President Barack Obama made an surprising concession, long sought by the Chinese government, in his recent visit to China. While largely ignored by most reporters covering the speech, Obama stated the following: “We did note that while we recognize that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have.”

That would appear to reject the view of the and human rights activists that China invaded and occupied Tibet against its will. While the State Department has made such statements in the past, Presidents have been careful not to publicly ratify the Chinese occupation. Bush was not exactly a champion of Tibetan rights, but many (particularly in Hollywood) wanted Obama to push for a Free Tibet (or at least not reaffirm its absorption into China).

Advocates for Free Tibet have long complained that Obama was sacrificing their cause for better relations with China, which holds a huge amount of U.S. debt. This includes the decision of the White House not to have the President meet personally with the Dalai Lama recently, here.

Tibet, after all, became part of China after an invasion in 1950.

For the full story, click here.

When Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was being beaten and interrogated for 118 days as an accused spy he expected death but not the Daily Show. During his beatings, the Iranian interrogator played a segment from John Stewart’s Daily Show under the apparent belief that it is a real news program and revealed Bahari’s spy activities.

Bahari was confronted with a video from the Daily Show where Jason Jones played the role of a redneck pretending to be a spy named Mr. Pistachio. Bahari had participated in the segment and the Iranian government (not big on humor but unwitting masters at irony) believed it was real.

Bahari was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison on Oct. 17th after being beaten and threatened with death for months. It is worth noting that the Iranians, while admitting that the segment was a spoof, could claim that its interrogations were not torture under the American standards. What the Iranians did to Bahari fell well short of the torture carried out by the Bush Administration. It will remain when one Bush’s most lasting legacies — denying us of the ability to denounce such treatment, particularly given Obama’s opposition to any investigation of torture.

He can only be thankful he did not do a clip on the Colbert Report.

For the full story, click here.

Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin has publicly asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy to stop taking communion with the Catholic Church due to his support for abortion, confirming that he asked Kennedy to refrain from communion in a private discussion in 2007. The confrontation became public after Kennedy revealed the 2007 conversation. The move could embolden other bishops in barring public officials from the sacrament, particularly in light of the health bill’s protection of abortion services.

Kennedy touched off the public spat in an interview with the Providence Journal when he revealed Tobin’s ban due “the positions that I’ve taken as a public official.” Tobin was clearly upset about the disclosure, stating that it was “pastoral and confidential.” He stated “I am disappointed that the congressman would make public my request of nearly three years ago that sought to provide solely for his spiritual well-being.” While Tobin may feel that he has caused to ban Kennedy, I find it a bit curious that he would first ban a man for his public positions and then be angry that Kennedy publicly discussed the ban with his voters. If the cause for the ban was Kennedy’s public work, he was more than within his rights to raise it with his voters and fellow Catholics.

The bishop is promising more public exchanges if Kennedy continues to speak out: “I have no desire to continue the discussion of Congressman Kennedy’s spiritual life in public. At the same time, I will absolutely respond publicly and strongly whenever he attacks the Catholic Church, misrepresents the teachings of the church or issues inaccurate statements about my pastoral ministry.”

Other leading Catholic leaders have faced similar moves by local priests over their votes in Congress, here and here.

For the full story, click here.

According to critics, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has ended its witch hunt. It settled with an unnamed self-described witch who alleged that she was fired after coming out of the figurative broom closet.

The settlement was for $40,000, though the University insisted the settlement was “solely to compromise the claim … without admitting the validity of plaintiff’s contention or any allegations of wrongdoing by the defendants.”
The witch said she was the director of a youth program in 2007 when she revealed her religious views to an associate dean.

She filed a complaint with the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, which found reasonable cause to believe religious discrimination had taken place.

For the full story, click here.

The tension between the Church of Scientology and Australian political leaders continued to grow last week. First, there was the allegation of the Church obstructing a criminal investigation, here. Then, there was the call for a criminal investigation of the Church by a powerful member of the legislature, here. Now, educators and parents are outraged over material distributed to elementary children heralding L. Ron Hubbard as one of history’s greatest figures and a symbol of human rights.

The videos and booklets were distributed by Youth for Human Rights and entitled Youth for Human Rights. The cover letter does not reveal the connection to the Church, but the material does contain a quote from L. Ron Hubbard on the back of the DVD cover reading: “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream – L. Ron Hubbard.”

He is also quoted in the booklet and listed as the number one “famous human rights leader” ahead of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Education Minister Verity Firth has tried to warn school officials to remove the material and not allow its distribution.

Scientology spokesman Cyrus Brooks explained “[i]f you all of a sudden want to become a Scientologist by watching the DVD, that’s good, but many members of Youth for Human Rights aren’t Scientologists themselves, and I’m fine with that.”

For the full story, click here.

Pat Robertson has declared that Islam is not a religion but a “violent political system.” For many, such statements are nothing new from Robertson. However, it was a bit more surprising yesterday to learn that Virginia Governor Elect Bob McDonnell has refused to disavow that view. McDonnell was opposed during the recent campaign for having extreme religious views and close ties to evangelical leaders like Robertson.

McDonnell attended law school at CBN University (now Regent University), founded by Robertson, and appeared on his show, “The 700 Club.” While at the Republican Governors Association in Austin, McDonnell refused demands from Muslims that he disavow such views. He merely stated “I think people are entitled under the First Amendment to express whatever opinions that they may have, but I can only say that as governor of Virginia, I intend to have an inclusive administration where we bring people across the political and religious system to help us govern.”

One wonders what his reaction would have been to an imam saying that Christianity is a cult or non-religion. McDonnell did say that he does not personally view Islam as a “violent political system.”

On his television show, Robertson said “Islam is a violent, I was going to say religion, but it’s not a religion. It’s a political system. It’s a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination. That is the ultimate aim.”

Of course, Robertson’s statements seem to ignore parts of the Bible that promise such things as

“You . . . will also be slaughtered by my sword.” (Zephaniah 2:12-15)

“They shall be apportioned for foxes.” (Psalm 63: 11)

“The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem and captured it, killing all its people and setting the city on fire.” (Judges 1:1-8)

During the crusades, the Muslims did not exactly view the Christian faith as a peaceful religious movement.

For the full story, click here.

Conservatives have picked a curious new slogan to oppose President Barack Obama: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” It is a quote from Psalm 109:8, but conservatives leave off the full passage: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” It is a damnation or imprecatory prayer.

In this case, conservatives are citing a passage that would seem to advocate Obama’s death. While obviously not the intended meaning, it is an interesting example of how these passages are used with no consideration of their actual meaning.

It is often interesting to see religious people use passages with little understanding of their meaning or to sanitize the passage to omit the violent Biblical message. This was the case recently in the controversy over cheerleaders like Georgia’s Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School who use Biblical verses as part of their cheers, here. They use such passages as Ezra 10:4: “Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.” The only problem is that this Biblical passage describes how Ezra followed the lead of God to banish foreign women and their innocent children for not being pure.

The Psalm is one of David and is an imprecatory prayer for God to destroy his enemies in the most horrible ways. We have seen the use of imprecatory prayers against Obama and others recently, here.

Here is the whole Psalm:

Help Me, O Lord My God
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

109:1 Be not silent, O God of my praise!
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer. [1]
5 So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.

6 Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8 May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11 May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13 May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!

16 For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy
and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come [2] upon him!
He did not delight in blessing; may it be far [3] from him!
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak [4] into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!
20 May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life!

21 But you, O God my Lord,
deal on my behalf for your name’s sake;
because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting;
my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they wag their heads.

26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to your steadfast love!
27 Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O Lord, have done it!
28 Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!

30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.

Of course, the part about “May the creditor seize all that he has” appears to be working, at least for the Chinese government holding our debt. It is always nice to see the religious call for “his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!” After all, there is no vengeance and violence quite like Biblical vengeance and violence.

For the full story, click here.

The Sharia courts of Somalia have another atrocity to their credit. The Islamic court of al-Shabab sentenced a woman to be stoned to death for adultery. The man was given 100 lashes.

The 20-year-old woman is a divorcee who admitted to having sex with another single person. She was stoned to death in front of 200 people. The man, 29, was allowed to live and given 100 lashes in the bizarre world of Sharia justice.

“Judge” Sheikh Ibrahim Abdirahman insisted that Islam requires such punishment for women who are divorced and have sex. It is treated as adultery. The man is viewed as simply having sex before marriage — punishable by flogging.

Previously, the Sharia court stoned a man to death but spared his pregnant girlfriend — who will be stoned soon after giving birth, here. Of course, these same areas have no problem with fostering piracy and murder — which appear perfectly moral.

For the full story, click here

In the aftermath of the criminal conviction in France (here), the Church of Scientology is facing a call for a criminal investigation in Australia from Senator Nick Xenophon, who presented the case against the church before the legislature.

Xenophon, used parliamentary privilege to present the case against the Church, presumably insulating himself from civil liability and putting the accounts of alleged victims into the record of the body.

He called the church’s “crimes” as “shocking” and declared that ”Scientology is not a religious organisation; it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs.”
He put into the record letters from former members, detailing what he says is a criminal enterprise. He specifically highlighted the case of Paul David Schofield who says that his first daughter, Lauren, died after she was allowed to wander around one of the Church of Scientology’s Sydney buildings and fell down some stairs. His second daughter, Kirsty, also died, after swallowing potassium chloride – a substance he said was used widely in the organisation’s ”purification” programs.

Scientology officials denounced the move as ”an outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege.” The Church insisted that former members are not reliable witnesses since “[t]hey are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner.”

The Church was previously accused of hampering an investigation in Australia, here.

For the full story, click here.

Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qaddafi (aka Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi) may have bombed at the United Nations with his rambling speech, but he is still trying to win the hearts and minds of the young. This week, Qaddafi spoke to an audience of young Italian women about the need for them to convert and come and see him in Libya for a vacation.

The Libyan government arranged for the audience by going through an agency that supplies attractive hostesses for conferences between the age of 18 to 35. Qaddafi wanted them to become Muslims and disabuse them of any misunderstanding about the treatment of women in Islam.

He also explained a few misconceptions about Christianity, including the fact that Christians are under the wrong idea that Christ was crucified. It turns out, according to Qaddafi that he wasn’t — it was just a guy who looked like Christ.

He gave them each a copy of the Koran, a copy of his Green Book, and a personal invitation to come to his country for a vacation and conversion.

For the full story, click here.

We previously followed the investigation into the three deaths in a sweat lodge run by “Spiritual Warrior” James Arthur Ray at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona, Arizona. Now, the Lakota Sioux Tribe is suing, demanding the prosecution of Ray under the 1869 Treaty of Fr. Laramie for appropriating a Native American ritual.

The case is the Oglala Lakota Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council v. United States, (D AZ, filed 11/2/2009) and relies on the language of the treaty stating:

If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent, and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington city, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

Ray is the bad man among the whites, they argue. Many would agree with that proposition. The question is whether Ray can self-help himself out of a treaty-based prosecution.

This could make for some interesting litigation. One does not often see prosecutions of people who are defined as “bad men among the whites” in federal court. More importantly, the claim that a sweat lodge is the property of the Lakotas is meritless in my view and would raise serious constitutional questions. Yet, they insist that the Oinikaga sweat lodge ceremony is part of the Lakota’s oral tradition which, according to the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Art. 31, is protected.

Sam Longblackcat, a spokesman for the Lakota, seemed to steer away from religious challenges from the defense. He said that the sweat lodge is one of the seven sacred rites of the Lakota. “This is a way of life, not a religion.” He insisted that “[t]he sweat lodge – we call it Oinikaga or Inipi – is a purification ceremony, to make life. Our sacred way of life was desecrated by a non-native man. This is our property, and there are laws in the United States and in the United Nations that state that these customs are ours and that they are to be protected.”

The non-Native man is also collecting almost $10,000 a person for the pleasure of self-help sweating.

I would still have to bet on the “non-native man” over the Lakota on this one.

For a copy of the lawsuit, click here.

For the full story, click here.

There is a disturbing trial being held in Zambia where the news editor of The Post, Chansa Kabwela, sent photos of a woman giving birth in a hospital car park without assistance to highlight the costs of a nursing strike and poor government policies. She was right. The officials, including Zambia’s President, Rupiah Banda, were horrified. They immediately arrested Kabwela for distributing pornography.

The baby died from suffocation and the pictures were quite graphic. No one at the trial seems quite as appalled by the lack of medical care that led to the death. It is taboo in the country to show a woman in labor.

Sharon Zulu, the arresting officer, told the court and jury “[w]e are all Zambian here. We all know this is not allowed in our culture.” Now that is a novel form of testimony — cultural lessons from a police officer. However, our community-based definition of obscenity is not much better given Former Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion that “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . .” One of the most ridiculous legal standards ever uttered.

Under the Court’s decision in Miller v. California the Court uses a standard that is rife with local community bias. Chief Justice Warren Burger crafted the standard:

The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Of course, in the Zambian case, the photos may be offensive but they are hardly the most offensive thing in this case.

For the full story, click here.

Here is today’s column from the Washington Post on the benefits of a new type of “good-faith” defense. While “religious convictions” are usually a reference to personal faith, it turns out that it has a distinct and disturbing meaning for criminal sentencing.

“Suffer little children to come to me.” So begins one of the most cited passages in the Bible. Yet, in cases involving the deaths of children in faith-healing families, the second half of Jesus’s admonition from Luke 18:16 is at the heart of legal controversy: “. . . and forbid them not.”

In the past 25 years, hundreds of children are believed to have died in the United States after faith-healing parents forbade medical attention to end their sickness or protect their lives. When minors die from a lack of parental care, it is usually a matter of criminal neglect and is often tried as murder. However, when parents say the neglect was an article of faith, courts routinely hand down lighter sentences. While faithful neglect makes for a poor criminal defense, it is surprisingly effective in achieving more lenient sentencing, in which judges appear to render less unto Caesar and more unto God.

This disparate treatment was evident last month in Wisconsin, a state with an exemption for faith-based neglect under its child abuse laws. Leilani and Dale Neumann were sentenced for allowing their 11-year-old daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann, to die in 2008 from an undiagnosed but treatable form of diabetes. The Neumanns are affiliated with a faith-healing church called Unleavened Bread Ministries and continued to pray with other members while Madeline died. They could have received 25 years in prison. Instead, the court emphasized their religious rationale and gave them each six months in jail (to be served one month a year) and 10 years’ probation.

During their sentencing, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard said the Neumanns are “very good people raising their family who made a bad decision, a reckless decision.” He then gently encouraged them to remember that “God probably works through other people, some of them doctors.”

Compare the Neumanns’ legal treatment with a couple of other recent cases in which children were injured or killed by nonreligious neglect. Russell J. Wozniak Jr. and Jennifer Ann Wozniak, of Chippewa Falls, Wis., received basically the same sentence as the Neumanns for, the criminal complaint said, allowing their 2-year-old to wander around covered in vomit and wearing a full diaper.

Then there are the parents of Alex Washburn. The 22-month-old died after hitting his head at home in Cross Lanes, W.Va. His parents, Elizabeth Dawn Thornton and Christopher Steven Washburn, said the boy fell a lot and hit his head on the corner of a table and his chin on a toilet. They apologized for not seeking medical help and agreed to terminate their parental rights to their other children, handing over custody to the state. “I wish I did seek medical treatment for my son faster,” Washburn told the court. “That will definitely be with me for the rest of my life.” The court sentenced both parents to three to 15 years in prison.

So the Neumanns got one month in jail for six years and kept custody of their children, and the Washburns got up to 15 years in prison and agreed to give up their kids.

In a nation founded on the free exercise of religion, the legal system struggles with parents who act both criminally and faithfully in the deaths of their children. This paradox has perplexed courts for centuries. One of the earliest prosecutions of such a case occurred in England in the 1800s, when the crown charged followers of a sect known only as the Peculiar People, a name derived from a translation of the phrase “chosen people” from the book of Deuteronomy. They were accused of killing numerous children as a result of faith-healing practices.

Today, the Old Peculiars are largely gone (their faith-healing views thinned their numbers considerably), but many other sects such as Unleavened Bread Ministries have prospered. While the vast majority of fundamentalist and faith-healing parents avail themselves of a doctor’s care when faced with a dire medical condition, some religious parents continue to maintain that belief in God means belief in His power and discretion to heal. They take literally the fact that one of the names of God in the Old Testament, Jehovah-Rapha, means “I am the Lord your Physician,” and point to Exodus 15:26, where God says, “I am the Lord that heals you.”

In the four Gospels, Jesus heals the sick, including in Mark 5:34, where He cures a hemorrhaging girl who was unsuccessfully treated by doctors, saying: “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace! Be cured from your illness.”

Some parents go to incredible lengths to prevent doctors from doing God’s work. Colleen Hauser of Minnesota gained national attention in May when she went into hiding with her 13-year-old son to avoid a court order that he receive chemotherapy for a Hodgkin’s lymphoma tumor growing in his chest. She was eventually forced to yield; this month, her son finished his final radiation treatment and his family says his cancer is gone.

But the Hauser case is an exception. The advocacy group Children’s Health Care Is a Legal Duty estimates that roughly 300 children have died in the United States since 1975 because care was withheld. When such parents appear in court, they often insist that they love their children and their God – an argument that receives a sympathetic hearing from judges and prosecutors.

While defendants generally show contrition for their actions, the Neumanns remained unrepentant about not calling emergency personnel until after Madeline stopped breathing. Leilani Neumann said: “I do not regret trusting truly in the Lord for my daughter’s health.” Dale Neumann told the court: “I am guilty of trusting my Lord’s wisdom completely. . . . Guilty of asking for heavenly intervention. Guilty of following Jesus Christ when the whole world does not understand. Guilty of obeying my God.”

In Oregon, the Followers of Christ church has been cited for injuries and deaths associated with its faith-healing beliefs for decades. In one 10-year period, estimated Larry Lewman, an Oregon state medical examiner, the church experienced 25 child deaths related to faith-based medical neglect. A recent case involved Ava Worthington, a 15-month-old who fell ill in 2008. Rather than call doctors, her parents – Carl Brent Worthington and Raylene Worthington — allowed a simple cyst on her neck to grow to the size of a softball as they anointed her with oil and administered small amounts of wine, according to testimony at the trial. She died of a blood infection and pneumonia.

Judge Steven L. Maurer, a circuit court judge in Clackamas County, Ore., said he would “stand by my assessment that this was wrong, wrong, wrong. This was an unnecessary tragedy.” However, the prosecutor asked for six months in prison, half the maximum sentence for misdemeanor criminal mistreatment. Maurer gave Carl Brent Worthington two months in jail and five years’ probation. Despite the record of deaths and injuries at their church, the Worthingtons were allowed to keep custody of their 5-year-old daughter and a new baby that was coming in a matter of months. They needed only to promise to bring them to a doctor for scheduled checkups.

Now another trial is pending for the family: Raylene Worthington’s parents, Jeff and Marci Beagley, were charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year-old son, Neil Beagley. He died in 2008 from a urinary tract blockage that could have been treated with a minor surgical procedure. In cases such as this, in which courts confront repeated faith-based fatalities in a single religious community, the legal system risks becoming a facilitator, if not an accessory, to the crimes through lenient sentencing.

These cases have thrived in a gray zone left by the Supreme Court decades ago. In 1944, in Prince v. Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “the right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease, or the latter to ill health or death.” The court, however, did not expressly forbid the use of faith as a mitigating factor in sentencing – a matter left to the states. Not only does this “good-faith” exception place children at risk, it results in the troubling image of courts favoring religious parents over nonreligious parents in a nation committed to the separation of church and state.

The key to the use of such a defense is that it must involve belief in a divine being, not a particular lifestyle. In 2007, Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas of Atlanta were convicted of malice murder and given life sentences for the death of their 6-week-old child. The defense attorneys cited the couple’s strict vegan lifestyle to explain why they fed their newborn son a diet of soy milk and organic apple juice, though during the trial Sanders said she had also breast-fed her son, who died in an emaciated state at 6 weeks, weighing just 3 1/2 pounds. The prosecutor and court had no qualms in treating this couple’s beliefs as a poor excuse for murder, calling a nutritionist and vegan expert as a witness to show that a vegan diet can be safe for an infant. In a stark contrast with religious cases, the prosecutor told the jury: “They’re not vegans, they’re baby-killers.”

The next test of the faith-based defense will be in Philadelphia, where prosecutors last month charged Herbert and Catherine Schaible in the January death of their son, Kent Schaible, 2, from bacterial pneumonia. His parents and other adults prayed around him, practicing faith-healing for two weeks without seeking medical assistance. Then they called a funeral home. The couple was charged with involuntary manslaughter and other related crimes.

Denying children critical care may be divinely ordained for some parents, but it should not be countenanced by the legal system. Until courts refuse to accept religion as a mitigating factor in sentencing in such cases, children will continue to die, neglected as articles of their parents’ faith.

Washington Post (Sunday: November 15, 2009

Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was charged by the Army with 13 counts of premeditated murder. To the chagrin of conservative commentators, he is not charged with terrorism, a controversy I discussed last night on this segment of Rachel Maddow.

While many have been calling for a terrorism charge in the military trial, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) does not actually have a terrorism provision. Such a charge would be handled in a military tribunal or more likely by waiving jurisdiction in favor of a federal prosecution.

As discussed previously, we have a growing habit of calling every shocking killing a terrorist act today. Many killers are unstable and kill strangers. Many often associate themselves with religious or ideological views, as with George Tiller. However, this does not make them terrorists. You can intend to make a statement with a crime or “go out in a blaze of glory” without being part of an effort to coerce or intimidate a government or society. The parents of Balloon Boy wanted to scare a nation, but they are not terrorists. There is no question that you have a legitimate concern over terrorism with a mass shooting at a military base. However, motivation is central to such a distinction. At the moment, Hasan looks much like other rage killers in recent years. For a prior column on this issue, click here.

At the moment, there is no evidence that this was an act of terrorism, defined by the U.S. Army manual as the “calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear. It is intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies … [to attain] political, religious, or ideological goals.” At the moment, the crime has many of the same characteristics as a workplace rage shooting. It is true that there is evidence that Hasan was becoming radicalized in his views, but there is even more evidence that he was losing his mind. These killings could easily have more to do with rage than religion. The Army is approaching the case with commendable restraint and not jumping to conclusions. At the moment, it is a murder case.

In the meantime, Obama is calling for an inventory of intelligence on Hasan, as accounts grow of indicators of potential violence, here.

Here is the background facts on Hasan from the Post:

Maj. Nidal M. Hasan

– 39 years old.

– U.S. Army psychiatrist.

– 1997 graduate of Virginia Tech University.

– Received doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda.

– From 2003 through this summer, was an intern, a resident and then a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.

– Army records show his last address in the 11300 block of Connecticut Avenue in Kensington.

– Commissioned as a captain, he was promoted to major in May.

– He is single and has no children, and he showed no sign of physical or mental problems in examinations as recently as September.

– He is listed by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress as a fellow for disaster and preventive psychology.

– As of Oct. 13, he had less than a year of clinical practice.

– He attended the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring and is a devout, according to Faizul Khan, former imam at the center. He attended prayers at least once a day, seven days a week, often in his Army fatigues, Khan said.

For the full story, click here.

Vincent Mosby, 23, is a defendant at the heart of a bizarre criminal case. Mosby is accused of marrying a 14-year-old girl under a contract for a dowry purchased at Wal-Mart and then threatening her family when they removed the girl.

The girl’s family reportedly agreed to the marriage out of fear that she was about to have sex with kids her own age. By some logic, they believed it would be better to arrange a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and 23-year-old stranger. They signed a “contract” for marriage and included a dowry provision requiring, among other things, for Mosby to turn over a watch and a ring from Wal-Mart.

When relatives intervened and took the girl to prevent sexual abuse, Mosby reportedly threatened them that he would do them harm if they did not “give me back my wife in 72 hours.” Not long afterward, someone fired three shots into the home of the relatives.

To make the case more grotesque, Mosby allegedly had sex with the girl three times in the home of her parents when they were present. He is being held on statutory rape. However, there is no indication of charges against the parents, which seems a bit odd since they facilitated and profited from the arrangement.

While this was a marriage claimed to be in accordance with Muslim faith, local Muslims denounced Mosby for failing to comply with the law of the land.

For the full story, click here and here.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington appears to have learned a few secular lessons from corporate felons in that state. On the eve of the first trial of dozens of sex-abuse cases with hundreds of millions in potential damages, the diocese filed for bankruptcy to try to make any damages more difficult to collect. The decision by Bishop W. Francis Malooly is being attacked as an effort to reduce potential damages in the various cases moving toward trial.

The diocese is facing the cases due to a two-year moratorium on the statute of limitations passed by the legislature in 2007 — resulting in 142 alleged victims filing lawsuits. The church has now responded by filing for Chapter 11 protection. Bishop W. Francis Malooly called bankruptcy a “painful decision” but insisted that it will not only protect the church but allow payment to victims.

Lawyers for the victims, however, denounced the move as a “fraudulent tactic” designed to hide assets and accountability.

For the full story, click here

A Marine reservist, Jasen Bruce, is under arrest in Tampa after beating a man whom he believed was a Muslim terrorist. The man turned out to be Father Alexios Marakis, a bearded Greek Orthodox priest in a traditional Greek robe.

Marakis was lost and had pulled over for directions when he approached Bruce, who initially had his back to him while getting clothes out of the trunk of his car. Marakis speaks little English. Bruce hit him with a tire iron and then chased him three blocks. He tackled the priest, pinned him to the ground, and called police to say that he had caught a terrorist.

Police say that Bruce later claimed (1) the priest tried to rob him, (2) the priest grabbed Bruce’s crotch and made an overt sexual advance in perfect English, and (3) the Greek Orthodox priest yelled “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”

On the last part, Bruce reportedly explained, “That’s what they tell you right before they blow you up.”

We give this man weapons.

When he is not on reserve duty with the Marine, Bruce, 28, is a sales manager for APS Pharmacy in Palm Harbor. What is interesting is the media is reporting that his blog discusses the benefits of increasing testosterone and human growth hormones. He previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery in 2007 for shoving a tow truck driver. It is not clear if he was also a terrorist.

Bruce is now facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Marakis was hospitalized but does not want to press charges. My guess is that he would like to get out of Tampa.

For the full story, click here.

Bill O’Reilly made an extraordinary statement last night in addressing the difficult fact that “we can’t kill all the Muslims.” This follows an equally bizarre statement from his interviewee Fox News contributor Col. Ralph Peters that there are no Christian or Jewish terrorists.

Here is what O’Reilly said:

Barack Obama wants to win hearts and minds in the Middle East, in the Muslim world, which is a good thing and you know that. As a soldier, we can’t kill all the Muslims. So we wanna win as many hearts and minds of good moderate Muslims as we can. So he goes out of his way, you’re absolutely right, Colonel, he goes out of his way, to avoid the “Muslim terrorist” label, which clearly applies to Hasan.

Putting aside O’Reilly’s incredible statement, Peters also added to the interview with the question of where all the Christian terrorists are? He apparently was not alive when Timothy McVeigh destroyed the Oklahoma City Federal Building or the recent shootings in churches by Christian gunmen.

It must be wonderfully liberating to be able to speak without an sense of the need for historical or factual accuracy.

The Vatican appears to have gotten over that whole Galileo business when they were willing to put scientists to death for saying that the Earth moved around the Sun. Now, the Pope’s chief astronomer, Father Jose Gabriel Funes, says that intelligent life may exist on other planets and the Holy See is looking to the skies.

Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, wrote an article entitled “Aliens Are My Brother” and, among other observations, stated that such aliens could be found on Mars. Even more notable is his statement that such aliens may be “free from sin.”

Oh, great. For those of us who grew up as Catholics with original sin, it turns out that the creatures that chased Sigourney Weaver are unburdened by sin? They are bursting out of people’s chests and eating whole crews for God’s sake!

These questions have already been fully answered in Plan 9 from Outer Space:

To its credit, the Vatican is turning a new page in science. In addition to scanning the skies for guiltless aliens, it surprised many by announcing a special conference to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin.

For the full story, click here and here.

Once again, as a military history buff, I find this incredibly cool. Archeologists may have solved one of the great mysteries of military history: the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. Loss 2,500 years ago, it is believed to have been found — or what is left of it — by Italian researchers in the western Egyptian desert.

The researchers found hundreds of bleached white bones, bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, and other artifacts. They believe that 50,000 warriors were buried by a massive sandstorm in 525 B.C.

The only account of the disaster comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 B.C.) who wrote “A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear.”

Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, sent 50,000 soldiers from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa and destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun. He was peeved when they refused to legitimize his claim to Egypt. It must have been viewed as divine intervention given the mission of the Lost Army.

Twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni are already famous for their discovery of the Berenike Panchrysos — the ancient Egyptian “city of gold.”

For the full story, click here.

A MARTA bus driver in Atlanta has been suspended after he allegedly stopped the bus and told passengers to pray. LeRoy Matthews stopped the bus on Nov. 3rd at 7:30 pm for the impromptu religious observance.

in a complaint against Matthews, he stopped the bus suddenly and then stood in got out of his seat to ask all of the passengers to hold hands for a brief prayer. The prayer lasted five minutes.

It is assumed that most of the passengers were praying for another bus driver.

For the full story, click here.

Many followed the case (here) of Daniel Hauser of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota when his fundamentalist Mom fled with him to avoid chemotherapy for his cancer on religious grounds. Few may be aware of the end of the story. He has completed his last chemotherapy sessions and is now cancer-free — thanks to the judge who overrode his mother’s objections.

At 13-years-old, Daniel now has the potential of a full life ahead of him. I have previously written about the need for courts to reject such “good-faith defenses” to the denial of life-sustaining medical care for minors, here.

In February, the family fled with Daniel as a Hodgkins lymphoma tumor grew within his chest.

His mother said “It’s really nice that he’s done. We’re happy, that’s for sure.”

For the full story, click here and here

As we have been following on this blog, witch doctors in Africa continue to cause great suffering and abuses, here and here and here and here. Now, there is a report from Tanzania that witch doctors have caused the slaughter of more than 50 albinos for their body parts.

In a particularly horrific case, one albino woman only escaped after her hands were cut off. Albino body parts are used in potions by witch doctors.

In neighboring Burundi, at least 12 albinos have been killed for their organs and body parts.

Of course, such primitive beliefs are found in other countries, here and even in the United States, here.

For the full story, click here.

A Canadian judge made a disturbing finding in the sentencing of Father Bernard Cloutier who was convicted of abusing young boys. The judge heard evidence that retired Bishop Gérard Dionne thwarted a 1983 police investigation into Cloutier’s sexual abuse.

We have seen similar allegations against Church officials in past cases, here. However, the church appears to be pushing back at the allegations plaguing the Church, here and here.

Other accused priests are engaging in their own revisionism, here

The father of one of the victims testified that he, his wife, and parents of another victim were meeting with police when Bishop Dionne and Father Cloutier arrived uninvited and the bishop intervened to thwart the investigation. When Cloutier tried to speak, Dionne told him to alleged “shut up” and then insisted on speaking to the boys alone. After the meeting, the boys refused to bring a criminal complaint after speaking privately with Dionne.

For the full story, click here.

There is an intriguing case in London where the British courts will decide who is a Jew and who decides such a question. The British have long maintained publicly supported religious schools — an affront to the separation of church and state. Now, inevitably, the state must decide who can be excluded from one of the Jewish schools run by the government. Not surprisingly, at the heart of the controversy is Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, who recently blamed secularism for the decline and potential fall of Western Civilization, here. He insists that only children with Jewish mothers (recognized in Orthodox synagogues) are truly Jewish.

The daughter of David Lightman was one of the children denied entry in the Jews’ Free School, one of the many publicly supported religious schools. She was denied entry because her mother converted to Judaism in a reform synagogue rather than an Orthodox synagogue. The Jews’ Free School was founded in 1732 and is one of roughly 7,000 publicly financed religious schools..

Sacks and others do not recognize kids as Jewish unless they are recognized by the Orthodox sect. This has been a controversy in Israel for many years and has divided the Jewish population, (here). Many Jews reject Orthodox views and belong to conservative or reform synagogues.

The family of a child identified only as M lost in the initial case, but that ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals found the use of Sacks’ definition of Jewish was discriminatory and that ““benign or malignant, theological or supremacist, makes it no less and no more unlawful.” Now, the Supreme Court will decided the question.

The case reaffirms that need for separation of church and state. Such questions should not be answered by the government, which should also not be in the business of subsidizing religious education. However, rather than questioning the state support of religious schools, the court will rule on who decides matters of faith — the religion or the State. Normally, I would be very sympathetic with the religious organizations that this is no question of judges to decide. However, these organizations asked for the intermingling of the state with religion — and may now reap the costs of such a failure of separation.

England seems to be moving aggressively away from separation principles with the incorporation of religious courts (here and schools in the system as well as public officials calling for more religion in society . Lord Sacks is one of those insisting that secularism is the cause of the impending loss of Europe to fundamentalism (a veiled reference to Islam). With the recent move by the Obama Administration to support the principle of blasphemy laws (here), the West appears to be moving in the wrong direction. If Sacks is concerned about Western Civilization, he may want to start with the separation of church and state.

For the full story, click here.

Jeddah police arrested two female professors from King Abdulaziz University this week for the crime of driving themselves to the mall. Police were shocked by the sight of a woman behind the wheel of a car and immediately pulled them over. We have previously followed the struggle of women to enjoy this freedom of movement in the Kingdom (here)

The women claimed that they had no alternative when their driver disappeared a few days earlier and they had no male relative to drive them. The driver in her 20s has been turned over for prosecution.

For an amazing video of a woman driving a car in Saudi Arabia, click here.

For the full story, click here.

Who says that a math geek cannot become a super hero? Mahmoud Vahidnia is a math student at Tehran’s Sharif Technical University where he recently won the gold medal at the country’s National Math Olympics (yes, geeks have an Olympics of their own). Vahidnia, however, has become a political icon in Iran after he publicly chastised the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the brutal crackdown of protesters.

At first, Vahidnia was blocked by organizers from speaking and then one of the organizers tried repeatedly to cut him off. However, to the surprise of many, Khamenei allowed him to speak in a televised encounter. The government is now using the incident to show that freedom thrives in the Islamic republic, which is being described as “The revolutionary leader’s fatherly response to critical youth.”

The exchange lasted 20-minutes and Khamenei appeared taken aback at first. The criticism followed Khamenei denouncing the questioning of the presidential results as the “biggest crime” since he personally found Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be the winner.

Mahmoud then raised his hand and launched into a criticism of the crackdown with such memorable statements as “I don’t know why in this country it’s not allowed to make any kind of criticism of you . . . In the past three to five years that I have been reading newspapers, I have seen no criticism of you, not even by the Assembly of Experts, whose duty is to criticize and supervise the performance of the leader.”

Khamenei insisted, “We welcome criticism. We never said not to criticize us. … There’s plenty of criticism that I receive.”

Indeed, the jails are filled with such critics.

For the full story, click here.

The Sharia courts of southern Somalia are busy again showing the world the importance of the separation of mosque and state. In the latest outrage, the Sharia court of al-Shabab ordered Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, stoned to death in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the town of Merka. The Islamic judges, however, showed mercy for the woman who is pregnant. She will be allowed to give birth and then immediately stoned to death.

According to witnesses, it took at least seven minutes for the man to die as he screamed in pain from the stoning.

Many in Islam are equally horrified by this extreme interpretation of the Koran — though we have seen similar outrages in Saudi Arabia.

The al-Shabab organization has been regularly stoning people to death, including two men in the same town just last week. They previously stoned a 13-year-old girl to death. She was reportedly raped before her execution.

President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has accused al-Shabab of corruption as well as brutality. He noted that they “are forcing women to wear very heavy clothes, saying they want them to properly cover their bodies” but they are also selling the women the clothes and making a profit.

For the full story, click here

The good people at Hezbollah are offering the world another insight into extremist thought. The militant group has banned “The Diary of Anne Frank” from schools as Zionist propaganda by focusing on the plight of some Jews. I suppose when you are teaching kids to blow up innocent people, an account of an innocent victim can appear propagandistic.

What is striking is that the censorship occurred not over the book but simple excerpts from the book shown to school children in a private English-language school in western Beirut. That led to a shrill attack from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel, which asked how long Lebanon would “remain an open arena for the Zionist invasion of education.”

Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan criticized the school for exposing the children to a story about a suffering Jewish girl: “These respected, established schools are teaching the so-called tragedy this girl lived, and yet they are ashamed to teach the tragedy of the Lebanese people, the tragedy of the Palestinian people… the tragedy of the people of the south under the hands of Zionist occupation.”

Notably, the Lebanese routinely prevent citizens from reading unapproved material through its censorship bureau, which actually blanked out the chapter in this textbook. However, a student purchased a book privately that had the chapter, which was shown to other students.

There is even a committee for “the ban of Zionist products” that called for the removal of the book. Attorney Naim Kalaani of the committee says that showing the book is a crime. What a wonderful role for a lawyer — criminalizing free speech and possession of a classic book.

For the full story, click here.

An evangelical Christian kindergarten teacher has sued Texas to contest the state’s right to require her to submit to fingerprinting. Pam McLaurin, however, is not alleging privacy or contractual violations. She is alleging that fingerprinting is the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of Revelations and thus violates her religious beliefs. It turns out that the Beast has laid the foundations for its Kingdom on Earth in the Texas Education Agency.

McLaurin is challenging the requirement of fingerprinting to get her certification under state law as part of a background check. She has already taught at the Big Sandy School District in Dallardsville for 20 years.

Her complaint states that “[McLaurin] does not believe that it is just coincidence that Revelations speaks about only those with the ‘mark on his forehead or finger’ will be able to buy or sell, since only those teachers that comply with the fingerprinting requirements will maintain their jobs.” She specifically cites Revelations 13:16-17 and 14:9-11.

Let’s go to the source, shall we?

Revelations 13:16-17 states:

16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,

17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Revelations 14:9-11 states:

And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

Now, from personal experience in teaching, I can say that the passage “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image” is a reference to the tenure and promotion process.

The good thing is that the Bible does allow for unspecified damages and declaratory and injunctive relief from the defendants, including the Texas Education Agency, Texas State Board of Educator Certification, Commissioner Robert Scott and Associate Commissioner Jerel Booker. That is so much more practical that wiping them out with the jawbone of an ass. (Judges 15:14-17)

Of course, McLaurin’s theory would indicate that she is working for an agency already in league with the Beast. The decision of the Beast to use the TEA was a brilliant ploy. Notably, its website does contain a suspicious “StarChart” program and a mysterious project called the Texas Tomorrow Fund — one can only wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Now, I do not want to freak anyone out, but I have looked more closely at this Texas-style TEA beast. It cannot be an accident that the recommended temperature for white tea is 66 C or that it was introduced in places like Korea in 661, here. Indeed, there are the strange rock outcroppings called “The Devil’s Tea Table,” here, and even Devil’s Tea recipes, here. One has to be blind to miss the signs.

By the way, McLaurin’s claim is not unique. Her case is similar to a lawsuit by a group of Michigan farmers, some of them Amish, challenging rules requiring the tagging of. Amish farmers have contested the required use of RFID chips on livestock as the mark of the Beast (on beasts), here. A judge, however, recently dismissed that claim, here.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have also alleged discovery of the Biblical beast and the marking of hands in a prior column.

Now here is the Biblical kicker. Wayne Haglund, the lawyer for the Big Sandy Independent School District, actually supports McLaurin in her claim and believes that she has a legitimate religious claim. He insists that the district is “caught in the crossfire” of having to carry out the state law. So let me get this straight. Haglund believes that it is a legitimate and protected religious practice to believe that fingerprinting is a sign of the Beast and thus a teacher or potential teacher can decline to be checked in a computer system for felons. This is the case even though that Bible actually states that “The second beast of Revelation 13 will cause ‘all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.” Fingerprinting does not leave a mark on your hand or forehead. It leaves it on a piece of paper that is then digitized. Under this bizarre interpretation, any ink, lotion, or impression left by McLaurin’s fingers could constitute a sign of the Beast. However, she is willing to take a photo and presumably a optic scanner or other imagining picture. Thus, what if the state simply takes a picture of her fingerprints directly on a digitized scanner? How is that different from asking her to take a high-resolution picture?

As we saw recently, some teachers are objecting to the required submission of DNA material for employment, here. While this objection is made on privacy (and logic) grounds, would McLaurin view DNA samples as a sign of the Beast?

Ironically, the resistance to large data banks of tracking and identification information is being opposed by liberals and evangelicals — albeit for vastly different reasons:

Privacy, however, remains a better basis for opposing some government intrusions than lunacy. How an image left on a paper is a credible belief of a mark left on a body is beyond me. While the school district may find this a credible claim, I doubt the courts would give it any more credence than the Amish farmers seeking to prevent farm beasts from being given the Sign of the Beast.

For the story, click here.

Secularists are often blamed by religious figures for everything from hurricanes to teen pregnancies. Now, it appears that secularists are also responsible for religious extremism and, oh yes, the demise of Western Civilization and Europe as we know it. No, this is not the latest religious tirade from Tony Blair. It is Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks of Aldgate, who clearly pinned the blame for the demise of Europe on those who hold secularist views. Lord Sacks, 61, is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since 1991.

Lord Sacks insists that the rise of secularism has diminished the influence of “tolerant religion” which he compares to the rise of fundamentalism — an apparent reference to Islam. In an annual lecture to the think-tank Theos in London, he noted that Europe was the world’s most secular region and the only one experiencing population decline. This, he suggested, is due to the fact that religion pushes family and parenthood. The result of the rise of secularism, he explained, is a drop in population which is being overwhelmed by fundamentalist immigrants. It also has created dangerous “relativism” due to people who are no longer following the direction of religious leaders like himself.

However, he is most concerned about production of Judeo-Christian babies. Religion, he insists, means bigger families which means more people to resist the threat of fundamentalism: “Wherever you turn today – Jewish, Christian or Muslim – the more religious the community, the larger on average are their families.”

He also accused secularists of having no sense of sacrifice and duty — for that, it appears, you need God: “In that [secular] culture, where will you find space for the concept of sacrifice for the sake of generations not yet born? Europe is dying, exactly as Polybius said about ancient Greece in the third pre-Christian century.”

He added: “Albert Camus once said, ’The only serious philosophical question is why should I not commit suicide? I think he was wrong. The only serious philosophical question is, why should I have a child? Our culture is not giving an easy answer to that question.”

Lord Sacks holds to a rather old saw: that Western Civilization is doomed without a religious foundation. He ties that view to a more concrete notion that it all comes down to the population numbers — whoever has the most kids wins. It is not really the size of your population but the size of your ideas that ultimately prevails in history. The Mongols had a large population and a successful army but left little cultural or political influence on history despite actual conquests. The Visigoths and other cultures left an equally light historical footprint. Was it for lack of faith or the lack of civilizing values?

Our principles will prevail because they are right and tied to basic human needs for free speech, association, and, yes, religion. Ironically, those who advocate faith-based politics like Blair and Obama are threatening those values by aligning themselves with the force of intolerance like Egypt, here. The Chief Rabbi should be more concerned about the growing sacrifice of free speech on the altar of religion than how we need to drop our secular values if we want to survive.

He ends with this dire warning:

“Let me be blunt. Either we win or the fundamentalists win and that is the challenge. If the fundamentalists win, I wouldn’t hang around too long.”

Secularists might not be too aggrieved if Lord Sacks did not hand around too long.

For the full story, click here.h

The gay-rights movement has suffered a harsh defeat at the hands of voters in Maine. The voters repealed a law that allowed for same-sex marriage — reducing the states allowing same-sex marriage or civil unions. Maine is now the 31st state to reject same-sex marriage. [The two men on the state seal are now strictly prohibited from marrying each other in the State of Maine].

With most polls reporting, 53 percent of voters had approved the repeal. At the same time, a liberal measure passed with voters expanding the state’s 10-year-old medical marijuana law — keeping Maine as the third state with New Mexico and Rhode Island allowing marijuana dispensaries. Thirteen states have legalized medical marijuana.

Notably, the other states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont — have legalized same-sex marriage through court rulings and legislative action. No state has passed a same-sex measure by popular vote.

The only hopeful news is that the vote was relatively close. One has to wonder how President Obama might have made a difference if he supported the law. Obama declined to even state support for the law or a similar campaign in Washington state and Kalamazoo. Obama appears to have forgotten his campaign promises to the gay community to fight for their rights. Even after a year in office, the Administration has yet to even end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — something that Obama can do unilaterally. With such a close vote in Maine, the President’s support might have made the difference.

Personally, while I support recognizing marriage for gay couples as an alternative, I remain convinced that the best approach is for all couples to register civil unions with the states and leave the term “marriage” to individual religions to define, here.

For the full story, click here

A Saudi court has reviewed and upheld the sentence of a 22-year-old man to be beheaded and crucified for the raping of five children. It is the latest medieval measure from the Saudi Sharia courts.

There is little sympathy of the man who was found guilty of raping five children and leaving one to die in the desert.

However, Saudi Arabia continues to mete out cruel and unusual forms of punishment. In this case, the body of the man will be displayed in public, a practice that has previously caused international expressions of outrage and disgust, here and here.

For the full story, click here.

In Bryan, Texas, people are flocking to see the image of the Virgin Mary found in a bird dropping on a truck mirror. It appears that Salvador Pachuca examines all of his bird droppings before washing his truck and found a divine rendition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in bird poop.

One woman observed “As soon as I looked at it, it just gave me chills all over my body. I was like, I just couldn’t believe it.”

Cristal Pachuca explained that “It’s just something special to us and she’s the one who appears when a miracle happens.” Either that or it appears when a car wash is about to happen.

Nevertheless, Cristal says that “we just all feel protected. It’s a blessing to our family and to everybody that comes to see it.” They have removed the mirror to leave it in a protected place of reverence.

Of course, this is still better than the image found in grill grease, here and here and here.

For the picture and story, click here.

Dan Delong, an English teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois has been suspended for allegedly allowing students in his English classes to read an article about homosexuality in the animal kingdom. The article that Delong allegedly had his class read was published in a 2006 edition of “The Gay Animal Kingdom” and is available at http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_gay_animal_kingdom.

The article by Lehrer explores the work of people like Joan Roughgarden, a biology professor at Stanford University who challenges Darwinian sexual selection by documenting more than 450 animal species that engage in homosexual behaviors. An estimated 450 species exhibit such proclivities, here. She explained:

“When I was at that gay pride parade. I was just stunned by the sheer magnitude of the LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] population. Because I’m a biologist, I started asking myself some difficult questions. My discipline teaches that homosexuality is some sort of anomaly. But if the purpose of sexual contact is just reproduction, as Darwin believed, then why do all these gay people exist? A lot of biologists assume that they are somehow defective, that some developmental error or environmental influence has misdirected their sexual orientation. If so, gay and lesbian people are a mistake that should have been corrected a long time ago. But this hasn’t happened. That’s when I had my epiphany. When scientific theory says something’s wrong with so many people, perhaps the theory is wrong, not the people.”

Students have rallied around Delong, here.

These were high school students, who are supposed to be exposed to different views and theories. Do you consider the material still “inappropriate” for high school students?

For the full story, click here.

New York prosecutors are dealing with an attempted honor killing of a different sort. We have been following such cases on this blog, but Rabia Sarwar, 37, may be category unto herself after she allegedly slit her husband’s throat after he forced by her to eat pork, wear short skirts and drink alcohol slashed.

Born in Pakistan, Sarwar used a kitchen knife to try to kill Seikh Naseem while he slept. The high school teacher woke being attack and allegedly hearing Sarwar screaming “It’s time for you to die!”

She has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and insists that her husband’s sacrilegious practices constitute abuse. The defense is a religiously based abused woman syndrome claim: “He made me do so many things that are against Islam. I did all that just to make him happy but inside me there was a war.”

She admits that her husband’s survival was not for lack of trying on her part: “I did my best to cut his throat. But the next moment he jumped on me and grabbed me.”

Her husband was no longer religious and, to make matters worse for her, one of his favorite writers was Salman Rushdie.

For the full story, click here and here.

Note to self: have kids skip the Vatican this Halloween. Pope Benedict XVI has joined Kimberly Daniels at the Christian Broadcasting Network in issuing his own warning against Christians participating in Halloween. The Pope wants Catholics to know that the holiday is dangerous to not just their waistline but their eternal souls.

The Vatican has issued a statement denouncing Halloween as “anti-Christian” and “dangerous.”

In an article entitled ‘The Dangerous Messages of Halloween’, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, lays out the soul-sucking dangers of the holiday. Liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals warns “Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian.”

Canals suggests that parents “be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.”

The church is suggesting a nice distraction for the kids like a mass or prayer vigil. I may give that a try Saturday night and suggest it with the kids, but if you do not see any postings on Sunday morning, you will know why.

Of course, there is still some room for dress up at such masses:

For the story, click here.

With many of us preparing for Halloween on Saturday, we have a disturbing warning from Kimberly Daniels on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Web site: demons (real demons) have contaminated Halloween candy to invade the souls of our children (and presumably late-night candy stealing parents).

It turns out that the demonic vehicle is the candy — the clever little minions of Satan

The demon bulletin told readers:

During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.

She continues to warn:

Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference. . . .

[M]ost of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches. I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference.

It can also result in weight gain. The inclusion of the witches praying over the candy at the Hershey plant is a closely held industry secret. It was only revealed briefly during labor talks over their contract and their insistence that the sandwich truck include eyes of newt and that they take off for Satanic holidays. (You know the best thing about witch employees: they always wear hats around the food preparation areas).

Robertson himself has long denounced Halloween as a “Satanic ritual” and insisted that “we ought to close Halloween down.”

Daniels carries the same torch against the holiday, insisting

Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats. It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist. I have prayed for witches who are addicted to drinking blood and howling at the moon.

Ok, we might have to skip the Daniels house this year.

Now here is a scary alternative to candy:

CBN has removed the blog but here is the original text.

Ahmed Muhamed Dore is 112 and has 18 children by five wives. However, this week he added a sixth wife, Safia Abdulleh, 17. The marriage was blessed under the Islamic traditions of the area. It is part of a disturbing trend of cases where young girls are married off to older men under Sharia law.

By past measures, Safia is an older woman, here, here, here, here.

While Safia is old enough to be his great-great-grand-daughter, the groom insisted that he watched her grow up and wooed her: “I didn’t force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry,.” That’s right, most 17-year-old girls dream of marrying someone over a century old.

For the full story, click here.

In light of today’s conviction of the Church of Scientology in France, this story from Australia may be of interest. The Church is being accused of actively subverting an investigation into the death of Australian private Edward Alexander McBride. The Church allegedly ordered that McBride’s “auditing file” be sent to the United States before the arrival of a warrant from coroner John Lock.

McBride had completed a $25,000 Scientology course shortly killing himself. The Church refused to supply evidence to the coroner in a case that many are analogizing to other cases like that of Lisa McPherson where the Church resisted demands for information.

Coroner John Lock found that “something unusual happened” to McBride and wanted to see his file. Shortly before his death, Church members repeatedly called him on his cell phone and sent text and voice messages mentioning an “audit” and “LRH” – a reference to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Australian Church of Scientology spokeswoman Vicki Dunstan said the audit file was returned to the “mother church” in the US and would not be of any use to investigators.

For the story, click here.

Given the recent refusal of a Scientology spokesman to discuss the basis of Church’s beliefs, we are unlikely to get much of a response on the conviction this week of the Church for fraud in Paris. The court convicted the Church and fined it more than 600,000 euros ($900,000). However, the court stopped short in banning the group entirely as demanded by the government.

Six Scientology leaders were convicted of fraud in a case that looked at the Church’s long controversial methods of getting followers to contribute increasing amounts of money. It also found that the Church engaged in “commercial harassment” of recruits.

Prosecutors wanted a ban and even larger fine, but the Court said that the Church would likely continue to operate outside of the law if banned.

Scientology spokeswoman Agnes Bron called the verdict “an Inquisition of modern times.” He might have said it is a modern version of being tied to a volcano and blown up with H-Bombs by a galactic warlord — but that is precisely what Scientology spokesmen decline to discuss on principle, here.

In the case, prior followers alleged that they were systematically bilked through escalating charges for “purification packages” and other material.

What will be interesting is how this case impacts the ongoing efforts to ban the Church as a cult or a criminal enterprise in some countries. In the very least, it is likely to inspire other such lawsuits in the future. Recent cases include an allegation that the Church is hampering a criminal investigation in Australia, here.

For the full story, click here and here.

I guess Black Sabbath will skip that tour in Iran. The Iranian government has arrested a dozen people for “promoting satanism” through underground music and “blasphemous video clips.” Fortunately, the Obama Administration recently supported a resolution supporting Muslim countries in establishing a “balancing” of free speech and respect for religion, here.

Iran has promised to prosecute “indecent Western-inspired movements” such as rappers. Last May, 104 “devil worshippers” were arrested at one party alone.

It appears that the “church lady” (known as the Mosque lady in Iran) has been enlisted by the Iranian police to look for satanism in popular culture:

For the story, click here

The Islamic al-Shabaab militia is well known for its harsh application of Sharia law in Somalia. However, it turns out that they have the same concerns about the children growing up with the wrong priorities and values as do people in the West. In the case of the al-Shabaab, the problem is a failure of parents to teach children to use weapons and their insistence on educating them on such things as reading and writing. The militia group is now forcing children to watch executions and giving away prizes of automatic weapons and grenades at children events. It is the Somali version of Hooked on Phonics.

The militants have been rounding up children from schools to watch executions in places like Merca, Somalia.

In Kismayo, children competed for the right to own AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and anti-tank mines. At the prize ceremony, parents were reminded to teach their children well about the use of weapons and the need to kill.

For the full story, click here.

In an attack both on free speech and the free press, Saudia Arabia has ordered a female journalist to be flogged 60 times for airing an interview with a man who bragged about his sex life. Rosanna Al-Yami was also given a two-year travel ban for her role in the episode of “A Thick Red Line,” a popular show on social taboos.

On the episode, Mazen Abdul Jawad bragged about sex. He was given a sentence of five years in prison and 1,000 lashes.

The world has become accustomed to outrageous sentencings under Sharia law courts. However, this pushes even prior Saudi cases to an unprecedented degree with a direct attack on journalists. This case comes in the aftermath of the Obama Administration supporting a United Nations resolution that recognized the need to balance free speech and free press rights with a respect for religion. It also called on reporters to show more restraint and responsibility. For a prior column, click here.

For the full story, click here.

Nightline has been running a fascinating investigation into the Church of Scientology. This investigation includes this video of a walk-out of the spokesman for Scientology when asked simply about the beliefs of the church. According to the spokesman, it is “offensive” to be asked about what Scientologists specifically believe about the origins of man.

This is akin to the spokesman of the Vatican storming out when asked about Genesis.

The spokesman was specifically asked the “volcano” question. A volcano is often shown in advertisements for Dianetics. According to documents and former members, Hubbard (a failed science fiction writer) told followers that a galactic being named Xenu or Xemu had taken over as the rule of the “Galactic Confederacy.” Then, about 75 million years ago, he brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft that looked remarkably like Douglas DC-8 airliners. Once here he put them in or around volcanos stuffed with H-bombs and then blew them up.

Hubbard wrote:

Simultaneously, the planted charges erupted. Atomic blasts ballooned from the craters of Loa, Vesuvius, Shasta, Washington, Fujiyama, Etna, and many, many others. Arching higher and higher, up and outwards, towering clouds mushroomed, shot through with flashes of flame, waste and fission. Great winds raced tumultuously across the face of Earth, spreading tales of destruction…

This released the famed “thetans” that stuck to survivors and are the subject of continual auditing. Now that is not so offensive is it? It could be worse, you could be blown up with H-bombs in a volcano by a crazed galactic warrior.

By the way, Xenu was eventually locked him away in “an electronic mountain trap” and still exists — possibly in the Pyrenees (where he can apparently be tormented by the Tour de France each year).

As Guam debates legislation recognizing same-sex marriage, the Catholic Church appears to have reached out to some strange sources of support in its opposition: Islamic terrorists. In a letter being circulated from the Archdiocese of Agaña, Catholics are told that Islamic extremists may engage in suicide bombings but that they at least “value self sacrifice” and punish homosexuals with death. In a second letter without the Al Qaeda angle, Guam Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron still insists that homosexuality is dangerous, unhealthy, and immoral. He further adds a constitutional point of interest: saying that “the first amendment of the United States does no more than simply forbid the establishment of the state religion.”

The legislation in Guam has attracted a surprising degree of support – and a surprising degree of anger from the Church. It was introduced by an openly gay senator, B.J. Cruz who claims to be a victim of Catholic clergy abuse.

One letter purportedly from the Church included this remarkable statement:

“Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. This is why they repress such behavior by death…It may be brutal at times, but any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers…is a culture that at least knows how to value self sacrifice

It further says that the passage of the bill will herald the “end to Western Civilization.”

For the full letter, click here

It is not clear who is the author of that letter. The letter bears the symbol of the church, which has not denied its contents. However, it is not clear if this widely circulated letter was condoned by the leadership of the Church.

The Archbishop is the author of a second letter that contains some of the same dire warnings but without the citation to the faith of Islamic terrorists. It states that the legislation would put even Guam’s right of self-government in question. If passed, he states, the bill “will forfeit its moral authority to continue to govern this island and be “doubly destructive because it encourages a lifestyle that is intrinsically unhealthy.”

He insists that “every humanly-created law is legitimate only insofar as it is consistent with the natural moral law, recognized by right reason, and insofar as it respects the inalienable rights of every person.”
His statement that the first amendment “does no more than simply forbid the establishment of the state religion” is itself interesting. This adopts the narrowest view of the religion clauses and, if accepted by the Supreme Court, would result in the wholesale rejection of many, if not most, of our entanglement cases. It is a view espoused by some conservative scholars but long rejected by the Court. If the first amendment “does no more than simply forbid the establishment of the state religion” than presumably states could become more involved in supporting religions generally and allow greater displays of faith in government buildings and classrooms.

With the recent announcement of the absorption of Anglican priests leaving that church over homosexuality (including marriage priests who will now be part of the Catholic Church), Rome is clearly reaffirming that it is entrenched on the issue of homosexuality — which will define much of the internal and external politics of the Church.

Police in Peoria, Arizona believe that they have another attempted honor killing. Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, ran over his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, and her friend Amal Edan Khalaf because he allegedly viewed her as “too Westernized.” She has life threatening injuries and he is on the lam.

He is Iraqi and has complained about his daughter adopting American ways and habits. His solution appears to have been to try to “honorably” murder both women. He was last seen in a gray or silver Jeep Grand Cherokee.

We have kept a steady record of such honor killings or attempted killings, which largely occur outside of the United States. However, we have our own home grown variety as we have tragically seen over the years, here.

For the full story, click here.

A Former Focus on the Family employee in Colorado Springs, Juan Ovalle, appears a bit too focused on the kinder. He has been sentenced to five years probation for attempting to lure an underage teen into having sex with him. He founded Spanish Christian Audio in 2001 to help Christian organizations with their audio needs.

Ovalle, 42, works with the Spanish-speaking arm of the Colorado Springs Christian group.

His outreach to youth on this occasion turned out to be a police officer who he thought was a minor. He asked her “Do you like older guys?” and proceeded to tell her what he wanted to do with her in their meeting, here.

He will now have to register as a sex offender.

For the full story, click here.

We have yet another “honor killing” in the Middle East. An unnamed Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with murdering his 22-year-old daughter after finding out that she was pregnant. He killed her and her unborn child with a sword to preserve the honor of his family.

The father and his brother took the woman into the doctor when she complained about stomach pains. All three were surprised to learn that she was six months pregnant. On the way home, the father pulled over and stabbed the woman 25 times in her stomach with a sword. He later confessed to the crime and his brother was charged with premeditated murder. Notably, the state is holding the boyfriend in custody for his own protection to prevent his imminent execution by the family.

There are almost three dozen recorded cases of women being executed in honor killings each year in Jordan. While viewed as more modern than most of its neighbors, Jordan’s legislature still opposes efforts to force more severe punishment for honor killings, which are often the subject of low sentences or dismissals.

For the story, click here.

Here is today’s column in USA Today on the Obama Administration’s decision to join the U.N. Human Rights Council and support Egypt in recognizing limits on free speech for those who insult or denigrate religion. While the exception was included in a resolution heralding free speech, it was viewed as a major victory for Muslim countries seeking to establish an international blasphemy law.

Around the world, free speech is being sacrificed on the altar of religion. Whether defined as hate speech, discrimination or simple blasphemy, governments are declaring unlimited free speech as the enemy of freedom of religion. This growing movement has reached the United Nations, where religiously conservative countries received a boost in their campaign to pass an international blasphemy law. It came from the most unlikely of places: the United States.

While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any “negative racial and religious stereotyping.” The exception was made as part of a resolution supporting free speech that passed this month, but it is the exception, not the rule that worries civil libertarians. Though the resolution was passed unanimously, European and developing countries made it clear that they remain at odds on the issue of protecting religions from criticism. It is viewed as a transparent bid to appeal to the “Muslim street” and our Arab allies, with the administration seeking greater coexistence through the curtailment of objectionable speech. Though it has no direct enforcement (and is weaker than earlier versions), it is still viewed as a victory for those who sought to juxtapose and balance the rights of speech and religion.

A ‘misused’ freedom?
In the resolution, the administration aligned itself with Egypt, which has long been criticized for prosecuting artists, activists and journalists for insulting Islam. For example, Egypt recently banned a journal that published respected poet Helmi Salem merely because one of his poems compared God to a villager who feeds ducks and milks cows. The Egyptian ambassador to the U.N., Hisham Badr, wasted no time in heralding the new consensus with the U.S. that “freedom of expression has been sometimes misused” and showing that the “true nature of this right” must yield government limitations.

His U.S. counterpart, Douglas Griffiths, heralded “this joint project with Egypt” and supported the resolution to achieve “tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” While not expressly endorsing blasphemy prosecutions, the administration departed from other Western allies in supporting efforts to balance free speech against the protecting of religious groups.

Thinly disguised blasphemy laws are often defended as necessary to protect the ideals of tolerance and pluralism. They ignore the fact that the laws achieve tolerance through the ultimate act of intolerance: criminalizing the ability of some individuals to denounce sacred or sensitive values. We do not need free speech to protect popular thoughts or popular people. It is designed to protect those who challenge the majority and its institutions. Criticism of religion is the very measure of the guarantee of free speech — the literal sacred institution of society.

Blasphemy prosecutions in the West appear to have increased after the riots by Muslims following the publication of cartoons disrespecting prophet Mohammed in Denmark in 2005. Rioters killed Christians, burned churches and called for the execution of the cartoonists. While Western countries publicly defended free speech, some quietly moved to deter those who’d cause further controversies through unpopular speech.

In Britain, it is a crime to “abuse” or “threaten” a religion under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. A 15-year-old boy was charged last year for holding up a sign outside a Scientology building declaring, “Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult. “In France, famed actress Brigitte Bardot was convicted for saying in 2006 that Muslims were ruining France in a letter to then-Interior Minister (and now President) Nicolas Sarkozy. This year, Ireland joined this self-destructive trend with a blasphemy law that calls for the prosecution of anyone who writes or utters views deemed “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.”

‘Blasphemy’ incidents
Consider just a few such Western “blasphemy” cases in the past two years:

• In Holland, Dutch prosecutors arrested cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot for insulting Christians and Muslims with cartoons, including one that caricatured a Christian fundamentalist and a Muslim fundamentalist as zombies who want to marry and attend gay rallies.

• In Canada, the Alberta human rights commission punished the Rev. Stephen Boission and the Concerned Christian Coalition for anti-gay speech, not only awarding damages but also censuring future speech that the commission deems inappropriate.

• In Italy, comedian Sabina Guzzanti was put under criminal investigation for joking at a rally that “in 20 years, the pope will be where he ought to be — in hell, tormented by great big poofter (gay) devils, and very active ones.”

• In London, an aide to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was arrested for “inciting religious hatred” at his gym by shouting obscenities about Jews while watching news reports of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.Also, Dutch politician Geert Wilders was barred from entering Britain as a “threat to public policy, public security or public health” because he made a movie describing the Quran as a “fascist” book and Islam as a violent religion.

• In Poland, Catholic magazine Gosc Niedzielny was fined $11,000 for inciting “contempt, hostility and malice”by comparing the abortion of a woman to the medical experiments at Auschwitz.

The “blasphemy” cases include the prosecution of writers for calling Mohammed a “pedophile” because of his marriage to 6-year-old Aisha (which was consummated when she was 9). A far-right legislator in Austria, a publisher in India and a city councilman in Finland have been prosecuted for repeating this view of the historical record.

In the flipside of the cartoon controversy, Dutch prosecutors this year have brought charges against the Arab European League for a cartoon questioning the Holocaust.

What’s next?
Private companies and institutions are following suit in what could be seen as responding to the Egyptian-U.S. call for greater “responsibility” in controlling speech. For example, in an act of unprecedented cowardice and self-censorship, Yale University Press published The Cartoons That Shook the World, a book by Jytte Klausen on the original Mohammed cartoons. Yale, however, (over Klausen’s objections) cut the actual pictures of the cartoons. It was akin to publishing a book on the Sistine Chapel while barring any images of the paintings.

The public and private curtailment on religious criticism threatens religious and secular speakers alike. However, the fear is that, when speech becomes sacrilegious, only the religious will have true free speech. It is a danger that has become all the more real after the decision of the Obama administration to join in the effort to craft a new faith-based speech standard. It is now up to Congress and the public to be heard before the world leaves free speech with little more than a hope and a prayer.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors.

USA Today: October 19, 2009