Guest Column

“...what’s a heaven for?”

I am a lunar lady. I have always been fascinated by the moon and space travel since I first saw man land on the moon. Today, as NASA celebrates 50 years, I am reminded of the Robert Browning's quote:

Turning the American Dream Into a Nightmare for Taxpayers

President Bush is about to sign a major bill to bail out 400,000 reckless homeowners who find themselves in the cross hairs of greedy lenders seeking to foreclose on delinquent mortgages.

Brownback Press Conference to Announce Chinese Wholesale Spying on Olympic Hotel Guests

WASHINGTON, July 28 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator Sam Brownback tomorrow will hold a press conference at Noon to release translated documents, verified by two major international hotel chains with operations in China, that order all hotels near Olympic venues to install surveillance monitoring programs on all Internet traffic prior to the Olympics.

Britain’s first sharia-compliant insurance firm launched

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's first sharia-compliant insurance company was launched Monday, offering motoring policies in line with the Islamic legal code.

Iraq’s Christians form new militias to combat Islamic extremists

Iraq's Christians have taken up arms and formed new militias in a desperate effort to defend their beleaguered communities from an onslaught by Islamic extremists.

Gun Rights and International Moral Consensus

By Jordan J. Ballor In a landmark decision that will impact the future of gun regulation in theUnited States, late last month the Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C. In District of Columbia et al. v. Heller (No. 07-290) a slim 5-4 majority found the D.C. ban to violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state , the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Wind Turbines; Offensive industrialization of human space

By: Dr. Brian L. Horejsi, Dr. Barrie K. Gilbert, George Wuerthner People are barking up the wrong tree by promoting, or succumbing to, wind turbine construction regardless of where it is proposed and how many there might be. Many North Americans are infected with tunnel vision and erroneously appear to believe that turbine generated energy is somehow linked to reversing the growth in and impact of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

Why You Think Obama is Dangerous

By: Tracy Karol It might be a subtle uneasy feeling…you’re not quite sure what it is about him, but you know something about Barack Obama is a bit, well, frightening. Dangerous, even.

The Just Say No Deal Coalition issues a response to Senator Obama’s address

The Just Say No Deal Coalition issues the following in response to Senator Obama’s address at the site of the Victory Column following a free rock concert on July 24, 2008 in Berlin , Germany .

Ireland strongly opposed to Lisbon revote

Almost three quarters of Irish voters are opposed to the idea of a second vote on the EU's Lisbon treaty, according to a fresh poll.

An American ‘Honor Killing

By JOHN P. AVLON, nypost.com ON July 6, police say, a Pakistani named Chaudhry Rashid strangled his 25-year-old daughter San- deela Kanwal with a Bungee cord in her bedroom because she wanted to end her arranged marriage. This "honor killing" came not in Pakistan, but in Jonesboro, Ga. - a suburb 16 miles outside Atlanta.

On with the show!...“What does it matter?”

Everything was going great for him. The bills were paid, the kennel was making money and all the dogs were healthy. After years of struggling to prove his dogs in the show ring, they were finally making their mark. Finally, people believed in his bloodline. Maybe, they even believed in him.

Qantas jet lands with gaping hole in fuselage

PAUL ALEXANDER, News.yahoo.com MANILA, Philippines - A Qantas jumbo jet carrying 345 passengers made an emergency landing Friday with a gaping hole in its fuselage after a mysterious "explosive decompression," officials said. There were no injuries, but some passengers vomited after disembarking the Boeing 747-400, said Octavio Lina, Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations. The cabin's floor gave way, he said, exposing some of the cargo beneath and part of the ceiling collapsed.

Olympics: Beijing’s clean air claim challenged by scientists

Richard Spencer in Beijing Buildings are shrouded in haze and smog in Beijing's central business district July 18, 2008 Photo: Reuters A study published in China alleges that air quality near the main Olympic venues fails the government's own "safe" target for dust particles on most days.

McCain Has Plenty of Reason to Pick Pawlenty

Over the past several days, speculation as to who John McCain will select to be his running mate on the GOP ticket increased considerably when it was learned an announcement might come imminently. While as of this writing no announcement has been forthcoming, if nothing else, it has given the media an opportunity to take a cold shower from their fawning over Barack Obama.

The Devastating Slovenian Tornado - A Media Non-Event

’If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ is a philosophical question that can be debated ad infinity. However, if one were to revise the question and instead ask, ’If a tree falls in a forest and there is no interested media around, does anyone hear about it?’, then one gets a very simple answer: No! Not even if thousands of trees fall.

Obama Faking It

By Maggie Gallagher Obama has a problem: What do you do when you're a lightly accomplished one-term senator, a former state legislator from Illinois, a Harvard law graduate who has no substantive record of accomplishments, and you are running against a war hero whom polls show that Americans overwhelmingly view as far more fit to be commander in chief?

Pittsburgh cancer center warns of cell phone risks

PITTSBURGH - The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

Plague of compassion

By ROBERT MARSHALL. Winnipeg Sun As proud Canadians we open our doors to people from all over the world. Honest, hard-working people. And sometimes, to those who are not. Therein lies the problem.

Outsourcing of Terror: Did ZANU-PF Bring in Rwandans?

by Scott A Morgan The period of time before the June 29th runoff in the Zimbabwe presidential election had a very violence plagued last two weeks. It is believed that dozens of supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were murdered. Others were driven from their homes as the politically motivated violence reached a crescendo. The results were what certain people wanted. Robert Mugabe was "reelected" President of Zimbabwe.