Odds n’ Ends (20)

Here are some recent news stories that caught my attention:

1).    Hawaii State Senate Becomes First to Stop Legislative Prayer. Story here.
I like the headline: A Sad, Tragic, Dumb Day in the Hawaii Senate. Fearing a possible court challenge, Hawaii's state Senate has voted to silence the daily prayer offered before each session began — making it the first state legislative body in the nation to halt the practice. Then on February 23rd, they became the 7th state in the nation to legalize civil unions.

 

2).    San Francisco Proposal May Ban Circumcision. Story here. Self-described "civil rights advocates" say that a ballot proposition to ban circumcision is on track for gathering signatures, meaning that San Franciscans may vote on the measure this November. Tom's thought: Circumcision is the covenant that Jews have with God, showing that they are God's chosen people. Newborn males are circumcised at 8 days old and are thus "brought into the Covenant of Abraham" (Gen. 17:10-14). According to Wikipedia, 30% of males globally are circumcised. Wikipedia further says that it is widely practiced by Muslims. So San Francisco is willing to protect an 8 day old from being circumcised, yet if the child was only 9 days younger, it could be aborted? Does this make sense to anyone?

3).    London Ice Cream Parlor Sells Out of Breast Milk Ice Cream. Story here. Ewwwww.

4).    A Couple Global Warming Stories. A glacier on Peru's Huaytapallana Moutain shed half its surface ice in just 23 years, officials said Wednesday, reinforcing concerns of climate change's growing threat to fresh water resources. "Recent scientific studies indicate that between June 1983 and August 2006, the glacier has lost 50 percent of its surface ice," Erasmo Meza, manager of natural resources and the environment in the central Andean region of Junin, told the official Andina news agency. Story here.

But for those of you who don't believe in Global Warming, check out the Wall Street Journal's article on a recent study showing that our weather is not getting more extreme: Story here. Some climate alarmists would have us believe that recent storms are yet another baleful consequence of man-made CO2 emissions. In addition to the latest weather events, they also point to recent cyclones in Burma, last winter's fatal chills in Nepal and Bangladesh, December's blizzards in Britain, and every other drought, typhoon and unseasonable heat wave around the world. But is it true? To answer that question, you need to understand whether recent weather trends are extreme by historical standards. The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project is the latest attempt to find out, using super-computers to generate a dataset of global atmospheric circulation from 1871 to the present. As it happens, the project's initial findings, published last month, show no evidence of an intensifying weather trend…

5).    12 Year Olds Shown 'Brokeback Mountain' in School – No Emotional Distress Damages Awarded. Story here. Substitute teach Marnetta Buford showed the 'Brokeback Mountain' film in, of all things, a math class, allegedly after warning students that "what happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class." She showed the first 44 minutes of the film, including the homosexual sex scene to her students. But the jury did not award the 12 year old 7^th grader any emotional distress damages, finding that the teacher's conduct was not sufficiently outrageous.