Why Are So Many Christians Conservative? How can people who claim to be followers of Jesus be political conservatives? When you are in the political world, you have decisions to make every single day about who you will try to help and who you won’t. In spite of the earnest quest of good technocrats everywhere, the simple fact is that there are only a few win-win solutions. Who you tax, who you give a tax break to, what programs you cut or add to, who you tighten regulations on, and who you loosen them on, what kind of contractors are … Continue reading How can people who claim to be followers of Jesus be extremists?

How the First Black President’s Approach to Race Is Transforming What It Means to Be White When Obama marked his Census form, he offered another lesson in what has been an intensive if unintentional seminar on the social construction of race President Obama created a bit of a stir in early April when he completed his Census form. In response to the question about racial identity the president indicated he was “Black, African American or Negro.” Despite having been born of a white mother and raised in part by white grandparents, Obama chose to identify himself solely as black even … Continue reading Is Obama Transforming What It Means to Be Black and White?

Controversial Pentagon’s Private Contract Killers Operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan Controversy grows over Pentagon’s network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan hired to help track and kill suspected militants. Author and adventurer Robert Young Pelton is perhaps best known for his best-selling guides to The World’s Most Dangerous Places. A veteran of battles in Afghanistan, sieges in Chechnya and attacks in Liberia, and a survivor of an assassination attempt in Uganda and a kidnapping in Colombia, Pelton has also spent time hunting for Osama bin Laden with the CIA and hanging out with both Blackwater contractors and the insurgents … Continue reading Pentagon’s network of private contractor-killers in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

The Assault on American Muslims Puts All Americans in Danger Covert police actions against U.S. Muslims lead to broken homes, deported parents, bereft children, suicides, killings — and they make everyone less safe. Alioune Niass, the Sengalese Muslim vendor who first spotted the now infamous smoking SUV in Times Square and alerted police, is no hero. If it were not for the Times of London, we would not even know of his pivotal role in the story. No mainstream American newspaper bothered to mention or profile Niass, who peddles framed photographs of celebs and the Manhattan skyline. None of the big … Continue reading Covert police actions against U.S. Muslims increase radicalisation

My Brother Faces a Lifetime of Solitary Confinement on a Spurious Terror Conviction Ahmed Abu Ali is not in a foreign prison or at Guantanamo; he is in a supermax prison in Colorado. // A version of this piece first appeared in The Hoya, Georgetown University’s newspaper. My brother, Ahmed Abu Ali, has spent the past five years in solitary confinement, under 23-hour lockdown, in a 7×12 cell. He has one recreational hour in which he must get strip-searched if he wishes to leave his cell. He gets one unscheduled telephone call a month to his family, and receives the … Continue reading Ahmed Abu Ali is not in a foreign prison or at Guantanamo; he is in a supermax prison in Colorado.

Crop circle ‘inspired by most beautiful formula in mathematics’ appears in Wiltshire A crop circle thought to be inspired by a formula acclaimed as the most beautiful in all mathematics has appeared on a hillside in Wiltshire. By Matthew Moore telegraph.co.uk God’s Formula appears in a 300 foot diameter crop circle in an oil seed rape field at Wilton Windmill, Wiltshire Photo: MIKE WALKER The circle, which is more than 300ft in diameter, was cut into a field of oil seed rape by Wilton Windmill at Wilton near Marlborough. Experts say that the design may be connected to Euler’s Identity, … Continue reading Crop circle – appears in Wiltshire

A deacon from the Greek Orthodox Church and a Swiss national have been arrested for trafficking human bones and trying to pass them off as relics, according to Greek police. telegraph.co.uk Police in the northern city of Thessaloniki arrested 43-year-old Swiss Stephan Meyer, an electrician from Zurich, after airport security found 197 human bones and three skulls in the man’s luggage as he tried to board a flight from Thessaloniki to Germany. Mayer was due to pass the bones onto a representative from the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany, pretending that the bones were from the skeletons of Orthodox saints. … Continue reading Greek Orthodox Mullah arrrested for ‘trafficking human bones’

Life on Earth-like planets in other solar systems would be unlikely to resemble any living organisms we recognise, scientists say. TELEGRAPH.CO.UK Many such worlds are likely to have roller-coaster conditions which switch rapidly between habitable and uninhabitable. As their orbits alter shape, surface water could appear and boil away in as little as 1,000 years, research suggests. Related Articles Methane process makes life on Mars difficult Barack Obama’s address to Congress speech in full Give scientists the freedom to be wrong Building block of life found in comet trail Stunning view of impact crater on Mars Nasa ‘short of money … Continue reading Inhabitable planets likely to have extreme climates, say Boffins

A fisherman in China was surprised after catching this striking creature, which looks like a cross between a turtle and a dinosaur. TELEGRAPH.CO.UK The species is only native to North America and was probably someone’s pet before being dumped in the lake, the local fishing department said. Photo: REX FEATURES The man discovered the alligator snapping turtle, which is not native to the country, in Weishan Lake, in southern China’s Anhui province. The species is only native to North America and was probably someone’s pet before being dumped in the lake, the local fishing department said. Related Articles Iceland: Fly-fishing … Continue reading Rare ‘alligator snapping turtle’ caught in Chinese lake

Police blunder allows killers of British family in Pakistan to go free Police investigating the murder of three members of a British family in Pakistan allowed two of the alleged killers to escape by releasing them so they could mourn for their dead brother, relatives of the victims have claimed. Rob Crilly, in Islamabad telegraph.co.uk Tania Yousaf who was gunned down along with mother Pervaze and father Mohammed in Pakistan. Photo: PA Officers had arrested the two men, suspected of killing Mohammed Yousaf, 51, his wife Pervez, 49, and his daughter Tania, 22, from Nelson, Lancashire, on Friday but agreed … Continue reading Killers of British family in Pakistan to go free