There was a big outcry in DC about body armor for the military, and how Bush was failing the troops. Turns out, the troops don’t want so much.

Extra body armor — the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States — has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say.

Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, although only about 5 pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say.

“We have to climb over walls and go through windows,” said Sgt. Justin Shank. “I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don’t understand that this is combat, and people are going to die.”

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain shared concerns about the extra pounds.

“Before you know it, they’re going to get us injured because we’re hauling too much weight and don’t have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house,” said Staff Sgt. Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. “I think we’re starting to go overboard on the armor.”

The question of what “religious freedom” means to the Afghan government is still on the front burner. President Karzai is inserting himself into the situation. Diplomacy seems to be doing the job. It’s not over yet (in the linked article, the clerics warn of an uprising if Abdul Rahman, a converted Christian, is not executed), but things seem to be getting better little by little. I see some political good in this situation, as the government and the people are being forced to debate the religious freedom issue. Hopefully, they’ll take some cues from the countries that liberated them

From my perspective, there is another upside. Afghans are more curious about Christianity.

An Afghan Christian leader in the U.S. has welcomed reports that criminal charges may be dropped against an Afghan convert who was threatened with execution for refusing to return to Islam. The case has prompted strong international condemnation.

Hussain Andaryas said the publicity surrounding the Abdul Rahman case had resulted in a surge of interest in Christianity among Afghans, strong concern for the plight of Afghanistan’s underground Christians — and an antagonistic response from Muslims.

…

Andaryas runs a collection of Christian websites in Afghanistan’s Dari-Persian tongue as well as daily radio programs and a weekly television program.

He is in daily contact with individuals in his homeland, and has been reporting for several years about the risks faced by Afghan Christians — all converts from Islam and thus considered apostates worthy of death, according to Islamic law (shari’a).

He said the websites typically drew about 300 unique visitors every month, but since the Rahman story emerged had attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors.

The number of emails received also has risen enormously, and 13 people are now tasked with responding to them.

The majority of emails are negative and many are abusive, coming from Muslims who felt that Rahman and other apostates — including Andaryas himself — should be severely punished.

But there also are many messages of support, he said.

And then there are emails coming from Afghans wanting to know more about Christianity, asking where they can get a Bible in the Dari or Pashto language, or sharing the news that they had become believers in Jesus Christ.

Among the most stirring messages are those from Afghan Muslims marveling about a faith for which a man was willing to die and wanting to study the Bible further.

“I strongly believe God is using this situation for His glory,” Andaryas said. “One man’s bold step has shaken the world.”

While I don’t wish persecution on anyone, the threat of death to Rahman plays well into God’s hand. Keep this man and the other Afghan Christians in your prayers.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out. Comments welcome.)

Those wacky adult stem cells. Every time you turn around, they keep showing that they have a lot more potential that you thought with none of the downsides of embryonic stem cells.

German scientists said on Friday they had isolated sperm-producing stem cells that have similar properties to embryonic stem cells from adult mice.

If the same type of cells in humans show similar qualities the researchers from the Georg-August-University of Goettingen believe they could be used in stem cell research which would remove the ethical dilemma associated with stem cells derived from human embryos.

“These isolated spermatogonial stem cells respond to culture conditions and acquire embryonic stem cell properties,” Gerd Hasenfuss and his colleagues said in report published online by the journal Nature.

Stem cells are master cells that have the potential to develop into any cell type in the body. Scientists believe they could act as a type of repair system to provide new therapies for illnesses ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s.

But their use is controversial because the most promising stem cells for treating human disease are derived from very early human embryos left over from fertility treatments.

If the same can be done with human cells, then the folks pushing hard for embryonic stem cell research will have the final plank knocked out from under them. The only folks left standing will be those for whom “ethics” is a quaint anachronism, and who care more about research money for corporations doing ESS work. Here’s hoping that further research reveals that this source of stem cells is available to us.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out and Blogger News Network. Comments welcome.)

The Abdul Rahman case in Afghanistan has captured the attention of the media and the blogosphere, not to mention the White House. Obviously, I hope that this convert to Christianity is treated with respect and an open mind by the new government there. So far, the messages are mixed, with the option now on the table to declare Rahman mentally incompetent to stand trial so that the world spotlight on this case of religious freedom dims.

There are those on the Left that suggest that this proves the Afghan Experiment has failed. However, I’d say that this only proves that the budding democracy there is, in fact, budding. No big surprise there. I wonder how long they would have given the 13 colonies before declaring our Constitution a miserable failure. You could still own slaves a generation after the thing was signed, for goodness sake. Entire families of Africans had their lives destroyed under a Constitution that said that all men were created equal. Should they have given up on the whole federal government thing and gone back to being under the thumb of King George? “georgia10”, the author of the linked post at the Daily Kos, has this to say:

Declaring this Christian crazy to spare judicial execution does not solve the deeper problem that such undemocratic and immoral action is enshrined in the text of the Afghanistan Constitution, that same Constitution Bush praised as a hallmark of democracy. Is this democracy? Or is this the type of case that reminds us that freedom is not on the march in Afghanistan, no matter how many purple fingers are waived in the air?

It sounds like “georgia10” has given up and sees no possibility of any kind of future for Afghanistan. Might as well have give it back to the Taliban, eh? Does the Left really have that little faith in the democratic process, of working through your own salvation? There’s lots of finger wagging in that post, but it’s very short on specific (or even general) alternatives. The move from a theocracy to a democracy is not noted in any way as progress. How sad and pessimistic do you have to be to declare failure at every single setback?

So what do we do? I think it’s time to handle Afghanistan the way we handle any other democratic country; apply diplomatic pressure. I think the words coming from the Bush administration are what we should be doing, and perhaps negotiating with the Afghan government to try to resolve this in such a way that hopefully it will enlighten some folks there. What would be really great would be for American Muslims to raise their voices against this situation, and note how well they are treated here and how well freedom of religion works when it’s properly done.

Self-government is a learned behavior. You don’t learn it by voting in a few elections. However (and to “georgia10’s” surprise, perhaps), you’ll never get there without a bunch of purple fingers first.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out and Blogger News Network. Comments welcome.)

It’s fantastic to hear that the US & UK military was able to rescue the remaining Christian Peacemaker Team hostages. Now, you’d think these folks would be grateful to their rescuers, but it’s hard to tell by their statement. The families are certainly to have their loved ones back, and the hostages are certainly glad to have their freedom back. They thank the people who prayed for them. They thank God for sustaining their friends’ courage while they were captive. But you’d be hard-pressed to hear any note of thanks to the military folks who got them out. As James Taranto notes, it seems that the people they consider most their enemies are the countries of their benefactors.

It’s not clear whom the CPT statement means by “our enemies.” But the only enemy they seem to recognize is the U.S. and its allies, whose “occupation” of Iraq is the “root cause” of the ex-hostages’ captivity, and whose detention of “thousands of Iraqis” they liken to their own kidnapping and (in one case) murder by terrorists.

But if the CPT is going to “love our enemies,” the least it could do is thank them. The statement does not acknowledge that the hostages were rescued by U.S. and British servicemen, or indeed that they were rescued at all; it refers mysteriously to their having been “released,” as if the kidnappers themselves had decided to let them go.

This seems to run deeper than a case of simple ingratitude. There is a whole strange worldview at work here–a theology, if you will. We don’t claim to understand it fully, but it seems to equate America as the root of all evil and America’s adversaries as Edenic creatures–innocents who know not good or evil and thus bear no culpability for their bad actions.

If we have this right, it follows that the CPT Christians see themselves, by virtue of their faith, as being forgiven for being American, or for being from another nation that America has corrupted. This is why they cannot be grateful to, or forgiving of, America: For them that would amount to thanking or forgiving sin itself.

Their kidnappers may have done what they did because of the presence of coalition troops, but without the troops, there would be still be violence done to people in Iraq. It would be state-sponsored, however, which apparently the CPT folks would prefer to violence that results in the ability of the people to determine the course of their own country.

By the way, on my lunch break I heard Limbaugh say that if these people hated violence so much, they shouldn’t have accepted the military help that was given to them. A principle’s a principle, eh?

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt notes a Bible passage that the CPT folks should get familiar with.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out and Blogger News Network. Comments welcome.)

Just in case it wasn’t obvious that thought precedes action…

Children exposed to sex in TV programmes, films, magazines and music are more likely to engage in sexual activity than those who are not, according to research out today.

There is a direct relationship between the amount of sexual content a child sees and their level of sexual activity or their intentions to have sex in the future, the study found.

Such media also has at least an equal influence on sexual behaviour as religion or a child’s relationship with their parents and peers, the study said.

It concluded that the media is an “important source” of information about sex for teenagers who might not get advice elsewhere.

To some, this may be shocking. It shouldn’t be.

I’m on the road at a client site in Rhode Island this week, and I picked up the local free paper while eating supper this evening. (I mention that in case anyone wonders why this Georgia resident would even know about this story.) I read about a guy who’s campaign I could get behind. I don’t know what his general politics are, but he’s got a mission and has been willing to walk the talk, not just talk it.

Robert J. Healey, Jr.
EAST BAY – Robert J. Healey, Jr. is tired of preaching logic to voters. Instead, the Barrington resident and Warren native is basing his recently announced campaign for the office of Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor on the absurd. If it’s silly or non-sensical you can imagine it’s coming from Mr. Healey, who stated his intentions for office from Brava Beach in Punta del Este, Uraguay on Thursday.

Why Uruguay?

“I have chosen this location because I think that it demonstrates that no matter where you are in the world, and no matter what you are doing, you can also be serving as Rhode Island’s Lt. Governor at the same time. Waiting for the demise of the governor can be accomplished just about anywhere, any time, and by just about anyone with a pulse. I probably would do it here on the beach,” Mr. Healey said, adding that if he is elected he will facilitate the constitutional abolition of the office or “serve as the impetus for otherwise changing its constitutional role.”

Now before you dismiss this as a one-off, futile, point-making campaign, consider that this guy’s been making a career out of this. And he’s been doing a decent job at this. From the biographical highlights at the end of the article come these points:

* Founded Cool Moose Party (name taken from Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party) and ran for governor against former Governor Edward DiPrete in 1986 — received a little less than 4,000 votes

* Ran for governor again in 1994, this time garnering slightly less than 10 percent of all votes cast — won the race in Warren which “humbled him,” he said.

* Because of that showing (receiving more than 5 percent of the vote), the Cool Moose Party gained statewide recognition

* In 1998, he took on then Gov. Lincoln Almond and Democratic challenger Myrth York and received 8 percent of all votes cast.

* In 2002, he ran against incumbent Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty promising to abolish the office, if elected; he received a 20 percent share of votes cast statewide.

He’s been doing this for 20 years, so he’s no flash in the pan. I can’t possibly do the article on him justice with snippets, so go ahead and read the whole thing, even if you’re not from Rhode Island. I did, and I enjoyed it.

Name the country with the most evenly distributed quality of health care. Prepare to be surprised.

Startling research from the biggest study ever of U.S. health care quality suggests that Americans – rich, poor, black, white – get roughly equal treatment, but it’s woefully mediocre for all.

“This study shows that health care has equal-opportunity defects,” said Dr. Donald Berwick, who runs the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass.

The survey of nearly 7,000 patients, reported Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, considered only urban-area dwellers who sought treatment, but it still challenged some stereotypes: These blacks and Hispanics actually got slightly better medical treatment than whites.

While the researchers acknowledged separate evidence that minorities fare worse in some areas of expensive care and suffer more from some conditions than whites, their study found that once in treatment, minorities’ overall care appears similar to that of whites.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, white or black, insured or uninsured,” said chief author Dr. Steven Asch, at the Rand Health research institute, in Santa Monica, Calif. “We all get equally mediocre care.”

Well, if we’re all getting mediocre care, wonder how good it is in places like Canada, which is supposed to have the liberal dream of “free” health care and yet they keep streaming over the borders to get it here.

This will of course cause great consternation among Democrats who need to continue insist there’s a health care “crisis” so they can resurrect HillaryCare(tm). Truth be told, it’s not broken so there’s no need to fix it.

The survey examined whether people got the highest standard of treatment for 439 measures ranging across common chronic and acute conditions and disease prevention. It looked at whether they got the right tests, drugs and treatments.

Overall, patients received only 55 percent of recommended steps for top-quality care – and no group did much better or worse than that.

Blacks and Hispanics as a group each got 58 percent of the best care, compared to 54 percent for whites. Those with annual household income over $50,000 got 57 percent, 4 points more than people from households of less than $15,000. Patients without insurance got 54 percent of recommended steps, just one point less than those with managed care.

Could overall health care in this country do with an improvement? Sure. However, resorting to a socialized system that puts people on waiting lists for years isn’t the answer. Would you rather get 55% of what you need now, or get it months down the road (when you’d probably need more care)?

Murphy’s Law of the Hospital: “Free” health care isn’t.

(Hat tip: JR at Blogger News Network.)

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out. Comments welcome.)

A recent change in employment law in France has caused an uproar among the youth. But first, imagine if employers here in the US were forbidden from firing workers. What do you think would be the effect on the job situation? Obviously, employers would be extremely careful about who they hired. It would slow down the employment situation considerably; you don’t want to go on a hiring binge if your business is taking off, because you may get stuck with poor performers that you couldn’t then get rid of. Business growth would slow as a result, and the economy would be the worse for it. Not only that, getting young people hired would be tougher; even the local fast food joint would have to get picky.

Now, socialists might say that guaranteed jobs are good. They said that in France. But this put their employers in a bind and stunted growth. And while the original intent of this guarantee was to supposedly help the working class, it hurt the unemployment picture because employers did indeed get very picky and cautious in their hiring practices. Thus a general truism regarding liberal law was again demonstrated; what sounded good in theory didn’t work at all, and was actually counterproductive, in practice.

So what’s a Leftist to do? Change the law, of course, to allow more employment. The trouble is, you’ve created a culture of entitlement, and folks don’t give it up that easy. Just ask Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of France.

The French government faced a deepening crisis at the weekend as protesters turned out in large numbers to oppose a new law intended to reduce youth unemployment. Opponents worry the law will threaten job security.

Police said more than half a million people turned out in various French cities, demanding the withdrawal of the First Employment Contract, or CPE, which says people under the age of 26 may lose their jobs without cause during the first two years of employment.

…

The law forms part of an initiative by Villepin to respond to grievances expressed last fall during riots by unemployed, mostly Muslim immigrant youths. It would allow employers to bypass protectionist labor laws that companies say prevent them from hiring more freely.

…

In this case, however, the protesters don’t want to change the system; they want to retain traditional labor laws that offer job security, protection and benefits.

Some analysts say the students are resisting reform, while others attribute the protests to France’s stagnant economy and high unemployment rate.

“These students have been raised in a culture of job security, a job for life, and they were expecting a job for life,” said Philippe Moreau Defarges, a senior fellow at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

“But now they have a fear that they will not find a job.”

So the French workers insist they prefer to keep a 10% unemployment rate and stagnant economic growth rather than give employers any shot at weeding out the under-performers (only within the first 2 years, mind you). They fear they won’t find a job? Are they finding any now?

Unemployment in France is around 10 percent, but in the under-26 range, 23 percent do not have jobs. Among immigrant youths, the figure runs as high as 50 percent.

No doubt the Frenchman (or Muslim youth) on the street would say that this is a matter of benefiting the labor force, without which there would be no businesses. On the other hand, without a climate in which businesses can thrive, you aren’t going to have a good employment picture.

It’s a symbiotic relationship that liberals in France and the US would be wise to remember before preaching against the stereotypical “evil corporation”. Neither side–labor and management–is generally without fault or misbehavior, but when American liberals look to Europe for economic solutions, just remember how good we have it.

Murphy’s Law of Labor: “Protectionist” labor laws don’t.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out and Blogger News Network. Comments welcome.)

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts in the past months. Some are political, some are computer related (geeky stuff; that’s my biz), some are finance related, and some are just fun. The commute to and from work (when I do actually go in to the office) is when I typically listen to them (and which is why I’ve not been calling radio talk shows during that time, as my lack of “Considerettes Radio” entries to the side attests to).

On the way home today, I was listening to Glenn and Helen Reynolds’ podcast (he, of course, of Instapundit fame, and she of Dr. Helen fame). Their latest entry is on the politicization of Psychology. Here’s Glenn’s summary of the show.

Is psychology over-politicized? We interview Dr. Nicholas Cummings, a past President of the American Psychological Association, and coauthor of Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The Well-Intentioned Path to Harm, about the injection of politics into mental health in general, and the American Psychological Association in particular. Plus, why men are disappearing from the psychological profession.

This is an amazing interview from a guy on the inside. Well, he was on the inside until this liberal activist got labelled a right-wing wacko for daring to suggest the politics was becoming too strong an element of APA rulings and studies. Here’s a guy who’s for same-sex marriage, but who was ostracized because of his suggestion that studies and data should inform APA ethical standards in that area rather than political posturing. The APA came within 2 votes of saying that “Reparitive Therapy” for homosexuals should be on its list of ethical violations. The studies are inconclusive on this matter, but it was politics that almost made mentioning these programs to a patient a license-yanking offense.

And speaking of studies, you’ll take studies done by or cited by the APA with a grain pillar of salt after listening to Dr. Cummings describe how information that didn’t fit the political correctness standard was unreported, ignored or misrepresented. This I find incredibly interesting especially in regard to studies on same-sex marriage. I was quoted studies by the APA and other groups when I mentioned the news about how families continue to break down in today’s more and more liberal climate. But given the incredible bias you’ll hear about, anything coming from the big psychological groups is extremely suspect. If you put your faith in those groups, prepare to have your foundation shaken.

Unless you think that liberal politics should be the basis of sound psychological reasoning. Then you’ll be just fine.

This is 25 minutes well spent. Have a listen.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out. Comments welcome.)