Pastor Found Guilty Of Stalking North Carolina Abortion Doctors
An anti-abortion pastor was found guilty and sentenced to two years probation yesterday for stalking North Carolina doctors who perform abortions, The Charlotte Observer reports.
According to the Observer, Rev. Philip L. “Flip” Benham, director of the Dallas-based Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, posted “Wanted”-style posters of the doctors, which included their names and home addresses. Benham was charged with “misdemeanor stalking and violating a state law against residential picketing.” He plans to appeal.
WSOC-TV reports that Benham considered his actions free speech, and that he said: ‘”[The doctor] kills babies. He does it for a living. He has no respect for life of children in the safety and neighborhoods of their mothers’ wombs.”
According to WSOC-TV, one doctor said he considered the posters a “call for my murder.”
Operation Save America says on its website that it “unashamedly takes up the cause of preborn children in the name of Jesus Christ.” Its “About Us” page reads:
There are no cheap political solutions to the holocaust presently ravaging our nation. Like slavery before it, abortion is preeminently a Gospel issue. The Cross of Christ is the only solution.
According to the website, Benham, 62, has been the group’s director since 1994. Benham studied at Florida State University and Asbury Theological Seminary, and his biographical notes state that he “leads by example, having spent time in jail for the cause of Christ in Wichita, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Lynchburg and Washington D.C.”
The site also urged visitors to pray for Benham yesterday.
“The abortionists have conspired trumped up charges of stalking and disturbing their tranquility, while they disturb and destroy the tranquility of innocent children in the wombs of their mothers,” Rev. Rusty Thomas wrote.
Energy and Global Warming News for November 8th: Gen 1 biofuels are more harmful to climate than fossil fuels; Dead corals found near BP spill site; Shell presses for drilling in Arctic
First generation biofuels worse for climate than fossil fuel – study
BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) – European plans to promote biofuels will drive farmers to convert 69,000 square km of wild land into fields and plantations, depriving the poor of food and accelerating climate change, a report warned on Monday.
The impact equates to an area the size of the Republic of Ireland.
As a result, the extra biofuels that Europe will use over the next decade will generate between 81 and 167 percent more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, says the report.
Nine environmental groups reached the conclusion after analyzing official data on the European Union’s goal of getting 10 percent of transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020.
But the European Commission’s energy team, which originally formulated the goal, countered that the bulk of the land needed would be found by recultivating abandoned farmland in Europe and Asia, minimizing the impact.
… 23 of the EU’s 27 member states have now published their national strategies for renewable energy, revealing that fully 9.5 percent of transport fuel will be biofuel in 2020, 90 percent of which will come from food crops, the report says….
The debate centres on a new concept known as “indirect land-use change.”
In essence, that means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody, somewhere, will go hungry unless those missing tonnes of grain are grown elsewhere.
The crops to make up the shortfall could come from anywhere, and economics often dictate that will be in tropical zones, encouraging farmers to hack out new land from fertile forests.
Burning forests to clear that land can pump vast quantities of climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere, enough to cancel out any of the benefits the biofuels were meant to bring.
The indirect effects of the EU’s biofuel strategy will generate an extra 27 to 56 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year, says the report. In the worst case, that would be the equivalent of putting another 26 million cars on Europe’s roads, it added….
The European Commission’s energy team says shortfalls in grain can be avoided in several ways, including by improving farming yields and cultivating abandoned land.
“The EU has a sufficient amount of land previously used for crop production and now no longer in arable use to cover the land needed,” said a statement from the Commission’s energy department. “It makes sense to bring this land into use.”
Deep-sea corals near BP oil spill site found dying
SCIENTISTS on a research cruise have found a community of dead and dying deep-sea corals not far from the site of BP’s blown-out oil well.
‘‘Within minutes of our arrival … it was evident to the biologists on board that this site was unlike any others that we have seen over the course of hundreds of hours of studying the deep corals in the Gulf of Mexico over the last decade,’’ Pennsylvania State University biology professor Charles Fisher said.
A colony of hard coral at a depth of more than 1.2 kilometers was sloughing off tissue and producing mucous, and soft corals had extensive bare areas. A type of starfish associated with the coral was also in bad shape.
Using a robotic vessel, government and academic researchers were surveying coral communities they had studied for several years. Most showed no changes from previous visits.
But when the crew focused underwater cameras on colonies about 11kilometres south-west of the BP leak, images of corals covered with a brown substance appeared on the screen.
Researchers will analyze samples for evidence of the chemical dispersants that were used to break up the oil.
Climate change hurting China’s grain crop: report
BEIJING — Climate change could trigger a 10 percent drop in China’s grain harvest over the next 20 years, threatening the country’s food security, a leading agriculture expert warned in comments published Friday.
Tang Huajun, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, warned crop production could fall by five to 10 percent by 2030 if climate change continues unchecked, in an interview with the official China Daily.
“The output of the country’s three main foods — rice, wheat and corn — may suffer a 37 percent decline in the latter part of this century if the government fails to take effective measures to address the impact of climate change,” Tang was quoted as saying.
China, which produced 530.8 million tonnes of grain in 2009, plans to increase output to 550 million tons by 2020 to ensure food security for the world’s most populous country of more than 1.3 billion, the paper said.
Tribes working to buck unemployment with green jobs
“You’re not sovereign unless you’re controlling your energy future.”
When Dillon Toya started his senior year at Jemez Pueblo’s Walatowa Charter High School in northern New Mexico last fall, he wanted his senior project to combine the teachings of his ancestors with cutting-edge building design.
Six months later, the 18-year-old high school graduate and aspiring architect had designed a new energy efficient high school building that he hopes will one day replace the portable trailers where he and his 66 classmates studied. The proposed building, designed to resemble traditional Pueblo dwellings of adobe and wood, includes solar panels to generate electricity, a solar-powered heating system and water recycling.
Toya’s project reflects one of many ways that impoverished Jemez Pueblo is building strong connections between its education system and its fledgling green energy industry. And it’s not alone. Jemez Pueblo is an example of a larger movement among native groups to promote a green sector that they hope will chip away at a problem that has plagued their communities for years: high unemployment. The jobless rate in native communities is often several times the national average.
While there is no single tally of the amount of money going directly to tribes for renewable energy, energy efficiency and green job training, the federal government is funding a range of energy-related programs that count tribes among their recipients. Tribal leaders and native entrepreneurs are trying for a share of billions of dollars available in economic stimulus funds administered through the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Small Business Administration, among other agencies.
80 nations want farming as part of climate talks
An 80-nation conference on food security is urging U.N. climate negotiators to consider agriculture when drawing up strategies to fight climate change.
The five-day meeting has ended with a call to invest in new farming practices that will curb greenhouse gas emissions and better use currently available land to feed a global population of 9 billion by 2050.
About 30 percent of carbon emissions come from farming, livestock and forest destruction.
Dutch Agriculture Minister Henk Bleker says agriculture must be integrated into climate negotiations and should receive some of the funds earmarked for poor countries to help them reduce emissions and adapt to changing climate conditions.
The conference, attended by 60 government ministers, ended Friday.
Shell presses for drilling in Arctic
HOUSTON — Eager to win approval for its stalled plan to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell is beginning a public lobbying campaign, including national advertising, on Monday. As part of the effort, the giant oil company is promising to make unprecedented preparations to prevent the kind of disaster that polluted the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year.
Shell’s plan to drill in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas has been snarled in regulatory delays and lawsuits for four years. The company has already invested $ 3.5 billion in the projects, and it was close to overcoming the final regulatory hurdles to begin drilling when BP’s Macondo well blew out April 20, killing 11 rig workers and spilling millions of barrels of oil into the gulf.
In response to the gulf accident, the Obama administration suspended most new offshore drilling, including in the environmentally sensitive waters of the Arctic.
But now that the moratorium on gulf drilling has been lifted, Shell is pressing the Interior Department to grant final approval for its Arctic projects by the end of this year so that the company has enough time to move the necessary equipment to drill next summer, when the waters offshore are free of ice.
Second generation biofuel at Danish gas pumps
Just over a week ago, Denmark became the first European country to make available to drivers second generation biofuel, fuel made of agricultural residues that do not compete with food crops. The fuel, called Bio95, is now on offer at 100 filling stations across the country on a 95% gas, 5% biofuel blend.
Bio95 is made from wheat straw collected after harvest in Denmark and is produced by a company called DONG Inbicon with enzyme technology by Novozymes.
“Long a grand vision of the future, next-generation biofuel is now coming to market to fulfil its promises. The industry has delivered and we’re now sending a strong signal to policy-makers that their support for this exciting technology is required if all our citizens are to benefit from it,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes.
A recent study released by Bloomberg said second-generation biofuel could generate up to one million jobs in the European Union over the next decade, mainly in rural areas and replace up to 62% of imported gasoline. The report also claims that second generation biofuels could cut down road transport emissions by 50% until 2020. But a set of policies need to be put in place in order for that to happen, the report added, such as the creation of an ambitious mandate for second-generation bio fuel, incentives for the collection of farming residues and tax breaks for investments.
Taiwan moves to slash solar energy prices
Government steps up plans to become global renewable energy hub
Taiwan is preparing to reduce wholesale prices for electricity generated by solar panels by as much as 20 per cent as part of moves designed to bolster the competitiveness of the territory’s fast-expanding renewable energy sector.
According to reports in the Chinese-language Commercial Times, the price cut is intended to drive demand for solar energy and provide a boost to domestic solar panel manufacturers.
Taiwan has set a target for renewables to meet 10 per cent of its electricity needs by the end of this year, up from 5.8 per cent in 2009.
Wind power is expected to meet 80 per cent of the total and 78MW of wind power has been installed since a feed-in tariff was introduced in 2009.
Although, speaking at the 2010 International Conference on Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in Taiwan last month, premier Wu Den-yih said he wants to encourage growth in other areas such as solar too.
Orders for wind turbines to fall by 93%, energy experts predict
Orders for offshore wind turbines in Britain will slump next year, threatening to halt the industry’s recent growth and the expected creation of up to 10,000 “green economy” jobs.
Analysts are forecasting a 93% drop in the installation of new offshore windfarms in 2013 compared with the previous year. As orders for cables, foundations and other equipment are typically made two to three years ahead of the project being completed, the slowdown will start to bite among UK suppliers next year.
Windfarm developers are worried that the hiatus in the industry will last several years, which could result in large-scale job losses if other related work cannot be found. One said this gap would cause “huge problems” for the supply chain and it would be hard for manufacturers to invest in new facilities in Britain without a steady stream of work.
Britain recently overtook Denmark to become the world’s largest offshore windfarm player, implying the tripling of capacity in the next two years. But new projects will dry up in 2013. Only 90 megawatts (MW) of newly installed capacity, which is enough to supply 30,000 homes when the wind blows, is being forecast by energy experts at Douglas-Westwood, compared with 1,368Mw the year before.
Gov. Paterson proposes eliminating New York participation in Federal Superfund Program
In a radio interview last week, outgoing New York Governor David Paterson announced his plans to eliminate the state’s participation in the federal Superfund cleanup program. The proposal is one of several cuts designed to reduce the state’s budget deficit and accommodate the proposed layoffs of an additional 898 state employees by the year’s end, including 150 in the Department of Environmental Conservation (”DEC”).
The immediate impact of Paterson’s announcement on ongoing and future site cleanups is unclear, and DEC said that “no final decision has been made” on the issue. The state and federal governments currently operate their own Superfund programs, created through separate statutes, and it appears that cleanup will continue as planned for sites listed exclusively under the state program.
According to the Albany Times Union, however, there are 114 federal Superfund sites in New York, with the state and federal governments often cooperating on remedial efforts. For instance, DEC is listed as a support agency in the ongoing, federally-led Hudson River Superfund cleanup, with state officials assisting in the development and oversight of General Electric’s cleanup work. Under Paterson’s plan, “the state will not be involved” at federally listed sites moving forward.
Despite electoral outcomes, poll shows voters want clean economy
WASHINGTON—Environmental organizations fearful of being blamed for Tuesday’s devastating Democratic losses trotted out a poll they say shows support for cap-and-trade legislation did not contribute significantly to the defeat of House incumbents.
Those findings come from a survey of 1,000 voters who actually cast ballots in 83 battleground House districts nationwide. Washington, D.C.-based Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research conducted the poll Nov. 1 and 2.
When voters who chose the Republican candidate were asked to name their biggest concern about the Democrat, only 1 percent cited an answer related to energy or cap and trade. When offered a list of six arguments that Republicans made against Democrats, 7 percent selected what the GOP mislabeled a “cap and tax.”
“There was no mandate on turning back the clock on environmental protection,” said Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. “Polls galore show continued and strong public support for making continued progress to protect our health and boost our economy.”
France: AQ bomb just minutes away from exploding when found
Brits confirm.
New information from France and Britain make clear that the al-Qaeda mail-bomb plot intended to attack jets in mid-air and not necessarily the locations to which the packages were addressed. France’s interior minister told the media that the bomb discovered in the jet in East Midlands, England would have detonated in 17 minutes, a finding […]
Death of Anna Nicole Smith: Howard K. Stern & Dr. Khristine Eroshevich Found Guilty of Conspiring to Provide Drugs Using False Names … That’s It?
After all this time and litigation … boyfriend Howard K. Stern only found guilty of conspiring to provide drugs using false names. UNREAL! Dr. Sandeep Kapoor was acquitted on all charges. Talk about a clueless jury. Shame on you all. How could any one knowingly acquit others who supplied a drug addict with massive quantities of drugs?
Because this is the type of individual who should be provided 1500 pills a month to kill the pain
Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend-lawyer Howard K. Stern and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich were found guilty Thursday on charges of conspiring to provide drugs using false names.
Another defendant in the case, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, was acquitted on all counts against him.
Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental drug overdose on February 8, 2007 when she was found unresponsive at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. However, is an overdose really ever accidental when one is enabled by others and when one is kept in a vegetative state in order to control them? Howard K. Stern was acquitted of seven other charges involving Smith and is free pending an appeal.
Accidental? How could one have so many drugs in their system and there not be negligence on some one’s part? There is nothing accidental about providing this many drugs to one person and circumventing the law to do so.
Ultimately her death was ruled an accidental drug overdose of the sedative chloral hydrate that became increasingly lethal when combined with other prescription drugs in her system, specifically 4 benzodiazepines: Klonopin (Clonazepam), Ativan (Lorazepam), Serax (Oxazepam), and Valium (Diazepam). Furthermore, she had taken Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) and Topamax (Topiramate), an anticonvulsant GABA agonist, which likely contributed to the sedative effect of chloral hydrate and the benzodiazepines.[83] Although the individual levels of any of the benzodiazepines in her system would not have been sufficient to cause death, their combination with a high dose of chloral hydrate led to her overdose.
Here is the reason why Stern, Eroshevich and Kapoor were acquitted as the judge provided a nonsensical and unheard of lack of common sense direction to the jury. How could any one in their right mind not think that a patient receiving 1500 pills in one month was not an addict, yet the judge warned the jury “that numbers of pills were not the measure of addiction.” OH REALLY, IS THE JUDGE AN EXPERT ON DRUG ADDITION!What else could receiving 1500 pills in a month be? Some one is supposed to take 50 pills a day and this is not supposed to be a problem and a doctor is not supposed to question?
Superior Court Judge Robert Perry told the jury of six women and six men that a doctor who has a good faith belief that a patient is in pain is not guilty of a crime for prescribing controlled substances to relieve suffering.
While presenting their case, prosecutors displayed multiple prescriptions to Smith for heavy painkillers such as Dilaudid, Demarol, Vicodin and Methadone, as well as anti-anxiety drugs and sedatives including Ambien, Xanax, Valium and Chloral Hydrate. In one month, they said, Smith received 1,500 pills.
The judge, however, warned that numbers of pills were not the measure of addiction.
“To violate (the law) a defendant must willfully and knowingly prescribe, administer or dispense a controlled substance to an addict for a non-therapeutic purpose,” Perry instructed the jury.
Who honestly thinks that 1500 pills are prescribed for therapeutic purposes, knowing who and what Anna Nicole Smith was like?
Breaking: Bomb found on Yemen-to-US cargo flight; Update: NYC too? Update: CNN backtracking?
More planes detained here in US as well.
TSA has begun searching several planes in the US after British officials discovered a bomb on a Yemen-to-US cargo flight. The bomb was disguised in a toner cartridge, and the UPS flight was due to land in Chicago today: Investigators in the United Kingdom found a bomb disguised as a toner cartridge aboard a plane […]
Australia: Director of Islamic school found guilty of massive fraud with government grants
An update on this story, which had earlier generated controversy over a witness’ intention to testify in a full face veil. “Muslim school director Anwar Sayed guilty of fraud,” from the Australian Associated Press, October 28 (thanks to Twostellas):
The director of a Muslim school in Perth has been found guilty of falsifying student numbers to fraudulently obtain state and federal government grants.
In the District Court in Perth, Anwar Sayed was found guilty by a jury on two counts of fraud.
The 50-year-old was accused of falsifying student numbers at the Muslim Ladies College of Australia in Kenwick, in Perth’s south, to fraudulently obtain part of $ 1.125 million in state and federal government grants.
The school received about $ 164,000 from the state government and about $ 961,000 from the federal government. Sayed, from Canningvale in Perth’s south, is the director of Muslim Link Australia, which runs the school.
The court heard that he signed a declaration that, in the 2006/07 census year, more than 180 students were enrolled in the school when there were 80 to 100 fewer than that.
Sayed was remanded in custody to be sentenced on November 30.
The case became notorious in August when Judge Shauna Deane ruled that a Muslim woman giving evidence for the Prosecution to the jury must remove her naqib, or burqa, the tradtional veil covering her face….
‘Liberal’ gene found. Can a cure be far behind?
Scientists in breakthrough, Nobel worthy discovery.
American Thinker Blog
Wikileaks proves WMD found in Iraq
And the Lancet casualty studies were also proved to be bogus.
American Thinker Blog
Wikileaks documents show WMDs found in Iraq
Hmmm.
In this case, the surprise isn’t the data but the source. Wikileaks’ new release from purloined files of the Department of Defense may help remind people that, contrary to popular opinion and media memes, the US did find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and in significant quantities. While the invasion of Iraq didn’t find […]
Found In Translation
Adam Kirsch reviews Robert Alter's translation of The Wisdom Books, "new renderings of the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes—possibly the most challenging and perplexing works in all of Scripture":
[T]hey are also the Biblical books that speak most directly to the modern, skeptical, secular reader. If the Torah is revelation—an ostensibly factual account of God’s actions and commandments—the Wisdom Books are a kind of counter-revelation: an emphatically human expression of the impossibility of knowing God or believing in His justice.
