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referring to U.S.-based evangelist Ray Comfort, who argues that the universe and life is the result of an intelligent creator, Dawkins said: "There is no refutation of Darwinian evolution in existence. If a refutation ever were to come about, it would come from a scientist, and not an idiot. "You can't prove there's no God, no fairies, no leprechauns, or that Thor or Apollo don't exist. There's got to be a positive reason to think that fairies exist. Until somebody does, we can say technically we are agnostic about fairies. We can't disprove them, but we think it's a bit...

Mariah Jordat, 8, was reading her Bible during quiet time at Madison Park Elementary School in Oldbridge, N.J., when her teacher told her to put the book away. Mariah put her Bible under her desk, but that wasn't away enough. The teacher banished the book to the student's backpack. The persecution hurt her feelings and confused her, said Michelle Jordat, the little girl's mother. "Why would my teacher say that I can't read the Bible when I'm not bothering anybody else?" It's ridiculous for a school to forbid a child, let alone one at such an impressionable age, to read...

Last week, during a bit of banter on Fox News, my colleague Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something I’d all but forgotten. Last September, during his address to Congress on health care, Barack Obama declared: “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” Dream on. The monstrous mountain of toxic pustules sprouting from greasy boils metastasizing from malign carbuncles that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve is not the last word in “health” “care” but the first. It ensures that this is all we’ll be talking about, now and...

Catholic Group Supports Senate on Abortion Aid By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK December 25, 2009 WASHINGTON — In an apparent split with Roman Catholic bishops over the abortion-financing provisions of the proposed health care overhaul, the nation’s Catholic hospitals have signaled that they back the Senate’s compromise on the issue, raising hopes of breaking an impasse in Congress and stirring controversy within the church. The Senate bill, approved Thursday morning, allows any state to bar the use of federal subsidies for insurance plans that cover abortion and requires insurers in other states to divide subsidy money into separate accounts so that...

Check this entry: Naughty: Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), a vacuum for oil industry political contributions whose nonsensical denials of climate-change science in the face of vanishing ice sheets and decaying coral reefs make him Earth's Public Enemy No. 1. Nice: Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who are working diligently to craft a bipartisan climate bill despite obstructionism from the likes of Inhofe.

There is no denying the breathtaking visual beauty of the $400 million 3-D sci-fi epic Avatar. It is already a global box office smash, taking in more than $200 million worldwide in its opening weekend. The special effects are simply stunning, and some of the action sequences are spectacular. But Avatar is also a distinctly political work of art, with a strong anti-American and anti-Western message. It can be read on several levels – a critique of the Iraq War, an assault on the US-led War on Terror, a slick morality tale about the ‘evils’ of Western imperialism, a futuristic...

WASHINGTON -- Scrooge came early on Christmas Eve this year -- and he looks strangely like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Instead of "bah humbug," he delivered the U.S. Senate's version of "health care reform" -- the most expensive legislation ever passed by the Congress of the United States and the greatest expansion of government power in our nation's history. Now that's some Christmas present -- and a different way of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. If the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate succeed in cobbling together a final bill after the new year begins, every American...

December 26, 2009 Iranian Student Protester Neda Soltan Is Times Person of the Year Neda Soltan did not vote in her country's election, but was appalled by the rigging of the result. Since she was shot in a democracy protest, her face has become an opposition symbol Neda Soltan was not political. She did not vote in the Iranian presidential election on June 12. The young student was appalled, however, by the way that the regime shamelessly rigged the result and reinstalled Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ignoring the pleas of her family, she went with her music teacher eight days later to...

GUYUN VILLAGE, China — Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast. Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs. Western capitals have suddenly grown worried over China’s near monopoly, which gives it a potential stranglehold on technologies of the future. In Washington, Congress is fretting about...

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A ten percent drop in murders during the first six months of this year at a time when gun sales were up dramatically is more proof that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, the Second Amendment Foundation said today. The FBI released data Monday that shows murders dropped by 10 percent from the same period in 2008. Meanwhile, according to data released by the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) shows that during the first six months of this year, gun sales were up. January 2009 background checks...

One might expect Democrats to be euphoric during this holiday season. After recapturing control of Congress in 2006, and last year taking back the White House by electing America's first African-American president, Democrats are now on the verge of passing a historic health care reform law. But instead of celebrating, they are bitterly divided. Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean and liberal bloggers are urging the Senate to defeat the health care bill. Many are criticizing President Barack Obama for compromising too much, saying the proposal doesn't go far enough, while more moderate and conservative Democrats are petrified the bill...

The Cardinal who broke his leg during Christmas attack on Pope: Who is Card. Etchegaray? 87 year old Roger Marie Élie Cardinal Etchegaray was born September 25, 1922 and ordained a Priest July 13, 1947. He is Cardinal-Bishop of the Porto-Santa Rufina Diocese in Italy and serves as President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which was established in January 1967 and "promotes justice and peace in the world in accordance with the Gospel and the social teaching of the Church." After the attack on Pope Benedict XVI last night during Midnight Mass at the Vatican, it...

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The democrat's Supreme Court ruled abortion was legal throughout the United States despite state laws regulating individually by "inventing" (re-defining) a patient's "right to privacy" in medical terms. That is, by re-defining the natural "right to privacy" for matters between a doctor and patient as a reason for REMOVING a specific specially-selected form of medical treatment (abortion) from state regulation in Roe vs Wade by a narrow 5-4 vote on ideological lines, the socialists/democrats on the Supreme Court moved medicine from state control to national control. Well, more accurately, they moved it from state control into national "illegal to control"...

Set in the 1940s, "A Christmas Story" depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. This was boyhood before "bang-bang you're dead" was banned. Family life prior to "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads," and Christmas without the ACLU. If children could choose their families, most would opt for the kind depicted in this film, where mother is a homemaker, father is a regular working stiff, and between them they have zero repertoire of psychobabble to rub together. Although...

Voter support for offshore oil drilling remains as strong as it was during last year’s presidential election, but many also continue to believe individual states should be able to stop it off their own coastlines. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of U.S. voters believe offshore oil drilling should be allowed. Just 20% oppose drilling for oil off the coast of the United States, with another 12% undecided. These numbers are virtually unchanged from findings just after Election Day in November 2008. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party favor offshore drilling much more...

Senate Democrats are celebrating this morning for passing their version of health care reform, but voters still don’t like much of what they see. At the start of the week, 41% of voters nationwide were in favor of the health care bill, but 55% were opposed. This is the fifth straight week with support for the legislation between 38% and 41%. Rasmussen Report is continuing to track support for the plan on a weekly basis and will have new numbers on Monday morning. Part of the opposition comes from a general skepticism about Congress, rather than specific policy issues. But...

THE navy's Armidale class patrol boats were put to sea with design defects, missing operating procedures and inadequate training that caused an accident in which four sailors were almost killed. A secret report into the gassing of the crew aboard HMAS Maitland has raised more questions about the 16-strong fleet of Armidale patrol boats, twice recalled to port for emergency repairs since they were commissioned in 2005. The $28 million boats, dubbed "Armifail" by frustrated sailors, have been dogged by problems including fuel contamination, engine trouble, blocked toilets, lack of personal storage, inadequate lighting and overcrowding. Unusually for military vessels,...

LOS ANGELES—A couple who said they were assaulted by Gene Simmons sued the KISS bassist for unspecified damages Thursday, court records show. Nathan Marlowe and his wife Cynthia Manzo said Simmons attacked them, threatened them and took their video camera at the upscale The Grove mall on Saturday after they started filming the rocker.

Hell just froze over. I never thought I'd read anything like this in the NYT.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/fashion/27LADIES.html?_r=1

If this isn't proof of media bias, I don't know what is. Here we have the equivalent of finding out the moon landing was faked and I don't see any reports of this being a story of interest.

LITTLE ROCK — Salvation Army Maj. Phillip Wise had Christmas plans. All he had to do was drop off the Christmas Eve donations at the Salvation Army headquarters in North Little Rock, pick up his wife, Cindy, who also is a Salvation Army major and was in the building waiting on him, and head home, to West Virginia, for the holidays. His three young children — 4, 6 and 8 — were with him. Then the unthinkable happened. Wise was robbed at gunpoint and as his children watched. He was then shot and bled to death in the parking lot...

At face value, it seems harmless enough. According to ABC "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts, every Christmas the show features various "spiritual leaders" to talk about the role of faith in their lives. And this year's Christmas Day broadcast was no exception. "And now, it is a ‘GMA' tradition on Christmas Day, to talk about the role of faith in all of our lives," Roberts said. "We gathered a group of spiritual leaders from different traditions to talk about the importance of belief, in good times and belief in bad times, too." Roberts' panel featured Father Edward Beck, an...

Barack Obama-bashing has become rather fashionable of late in Washington. Republicans have been deriding him as a big government, big spender who kowtowed too often to foreign leaders. In the autumn the frustrated Left began accusing the President of betraying the base of his support by, among other sell-outs, allowing the health care bill to be drastically weakened. In recent weeks many among the capital's powerful commentariat have turned on the man they had lionised on his way to the White House. Was he tough enough? Had he taken on too much? Where had the magic gone? All of a...

The Queen's Christmas Message was a sombre one today at the end of a year dominated by the war in Afghanistan and deep economic gloom. "Each year that passes seems to have its own character," she said. "Some leave us with a feeling of satisfaction, others are best forgotten." She described 2009 as "a difficult year for many, in particular those facing the continuing effects of the economic downturn." The Queen, who is the titular head of the Armed Forces, expressed her sadness at the casualties suffered by British forces fighting in Helmand Province of Afghanistan. "I am sure that...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man is in police custody after opening fire at a northwest Oklahoma City apartment complex near Hefner and Council roads. Police said the man started firing multiple shots in the parking lot of the Tammaron Village apartments around 4 p.m. Thursday. Witnesses said the man initially went into the apartment complex's main office. When employees locked him out, he opened fire in the parking lot. As the man was firing shots, another citizen armed with a gun came around the corner and ordered the gunman to put his weapon down. The gunman dropped his weapon and...

SALISBURY — - More than 3,000 volunteers gathered on Christmas Day to take part in the ongoing search for an 11-year-old girl who police say was kidnapped from her bedroom by a registered sex offender. The voluneers gathered around 7 a.m. at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium to register for the search. The night before, more than 200 people scoured frozen fields and ponds the night before without success. Sarah Haley Foxwell was wearing a pink shirt and red pajamas printed with Christmas trees when she disappeared from her maternal aunt's home Tuesday night, police said. A younger sister awoke during...

Wednesday December 23, 2009 Top Ten Good News Stories of 2009 Compiled by John-Henry WestenDecemer 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The following are the top ten good news stories of 2009, ranked according to popularity.1) 12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation  12-year-old "Lia" of Toronto become a star at her school and on Youtube with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition. A video of her speech has been watched over 800,000 times on Youtube.2) List of Bishops Opposing the Notre Dame Invitation and Award to President Obama83 U.S. bishops spoke out against Notre Dame's...

When the Senate and House agree on a health care bill and if our tax money pays for ana portion directly or indirectly, I will revolt by not paying my personal taxes. I will prefer going to prison than have even one cent of my income pay for an abortion. I have been praying about this and other issues that affect my pro-life principles. If I call myself pro-life, then I must act on these principles in a way that will change my comfort level to the point of suffering. How many of us have fought with money and time...

IT IS ONE OF those moments when I feel like a time traveler. I look out the airplane window and watch a young woman on the tarmac directing our jet to its gate. As she waves the signals, I fall into a silent, familiar reverie: “I remember when.’’ What I remember, of course, is a time when no woman would have been hired for this “man’s job.’’ What I remember is when my generation opened the door for hers. If I talked to her about the old days, I wonder, would she listen as politely as if I were talking...

WASHINGTON -- For me, Christmas brings images of boxes, not wrapped but valued. At the end of rural road in Kericho, Kenya, there is a compound overrun by playing children. Sister Placida -- a nun whose frenetic temperament belies her name -- raises AIDS orphans. It is a cheerful place, but careful about preserving difficult memories. Sister Placida shows an album of pictures and detailed descriptions of people she has cared for who died from AIDS. The children keep memory boxes, containing photos and mementos of their deceased parents. These acts of preservation seem a kind of desperate protest --...

Lehman Brothers Still Hiring, Giving Bonuses Collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers is still hiring and can still hand out bonus checks this year, a bankruptcy court in New York said. A judge has given administrators permission to spend $50 million in bonus pay for 230 traders who are reconciling Lehman Brothers accounts as the company unwinds a $10 billion portfolio, The Financial Times reported Tuesday. In addition, Lehman Brothers, which collapsed at the height of the financial crisis a year ago, is hiring in Europe, seeking staff that can help it dismantle its accounts. "We've made our strategy and reasoning...

Australian Cardinal George Pell rejects silence in the face of adversity. He has raised a cry to battle the global anti-discrimination laws that threaten religious freedom the world over. In a speech delivered to the Australian Christian lobby on November 20, 2009, he spelled out the details of his concerns. In his conclusion, he drew attention to Britain, where the situation is already far worse than in Australia, and to the United States, which is just beginning to experience the first effects of state-sponsored religious intolerance. There was no mention of Canada, no doubt because the Cardinal is unaware of...

As the passage of the bill that will start the process of nationalizing health care in America becomes almost inevitable, so, too, the process of undoing America's standing as The Last Best Hope of Earth will have begun. That description of America was not, as more than a few Americans on the left believe, made by some right-wing chauvinist. It was made by President Abraham Lincoln in an address to Congress on Dec. 1, 1862. The bigger the American government becomes, the more like other countries America becomes. Even a Democrat has to acknowledge the simple logic: America cannot at...

Ever since I grew old enough to begin the complicated process of starting to separate the myths we are often fed as children from the truth, I’ve been told that the long-held date of December 25 to celebrate the birth of Christ, Christmas, isn’t really the date upon which Christ was born as a human baby. I’ve heard the stories that December 25 was just a pagan holiday that Christians “took over” once the Christian religion gained ascendancy in the Roman Empire. I’ve heard that due to the wintery time of year and the shepherds out in the field in...

It has been an interesting time around the Washington, D.C., area these last few weeks. The District of Columbia City Council passed a law restricting the ability of Catholic Charities to continue its same level of social services to the city’s poor and homeless. The Baltimore City Council passed a bill subjecting crisis pregnancy centers to a $150-a-day fine for not posting signs stating what services they do not offer. Suburban Montgomery County Council is considering legislation to impose a $750-a-day fine (it is, after all, one of the richest areas in the United States) on pro-life pregnancy centers for...

Are we having fun yet? Perhaps the most unpopular story your humble correspondent ever wrote for NewsBusters was probably the one about Zippy the Pinhead. Most readers found it impossible to interpret Zippy into any form of reasonable thought. The main complaint being that Zippy was indecipherably confusing. Here are a few of the complaints from the previous Zippy story: Sorry, this one Zipped right by me, over my headthat strip makes no sense at all...Aren’t comic strips supposed to stand alone in their message and humor? Or is it just so abstract that it’s rendered ineffectual? The official site...

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol as an indictment of nineteenth century industrialization and economic social classes. The following is a modern take on the tale exploring a different issue. The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach...

Al Franken, the Democrat from Minnesota who won election to the Senate after a successful career as a comic and author, has begun to show the sharp-tongued side of his personality by ripping into GOP staffers behind the scenes.

The NBA and Washington Wizards are investigating Gilbert Arenas for storing firearms in his locker, which would be a violation of the league's gun policy. After CBSSports.com first reported the incident Thursday, the Wizards released a statement saying that Arenas stored unloaded firearms in a locked container in his locker. The guns were not accompanied by ammunition, the team said. But under league guidelines collectively bargained between the players and owners, players are not permitted to carry firearms on league property or during league business. Arenas, who was previously suspended one game in 2004-05 for violating the NBA's weapons policy,...

LEGAZPI CITY – (UPDATE) Alert level 5 could be declared any time on Mayon Volcano but volcanologists are waiting for one important sign – a chocolate-colored mass of ash column shooting straight up into the air as high as 10-15 kilometers from the crater. “Parameters are high until now and the intensifying activity might force us to raise the alert level to its highest level but it would happen only when Mayon shoots a straight ash column containing pyroclastic materials and molten, burning rocks as big as houses or buses from its crater, accompanied by intense rumbling and jittering of...

Have you ever noticed how, when it comes to the rich and powerful, the most impressive people are those that eschew the many benefits of their position in favor of a modest, down to earth existence? When those from whom we expect arrogance surprise us with humility, something resonates within the human soul. For Christians, one of the most breathtaking things about our savior Jesus Christ is that he willingly surrendered the privileges of his Lordship and descended from Heaven to walk among us, as one of us. For us and for our salvation, He came down from Heaven. By...

A unique business is opening in Fernley early next month. Already set up with an office on U.S. Highway 95A near Main Street, the Defensive Pistol Institute is accepting applications for classes in safe gun use. Owner Cal Eilrich, a Fernley city councilman and member of many shooting organizations as well as the owner of a local shooting range, is offering his expertise to teach the art of handling firearms. “The classes are set up for a number of things from introductory to firearms to the National Rifle Association (NRA) basic pistol course. There are all sorts of levels of...

Questions about race, an antagonistic relationship with police and an ongoing dispute compelled the family of a Farmville man killed Nov. 15 to press for charges against a shooter who authorities say acted in self-defense. Ellis Hunter III, 26, died a week after a fight with William Payton, 23, of Greenville. An investigation by Farmville police concluded Payton shot Hunter after Hunter attacked Payton with a knife, District Attorney Clark Everett told Hunter's family at a meeting last week. Everett told Hunter family members and Pitt County NAACP president Calvin Henderson during the Dec. 15 meeting that evidence collected at...

If your friends and family are like mine, you've received at least one of those handy bookstore gift cards under the tree, so here are some ideas on how you might spend them. It's an eclectic list, and not all the books are new. But they happen to be books I enjoyed over the last year, and I'd like to share the pleasure with others. The first on my list -- "A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel," by Allis and Ronald Radosh -- is a brilliant account of the President Truman's decision to have the...

Several thugs tried to drag a woman off a Queens subway train Thursday night, but she fought back and fatally stabbed one of her tormenters before fleeing on another train, police said. The large group of men - perhaps as many as eight - surrounded the woman outside a chicken restaurant above the 21st St.-Queensbridge station about 9 p.m., police and a witness said. The harassment, which may have included unwanted sexual advances toward the woman and grabbing, continued as she entered the subway station. The woman broke free from the men and frantically ran down to the platform and...

...some argue the U.S. should legalize marijuana, let cocaine pass through the Caribbean and take the profit motive out of the drug trade In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs," the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion. A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government's war on drugs summed up recently what he's learned from his long career: "This war is not winnable." [] Growing numbers of Mexican and...

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. -- The Seminole Sheriff's Office said a man shot and killed his daughter's boyfriend on a Seminole County street. The Sheriff's Office said the shooting happened just after 3 p.m. at the intersection of Dodd Road and Biscayne Drive. Officials said the man was Orlando Regional Medical Center where he died. Several witnesses at the scene said the two men were arguing before the shooting and that they believe the father shot in self defense. "He pulled out a gun that he had with him, that he carried most the time, and shot him from the hip...

<p>PrintShareThisA living nativity scene in near the Colorado ski resort of Vail almost had to go without two crucial actors when two donkeys escaped.</p>

[You may have to play around a bit to get the video to operate. Make sure you click "Full Program" or you might just get a 2-minute clip.] This 30 minute video (including about 17 minutes of Q & A) from several months ago is Richard Epstein's analysis of the bill proposed by the House. But the main regulatory features of that bill are the same as the one just passed by the Senate. The gist of Epstein's lecture is that the total effect of these insurance regulations is to kill private health insurance, so we will eventually all end...