Considerettes

Senators and Representatives shouldn’t pass judgement on Gitmo until they go there. And when they do, they’ll likely change their tune.

Two Democratic senators just back from reviewing U.S. detention facilities and interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said they saw no signs of abuse and said it would actually be worse to close the facility and transfer the detainees elsewhere.

“I strongly prefer the improved practices and conditions at Camp Delta to the outsourcing of interrogation to countries with a far less significant commitment to human rights,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, who toured the U.S. facility along with Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat.

The two Democrats were joined on the trip by two Republicans, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Sen. Michael D. Crapo of Idaho.

Their characterization contrasts with critics, including Democratic Party leaders, who have called for the camp to be closed as a bruise on America’s human rights record.
…
“Everything we heard about operations there in the past, we’d have to say, was negative. What we saw firsthand was something different,” Mr. Nelson said.

If the Democrat critics won’t go, at least they should listen to those who have.

Popularity: 3% [?]

SPIELBERG CONFUSED BY DECREASE IN UFO SIGHTINGS

Oscar-winning director STEVEN SPIELBERG is baffled that fewer UFO sightings are made now than were made twenty years ago - because the technology to record would-be aliens is so commonplace today.

Yeah, well, perhaps that’s why.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Don Sensing explains how different Christianity and Islam are by considering what each believes will happen at Judgement Day for each believer. If you’re one of those who thinks that Christians and Muslims really just believe in the same deity, you have a big chasm to cross.

Marwan’s god wants to know whether he committed mayhem and murder. Christ wants to know whether we fed the hungry and thirsty, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, nursed the sick and visited the imprisoned.

The contrast could not be clearer.

Suggesting that one god could require such diametrically opposed standards is to make Him just a generalized, all-inclusive guy with no real standards to speak of. That doesn’t describe a good God, and it frankly makes it impossible for both religions to be talking about the same one.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Why you shouldn’t believe polls, or how they’re covered, reason #2,451: Little Green Footballs has the story:

First, at Yahoo News we find a story with the headline: Growing Numbers Question Media’s Fairness, which seems a fairly accurate way to describe the findings of the poll:
…
But the Dallas Morning News decided to spin their headline on the same story in the opposite direction: Poll: Most Americans back media.

Same story, two diametrically opposite headlines. A perfect example of why mainstream media is losing the trust of the public; they claim to be seekers of the truth, while relentlessly spinning facts to promote left-wing ideologies and cover their own butts.

Popularity: 3% [?]

On Friday I noted a news report about a guy who was fired from Allstate for personal views he held. Today comes word that a religious group is no longer welcome at a bank in the UK for their views.

The Co-operative Bank has asked an evangelical Christian group to close its account because of its anti-homosexual views.

The bank said the opinions of Christian Voice were incompatible with its support for diversity.

Christian Voice said the bank, based in Manchester, was discriminating against it on religious grounds.

It is now waiting for other religious groups with similar opinions to be asked to close accounts, it added.

Christian Voice has held an account with the Co-operative Bank for about three years.

But now the bank has decided the group’s stance on homosexuality is so extreme, it has asked members to look for a new bank.

“It has come to the bank’s attention that Christian Voice is engaged in discriminatory pronouncements based on the grounds of sexual orientation,” a spokesman for the bank said.

“This public stance is incompatible with the position of the Co-operative Bank, which publicly supports diversity and dignity in all its forms for our staff, customers and other stakeholders.”

Isn’t the removal of someone because they don’t think the way you do the exact opposite of “diversity”?

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

Popularity: 3% [?]

The much-anticipated Supreme Court ruling on the display of the 10 Commandments on government property will, I think, reign in the extremists, but still leaves room for local courts to determine how much religion is too much. I’ve been really waiting for this ruling in light of the fact that the 10 Commandments, or at least references to them, appear in the Supreme Court itself.

Sending dual signals in ruling on this issue for the first time in a quarter-century, the high court said that displays of the Ten Commandments _ like their own courtroom frieze _ are not inherently unconstitutional. But each exhibit demands scrutiny to determine whether it goes too far in amounting to a governmental promotion of religion, the court said in a case involving Kentucky courthouse exhibits.

In effect, the court said it was taking the position that issues of Ten Commandments displays in courthouses should be resolved on a case-by-case basis.

I haven’t read the whole ruling (and probably wouldn’t understand a lot of it if I did), but I do appreciate the clarification that the court gave to the Establishment Clause.

“Of course, the Ten Commandments are religious _ they were so viewed at their inception and so remain. The monument therefore has religious significance,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the majority in the case involving the display outside the state capitol of Texas.

“Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the Establishment clause,” he said.

It has been this misapplication of the Establishment Clause that has given the ACLU their teeth in taking down anything remotely religious from he public square. Just because a text or an idea lines up with someone’s religious belief, it doesn’t automatically make it an establishment of religion by the government. Take these displays, for example. All the religious displays on that page (and don’t forget to click on “Part II”) are from Washington, DC, and if the ACLU had been around then, they’d have never been made. Go there now, and be astonished at what used to be considered acceptable religion in the marketplace until people started misreading the Establishment Clause.

I agree with Justice Thomas that “a more fundamental rethinking of our Establishment Clause jurisprudence remains in order.” While I was hoping that this would be case in which to do it, it is a step in the right direction.

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

Popularity: 3% [?]

One less benefit of embryonic stem cells over adults ones:

Hailed as a ground-breaking study, scientists in Pittsburgh say they’ve discovered that adult stem cells have the same ability as embryonic stem cells to multiply.

The previously unknown characteristic indicates post-natal stem cells may play an important therapeutic role, according to the researchers at the city’s Children’s Hospital.

In the heated national debate, embryonic stem cells — regarded as destruction of human life by opponents — have been touted as having a greater capacity than adult cells to multiply, making them more desirable to research as a potential treatment, noted Johnny Huard, director of the hospital’s Growth and Development Laboratory.

“Scientists have typically believed that adult or post-natal stem cells grow old and die much sooner than embryonic stem cells, but this study demonstrates that is not the case,” said Huard, the senior author of the study.

I have to wonder why we’d bother with all the ethical issues regarding embryonic stem cells when, the more we learn, the more we’re seeing that adult stem cells are almost as good. In addition to multiplying as well, they can differentiate just about as well. Not to mention their proven track record in actual use.

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

Popularity: 3% [?]

Today’s Odd “Considerettes” Search Phrase - bird chirps cell phones europe “bird calls” [#1 on Google]

Popularity: 3% [?]