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The good news for Hillary Rodham Clinton is that she’s winning a lot of battles. The bad news is that the war is pretty much lost. Sure, she won Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary by a strong 9 points in the face of being outspent on television ads by Barack Obama 2-to-1. She also won Ohio, Rhode Island, and at least the primary part of the bizarre “Texas two-step” primary-and-caucus combination on March 4. But today, she is 133 delegates behind Obama, 1,728 to 1,595, according to NBC News. At this point last week, she trailed by 136 delegates. Since then...

<p>In his upcoming biography of Jesus, "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven will make the shocking claim that Christ probably was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee.</p> <p>An Amsterdam publishing house said Wednesday it will publish the Dutch filmmaker's biography of Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait," in September.</p>

Darvaz: The Door to Hell Category: Funny, History, Photos | This place in Uzbekistan is called by locals “The Door to Hell”. It is situated near the small town of Darvaz. The story of this place lasts already for 35 years. Once the geologists were drilling for gas. Then suddenly during the drilling they have found an underground cavern, it was so big that all the drilling site with all the equipment and camps got deep deep under the ground. None dared to go down there because the cavern was filled with gas. So they ignited it so that no...

Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor. Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin. They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle. Dixon -- six months...

The young man in my office was impeccably dressed and articulate. He was an Ivy League MBA, successful in the financial world, and had lived in three countries before age 30. Raised in a family with only the loosest connections to a mainline church, he had little understanding of Christianity. I was therefore gratified to learn of his intense spiritual interest, recently piqued as he attended our church. He said he was ready to embrace the gospel. But there was a final obstacle. "You've said that if we do not believe in Christ," he said, "we are lost and condemned....

There is an argument to be made for America’s never-ending presidential campaign in that it tests a candidate in a variety of different ways. It examines a potential president’s physical stamina, ability to organize and prioritize, strategic thinking, tactical ability, and gifts of persuasion. Eventually, it will also test a candidate’s ability to handle adversity. Judging by what has transpired this week for Barack Obama and his suddenly faltering campaign, one would think the candidate would have had a bellyfull of untoward occurrences, staff gaffes, bad luck, and perhaps a touch of incompetence on the part of the candidate himself....

Go, Hillary! That’s my battle cry. Hillary Clinton needs to hit our Texas primary hard on March 4 — or kiss her campaign for the presidency goodbye. Barack Obama has taken the delegate lead, with some big states still ahead for forthcoming primaries. At this point, the polling experts — who are starting to look like polling amateurs — expect Hillary to take Texas. If so, she will follow other women who have gained crucial political momentum in Texas, such as Ann Richards in recent times and Miriam “Ma” Ferguson in the 1920s. And on the GOP side, the state...

Vatican City, Feb 8, 2008 / 10:18 am (CNA).- In a meeting held yesterday in the Vatican's Hall of Blessings with priests of the diocese of Rome, the Holy Father participated in a question and answer session on wide range of issues, including the reality of Heaven and Hell. The exchange between Pope Benedict and the Roman priests involved ten questions covering the youth, evangelization, education and the four last things: death, judgment, Heaven and Hell.On the topic of the Final Judgment, the Holy Father said that in the Church today there is perhaps too little reference to sin, Paradise...

I went looking for Hell the other day. No, not the one supposedly down there -- that one the demons would have to drag me to, kicking and screaming. I mean the Hell found in Scripture. Opening the New American Bible, I quickly flipped through some of the verses where I expected to find it, without success. Maybe a computer search would pick up what my eyes were overlooking? No such luck. No wonder I couldn't remember hearing Hell mentioned at Mass for a very long time -- someone has taken the very word out of our Bible! Thinking about the...

Last Updated: Friday, 28 December 2007, 23:14 GMT Castro again hints at retirement Acting leader Raul Castro sat next to his brother's empty seat Cuba's ailing President, Fidel Castro, has for the second time this month alluded publicly to the possibility of retiring from office. In a letter read out to Cuba's National Assembly, he said in the past he had been a person who "clung" to power, but that life had changed his perspective. Mr Castro also urged people to support his brother, acting leader Raul Castro. Last week, the 81-year-old communist leader wrote that he had a duty...

I'm not Catholic, but I seriously doubt that is possible given the person he was. He and I didn't agree often, but he wasn't an evil man by any means. So why then would a representative of the Vatican News Service say this is the Pope?

IN a small flat in Damascus, a young man in jeans and T-shirt draws frequently on a Gauloises cigarette as he describes how he dressed his brother in a suicide belt and watched him blow up some American soldiers at a drinks stall in Iraq. The young man calls himself Ahmed. He is 23 and he has a degree in chemistry. He knows all about explosives. Last year, he says coolly, he took 15kg of TNT, packed it into pouches with some nails and strapped the bomb to his 19-year-old brother’s waist. There was never any doubt that it would...

A Poem Fit for Our Times – ‘Me and My Friends’ Special to LifeSiteNews.com by Dr. John B. Shea, October 3, 2007 'Me and My Friends' For me and my friends To follow the trends Is simply a matter of choice Autonomy rules That all but poor fools Speak loud and speak clear with one voice Some talk of abortion With warning and caution But science has shown very well That it's safe and its normal That it's healthy and moral And that it sends no one to hell Some say that to toke Or to drink or to smoke...

Lovelle Svart woke up Friday knowing it was the day she would die. There was much to do. Her family and closest friends would be gathering at 11 a.m. in her mother's apartment in the Southwest Portland assisted-living center where they both lived. She directed trips to the grocery store and even called AAA to jump-start the dead battery of her 2006 Scion. She double-checked delivery of food platters from Fred Meyer: turkey sandwiches, strawberries and grapes, pretzels, almonds and sparkling water. There would be pink roses on the dining table and a boombox in the corner to play music,...

A stranger stood at the gate of Hell And the Devil himself had answered the bell He looked him over from head to toe And said “My friend, I’d like to know What you have done in the line of sin To entitle you to come within?” Then Franklin D. with his usual guile Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile. “When I took over in ’33, A nation’s faith was mine”, said he “I promised this and I promised that, And I calmed them down with a fireside chat. I spent their money on fishing trips And I fished...

One night while diving for lobster on the island of Mauritius, an Australian named Ian McCormick was stung on his forearm by what local Creole fishermen call "invisibles": extraordinarily poisonous but hard to see "five-box" jellyfish, in the nomenclature of the trade. Medics were called -- urgently. It was an emergency if ever there is an emergency. "Found in the waters off northern Australia, the box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri is not the only marine invertebrate to use venom, but it is the possessor of arguably the most lethal venom in the world," notes one expert. "In the past half...

SAVANNAH, Georgia, SEPT. 17, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Those who don't believe in hell are living with a very dangerous kind of wishful thinking, or a comfortable fantasy, says author Paul Thigpen. In this interview with ZENIT, Thigpen discusses his new book "My Visit to Hell," published by Creation House. Thigpen is editor of The Catholic Answer, director of the Stella Maris Center for Faith and Culture, and an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of 34 books. Q: You have written a novel, "My Visit to Hell," about just that -- a young man's visit to hell. What prompted this? Thigpen: The...

TEHRAN (AFP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday lashed out at his Western foes which demand Iran halt its sensitive nuclear activities, saying they were "racing to hell". "The Iranian people have climbed over difficult mountain passes on their path of progress. The enemies need to step aside from our path and give up their satanic ideas," he said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. "One or two countries are refusing to accept that Iran is now mastering nuclear technology ... Some countries are racing towards hell. But this makes us sad and, for the good of their people,...

Now I'm not a supporter of Mitt Romney, however I do think he deserves an equal chance to be elected President without being discriminated against. I would want Mitt to lose perhaps to Fred Thompson or Rudi, but Mitt should be given the chance to lose fairly, not by unfairly targetting his religion. Hindu, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim (i.e., Wafa Sultan is an example of a Muslim woman braver than any of us in the War on Terror), etc. Give each man or woman a fair chance as individuals... that's what the US consistution and this forum is all about. I...

Recent years have provided plenty of church scandals, but an unlikely one has occurred in the Bible belt. A prominent Tulsa, Okla., minister was scandalized not by sex or embezzlement, but by his belief in hell. When Carlton Pearson began wondering if modern believers still need a medieval pit of fire, it cost him his congregation. Watch "Hell: Our Fear and Fascination" Friday on a special "20/20" at 10 p.m. EDT He shared pulpits with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. He counseled presidents at the White House. And after the Oklahoma City bombing, he was called to lead the grieving...

One of my grandmother's favorite colloquialisms was: "If it looks like a duck,walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck; it's probably a duck." Let us begin exchanging the word "duck" for Muslim, since they have orchestrated the last 11,000 terrorist acts around Planet Earth. England's Prime Minister may want to avoid angering Muslims (the audacity!) but the 3 Middle Eastern physicians dedicated to blowing up Scotland's Glasgow Airport this past week were...Muslim. Secular humanists and "mother ship" worshipers may not want to "offend" Muslims who slaughter non-Muslims daily somewhere on this planet,but since Muslims have butchered nearly 8...

Introduction No one really wants to talk about hell. The person who finds some kind of satisfaction in exploring its horrors must have a problem. Many do not wish to believe that some will suffer eternal torment. One survey over ten years ago indicated that 58% Methodists, 60% Episcopalians, 54% Presbyterians, 35% American Baptists, 22% American Lutherans deny it is a specific place after death. It is not difficult to understand why some choose to believe there is no such thing as eternal torment. After all, such a fact would have dramatic implications! The cults have generally tended to distort...

A woman who claimed that a family pet mutilated her infant son's genitals was taken into police custody this morning, shortly before a protective custody hearing in the case began. Katherine "Katie" Nadal, 25, is charged with injury to a child, a felony offense. The former Anahuac High School cheerleader was led away in handcuffs by two plainclothes Houston Police Department officers at 9:30 a.m. Nadal, a former cocktail waitress now unemployed, had arrived at the Harris County Juvenile Justice Center with her mother and her attorney, Itze Soliz Matthews. Police said Nadal did not seem that surprised by the...

Despite optimistic name, Palestinian-only road a nightmare B. Michael Published: 05.09.07, 15:18 / Israel Opinion Bir Naballah is a cage. It may be called “The Bir Naballah enclave” in the occupier’s clean language, but this cannot change the facts. It is a cage. Perhaps a compound. Another atrocity that emerged from the winding route of the separation fence. In the past, the village was practically a Jerusalem suburb, as were the three neighboring villages. Today they are surrounded by bars and fences and concrete walls on every side, with only one gate connecting them to the outer world. This route...

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely...

<p>May 5, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - The White House yesterday unloaded a blast at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for playing "presidential politics" with her plan to repeal the same authorization for the Iraq war that she voted for in 2002. White House spokesman Tony Fratto set the tone early yesterday, telling reporters that Clinton's Senate measure was "reckless" and "a political stunt." "It's not reflective of conditions on the ground; it's not reflective of the contributions of our troops. You can't, for example, ask al Qaeda in Iraq, are they going to end their operations on the same date. I guess that would be nice, but that's not the way it works," Fratto said. Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino kept up the broadside during the afternoon White House press briefing. "What you saw was a little bit of presidential politics. And we might see more of it, but the president has a principled stand that he's not going to change," Perino said. Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff fired back: "Hillary Clinton wants to end the war. George Bush wants to escalate it." The former first lady yesterday introduced her measure to end Congress' approval for the war in Iraq as of Oct. 11. Clinton has been hammered by liberal voters for her 2002 vote authorizing the war.</p>

  Biden: Shove It Down His Throat

FoxNews reported today that while addressing a parish in a suburb of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI clarified his view of hell. The Pope said concerning hell, [it] “really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more,” According to reports from the Vatican this ?straightforward? language is in effort to eliminate confusion pending an upcoming release of the new Catholic catechism. One might wonder about confusion from a church that proposes that its doctrine does not change. However, even the casual Catholic should remember the last Pontiff?s less literal view of hell. Speaking of hell, Pope...

Technical examinations of the surveys indicated that the British marines have been arrested in Iranian territorial waters, an official said on Wednesday. "We have determined from the GPS surveys that the British marines had entered Iranian territory and we have offered the British officials with feed-back to that effect," he said. "A number of UK marines confirmed that they were in Iran's territorial waters when they were arrested by Iranian coast guards, and expressed regret at the incident," he added. 15 British marines were arrested in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf on Friday. Iran has announced that it...

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said. Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to ?admit blame and promise to sin no more?, they risked ?eternal damnation ? the Inferno?. Hell ?really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more?, he said. The Pope, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of...

HELL is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, Pope Benedict XVI has said. Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, the Pope said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to "admit blame and promise to sin no more", they risked "eternal damnation - the inferno". Hell "really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more". The Pope, who as cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of Catholic...

                                                                                                    Where Are Enoch and Elijah? Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Yet the Bible reveals they are not in heaven today! Here's the astounding truth. Part One: Where Is Enoch?Enoch was "translated." Where did he go? Was he immediately taken to heaven? No! Because Jesus Himself said: "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the...

The Early Church Fathers taught that any one who dies in a state of mortal sin will suffer for all eternity in hell. Ignatius of AntiochCorrupters of families will not inherit the kingdom of God. And if they who do these things according to the flesh suffer death, how much more if a man corrupt by evil reaching the faith of God for the sake of which Jesus Christ was crucified? A man become so foul will depart into unquenchable fire, and so will anyone who listens to him (Letter to the Ephesians 16:1-2 [A.D. 110]).Second ClementIf we do the...

Rejected FDR at the gates of Hell A stranger stood at the Gates of hell And the Devil himself answered the bell. He looked him over from head to toe And said: My friend, I'd like to know What you have done in the line of sin To entitle you to come within? Then Franklin D, with his usual guile Stepped forth with his toothy smile and said: "When I took charge in '33 A nations faith was mine," said he "I promised them this and I promised them that And I calmed them down with a fireside chat....

Farewell, comrade Hussein... I will join you soon along with comrade (Kim) Dae-jung, and (Roh) Moo-hyun....

Editor's note: Jay Bakker, son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, is minister of Revolution Church and subject of a new documentary series, "One Punk Under God," on Sundance Channel. Marc Brown is a Revolution staff member. NEW YORK (CNN) -- What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity. While the current state of Christianity might seem normal and business-as-usual...

Hell––a bone of contention in our culture that often sees an everlasting state of punishment as somehow too sadistic and too cruel ... therefore a state of being that many hotly reject. I have something to suggest about the nature and severity of that punishment and I should be very clear that this is an analysis––MY ANALYSIS––and not a statement of vital doctrine. There are two principal torments indicated in scripture: the worm and the fire. The worm is within and the fire is without. Of the worm: I suggest that this is the "itch" to sin. I've often seen...

The creators of South Park have never been afraid to upset celebrities - and many of the show's viewers. From jokes about religion and homosexuality to four-letter tirades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have always mixed shock tactics with satire in the hit cartoon series. But they were accused of hitting a new low last night after lampooning the demise of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin just weeks after his death. The latest episode shows an animated Irwin in Hell with a stingray poking out of his bleeding chest. Irwin, 44, died in September after he was impaled by a stingray's...

The Residents of Hell rise up on All Hallows Eve in an all-new episode of South Park tonight, Wednesday, October 25 at 10:00 P.M. on Comedy Central Satan is throwing the biggest Halloween costume party ever in an all-new South Park entitled, Hell on Earth 2006. And no one will be admitted without a wristband. And no one will be admitted without a wristband. Satan is busy checking the R.S.V.P. list and deciding what costume to wear to the big event. Every detail must be perfect for the prince of darkness. But even Satan can't foresee everything. A prominent religious...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - DNA tests have confirmed that a man shot to death by British forces was a leading al-Qaida militant who embarrassed the U.S. military by making an unprecedented escape from a maximum-security military prison in Afghanistan, the U.S. command said Tuesday. Omar al-Farouq was shot and killed Sept. 25 after he opened fire on British forces during a raid on his home in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. British forces had said at the time that they had hoped to capture the suspect, but had returned fire on him when he started shooting at them. "After taking...

WASHINGTON -- Say this much for Bill Clinton. He doesn't walk quietly. Wherever the former president goes, he can still command a large public megaphone. And, as with all things Clinton, that can be both good and bad, depending upon the view. His white-hot, finger-wagging interview on "Fox News Sunday"--filled with accusations about conservative bias and Bush administration blunders--has thrust Clinton into the midterm election campaign just as the Republicans appeared to be erasing some healthy Democratic advantages. For some Democrats, that's just what they would like to see: debate on a big stage between Clinton and his successor, President...

Chances are, you're going to Hell, says a Bible scholar. "Ninety-nine out of 100 people are damned," says Jacob L. Pinewood, professor of divinity at Holy Moses College in Jarvis, Australia. "My research indicates God hates us. That's why He made His rules so ridiculous that the average person will never get into heaven." But you may be one of the lucky few, says Pinewood, author of the handy guide So, You're Going To Hell. According to Pinewood, if you answer: "I sayeth yes," to any of the following situations, you should pack for a warm climate when the Grim...

"As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell." See the First Epistle of St. Peter, chapter 3, verses 18-20: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, who one time were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, wherein...

To Hell and Back—for a Popsicle The story is real. The Popsicle was sweet. The understanding is priceless. by Randy Stiver Jerusalem's sizzling summer sun in '73 fiercely scorched my exposed skin and slow-cooked my brain. I found archaeology at the Temple Mount to be good, hard, hot, dusty, thirsty work. It was so hot and three of us so thirsty that we stood at the edge of the precipice that noonday summoning the nerve to launch an expedition into the very depths of hell itself to find something to cool our dry tongues and parched lips. Down we went,...

As is well known, a considerable number of traditionalist Catholics today can find practically nothing needing improvement in the venerable ‘Tridentine’ Roman rite of Mass, and practically nothing of any value in the post-Vatican-II changes to the rite introduced by the authority of Pope Paul VI, acting in the name of the Council itself. I should make it clear at the outset of this article that I myself am far from being an uncritical enthusiast for the way in which the liturgical reform was carried out after Vatican II. On the contrary, I have long held – and have made...

An Iowa congressman has apologized for disparaging comments he made about a veteran White House correspondent. Republican Steve King was discussing the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Saturday at the state Republican convention when he mentioned 85-year-old Helen Thomas. King said about Zarqawi, "There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he's at." He went on to say, "And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas." A spokeswoman for the two-term congressman says in an e-mail that King has apologized to Thomas. Thomas has covered the White House for nearly 50 years. She's currently...

Belief in hell is going to you-know-where. And belief in heaven is in trouble, too. That's the concern of some Christian thinkers, including Jeffrey Burton Russell, an emeritus professor of history at UC Santa Barbara, and author of the new book “Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven and How We Can Regain It� (Oxford). Russell and other fretters aren't impressed by fads like the sudden popularity of the girl's name Naveah (heaven spelled backward) or polls that show most Americans believe in some sort of heaven. The growing problem, according to Russell and others, is that the way U.S. Christians...

THE vanity of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in trying to portray himself as a Rambo-style warrior was a first step towards his downfall, according to intelligence experts. The video released in April of Zarqawi firing a machinegun -- and comically burning his hand on the hot barrel -- helped experts from Jordan pinpoint his location north of Baghdad. But the most crucial factor was the co-operation of a source within Zarqawi's own network, which put US forces on the trail of his spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-al-Rahman. US forces had first learned of Sheik Abd-al-Rahman in April when Jordanian intelligence officers arrested...

HELL, Mich. (June 5) - They're planning a hot time in Hell on Tuesday. The day bears the date of 6-6-06, or abbreviated as 666 - a number that carries hellish significance. And there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that the day will go unnoticed in the unincorporated hamlet 60 miles west of Detroit. Nobody is more fired up than John Colone, the town's self-styled mayor and owner of a souvenir shop. "I've got `666' T-shirts and mugs. I'm only ordering 666 (of the items) so once they're gone, that's it," said Colone, also known as Odum Plenty. "Everyone...

They're planning a hot time in Hell on Tuesday. The day bears the date of 6-6-06, or abbreviated as 666 _ a number that carries hellish significance. And there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that the day will go unnoticed in the unincorporated hamlet 60 miles west of Detroit. Nobody is more fired up than John Colone, the town's self-styled mayor and owner of a souvenir shop. "I've got `666' T-shirts and mugs. I'm only ordering 666 (of the items) so once they're gone, that's it," said Colone, also known as Odum Plenty. "Everyone who comes will get a...