Politics

So what would a conservative Mennonite care about mere earthly politics? And why?

Now Don’t Go Making Congress Mad!

And a government cover-up is better? 😐

And…the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.

Help me out — why would that make Congress mad?

“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.

Here we go again. Somebody is going to tell me I can’t carry on a conversation while I’m driving. Come to think of it, I don’t talk much while I’m driving. I don’t drink much either.

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

That is astounding, but how do they go about estimating such things?

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

😯

So, just add a new dimension to DUI. Maybe something along the lines of Driving Under the Influence of Conversation.

Wait a minute — why am I wasting my time here again????!!!! 🙁

One more thing: Will the time come when we attach drunk driving stigma to distracted driving?

Read the rest of the New York Times story here: In 2003, U.S. Withheld Data Showing Cellphone Driving Risks.

Foreign Teachers in Russia

Mission Network News is reporting this Moscow news:

Currently, foreigners in Russia only need a visa to teach. A draft bill has been submitted, however, that claims the current policy opens doors for the spread of “extremist ideology, national and religious hatred.” All of this poses a national security threat, according to the bill.

Persuaded by the threats, the Moscow City Dumas deputies approved the creation of the bill last Tuesday which would require a work permit for foreign teachers. This can take months to acquire.

Religious Freedom Exemption

If you’re interested in Oregon and/or in religious freedom legal issues and/or public schools, this will interest you.

A bill passed by the Oregon Legislature that broadens religious freedom in the workplace has prompted protests by some faith leaders because it exempts schools.

The bill requires employers to allow workers to wear certain clothing, grow beards and take certain days off to observe their religious practices. But it specifically carves out school districts in Oregon, one of two states that expressly forbid teachers from wearing religious clothing.

[…]

The bill, titled the “Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act” grants workers wide religious leeway as long as the activity, clothing or other practices don’t cause an undue hardship on the employer. Religious organizations typically applaud such measures.

But the school exemption has highlighted what some think is a glaring hole in Oregon’s efforts to expand religious freedoms.

[…]

Oregon has had a law on the books for decades that states: “No teacher in any public school shall wear any religious dress while engaged in the performance of duties as a teacher.” Pennsylvania has a similar law.

Oregon’s law was tested in the 1980s, when a Sikh teacher was suspended from her job as a Eugene special education teacher for wearing a white turban and white clothes to class. The case went before the Oregon Supreme Court, which upheld the suspension. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

I saw this night before last, saved it as a draft to post yesterday, and forgot.

Source: The Oregonian

Pope: “Charity in Truth”

So he released his latest encyclical:

Pope Benedict on Tuesday called for a “world political authority” to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat.

The pope’s call for a re-think of the way the world economy is run came in new encyclical which touched on a number of social issues but whose main connecting thread was how the current crisis has affected both rich and poor nations.

[…]

The pope said every economic decision has a moral consequence and called for “forms of redistribution” of wealth overseen by governments to help those most affected by crises.

Benedict said “there is an urgent need of a true world political authority” whose task would be “to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result.”

Such an authority would have to be “regulated by law” and “would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights.”

Global economic political authority? No, thanks!

But it’s coming anyway.

The Bible tells me so (as I recall).

Free McDonalds Advertising

McDonalds in Honduras

The United States agrees with rivals Venezuela and Cuba on this one: Condemnation for Honduran Military Coup

Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras on Sunday and Congress named a successor, but the leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced what he called an illegal coup and vowed to stay in power.

The first military takeover of a Central American government in 16 years drew widespread condemnation from governments in Latin America and the world — including the U.S. — and Chavez vowed to overthrow the country’s apparent new leader.

Well, I’m sure the US doesn’t agree with the Chavez vow.

Culling the Opposition

Do you think Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad and former Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Mousavi can remember 30 years ago?

That was a generation ago.

That was when the Shah of Iran was toppled and the US Embassy taken over for 444 days by the student radicals and protesters and revolutionaries of that day.

That was their heydey…and I’m sure they remember it well.

I suspect they would like to keep the new generation from doing to their power as they themselves did to the Shah’s power.

But how do you bring out into daylight the new generation of student radicals and protesters and revolutionaries…where you can ID them and/or arrest them and/or demoralize them and/or eliminate them?

And how do you increase the odds that in the process you might snag some agent provocateurs of the foreign sort — especially Israeli and American?

You stage a fraudulent election! 😯

So those three men (Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, and Mousavi) got together with other Iranian power brokers and planned the whole thing.

Is that my belief, my accusation? 🙄

Oh, don’t be silly!

On the other hand, I do not find such a scenario to be impossible or even improbable.

I just don’t know. And neither do you.

But I read it here first. And so did you (I suppose).

Now we’ll see if it develops legs.

Above all, love God!