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Internet Competition

Most web surfers today dont realize just how cut throat the internet can be. For most, its just entertainment or shopping or email only. But for others its SERIOUS Business. Check out this blog I found on http://deanhunt.com/.
Its about an irate? crazy? overzealous? web site owner (NOT DEAN), who writes to dean hunt complaining that deans site landed a higher search position (for a particular search term) on google than his did, yet deans site has nothing to do with the search term in question, and would he (dean) please remove that term from searches for his site, otherwise he will take further action ....... The GALL!!!

Anyway all this idiot succeeded in doing is give deans site massive free publicity, that would otherwise never be gotten by most site owners, as deanhunt.com/ got written up in numerous popular websites and news and print media.

Saddam Executed

He was called a tyrant, a madman, a dictator. Accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. And at dawn today he was executed, hanged from a U.S. made gallows.
Had you not first read the title you may have thought I was talking about Bush, because lets face it ALL of the above adjectives describe him perfectly. Now we can only hope that this other lunatic gets his day in court, and a fitting punishment.

Pursuit of Justice - American Style; Saddam Lawyer Tries Technicalities

Citing "International Conventions," Saddams defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said. "According to the international conventions, it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary," "I urge all the international and legal organizations, the United Nations secretary-general, the Arab League and all the leaders of the world to rapidly prevent the American administration from handing the president to the Iraqi authorities,"

and a second technicality being argued:
A top government official disputed the court's ruling that Saddam must be hanged within 30 days, saying the execution should be held after that time period. The comment comes amid debate over other legal procedures such as whether the presidency is required to approve the execution. "The law does not say within 30 days, it says after the lapse of 30 days," said Busho Ibrahim, deputy justice minister.
LINK

Spare Saddam?

Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department, said he hopes former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will be spared execution, citing the Church's opposition to the death penalty.

My thoughts are that this is a chance to "lead by example" as opposed to the current policy of "do as I say or else" by both the Iraqis and the United States. It "may" show the "terrorists" (both in the middle east and in the white house) that violence needn't beget violence. Its an opportunity to show that both the U.S. and the new Iraqi leadership are indeed better. than Saddam and others like him. To execute him would only serve as fodder for the enemy, showing that their way is correct, that "might makes right," a dangerous lesson we shouldn't and needn't pursue.

Words of Saddam

Please note the words of the fallen leader, all ye imbeciles who strap bombs to their bodies and then look for company.:

Saddam called on Iraqis to unite . But he said Iraqis should not blame the populations of the United States and its allies: "I urge you not to hate the peoples of the countries that committed aggression against us, but instead to differentiate between the decision-makers and the peoples."

Perversion of Science

With the advent of all the baby making technology available today, most of us were worried that prosepctive parents would be discarding, thru abortion or other means, babies that were less than perfect.  I doubt however that ANYONE envisioned this.- Designer disability
This completely perverts what is otherwise an excellent tool in PREVENTING defects.
Excerpts below; For full story click here

Some doctors are doing the opposite - making babies with made-to-order genetic defects, according to The Associated Press.

The procedure is an ethical minefield, but parents with disabilities like deafness or dwarfism say it just means making babies like themselves.
A recent Johns Hopkins survey of 137 American clinics that offer embryo screening found that four of them have done the procedure.
One of the nation's leading experts in reproductive medicine, Dr. Jamie Grifo of New York University, believes parents should be able to decide whether or not to have the procedure.
Before the embryo is implanted in the womb, a cell is removed to allow doctors to examine it for a genetic defect. In the past, such an embryo would be discarded.
But now, if the embryo contains a gene for, say, dwarfism or deafness, it is implanted in the womb.
The phrase "designer disability" was coined after two deaf lesbian psychotherapists used sperm from a deaf family friend to have two deaf children.
Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., considered having the procedure so she could have a dwarf baby.
In part, she felt she ought to be able to decide whether she could have a child that looks like her and her husband, Gibson, also a dwarf.
"You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who's going to look like me. It's just unbelievably presumptuous, and they're playing God," she said.
But her decision was also based on the fact that the couple's newborn daughter died last year from a dwarfism-related disease called homozygous achondroplasia.

I Swear ........... So Help Me God

Democratic Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has requested to use the quran for his swearing in ceremony. This of course has caused a bit of a stir, mainly in conservative circles. For me the question to ask is why do we use the bible for swearing in? Is it because we think that swearing in on a book of ones religious beliefs will make them tend to be more honest, or a better person? Or do we continue to use the bible today simply because its an American tradition?
My opinion is, If its the former, based on religious beliefs and what it may or may not do to and for a person, then yeah, he ought to use the quran, quite simply because what good does it do to have a person swear on a book he or she doesn't believe in? But if its the latter, based simply on American tradition, then no he shouldn't be allowed to use the quran. Far too many American traditions have already gone by the wayside.
I believe originally the thinking was that a person would tend to be better after having sworn on the bible, for the bible was, back in the day, a much more forceful instrument than it is now. I'm not saying that it wouldn't serve that purpose for someone who was a staunch believer, just that there aren't as many people today that have the same fear or respect for the bible that once did.

What do you think?

Free Child Internet Protection Available Christmas Day

On Christmas Day only, ChatChecker Plus, the popular internet monitoring software, will be made available to parents around the world for free (normally $30). Simply log onto www.chatchecker.com and download the free software on December 25th from 12:01 AM EST to 11:59PM EST.

ChatChecker is a free and easy-to-use parental tool for monitoring chat and instant messaging in your home, including: MySpace, AOL, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ. ChatChecker can be installed on any PC in your home. Once installed, you can login to ChatChecker's secure website to review your kids' activity, receive usage summaries and set up or change "watchword" alerts.

"It is so important to monitor what your kids are doing on the Internet that for the first time this Christmas, as our gift to parents around the world, we are offering a one year subscription for free," says ChatChecker developer and founder Marty Schultz. "Keeping children safe is the best gift anyone could receive."

With ChatChecker, parents can:

• View conversations
• Make ChatChecker undetectable by your child
• Search conversations by name, date or words
• Get an email every morning showing yesterday's conversations
• Recording (and optionally alerting you via email) which websites your child visits
• Recording keystrokes
• Block specific people from talking to your children
• Export conversations so you can keep them on your PC
• Print, email or copy & paste conversations
• Delete certain conversations or not record certain people (including yourself)
• Schedule when your children can use instant messaging
• Block inappropriate websites

IMbrella Software, the parent company of ChatChecker, safeguards instant message use for companies, schools and government organizations of all sizes around the globe. IMbrella Software provides a complete line of simple and affordable tools to control and archive instant messages, including MySpace, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, Trillian and ICQ conversations. Additional information can be found at www.ChatChecker.com

Yesterday Germany, Today Poland, Tomorrow ...??

Whats happening in Europe? Yesterday Germany declared Pope Benedict XVI controversial speech as "speech of the year" and today Poland seekd to name Jesus Christ as honorary King.
Poland is a staunchly catholic country, so there is no doubt (at least in my mind) that this is being considered out of the utmost respect for Jesus. There are however those in disagreement (with me? NEVER!!) Chief among them is none other than .............. yep you guessed it, the catholic church, who else, with several bishops criticizing the proposal and saying "parliament should stay out of religious affairs". Hmmm........ if only they took their own advice. Well to be fair, maybe in Europe the church does stay out of politics. Now if only they would do so in the United States.
Stay tuned folks. Yesterday Germany, today Poland, tomorrow, ............... I dunno, maybe Italy naming the pope honorary head of the " Cosa Nostra"? Oh wait he is already. Ok then maybe, say the popes face on the Euro? Yeah that would be the icing on the proverbial cake alright.
Good night and god bless......
LINK to story

Speech of the Year

In trying to keep with my goal of "like it or not fair reporting," here's the latest out of Germany. Mind you this is a country where the simple denial of the holocaust is a crime, so i dont know what to make of this, but here it is for you all to read:

December 19, 2006 -- BERLIN - Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech, which angered Muslims by appearing to link Islam and violence, was named Speech of the Year by Tuebingen University a German school yesterday.  LINK

Quiz: What's the Biggest Cash "Crop" in the U.S?

Answer:

Marijuana, of course. And you wonder why we're unsuccessful at fighting illegal drugs. As I've stated many time before, its because we cant afford to stop it; its too big a business for this country.
A report released today by a marijuana public policy analyst contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion — far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops.
California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state's grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states, the report states.
LINK to story:

Whats in a Name?

Apparently alot of anguish if you live in THIS little Swedish town..  or in THIS Austrian village

WARNING! do NOT click the links above if you are easily offended

And tho NOT pronounced the way it looks, be honest, how many of you were embarrassed trying to pronounce, or worse, explain to others your feelings about what happened in the tsunami town  after it was destroyed in a catasrophy in 2004

Drinking Can Help In a Crash

Dont shoot the messenger!  I just report the facts, tho factually when i was alot younger (18-20's) my friends used to prefer driving with me when i was drunk - because i paid more attention to what i was doing!  i can definitely agree that "drunk" driving is dangerous and deadly, but i disagree with anything close to the current levels of .08%
so here's the story:

DRINKING CAN HELP IN CRASH

December 19, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Alcohol is to blame in many accidents that cause major head injuries - but it also might help people survive after they get hurt, researchers said yesterday.

Researchers examined data on 1,158 patients treated at a Toronto hospital for severe brain injury due to blunt trauma from 1988 and 2003.

Those with blood-alcohol levels of up to 0.23 percent, nearly three times the common legal limit, were found to be 24 percent likelier to survive than those with no alcohol

But patients with even higher alcohol levels were 73 percent likelier to die than those with none, University of Toronto Dr. Homer Tien wrote in The Archives of Surgery.
LINK to story -
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12192006/news/worldnews/drinking_can_help_in_crash_worldnews_.htm

Donate vacation/sick time for Katrina relief

If you  have extra vacation, sick or personal days from work that you don't use, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has provided a way that you can help victims of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Instead of letting these days go to waste, you can donate them to help victims from the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

The Department of the Treasury and IRS have set up a special program (Under Notice 2005-68) which was initiated to encourage employees to donate their unused sick or vacation days to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Under this special program, employees can donate their vacation, sick or personal leave days back to their company. Their employer then takes the value of the time donated and makes a cash donation to a charity helping out in the relief effort.

To meet the program's requirements, the cash donation must be made to a qualified tax-exempt organizations providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The employer must also make the cash donation payment before January 1, 2007. In return, the employees do not have to count the donated leave as part of their income and employers are allowed to deduct the amount of the cash payment from their taxes.

If you know that you will not be using all the vacation and/or sick days that you are entitled to take, contact the personnel office of your company to see if you can arrange to donate your unused days to help those struggling to recover. It's an easy way to make a difference with a minimal amount of effort on your part, especially if you usually do not use all of your allotted days each year.




The World Unleashed allworldviews.blogspot.com

Holiday E-Card Warning

Many more people than usual will receive E-mail greeting cards during the holiday season (yeah, including xmas)(yeah i shortened christmas -so what? shoot me).
In any event beware some of these e-cards could be scams.  what they do is trick you into clicking on a link to receive you greeting card, but what actually  happens is you unwittingly download " keylogger" software that will then send all your keystrokes to a third party thereby enabling them to pick up ALL your entries, including credit card numbers, bank acct. numbers, passwords and much more.
You can click the above links for full stories



--  (السلام عليكم)
   As-Salāmu `Alaykum

The World Unleashed allworldviews.blogspot.com

Mary is with child ........

YET has NOT KNOWN MAN .........

my wit and wisdom sometimes needs help, so today while sitting in church for the "immaculate conception," god (ever the comedian) allowed the following thought to enter my head.
we have right now in our midst a modern day version of this event. Ok so is far from "immaculate" but still we have a woman named Mary, who has "not known man" and is yet "with child"

Her full name is Mary Cheney, Dick Chaneys daughter!!!!

I thank god for putting this thought in my head. If not for being in church this morning I never would have put the two events together.

A Step Toward FULL Religious Freedom

War widow dedicates Wiccan plaque symbol

The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan saw a Wiccan symbol placed on a memorial plaque for her husband Saturday, after fighting the federal government for more than a year over the emblem.
Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle — a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes more than 30 symbols, including more than a dozen variations of the Christian cross and the atomic whirl used by atheists, but not the pentacle.
Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the VA on behalf of Stewart and others for its refusal to include the Wiccan emblem.
About 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to 2005 Defense Department statistics. Wiccans worship the Earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves "white" or good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.
LINK to story