were helping their rescuers early today as freedom moved tantalisingly closer.
The courageous Beaconsfield miners spent six hours stabilising the rock around their cage with special grout designed to help prevent a rock fall as the rescue team edged towards them.
But late last night, Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten said the rescue of Mr Webb, 37, and Mr Russell, 35, had been further delayed because the rock between them and the rescue team was much harder than anticipated.
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As night fell yesterday, rescuers finished tunnelling with massive drilling equipment and then, just before 11pm, miners began using hand tools – diamond-tipped chainsaws and small pneumatic drills – to punch through the crust to reach Mr Webb and Mr Russell.
The rock through which they were boring is believed to be five times tougher than ordinary concrete.
Mr Shorten said: "If you can imagine lying or kneeling in a space just a metre wide, using a hand drill to cut through rock five times harder than concrete – well that's what the rescuers are faced with.
"The simple fact is that the rock is harder than hoped. The men are using knee and elbow pads in 40 degree heat. They want their men home, but it looks like it will take much longer than we had hoped."
Mr Shorten was full of praise for the rescue team.
"These are unassuming men. They have not sought to big-note themselves over the 12 days of the rescue," he said.
"But they are determined they are going to get the men out. I can tell you one thing – I wouldn't want to be the rock between the rescuers and the miners."
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Donate-A-Book is brand new, with a limited number of enrolled pilot schools and libraries. Please help organizations in your community: Ask them to create wishlists for the books your town needs.
Help us close the gender gap. We want to supply more books that will foster a love of reading for boys in the intermediate levels, grades 4-6.
...a faith-based military news site that reports the positive news stories often missed by mainstream media.
We exist to inform, encourage, and inspire those serving in the Armed Forces, their families, and local churches wishing to help church members currently going through deployment.
This site was created by Sara Horn, writer and editor of A Greater Freedom: Stories of Faith from Operation Iraqi Freedom (Broadman & Holman, 2004). In 2003, Horn took two trips to Iraq with photographer Jim Veneman to report on stories of Christians in the military, and more specifically, Christians in the midst of war. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Oliver North, host of Fox News’ "War Stories," was executive editor of the project and is a contributor to this site as his schedule permits. The book received recognition as a finalist for the prestigious 2005 ECPA Gold Medallion Awards in the inspirational category.
In addition to original news stories and stories obtained by various news wires and other sources, we offer commentary by a variety of contributors.
Our site is non-denominational by design and evangelical in conviction. While denominations vary by degrees in issues concerning theology, we approach this site with the unified belief in God’s Son, Jesus Christ...
