MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Gov't: 23K workers affected by Gulf oil drill ban.WASHINGTON — The deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico costs at least 23,000 jobs, according to a federal document that weighed the economic impact and alternatives to the drilling ban.A six-month suspension would directly put 9,450 people out of work and indirectly affect nearly 14,000 other jobs, according to a memo from Michael Bromwich, the nation's top drilling regulator. The July 10 memo to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar outlined several options regarding the suspension of offshore drilling."Were on the road off recovery"?More like off the road?Give back the keys!!!!!

• Obama ‘Texts’ God, And Vice Versa.Holy BlackBerry! Obama Finds Ways to Keep the Faith During First Year in Office.Obama's spiritual advisor ,who is he?First, Jim Wallis has had relationships with the communist Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).Second, his “Witness for Peace” was an attempt to defend the Nicaraguan [Communist] Sandinistas! Wallis, together with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Obama’s former pastor of 20 years) “rallied support for the communist Nicaraguan regime and protested actions by the United States which supported the anti-communist Contra rebels” Hmmm reminds me of Rasputin advising the last Tsar.

• Video: ‘Iran’s Uranium a Problem for UN, Not the World’.Seyed Mohammad Morandi, a professor of politics at Tehran University, believes that it is only the UN which has issues with Iran -- not the whole international community.

• The Latest from Iran (21 August): Khamenei v. Ahmadinejad?Family Matters. Zahra Rahnavard has strongly condemned the “Family Protection” bill, urging Parliament to reject it, as she claims that it gives more power to men to be polygamous without the knowledge of a wife and harshly discriminates against women. Rahnavard asserted, “Striking the so-called ‘Family Protection bill from Parliament’s agenda is not a feminist demand but rather is a symbol of national demand for the prosperity of the Iranian nation and the stability of Iranian families.”

• Barak to U.S., France: Take steps to stop Lebanese flotilla.After announced delay in departure of women's flotilla, Defense Minister speaks with foreign ministers of U.S. and France, stresses that flotilla is an "unnecessary provocation."Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke on Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, U.S. National Security Adviser General Jim Jones, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and asked them to act to prevent the launch of the Lebanese flotilla setting for Gaza.

• Muslims, not Americans, are religious bigots!As Time puts it, it is wrong to “conflate Islam with terrorism and savagery.” But the world must be dealt with as it is and not as we wish it were. That requires us to accept the reality that Muslim nations are the most religiously intolerant places on Earth, and that a startling number of Islamic clerics worldwide still refuse to condemn violence against nonbelievers. In contrast, Americans who oppose the mosque are not even demanding that its developers be arrested or harmed in any way for their beliefs. They ask only that the mosque developers voluntarily show common sense, decency and sensitivity for America’s loss on 9/11.

• Letter: Is polygamy next?An Aug. 14 letter concludes banning same-sex marriage violates the First Amendment by imposing Christian ideals. Could as well have said Jewish, Muslim and many more. The issue is “ideals.”Current ideals are “one consenting adult man and woman.” So we change to “two consenting adults.” We have no right to say man and woman. So where is the right to say, “two?” If the key is consenting adults, then an arbitrary limit as to the number and makeup violates First Amendment rights just as a limiting gender makeup does. Polygamy is next.

• Video:Obama’s End Game. A Look at the National Debt," which takes a look at the debt crisis facing this country. To be clear, this is not a typical web video - this is an in-depth analysis of the impact of the national debt upon our nation's future and the government's actions over the past two years.America is at a critical crossroads, and the path we take will determine the kind of country we want to be. Our country is facing serious challenges; this video is a serious and substantive look at the crisis of generational debt being created by government today.A MUST SEE FOR EVERY AMERICAN!

• Web Design FAIL: Iran’s New Holocaust Denial Cartoon Site.As a professional artist, writer, and web designer of 15 years and with almost thirty years of online experience (both web-based and BBS based), I very often scour the web for exceptional examples of web design. This week, I hit upon a doozie.Recently, Iran and it’s heavily state-controlled media wing made live a new website – HoloCartoons.com- which is based on a comic book written by Omid Mehdinejad and illustrated by Maziar Bijani. Plain and simple, the site denies the Jewish Holocaust as a fabrication and myth. Complete with swastika emblazoned user interface buttons, the site categorically rejects Jews as true followers of Moses and Abraham and even offers a “dedication” to those who lost their lives in WWII “under the pretext of the Holocaust”.

• Are they lying to us?The deception behind the Manhattan Mosque.Are they speaking the truth or is this more deception?The Qur’an teaches that a Muslim can deceive the unbeliever when it is to his advantage. We see this in the doctrine referred to as taqiyya that even allows a Muslim to deny his own faith but still receive forgiveness from Allah, when to do so would protect him from harm.

• Teenager begins world record sailing bid.A Dutch teenager hoping to become the youngest solo around-the-world sailor has begun her voyage from Portugal. Laura Dekker, 14, left Portimao at around 0900 GMT on Saturday aboard her 8m (26ft) boat Guppy, Dutch media said.Her manager said she had left in a very good mood despite calm conditions, but did not want to speak to the media.In April Ms Dekker won a court case against Dutch social services, who had tried argued that the voyage could harm her emotional and social development.The teenager will spend more than two years living alone on the boat.

• Bears that defended B.C. Grow up face death sentence.B.C. conservation officers are hashing out what could be fatally bad news for bears found apparently guarding a marijuana garden in the province's southeast.A group of up to 15 black bears were discovered nearly three weeks ago near the popular resort area of Christina Lake lounging around a patch of more than 1,000 pot plants.They are being examined for their ability to get their food from the wild.Because they've become dependent on human handouts like dog food, some of the bruins may be unable to return productively to the woods and with winter approaching, that'll soon become apparent, said conservation officer Dave Webster."At that point, they'll be destroyed there's nothing else we can do with them," he said.

• Video:Maria Sharapova: Tennis Pro Goes Home to Chernobyl.Tennis superstar Maria Sharapova returns to her family's home in Chernobyl