[An Nahar] A Chinese government news portal has claimed that a woman in China's remote far west is 127 years old, making her the oldest person ever to have lived -- but experts raised questions over the supposed record Wednesday. She's a young chick. I'll be 166, come next month.
Alimihan Seyiti from Kashgar, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, was born on June 25, 1886, said ts.cn, a government website in Xinjiang -- when Grover Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then when back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... was president of the United States and William Gladstone the British prime minister.
Chinese longevity records are not generally recognised internationally, as there was no reliable system for certifying most births until after the Communist Party took power in 1949.
At the time of Seyiti's supposed birth much of Xinjiang was ruled by Yakub Beg, a Tajik warlord, while Russia held other parts of the region.
Ts.cn, which cited the little-known Carrying the Flag World Records as its source for her age, said that Seyiti had 56 descendants.
"She likes love songs and can pick up them from TV after hearing them just once," it said.
"She drinks cold water whether in summer or winter and has a big appetite: she can finish a dozen meat buns in one meal or 500g of meat, and sometimes a whole big watermelon.
"She's in good health and can still do housework like making dumplings, looking after children and weaving grass mattress. She likes shopping and going to bazaars."
But Charles Wharton, records manager for the widely respected Guinness World Records organization in greater China, told Agence La Belle France Presse: "Currently, we are yet to receive a claim from Alimihan Seyiti."
According to Guinness, he said, the oldest person ever was Jeanne Calment of La Belle France, who lived to 122, while the oldest person currently alive was Japan's Misao Okawa, "who is 115 years and 176 days old as of today".
"As we have yet to receive a claim from Mrs Seyiti, we are unable to establish the credibility of her claim," he added. "We do look forward to hopefully receiving a claim from her soon."
On its website, Carrying the Flag World Records showed Seyiti's Chinese identity card, issued in 2009, as purported evidence for her age, and her residency permit, issued earlier this month.
The firm claims to be based in London but the written English on its website is barely comprehensible.
"Carrying the flag World Records is the world's first and only one to the 2012 London Olympics world record world record certificate issued athletes the world record certification organization," it reads in part.
In what appears to be a description of its verification process, it says: "World Records certified organic 999 of its subsequent expansion of the real experts all walks of life."
It adds: "Carrying the flag is the first! Carrying the flag is the only!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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She likes shopping and going to bazaars.
Realistically speaking then, there is no known cure ?
#2
"She drinks cold water whether in summer or winter and has a big appetite: she can finish a dozen meat buns in one meal or 500g of meat, and sometimes a whole big watermelon"
#3
The oldest man to ever live was Matthews Coon-Côme
a Cree indian of the Mistassini reserve in Quebec...
He passed away three years ago...he, as his baptism certificate said had been born 115 years before but the Anglican sect there never baptized before they were 25 years old, making him about 140 years old...the strange thing is he walked and talked like a fifty years old man.
Raping the cradle, his wife is 75 years younger than him, at 75!
Posted by: Bob Snore6814 ||
08/30/2013 23:20 Comments ||
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[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Ronald Reagan's family has hit out at the producers of a new Hollywood film for allegedly portraying the former President as a racist. Ummm... It's a propaganda movie. What'd you expect? I think they've got some sort of Leftie Board of Censors that approves this sort of thing.
The Republican icon is played by British actor Alan Rickman in The Butler, which tells the story of a black man who served in the White House for 34 years.
However, his son claims that the portrayal implies that Reagan was prejudiced against black people, when in fact he helped the cause of African-Americans and showed friendship to the real White House butler.
Jane Fonda and Alan Rickman playing Nancy and Ronald Reagan in The Butler, which allegedly portrays the former President as a racist
Mr Rickman, known for his roles in Die Hard and the Harry Potter series, He played Snape.
plays Reagan, while anti-war activist Jane Fonda was controversially cast as his wife Nancy. You know all about Hanoi Jane.
In the film - as in real life - Reagan invites the butler to attend a state dinner as a guest instead of an employee.
But Gaines is uncomfortable with the experience, and turns against the President over Reagan's move to lift sanctions against South Africa over the apartheid regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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The rewriting of the Reagan era by Hollywood and through extension, the current regime, is essential. He was after all, he was a staunch an anti-communist.
#2
Anti-Communism is NOT "Racist", nor is, was or will be Reagan.
(Too bad he's still alive, It kills all the Movies, and Movie makers ugly plots.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/30/2013 10:30 Comments ||
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Future generations will know Reagan based a lot upon this movie. The left does this a lot. The right needs to make a better movie that more people will see if they want the truth told.
Actor and musician Gary A. Sinise was named an honorary U.S. Marine during a ceremony at the Home of the Commandants, Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., Aug. 29.
Sinise shares this title with other notable people including actor Chuck Norris and Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Joe Rosenthal.
This was one of the most extraordinary nights. I was totally surprised by what the general gave me tonight. Im humbled, shocked, moved and motivated to keep standing up for our men and women and giving back to them, said Sinise.
Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, hosted the ceremony at his home at the Barracks.
"There is little I can say to enhance the rich reputation Gary Sinise has earned, both in the spotlight as an immensely talented actor, and less conspicuously as a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. What I can do, what I am privileged and proud to do, is to recognize this humble patriot's selfless service by making him an Honorary Marine," said Amos.
Sinise, 58, has acted in movies and TV shows including Forrest Gump and CSI: New York and performs in his own band, The Lt. Dan Band.
Sinise is also the founder of the Gary Sinise Foundation which supports veterans and their families through programs meant to entertain, strengthen and educate.
#2
Seems a genuinely good guy that does a lot of unpaid work on behalf of vets, their causes, and America in general. Sorry to see his CSI - NY get canceled
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08/30/2013 14:26 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The UN's landmark new offensive intervention brigade suffered its first fatality Wednesday when a Tanzanian soldier was killed by rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , a front man said.
UN front man Farhan Haq told news hounds the peacekeeper was killed and three others were maimed in a battle with M23 rebels near the key eastern city of Goma.
The peacekeeper was a Tanzanian member of the Force Intervention Brigade, a kind of UN special forces set up this year to counter gangs in DR Congo, a UN peacekeeping front man said.
The brigade, which will eventually have 3,000 troops, is the first to be given an offensive peacekeeping mandate by the UN Security Council.
The DR Congo army and UN troops launched an operation on Wednesday against the M23, who have been battling government forces around
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Ghana's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld President John Dramani Mahama's win in elections last year, dismissing the opposition's case alleging voter fraud in a test for one of Africa's most stable democracies.
The decision ended a months-long saga that had riveted the west African nation of 25 million people seen as a rare beacon of democracy in the turbulent region.
Shortly after the ruling was announced, opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo conceded defeat and said he would not seek further review of the decision.
Mahama was due to address the nation on Thursday evening, but a statement on his Twitter account said "this is a victory for Ghana's democracy."
In the December polls, Ghana's electoral commission said Mahama took 50.7 percent of the vote over ex-foreign minister Akufo-Addo's 47.7 percent.
"The first respondent (Mahama) was validly elected and the petition is therefore dismissed," presiding judge William Atuguba said, reading from the verdict issued by the nine-justice panel.
The sometimes tense proceedings were broadcast live on radio and television and were followed closely across the nation.
A heavy police presence deployed around the court ahead of the ruling, with access to the chamber tightly restricted.
After the decision was announced, opposition NPP supporters quickly filed out, while the president's loyalists waved party flags and cheered. There were no immediate reports of trouble.
While observers had broadly declared the vote fair, the NPP leveled an array of allegations, including that tally sheets had been doctored and ballot boxes stuffed.
Some of the judges found merit in certain NPP allegations, but as a group they declared Mahama's win legitimate.
"Whilst I do not agree with the court's decision, I accept it," Akufo-Addo told journalists at his home in the capital Accra as dozens of supporters gathered outside.
"We shall not be asking for a review," he said, adding that he had spoken to Mahama and congratulated him.
Hundreds gathered to celebrate outside the headquarters of Mahama's NDC party.
Both parties had said beforehand that they would accept the court's ruling.
The 2012 elections were generally unmarred by violence and many in Ghana are wary of the type of bloody unrest seen after recent elections in Nigeria or neighboring Ivory Coast.
There had been widespread calls for restraint ahead of the court's decision.
Everything from the conduct of the lawyers and witnesses to the quality of the evidence had been debated on the airwaves and written about in Ghana's feisty press.
In June, irate judges declared that anyone making disparaging public statements about the court could be held in contempt.
Those who ran afoul of the order were kicked out of the courtroom, fined, or, in a few cases, tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
Editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper Ken Kuranchie was tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for 10 days in July for contempt after publicly criticizing the judges.
The jailing sparked debate over Ghana's contempt laws, many of which date back to British colonial rule.
Before the ruling, Franklin Cudjoe, director of the IMANI think-tank in the capital Accra said "Ghana's elections will never be the same again."
He also praised the court's willingness to spend months hearing the case.
Ghana is west Africa's second-largest economy, thanks to exports of gold and cocoa along with a nascent oil industry, which began production in 2010.
Since 1992, the country has held six multi-party elections in a region where democracy remains fleeting for many.
Mahama's successful campaign was built around his promise to continue the work of President John Atta Mills, his predecessor, who died in office in July 2012. Mahama, who was vice president at the time, took over after Mills's death.
Akufo-Addo campaigned on a platform that centered on a promise of free high school for all, which critics said the country could not afford.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Fresh fighting flared in the resource-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... Thursday, with government forces backed by U.N. troops shelling rebels near Goma and tensions spilling over into neighboring Rwanda.
Artillery fire could be heard around Kibati north of Goma, the capital of the turbulent North Kivu province, where the DR Congo army and a newly-formed U.N. intervention brigade have been battling M23 rebels for a week.
A Rwandan woman was also killed and her baby injured in what an official alleged was "deliberate" cross-border shelling. The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... and Kinshasa accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, a charge that Kigali denies.
Western military sources who asked not to be named said that the clash could be a prelude to a full-on assault by the army and U.N. troops, who have an unprecedented mandate to take the offensive against the armed movements long active in the mineral-rich but impoverished Kivu region.
The two eastern Kivu provinces, North and South, have been chronically unstable since two wars wracked the vast country between 1996 and 2003, drawing in armies from neighboring and southern African countries, who fought in part over access to vast mineral wealth.
All flights to Goma, a city of a million people that was occupied by M23 for 10 days last November, have been suspended since the outlying airport is vulnerable, said a source in MONUSCO, the U.N. mission in the country.
On Wednesday a U.N. soldier from Tanzania was killed and three others maimed in the fighting, U.N. and military sources said.
The U.N. intervention force is using attack helicopters and mortars in the Kibati hills, while firing on other rebel positions with heavy artillery, according to MONUSCO front man Madnodje Mounoubai.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Thousands of people have fled violence in the Central African Republic in recent days, with as many as 6,000 temporarily taking refuge at the Bangui airport, the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said Thursday.
"Over the past 10 days arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, extortion, armed robberies, physical violence, restriction of movement, lootings and attacks on civilians have displaced thousands of people," the U.N.'s refugee agency said in a statement.
The abuses in parts of the capital have been carried out by "gangs," Babar Baloch, a U.N. refugee agency front man in Geneva told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that a lack of security on the ground in Bangui had prevented his colleagues there from determining which forces specifically were responsible.
The exact number of people fleeing the violence in the capital was also unclear, he said, stressing though that "it's a big number, in the thousands."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Whoa! That is not good!
[An Nahar] Liberia's main public university said on Wednesday all 25,000 applicants for the new academic year had failed its entrance exam, prompting the president to describe poor education standards in the impoverished nation as a "national emergency".
The University of Liberia, which educates more than half of the country's students in the capital Monrovia, said it had been forced to admit 1,600 failed candidates for the new term which begins next month.
"None of the 25,000 students who sat the test (obtained) the required points," said university vice-president Ansu Sonii.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made an impromptu call at the university to discuss the failure, her office said in a statement, which described the situation as "alarming" and confirmation of a recent statement by the president that "the educational system is a mess".
"Why are the students of the system not performing to the standards expected? Why are they not comparative with those in other countries?" Sirleaf demanded as she met university authorities on Tuesday, according to the statement.
The president urged the country to see the poor performance of the candidates as a "national emergency", the statement added, and called on "all Liberians, irrespective of political background" to tackle the issue of dire standards in schools.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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Should have applied to the UC system. At least the top 10 percent of the failures would have gotten in.
#5
"The Liberian educational system has a twenty-million dollar budget. The education minister first skims off ten percent. Various education officials and bureaucrats later take another thirty percent.
"How much of the budget remains for appropriation by local officials?"
Coincidentally, the Hindu goddess of luck is Lakshmi. It sounds like she was really cheezed at these guys. [Bangla Daily Star] Two robbers were beaten to death and 15 people, including a policeman, injured as a mob attacked a gang of robbers around 2:00am in Kazirchar village of Raipur upazila in Lakshmipur. Where do you find a mob at two in the morning? Try Lakshmipur!
The armed gang of 15 to 20 robbers forcibly entered brothers Mizanur Rahman and Shariful Islam's house. "Arrr! Lemme in there! [CRASH!]"
Mizanur, the elder brother, at that point managed to inform the police "HELP! Police!"
and some of his neighbouring relatives using his mobile phone of the incident, said Raipur Police Station Officer-in-charge Monirul Islam Majumder. "Yup. That's whut he done."
Neighbours surrounded the house hearing the noise made by all the family members before police came to the spot. "It's Mizanul and Shariful! They're infested by gangsters!"
"Where's my torch?"
"Here, use one o' mine!"
"Watch it with that pitchfork!"
On sensing police presence, "My spider sense! It's tingling!"
"It's da cops!"
the gang started shooting at the people and police. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
The law enforcers returned fire, said OC Monirul. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Maw! Hit the floor!"
The robbers attempted to escape, "Lemme outta here!"
and two of them were chased down and beaten to death by the mob on the spot. [THUMP! THUMP! THUMPETY THUMP!]
"Aaaiiieee! I am undone!"
"Rosebud!"
The rest of the gang managed to flee. "Outta my way, Mom!"
"Curly-toes slippers, don't fail me now!"
"Comin' through!"
The dead robbers could not be identified immediately, reported our ace Noakhali correspondent. "You recognize any of them, sir?"
"I've seen that elbow before, I'm sure of it!"
The bodies were sent to the Laximipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsies "Doctor Quincy! To the white courtesy phone!"
and police recovered a gun and two bullets from the scene, said the OC. "Put these with the others, Sergeant Shafiq! You never know when we might need them!"
Mizanur, Shariful, the Raipur Police Station Assistant Sub-inspector Abdur Rahim, Kabir Khan, Alauddin, Saddam Hossain, Kamrul Hossain, Omar Farooq, Azad Hossain and Kamal Hossain five others sustained injuries. "Oh, man! That hadda hurt!"
Sources confirmed that 10 of the victims were admitted to the Raipur Upazila Health Complex, while the other five were taken to different private clinics.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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Good Riddance.
MOPRE, MORE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/30/2013 10:31 Comments ||
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Drip, drip, drip. So much for Prince Bandar's reported promise to Vladimir Putin to control the price of oil at an acceptable level.
[La Belle France24] Shale gas extraction has begun at a test well in northern Poland, a first for the EU member, a minister said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday. The firm Lane Energy Poland, controlled by US energy giant ConocoPhilips, has been extracting about 8,000 cubic metres of gas per day since July 21, deputy environment minister Piotr Wozniak said.
"It's good news for Poland, and also for Europe," Wozniak, who is also the country's chief geologist, told the Rzeczpospolita daily about the test production near the town of Lebork.
He said that although the yield was lower than at sites in Canada and the United States, it was the best such result in Europe to date.
Poland uses about 14 billion cubic metres (500 billion cubic feet) of natural gas a year, of which 60 percent is imported from Russia. The country of 38 million people plans to invest 12.5 billion euros ($17.0 billion) in exploration and development of its shale gas sector by 2020.
Poland could have between 800 billion and two trillion cubic metres of exploitable shale gas deposits, according to the Polish Geological Institute.
Job possibilities for Rantburg programmers with a little extra time on their hands...
[WashingtonExaminer] The Republican Party aims to build a digital operation that surpasses the one President B.O. built for the 2012 campaign. Time, and two upcoming elections, will show whether the GOP succeeds.
The effort, begun this summer, is largely the responsibility of 33-year-old former Facebook engineer Andy Barkett, the Republican National Committee's chief technology officer. Barkett's plan is to refine and advance the innovative technology harnessed by Obama's campaign organization to identify and turn out voters.
But instead of reserving this digital network for a single presidential candidate, the RNC plans to share it with any Republican running for any office anywhere in the country.
"We're going to do something even harder than what [Obama] did. Replicating what they did isn't that hard," Barkett told the Washington Examiner.
Barkett previewed his strategy for news hounds in Boston during the GOP's summer meeting and in a more in-depth interview with the Examiner in Washington. He said he wants to have the technology ready for testing in the 2014 mid-term elections and fully operational by 2016 for the party's presidential nominee, down-ticket candidates and GOP-affiliated groups.
Barkett's hiring, and mission, are part of the RNC's efforts to upgrade its voter targeting and mobilization operations, an overhaul ordered by GOP Chairman Reince Priebus after the party's disastrous showing in the 2012 elections. There are a number of reasons Obama beat Republican Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals.... , but there is broad agreement that Obama's superior digital operation -- and Romney's inability to match it -- gave Obama a substantial edge.
Taking a page from Obama's playbook, the GOP will abandon a voter targeting operation that relies on files that simply identify individual voters and their voting history. The new system will focus more broadly on people, even those who never voted, to identify likely voters, expand the universe of potential voters and provide a more accurate measure of the Republican Party's strength.
But hurdles abound for Barkett, who must build a digital data infrastructure virtually from scratch. Among them is that an outside group, Data Trust, and not the party will manage what Barkett considers to be one of the RNC's key improvements over Obama's 2012 operation: The ability to securely share data with GOP allies, who in turn will share information they've gathered with the RNC to further strengthen the network.
The system Barkett's building is expected to mine relevant information about potential voters through publicly available social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and then weave that data into an accurate, accessible and regularly updated file that can be shared. Some of the data collected will be very basic, like whether the potential voters prefers to communicate by smartphone or laptop email.
Barkett's system will include two innovations. One would collect information from television set-top boxes and show a campaign not only individual viewing habits but also whether the voter saw a specific political ad.
The second innovation would collect data from social networks about targeted demographic groups and allow a campaign to deliver customized digital ads to as few as a dozen or so voters.
Barkett will hire a few dozen "data scientists" and digital advertising experts -- from college Republican groups, Wall Street and other GOP-friendly venues -- to build the system. He expects the RNC to train thousands of others from across the country to use the technology.
"I'm worried, I'll be honest with you, that we're a little further behind on the data science part. It's going to take us longer to catch up there," Barkett said. "We're going to have to find, and in some cases train, a whole generation of those data science guys. There are some in the Republican ecosystem, but there aren't enough."'
Barkett expects to complete several "voter relationship management tools" by year's end. The system will be upgraded regularly just like any social network or smart phone app.
Barkett's goal is to hand off to the GOP's 2016 presidential candidate a digital operation that surpasses the one that helped re-elect Obama in 2012.
"We're going to have enough done, so that it's better than any of the other tools that are available to them, by the end of this year," Barkett said. "By 2016 we'll probably be ahead of where the Democrats are."
#3
Let's hope that this time they a) test it and b) have some failover capabilities. Last time was a total clusterf*ck. A little training for the troops wouldn't hurt either.
#4
What good does it do when they basically propose the same crap the demonrats do. Currently the Republical party is essentially demonrat wannabes. Until that changes, it honestly doesn't matter what they do.
In which His Excellency tries to have it both ways, and maybe two or three others. [DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Christians should be 'repentant' about the Church's past treatment of gay and lesbian people, the Archbishop of Canterbury said last night.
The Most Rev. Justin Welby told a group of traditional evangelical Christians that the Church's historic support of homophobia was 'utterly and totally wrong'.
He also acknowledged that many young people considered the Church's views on same-sex marriage as 'wicked' and 'plain wrong'.
The Archbishop insisted he did not regret voting against gay mawwiage marriage legislation, but acknowledged that such views were seen by many as akin 'to racism and other forms of gross and atrocious injustice'.
The Mawwiage Marriage Act received royal assent in July and gay couples in England and Wales will be able to wed from next year.
Yesterday, the Archbishop, speaking in London, said he stood by his decision to vote against gay mawwiage marriage, which he believed was 'rewriting the nature of mawwiage marriage'.
But he said the Church must respond to changing cultural attitudes. 'If the same thing happened again I would vote the same way as I did then, but I am continuing to think and listen very carefully as to how in our society today we respond to what is the most rapid cultural change in this area than there has been for a very long time. We have seen changes in the idea about sexuality, sexual behaviour.
'We have to face the fact that the vast majority of people under 35 not only think that what we're saying is incomprehensible but also think that we're plain wrong and wicked and equate it to racism and other forms of gross and atrocious injustice. We have to be real about that.'
The former oil executive said the Government's Bill in favour of gay marriage was 'clearly, quite rightly, trying to deal with issues of homophobia in our society'.
He added: 'The Church has not been good at dealing with homophobia. It has at times, as god's people, either implicitly or explicitly supported it and we have to be really, really repentant about that because it is utterly and totally wrong.
'That doesn't mean that redefining marriage is the right way forward.That discussion is continuing and the Church is deeply and profoundly divided over the way forward on it.'
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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Oh the Archbdruid of Canterbury. I thought you meant a REAL archbishop, like a Catholic one,
FYI, there is no such thing as "church's traditional support fo homophobia", mainly because the term homophobia does not apply - they are not irrationally afraid of homosexuals, they simply disagree with the morality of homosexual conduct. No phobia at all.
#2
but I am continuing to think and listen very carefully as to how in our society today we respond to what is the most rapid cultural change in this area than there has been for a very long time. We have seen changes in the idea about sexuality, sexual behaviour.
.....because the modern day winds of change always trump scriptural mandates. Besides, heterosexual activity oftentimes creates people, and people are the problem. Fossil records indicate that 99% of all the species which have ever lived are now extinct. Why should evil man not join their ranks ?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/30/2013 10:33 Comments ||
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Just sayin', if Henry had been straight, he'd have been able to find a chick he liked and stayed married to her instead of chopping her head off.
And you know what? Nothing screams "Issues!" like being the head of your own religion, who can make up whatever rules about what's honorable and what's not and deciding that you have to decapitate all your ex-wives.
#9
...it was an 'honor' thingy. That's it. It was an honor chopping. It appears to be back in vogue in certain neighborhoods in Britain, just not reserved for royalty anymore.
#10
2000+ years of a way for different and varied tribes and locals to find a common way to communicate and be successful but the good Welby has it all figured out. I'm getting tired of the bully, I've met gays who were good people and I've met the jersey shore of gays who were just as obnoxious as the versa.
That this guy can even talk about it without fear of reprisal is the repentant. In defense of the Bible, and in a way which would have gotten me in trouble back in the day, I'm going to set the stories as a social contract. God's judgement was absolute, but always after a series of bad moves by the characters, that is not a rush of judgement
To me, Detroit Soddom is not a story about an almighty God destroying boys who kiss boys. Its a story about a city which becomes wealthy enough to have the celebration of excessiveness outweigh its productive class. It reached a point where the productive class could not sustain the excessive class and had to leave or become part of the problem. Those who left were participants in the excessiveness, which is why they had to leave it all behind without looking back, and absolute dismissal of the celebration of lavishness. To me its a warning about decadence and the celebration of the trivial, much like football announces saying tight end as a sexual metephor instead of a location and duty. I know they lost me when I wish an SAP selection is just sounds on the field, where I'd rather hear a player shout the right words for a blown play than a group of guys fawn over a particular popular player of the moment.
To leave Detroit Soddom yet still live as if in Detroint Soddom will earn you the same fate.
To me, seen only as an object lesson, its not about reasons for yahoos tying up gays to their chariots, or what happens to a society which can no longer sustain itself. Its about what happens when a society chooses to not sustain itself, and its then when things fall apart rather quickly.
#11
Stories like this always remind me of a cartoon I saw in Playboy in 1968: a man is exponding: "At one time homosexuality was a capital offense. Then it became a felony, and later a misdemeanor. Now it's been decriminalized. I for one won't be satisfied until it's mandatory.!"
It seems we are heading that way.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/30/2013 13:29 Comments ||
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#12
The Catholic Church has been at the forefront of this issue for a long, long time -- in its own special way.
[SUNTIMES] You might expect the leader of the Catholic Church in Chicago to explain his opposition to same-sex marriage on the basis of his religious tenets, but Cardinal Francis George says that's secondary.
"This is first of all a rational issue before it's a faith issue," the cardinal told me in an interview this week. "That is, it's nature that tells us what marriage is, that in marriage, men and women aren't interchangeable."
"We didn't invent marriage. The church didn't invent marriage. The state didn't invent marriage. Nature gives us marriage. The Chinese are not Americans, and they're not Catholic. They know what marriage is. Where did that come from?" George asked rhetorically.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Natural Law. Go back and read Teh Theology of the Body, by Blessed Pop John Paul II. Its quite a scholarly exposition on Catholic theology and natural law as it applies to sexuality - as well as the usual euthanasiam abortion and other topics people usually haer about from the Church.
FYI, the doctrine is that Homosexuals can be good Christians, same as any other unmarried person. Just be chaste within your station.
But homosexual acts? Those are disordered acts, and not part of natural law. Or at least that's the argument basis that Cardinal George is attempting to draw upon.
Also, Marriage is a sacrament - not something we invented, by definition "The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions." For instance, the Sacraments of Vocation are Holy Orders, and Marriage. In the Catholic viewpoint, these are given by God, not made by man.
Pretty simple at its base: biologically speaking a male is a male, and a female is a female, and they each have their role in continuing the species. But it gets complex in a hurry. And Cardinal George is in over his head, I think
#6
Nature gives us marriage? You know what buddy, there is plenty I have given up to honor my half of the agreement - you know how long its been since hot wings at noon on Sunday?
Marriage is a level of accomplishment met by both sides according to a set of rules based upon the values of, in this case, the Bible.
No problem with gays (where I grew up, that was the self-identified word so deal with it, its not a slog) - friends and associates were like everyone else, young dumb and some even looking for long term love. The purpose of marriage is a long term contract between a man and a woman in order to raise a family. Find love and be productive, but giving yourself the title of married, or worse forcing others to grant that title under penalty of law, is no more appropriate than myself granting me the title of Chef or Soldier. Be a couple, be happy, quit being vain and coveting titles not earned. I understand Partnership or Union is not very sexy, find a title and go with it, so long as its not somebody else's, tax deals are with the government not the church, and you sure would not like it if by driving to New York I would call myself a taxi driver.
#13
So Cardinal George doesn't even know his own religion's dogma? Small wonder the catholic church has had so many problems under his generation's leadership.
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[SUNTIMES] You might expect the leader of the Catholic Church in Chicago to explain his opposition to same-sex marriage on the basis of his religious tenets, but Cardinal Francis George says that's secondary.
