News to Bug You

Yeah, I know — awful headline pun.

But the news is awfully buggy this morning, as I read at Yahoo! News:

Bedbugs, the houseguests nobody wants, are back in growing numbers across the USA, and booting them from your bunk can be a lengthy, costly process.

Sixty years after near-eradication, the little bloodsuckers are infesting homes and hotels from New York to San Diego. Why the outbreak? Increased world travel and changing pest-control practices.

“The bugs had become a myth,” says Richard Cooper, an entomologist who runs a family pest control firm in Lawrenceville, N.J. “They were the monster in the closet. People don’t believe they’re real.”

So carry your bug spray and bug bombs and bug repellent and Gold Bond Medicated Anti-Itch Cream if you’re planning to stay in a motel.

Oh well.

News Quiz #1

Here’s the story:

Surgeons will attempt early next year to mend the severed nerves of young people who have suffered motorbike accidents in the first trial of a simple but potentially revolutionary technology that could one day allow the paralysed to walk again.

At least ten operations will be carried out to test in humans a technique pioneered in animals by the neuroscientist Geoffrey Raisman, who heads the spinal repair unit of University College, London. He discovered 20 years ago that cells from the lining of the __________ constantly regenerate themselves. Professor Raisman’s team believes that if those cells were implanted at the site of the damage they would build a bridge across the break, allowing the nerve fibres to knit back together.

What’s the missing word?

No fair searching for the correct answer till after you post your answer (ie, guess) here. 🙂

Whose Actions?

Yesterday I learned of the four CPT people kidnapped by (Islamic?) terrorists in Iraq. My heart does indeed go out to these four and their families.

Last night I had to wonder what CPT’s reaction would have been had this happened in Israel (proper and/or “occupied”). If their (seemingly) anti-Israel track record bears here at all, they would be blaming Israel.

So what do I read just a few minutes ago on the CPT website?

We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people.

They don’t seem to blame the terrorists.

And they certainly don’t seem to accept the reality that what happened is the result of CPT actions.

Their slogan is “Christian Peacemaker Teams: committed to reducing violence by ‘Getting in the way.'”

A word to the CPT organization: Getting in the way is your choice, your action.

Accept responsibility and quit blaming someone else for your choices and actions.

I am not insensitive to nor uncaring about the four CPT folks in terrorist care.

I am saying the CPT statement and obvious political agenda are very diminishing to the four.

May the four show God’s love and grace to their captors.

And may God’s grace be able to sustain them and their families.

No Photos?

Last night Nance was executed. This morning it was Hicks:

Ohio executed the nation’s 999th person Tuesday, putting to death a man who was high on cocaine when he . . . .

There are several more executions scheduled for this week here in the States.

But my question reflects my frustration at being unable to track down any online photograph of either of Hicks’ victims: Brandy Green and Maxine Armstrong.

By the way, if Hicks was the nation’s 999th person as the AP reported, what’s your number?

Alito’s Promises

A promise is a promise, right?

So beware of what you promise. Once you have made it, you cannot qualify it. Any qualifiers must be an expressed part of the promise at the time it is made.

In my view, to try to qualify it after the fact shows moral weakness and illuminates poor judgment.

That’s why this AP story leaves me shaking my head:

Alito serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia and has most of his money in mutual funds. When he joined the court in 1990 he told senators he would avoid cases in which Vanguard Group was a party.

Senators questioned him about the 2002 Vanguard case, which was the subject of a conflict of interest complaint filed by the woman who lost her lawsuit. Alito withdrew after first ruling against her and the decision was reaffirmed without his participation.

Alito and the White House have offered several explanations: that a computer glitch allowed the disqualification issue to slip through undetected, that Alito’s 1990 pledge to stay out of Vanguard appeals only applied to his initial service, and that the promise was “unduly restrictive.”

“Unduly restrictive,” eh?

Amazing!

Ah, the frailties of man. (And nobody has a corner on that market!)

I wonder how soon till children start using “unduly restrictive” to explain away their failures to keep their promises.

An Ignored Humanitarian Crisis

Yesterday Mission Network News reported:

The United Nations is increasing its presence in Uganda to help over two million people displaced by the civil war.

UN reports say it’s one of the largest ignored humanitarian crises. Most of the refugees fleeing the 19-year war live in over 200 squalid and overcrowded camps and rely largely on international assistance to survive.

The tragedy, says World Vision’s Amy Parodi (par-AW-dee), is a whole generation of young adults know only war. “Rehabilitation, spiritual and psychological counseling and help are going to be absolutely vital, in addition to helping the displaced community and the unemployed community to find employment and to get themselves back on their feet. So they don’t feel like they have to resort to violence to make ends meet.”

Ignored by whom?

Me.

You?

Our churches?

Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005