Major Pacific exercise underway with N. Korea in background
Special to World Tribune.com
EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COMThursday, June 29, 2006
SEOUL — Eight Pacific naval powers opened a month of exercises around the Hawaiian Islands this week in one of the biggest displays of allied naval strength since World War II.
The number of vessels participating in the show of force — and some of the specific war games they played — were fine-tuned to train for countering long-range missiles even though the exercises were scheduled long before the current threat from North Korea.
Led by the U.S. Navy, the countries participating included Japan, South Korea, Chile, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain — the last still viewed as a Pacific naval power in view of its colonial legacy and strong ties to other participants.
The exercise, called RIMPAC, the acronym for Rim of the Pacific, held every two years for the past 20 years, this year tests the ability of the eight powers to counter not only attack at sea but also from missiles of the sort that North Korea is developing. U.S. Marines and the Coast Guard are also participating as ships maneuver to fend off “invasion” forces.
Among the ships participating are Aegis-class destroyers equipped with SAM 3 missiles — the type that is theoretically capable of knocking out an enemy missile. The U.S. and Japan are developing upgraded versions of the missile for both American and Japanese vessels, already deployed in waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
The exercises were also expected to include tests of interceptor missiles to be launched near the Hawaiian coast.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency claimed success in seven tests with interceptors capable of hitting missiles tipped with warheads. But skeptics here believe these claims apply only under highly controlled, artificial circumstances and doubt if the U.S. is capable of hitting a long-range Taepodong II missile, the type now poised on the launch pad on the east coast of North Korea.
A critical question was whether missile tests could support the claims of the Missile Defense Agency chief, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. "Trey" Obering III, who said: “We are continuing to see great success with the very challenging technology of hit-to-kill — a technology that is used for all of our missile defense ground- and sea-based interceptor missiles."
The U.S. force in the Pacific is believed to be the largest since the 1994 nuclear crisis from which emerged the 1994 Geneva framework agreement, under which the North promised to give up its nuclear program in exchange for facilities for producing nuclear power to help fulfill its energy needs.
Two major Pentagon figures from that era, William Perry, then secretary of defense, and Ashton Carter, who served as assistant secretary under Perry, in a controversial commentary in the Washington Post called for a preemptive strike to “destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched.”
Analysts noted the irony of Perry and Carter calling for a military attack after Perry had spent years arguing for a policy of reconciliation with the North, as presented in the infamous “Perry Review” of 1998 put out at the behest of then-President Clinton.
The White House promptly discounted any notion of a surgical strike against the North, but U.S. aircraft carriers could deploy in a few days if the United States were to consider a strike in retaliation for launching the Taepodong-2.
Korean senior policy-makers, including Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon and National Security adviser Song Min-Soon, both warned that a North Korean missile launch would necessitate strong “counter-measures,” but South Korea’s President Roh Moo-Hyun has preferred to stress the need for building “trust” between the two Koreas while pursuing his policy of reconciliation.
Ban and Song's comments reflect strong U.S. pressure to maintain the appearance of the Korean-American alliance. Their worst fear is that a missile launch would deepen the rift between Seoul and Washington as well as divisions within South Korean society.

Al Gore gives us 10 years til Doomsday!

Try this one from yesterday's stack. I don't know if you people know this or not, but Al Gore has been out at the Sundance Film Festival out there in Park City, Utah. This is one of Robert Redford's big do's, and apparently Al Gore is working on a movie that -- what is the name of this movie? Oh, that's right, "An Inconvenient Truth," and the movie will document his efforts to raise alarm on the effects of global warming, and so he brought Tipper and the kids out there. He's attending parties and posing for pictures with his fans. He's enjoying macaroni and cheese at the Discovery Channel's soirée. He's palling around with Laurie David of Curb Your Enthusiasm, who is the husband of Larry David, who drives the Prius and then flies the GV. Larry David says, "You know, Al is a funny guy, but he's also a very serious guy who believes humans may have only 10 years left to save the planet from turning into a total frying pan."


Now, the last time I heard some liberal talk about "ten years" it was 1988, Ted Danson. We had ten years to save the oceans; we were all going to pay the consequences, which would result in our death. Now Al Gore says we've got ten years. Ten years left to save the planet from a scorching. Okay, we're going to start counting. This is January 27th, 2006. We will begin the count, ladies and gentlemen. This is just... You have to love these people -- from afar, and from a purely observational point of view.

HELL IS FOR REAL!

Even Daunte understood this as he describes his vision of hell taken from the "Inferno".

"Through me the way into the suffering city,Through me the way to the eternal pain,Through me the way that runs among the lost.Justice urged on my high artificer;My maker was divine authority,The highest wisdom, and the primal love.Before me nothing but eternal things were made,And I endure eternally.Abandon every hope, ye who enter here."

Vatican leans on embryonic stem cell work

UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum

VATICAN CITY, June 28 (UPI) — Roman Catholics involved in embryonic stem cell research now face excommunication, the Vatican said Wednesday. The head of the Vatican department dealing with family affairs said in a magazine interview that "destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion ... it's the same thing," ANSA reported. "Excommunication applies to all women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said. Trujillo said that "certain crimes" were being treated as if they had "become rights." He also said the Roman Catholic Church was worried because "even talking about the defense of life and family rights is being treated as a sort of crime against the state in some countries — a form of social disobedience or discrimination against women." Embryonic stem-cell research techniques involve destroying human embryos to extract their stem cells, which have the ability to grow into any tissue of the body. Researchers believe such cells could eventually be used to treat a host of ailments including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and diabetes. Trujillo's comments come just before the Fifth World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Valencia, Spain, from July 1 to 9

ACLU Hates God

LAW OF THE LAND ACLU sues school over Jesus picture.
Classic portrait has hung in hallway for 30 years.

Posted: June 30, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

'Head of Christ' at Bridgeport High School (West Virginia Leader)A picture depicting Jesus Christ that has hung in a West Virginia high school's halls for 30 years is the target of a lawsuit by an attorney and former teacher.
Harold Sklar, parent of a former student at Bridgeport High School in Clarksburg, W.Va., petitioned the Harrison County Board of Education to have the portrait removed, contending it violates the so-called separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution, reports the West Virginia Record legal journal.
Following a tie-vote by the school board June 6 that determined the picture would stay, Sklar filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg against the district board, Harrison Superintendent Carl Friebel, Jr. and Bridgeport Principal Lindy Bennett.
Sklar is represented by Washington-based public-interest group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia also is a party in the suit.
"Any portrait of Jesus in a public high school sends the unmistakable message that that school is endorsing Christianity as the official religion of that school,'' said Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.
The lawsuit says: "The Jesus portrait has engendered conflict within the Bridgeport community for years, as school district officials have refused to remove the display and have instead resolutely retained it despite repeated complaints."
Warner Sallman's 'Head of Christ'
The portrait is the familiar "Head of Christ," created by Warner Sallman in 1941.
Sklar says he received no response from school officials after his first complaint was filed in 1996.
"The Jesus portrait, which the Harrison County School District displays alone and without any broader context, is a devotional work that constitutes unconstitutional religious expression by the district," the lawsuit says. "The expenditure of public funds to maintain the Jesus portrait is unconstitutional."
School officials defend their position on the basis of freedom of speech.
But school board President Sally Cann said the school didn't have to keep the painting to profess its Christian values. She wanted it removed because she expected a lawsuit, the Charleston Gazette reported.
The Charleston paper said debate over the painting has cause unrest in the community.

Women having abortions are not who you think

Susan Reimer the Baltimore Sun Posted June 26, 2006

You might be surprised to learn that the young woman seeking an abortion in the United States today is not somebody's careless teenage daughter.She is a mom.
She is in her 20s, she has attended college, she earns a manageable living, and she is either living with the father or in a long-term relationship with him.And she already has a child.This is the profile that emerges from the work of Brookings Institution economics scholar Melissa Kearney, who drew on abortion statistics collected by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.And it contradicts a lot of assumptions out there about the woman who seeks an abortion."Most women who are having abortions are already mothers, as opposed to women who don't want to be mothers," says Kearney, who has a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That was the biggest surprise to me."I also think it is surprising that a woman who has already given birth would find herself back in this position," she says.And although abortion rates have been decreasing for all women -- and especially teens -- there have been only small declines in the rates for women in their 20s.There were 1.3 million abortions in 2000, the most recent year for which detailed abortion data are available, Kearney reports. That is one abortion for every three births.But less than 20 percent were to teenagers, while 70 percent were to women in their 20s and early 30s. Eighty percent of abortions were to unmarried women, but only 25 percent were to women living in poverty.So the commonly accepted profile of a woman having an abortion is very far off the mark.She is not a careless adolescent. She is almost as likely to be white (41 percent) as to be a member of a minority.What is most troubling in Kearney's report is that half of abortions are to women who already have had an abortion, and 60 percent of abortions are to women who already have one child.Although they make the decision not to give birth to another child, they don't take the necessary steps to prevent pregnancy."Many of these women believe that this is the responsible choice," says Kearney. "They are doing what they think is best for themselves and their families."What is not so clear is this: These women are not teenagers who might still be trying to figure out where babies come from.These are women who already have had a child, an abortion or both. That's what Kearney finds frustrating."It is hard to understand why these women weren't more responsible in the sense of finding themselves here again," Kearney says.If we want to reduce the aggregate number of abortions in this country, then perhaps it isn't teens or minorities or women in poverty that we should be trying to reach.Maybe it is the young mother next door.Susan Reimer is a columnist at The (Baltimore) Sun, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

New bishop has feeble following
By MICHAEL COREN


Pass another cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich, please. Better still, make it a sherry because, darling, the Anglicans are in a spin.
Last week the U.S. Episcopalian Church, the American equivalent of Canada's Anglicans or the Church of England, chose Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the new leader of its 2.3-million-member denomination.
The lady bishop is an oceanographer by training and thinks that, "the great message of Jesus is to include the excluded."
Golly, who knew? I thought the great message of Jesus might have been what Jesus said was the great message of Jesus. Something along the lines of loving God and our neighbours, but also hating sin and sticking hard and fast to moral laws and godly purity.
Asked if homosexuality was a sin, the good lady replied that she didn't think so.
"I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us."
As for all those references to sexual sin and God's detestation for homosexuality in that Bible thing that some people read, the bish said that it was written "in a different historical context by people asking different questions."
Oh I see. Different time, different people. So turning the other cheek, helping the poor and loving those who are hard to love don't apply any longer because we now ask different questions.
Poor Bishop Schori, she really is rather out of her depth. Which is ironic, in that she's an oceanographer.
Thing is, none of it really matters. Her church boasts 2.3 million members but the vast majority of them are over the age of 60 and the denomination is in a terrifying decline.
The diocese of Newark for example, the centre of liberal Protestant Christianity in America, has lost 46% of its members since 1972. Put simply, it will cease to exist within a generation.
The numbers in Canada for the Anglicans are similarly disastrous. Between 1961 and 2001, the church lost 53% of its members, slimming down from 1.36 million to a mere 642,000.
In the period between 1981 and 1991, Anglican church membership decreased by 13%. Between 1991 and 2001, the numbers dropped by more than 20%. In other words, 13,000 people are leaving every year.
It will virtually disappear within the lifetime of most people reading this column. The same is true of every mainline Protestant denomination, including the Presbyterians and the United Church. Overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly old and, let's be clear here, overwhelmingly liberal.
Theirs is a liberalism that says that the Bible has to be edited rather than followed, that we can ordain homosexuals and that sin is whatever someone like Michael Moore says it is.
In case you believe that all churches are in such trouble, there are 60 million evangelicals in the U.S. -- and the numbers grow each year. There is similar success for such churches in Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Roman Catholicism lost people in the more liberal 1960s and '70s, but the numbers are climbing exponentially because of Pope John Paul and a newly empowered orthodoxy.
The causes of the failure are obvious, but the solutions would require people to put Christianity before fashionable politics. Not going to happen. Better make that sherry a double.

Pentagon Document Says Gays Suffer Mentall Illness ( June 2006 )
....There's still hope!

The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Homosexual Priests Must Be Deprived ofTheir Clerical Dignity and Put to Death
In the Renaissance the vice of homosexuality again became prominent. This was a matter of great concern to Pope St. Pius V. For this reason, he wrote several important documents against it beginning in the first year of his pontificate. The most important is the Constitution Horrendum illud scelus, whose central text we reproduce below.In our days of moral relaxation and liberalization of customs, we are witnessing a shameful complacence of the religious authority - even the highest - toward the vice of homosexuality in the clergy and seminaries. We consider it quite opportune to bring to mind those perennial, unchanging principles expressed by St. Pius V in his Apostolic Constitution. Perhaps they will open some eyes to see the depths of the abyss into which we have fallen.
St. Pius V
That horrible crime, on account of which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by fire through divine condemnation, causes us most bitter sorrow and shocks our mind, impelling us to repress such a crime with the greatest possible zeal. Quite opportunely the Fifth Lateran Council [1512-1517] issued this decree: "Let any member of the clergy caught in that vice against nature . . . be removed from the clerical order or forced to do penance in a monastery (chap. 4, X, V, 31). So that the contagion of such a grave offense may not advance with greater audacity by taking advantage of impunity, which is the greatest incitement to sin, and so as to more severely punish the clerics who are guilty of this nefarious crime and who are not frightened by the death of their souls, we determine that they should be handed over to the severity of the secular authority, which enforces civil law. Therefore, wishing to pursue with the greatest rigor that which we have decreed since the beginning of our pontificate, we establish that any priest or member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into this abyss." (Constitutionn Horrendum illud scelus, August 30, 1568, in Bullarium Romanum, Rome: Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, Mainardi, 1738, chap. 3, p. 33)

26-June-2006 -- Catholic News Agency

FOUR CHRISTIANS ARRESTED IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR PRAYING AT HOME
JEDDAH, June 26 (CNA) - Two Ethiopian and two Eritrean Christians have been arrested and incarcerated in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for conducting prayers in their home.
The Compass Direct news agency reported that the religious police, called Muttawa, armed with wooden clubs, broke into a private residence in Jeddah two weeks ago and arrested the four Christians - the four remain in prison.
More than 100 Eritrean, Ethiophian and Filipino Christians were gathered in the house when the Muttawa arrested the four group leaders: Mekbeb Telahun, Fekre Gebremedhin, Dawit Uqbay and Masai Wendewesen. The few Christians in Saudi Arabia are mostly migrant workers.
The government of Saudi Arabia forbids the practice of any religion other than the fundamentalist Wahhabite version of Islam. It prohibits building places of worship, churches, or chapels. Any public expressions of faith, such as carrying a Bible, a crucifix, or rosary beads, and praying in public are forbidden.

Senator seeks tax on pimps, prostitutes
By Jonathan SchienbergCNN
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is hoping to stamp out the sex trade by taxing pimps and prostitutes, then jailing them when they don't pay.
The Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning approved a bill sponsored by committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, authorizing at least $2 million toward the establishment of an office in the IRS criminal investigation unit to prosecute unlawful sex workers for violations of tax laws.
The bill's approval gives the IRS harsh new criminal penalties for use against those in the underground criminal economy. According to Grassley's office, the majority of the victims of sex trafficking -- those who are often smuggled in from other counties and virtually imprisoned in a house set up for prostitution -- are girls ages 13 to 17.

27-June-2006 -- Catholic World News Brief

BATTLE TO SAVE MT. SOLEDAD CROSS CONTINUES
Ann Arbor, June 27, 2006 (CNA) - The Thomas More Law Center filed an emergency motion Friday to intervene in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking to reverse an order to remove the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial cross.
Federal District Court Judge Gordon Thompson issued an order May 3rd, to the City of San Diego to remove the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial cross by Aug. 1st or face fines of $5,000 per day.
The Law Center’s emergency motion to intervene was filed two days after the Ninth Circuit denied San Diego’s request to stay the removal of the cross. The Court instead expedited the appeal, ordering briefs to be filed by July 19th and setting oral argument for the week of Oct. 16th, two months after the Cross is supposed to be removed. The Law Center filed its emergency motion to intervene so that it can participate in the expedited briefing schedule and argument.
The Law Center also has pending its own emergency motion to stay the removal of the memorial cross before the Ninth Circuit. The court has yet to rule on their stay request.
“Our heroic veterans continue to fight for our freedoms,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the Law Center. “We owe it to them and their families to continue to fight to preserve this national memorial that was erected in their honor.”
The Law Center’s emergency motion to intervene was filed on behalf of San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial, the organization responsible for Proposition A, a hugely successful petition drive that was to transfer the memorial to the federal government.
Proposition A passed by an overwhelming 76% in a special vote held in July of 2005. However, a state judge halted the implementation of Proposition A, claiming that it violated the California Constitution.
Atheist Philip Paulson, the one who challenged the cross in the federal lawsuit, is also challenging Proposition A in the California courts. The Law Center is also appealing the state court ruling.

Woman Gets Severed Finger in the Mail
By Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - A woman received a severed human finger in the mail along with a threatening letter from her ex-boyfriend that said, "This is my last chance to touch you," police said.
Corpus Christi Police Capt. John Houston said police weren't sure which finger was removed or how, but that it appeared to have been washed before it was mailed Friday.
"It was a clean cut," Houston said. "It wasn't mangled."
The 32-year-old woman filed for an emergency protective order from her boyfriend last week.
Police didn't release the name of the 34-year-old ex-boyfriend, who has not been located. He has moved to Spring, but police there could not confirm the status of the search for him.
Corpus Christi police said a previous incident of family violence was reported between the couple this month.
The man faces Class A misdemeanor charges from that incident and additional charges because of the threatening nature of the letter.

SODOMITES AND LESBIANS HEAD FOR THE HOLY LAND

Jun. 27, 2006 19:59 Updated Jun. 27, 2006 23:34 Christian leaders slam gay paradeBy ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The heads of three prominent Jerusalem-based Christian organizations on Tuesday lambasted plans to hold the World Pride international gay parade in the city this summer, and urged Israeli authorities to reconsider allowing the controversial event to take place.
"It is clear that Jerusalem has been deliberately targeted not because it has any particular significance to the gay and lesbian community, but because of the supreme importance this city holds for those of biblical faith.
"The decision to hold this event in Jerusalem can only be seen as a calculated and confrontational act meant to provoke and offend those who adhere to timeless, biblical moral standards in the very place they hold most dear," a joint statement by the heads of the three Evangelical Christian organizations stated.
The statement was cosigned by Bridges for Peace, Christian Friends of Israel, and the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.
Despite widespread city opposition, World Pride organizers reiterated Tuesday that they are determined to hold the international event in Jerusalem in seven weeks time, setting the stage for a major showdown in the city this summer.
"The World Pride event will take place in Jerusalem because we believe Jerusalem should be a center of tolerance, pluralism and humanity. Unfortunately, there are those who prefer Jerusalem to be fanatical, dark, pursuing strife and hatred," said Noa Sattath, chairperson of Jerusalem's Gay and Lesbian Center which is hosting the event.
The planned week-long international gay festival, which was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed due to last summer's concomitant Gaza pullout, has been widely criticized by a coterie of conservative Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in Jerusalem and around the world as a deliberate affront and provocation.
A public opinion poll released last year found that three-quarters of Jerusalem residents were opposed to holding the event in the city, while only a quarter supported it.
The last international gay parade, which took place in Rome in 2000 despite the wrath of the Vatican, attracted about half a million participants. Local organizers expect tens of thousands of revelers for the Jerusalem event this summer.
The six-day event is slated to include street parties, workshops and a gay film festival.

ST. PIUS X SEMINARY - FULL STEAM AHEAD!
By Joe Orso / Lee Newspapers
The Rev. Yves le Roux, rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, is clear about the role of the Society of St. Pius X, of which he is a member.“We are Roman Catholic,” he said. “We are recognized by Pope Benedict XVI. He is our father, but we are obliged to tell you we do not accept the teachings of Vatican II because it’s not an echo of the traditional church. The Church does not have the ability to teach something new.”St. Thomas Aquinas is one of six seminaries around the world run by the Society of St. Pius X, a fraternity of priests in disagreement with the Vatican.On Friday, four of its seminarians were ordained as priests and another made a deacon at an outdoor ceremony on the seminary grounds. About 2,000 people from across the country attended the Mass, celebrated by Bishop Bernard Fellay. Fellay, who lives in Switzerland and is one of the society’s four bishops, was ex-communicated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1988.Founded in 1969 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the society grew out of his disapproval of the Second Vatican Council, the church’s 1962 modernization of its rituals. Their relationship with the Vatican has been marked by disagreement.When Lefebvre made Fellay and three others bishops without Vatican approval, Pope John Paul II ex-communicated Lefebvre and all the bishops. The same year, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — said the society had closed itself off in a “fanaticism of the elect,” as reported by Catholic New Service.There have been attempts at reconciliation between the two sides as late as this year.As le Roux and the Rev. Joseph Dreher, 41, vice rector at the seminary, explained, much of the disagreement stems from the liturgy. The society uses the pre-Vatican II Mass, celebrated in Latin.“The liturgy is an expression of our faith,” Dreher said. “By restoring the old Mass, the true Mass, the Tridentine Mass, it expresses the teachings of the Catholic Church. By restoring that we want to restore the beliefs, which over time, with Vatican II especially, they’ve been put out, watered down, taken out of people’s minds.”Le Roux, 41, from France, said people believe as they pray. The new Mass, he said, puts man before God, while the Latin Mass gives honor to God.He also disagrees with Vatican II’s teachings on religious liberty and understanding of non-Catholic religions.“It’s very surprising for us to hear that other religions can have some truth,” le Roux said.The two listed repercussions of what they see as a drifting Church: Catholics talk less about hell and sin; it’s difficult to find priests to say penance; and priests marry couples who are living together.“In the modern Church, the priest is just the president of the assembly,” Dreher said.Paul Robinson, 30, is one of the priests ordained Friday. Like Dreher, he grew up with the Latin Mass. He said if you grow up in that culture, the society is the “biggest thing going.”“There would be no reason for me to be a priest if I didn’t believe there was right and wrong,” he said. “We’re always looked at as the mean guys because we believe in things.”As of 2005, the society had 470 priests serving in 60 nations. St. Thomas Aquinas, on Stockton hill just outside Winona, is its only U.S. seminary.Wearing a black cassock, le Roux joked about being a dinosaur. He said religion is not just about being nice, it’s also about being holy.“We are not here to save the Church because the Church is divine and does not need to be saved,” he said. “We are sure, one day or another, the Church will come back.”Joe Orso writes for the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune.