What’s interesting in the news today?
1. I’m sure this was part of the Bishop’s reasoning from the story yesterday. There already is a religious war happening, but only one side is fighting it.
From InternationalBusinessTimes “A prominent Nigerian reverend has revealed Islamist terror group Boko Haram destroyed over 180 churches in the West African country following its capture of towns and villages in the north-eastern states of Borno and Adamawa.
Reverend Gideon Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese in Borno State, said the group’s seizure of territory in both states has seen 185 churches torched and over 190,000 people displaced by their insurgency.
In his statement, Obasogie said Boko Haram’s “ransacking and torching” of churches had forced priests to leave their homes for two months while displaced civilians were still unable to return to their towns and villages.
He added the destruction of churches was “sad, heart-aching and potentially dangerous to the territorial integrity and common good of Nigeria.””
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2. Meanwhile in Syria ISIS continues it’s attacks against minorities and those of other faiths as well. The bombing campaign doesn’t seem to be slowing their advance.
From ChristianScienceMonitor “Islamic State militants have reportedly advanced to southern and eastern districts of Kobane, a strategically important Kurdish town along the Syria-Turkey border.
The fall of Kobane would further undermine the security of the Kurdish-majority region in northern Syria. It also raises questions over the effectiveness of the US-led bombing campaign in Syria against the self-declared Islamic State.
IS fighters fought their way into the eastern side of the city on Monday as they pushed back its Syrian Kurd defenders, the BBC reports. The militants then raised their black flag on buildings and hills.
“These neighborhoods are Kobane’s shantytowns and there are still civilians there who couldn’t flee,” Ismet Sheikh Hasan, a senior defense official in the Syrian Kurdish region, told the Wall Street Journal.”
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3. Everyone’s worried about Ebola, but we already have another epidemic running wild in the US.
From Atlanta/CBSLocal “While the national media focus on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the patient in Dallas, the CDC is reminding Americans that sexually transmitted diseases are an ongoing but hidden epidemic.
In the United States, nearly 20 million cases of new STD infections are reported each year, reports Live Science. Since infections can persist for a long time, and because some victims are not even aware they have a disease and can easily spread it to others.
Based on data from 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the eight most common sexually transmitted diseases are: chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B virus (HBV), genital herpes, HIV, human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis and trichomoniasis.
About 50.5 million current infections are in men while 59.5 million are in women, for a total of 110 million Americans with STDs at any given time.”
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4. Not if, the only question is when.
From MSN “Missouri authorities are drawing up contingency plans and seeking intelligence from U.S. police departments on out-of-state agitators, fearing that fresh riots could erupt if a grand jury does not indict a white officer for killing a black teen.
The plans are being thrashed out in meetings being held two to three times a week, according to people who have attended them. The FBI said it was also involved in the discussions.
Details of the meetings and intelligence sharing by Missouri police agencies and their counterparts around the country have not been reported before.
The grand jury is expected to decide next month whether to bring criminal charges against police officer Darren Wilson, who shot dead Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.”
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5. Once again, never listen to what they say. They lie. Just watch what they do. Or better yet, don’t elect them to begin with.
From CapitolCityProject “Yesterday, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Action released a video showing campaign staffers of U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes admitting she’s deceiving voters on her energy plan. They promised if she were elected, she’d destroy the coal industry in Kentucky despite publicly “supporting” it.
Now, a newly released second video shows a real estate mogul and top donor to Democrats saying, “She’s going to @#$% em as soon as she gets elected.”
“Investigators secretly record video at Grimes fundraising event attended by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, real estate tycoon Niko Elmaleh and New York Knicks owner James Dolan at a swanky NY restaurant,” writes Project Veritas.
“She will do what she has to do to get elected then “@#$%” the coal industry says major donor.””
I hope loose drunken Dem donor lips sink ships.
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Wandering Views 
How about this topsy-turvy world? A woman in England, having built up a good relationship after being single for six years, decided to tie the knot – with herself. The ceremony was a joyous event, witnessed by family and friends. How in the world can one marry oneself? Who signed the marriage certificate with her, or did she sign twice? If this trend were to be adopted in the US, would it give the person a tax advantage when she checks the married box and enters her name as the filer, and the same name when she claims herself as her married dependent? How much more complicated can the marriage issue become?
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/10/06/london-woman-marries-herself-after-being-single-for-six-years/20973249/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000058
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Tychicus!
Just don’t give anyone any ideas.
It wouldn’t have worked for me. I would have divorced me long ago. And demanded alimony because of spousal abuse.
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A couple of days ago, I was questioning the information we receive about the contagion of the ebola virus. I asked how long it could live outside the host.
I was reading in the Washington Times that Dr. Ben Carson says this:
“Ebola is a terrifying disease. I am a little concerned that we’re bringing it back here. It can survive outside the host for several days at least.”
That makes it bad.
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And I heard on Fox News last night, someone say, “there are 22,000 lobbyist in Washington:”
I can’t remember who said that, so I can’t attach a percentage of credulity.
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I see the Ebola patient in Dallas has died. 😦 Nasty stuff.
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Oh my.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/10/et-tu-jimmy.php
“When Jimmy Carter starts criticizing your foreign policy as weak and indecisive, you are getting to the bottom of the barrel. Jimmy unloaded on Barack Obama yesterday …”
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Interesting piece on why so many liberals”despise” Christianity:
http://theweek.com/article/index/269462/why-do-so-many-liberals-despise-christianity
“Item 1: In a widely discussed essay in Slate, author Brian Palmer writes about the prevalence of missionary doctors and nurses in Africa and their crucial role in treating those suffering from Ebola. Palmer tries to be fair-minded, but he nonetheless expresses “ambivalence,” “suspicion,” and “visceral discomfort” about the fact that these men and women are motivated to make “long-term commitments to address the health problems of poor Africans,” to “risk their lives,” and to accept poor compensation (and sometimes none at all) because of their Christian faith. …”
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More from the above link:
” … Contemporary liberals increasingly think and talk like a class of self-satisfied commissars enforcing a comprehensive, uniformly secular vision of the human good. The idea that someone, somewhere might devote her life to an alternative vision of the good — one that clashes in some respects with liberalism’s moral creed — is increasingly intolerable. That is a betrayal of what’s best in the liberal tradition. …”
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From Drudge:
WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., says that at least ten fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have been apprehended while attempting to enter the southern U.S. border.
The California Republican claims that “at least ten ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas,” in a conversation with Fox News on Tuesday. Hunter says that the Islamic terrorists are slipping into the U.S. through the porous southern border as several have already been captured.
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I have no idea about anyone’s credibility in this article, but you all know I’m not keen on what I’ve seen happen in our former community once medical marijuana was legalized. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2782906/The-terrible-truth-cannabis-British-expert-s-devastating-20-year-study-finally-demolishes-claims-smoking-pot-harmless.html
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2. Bombing is useless without close cooperation from ground forces. However the Syrian Kurds are associated with Marxist (or anarchist) Kurdish peoples party, a Turkish based group deemed a terrorist organization by the west and whose leader sits in a Turkish prison. Thus our Turkish allies are quite content to let ISIS finish off the Kurds. Hence the Kurds are on their own with a few token bombing runs.
Its a real shame since this is the group which rescued the Yazdhis and are more tolerant of minorities than other group in the area.
3. I tell my students that if they have sex with seven or more partners in their lifetime, they will have almost certainly contracted chlamydia. My students think i am a killjoy.
HPV and Hep B can be prevented through immunization. With a good public health program, these diseases should not even be on the radar. My grade seven students receive the Hep B shots and grade 8 girls receive the HPV shots. Its free through public health and given during the school day.
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Carter actually had a strong consistent foreign policy but it was based on human rights not American self-interest.
Donna, its a little ironic that theists portray the same smugness when using the moral argument for God. Just as some liberals can’t understand the motivations of missionaries, theist don’t understand how atheist can be moral or at least what motivates them to be moral.
Drudge and some republicans should remember loose lips sink ships.
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Oh but we do understand, it’s called common grace. 🙂 Nonbelievers do wonderful things and many are very moral.
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The problem with the HPV shot is it only covers a couple stands of the virus. There are a lot more STDs that one can get. The other problem is that the younger a girl begins to have sex, the more damage done to her “immature” cervix. It’s a thin membrane thick when she’s a young teen and only becomes thick enough to repel viruses when she hits twenty or so.
(Well, repel isn’t the right word, but I can’t think of it right now).
That’s the reason any woman who began having sex before the age of 20 is at risk for HPV–which is the only virus that causes cancer. I’ve know at least one woman who “wasn’t a good girl in my teens” who lost her uterus at 27 from HPV.
Interesting stat, though, HRW about chlamydia. I’m glad you’re letting the kids know.
In my 27 years of PCC volunteering, I’ve seen a real swing in what girls fear. A quarter of a century ago, they were terrified of getting pregnant. Now, they’re not happy about it, but will abort. What really frightens them is an STD.
World still turning upside down . . .
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HRW – there are many different strains of HPV and the vaccination only covers a few of them. It is still possible to get HPV even with the vaccination. My teachers taught that in my nursing course and it even says so on a STI pamphlet for teens that was handed out. They also mentioned that chlamydia and gonorrhea were the fastest growing STDs.
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Thanks for the HPV info.
Gonorrhea and syphyllis are fairly well known at least the kids think they know it all. I surprise them with the chlamydia info. Most never heard of the STI let alone its rank as number one. Gonorrhea is back because there are antibiotic resistant strains.
My birth control lessons have frequently been amended to include a simple message: abortion is not birth control. Usually I add that because there is some guy who makes a flippant comment. Last year I had a boy suggest his girlfriend could just tie her tubes. I graphically described a vasectomy and suggested he take one for the team.
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As Donna J alluded, Christians have no problem understanding (or being smug about) how atheists can be moral. That’s a common non-theist misunderstanding of the point being made. The issue Christians are raising is not whether unbelievers can be moral, or whether they can name certain motivations for being moral; instead, the issue is whether their (the unbelievers’) stated moral system is consistent with the balance of their broader philosophy.
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HRW @ 9:09
😆
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