This Weeks Sound Off

Sikh To Keep Beard, Turban, Uncut Hair

The U.S Army has granted a member of a religious minority permission to keep his turban, beard and uncut hair while he serves in the military, the Pentagon and a group representing him said.

Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi, a doctor, is a Sikh, a faith that calls on its adherents not to shave or cut their hair.

Kalsi filed a request in the spring for an accommodation to follow the principles of his religion. This month the Army granted his request, the Sikh Coalition told CNN. The Pentagon public affairs office later confirmed that Kalsi would be allowed to keep his turban, beard and uncut hair.

The civil rights group hailed the move as "a major step toward ending a 23-year-old policy that excludes Sikhs from service."

Maj. Gen. Gina Farrisee said in the letter that Kalsi's "beard, uncut hair, and turban will be neat and well maintained at all times."

She said her ruling applies only to Kalsi's case, and is not a change of Army policy.

"This accommodation is based solely on the facts and circumstances of your case," the letter said. "This accommodation does not constitute a blanket accommodation for any other individual."

Kalsi is not the only Sikh asking permission to keep his hair, beard and turban while serving in the Army. Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, applied at the same time as Kalsi. His case has been deferred until he receives the results of his dental board examinations, the Sikh Coalition told CNN. –For rest of the story see CNN

As we begin to relax our values and rules, more and more people and groups will seek exceptions from basic standards we as a nation have always valued. This is already taking place in the civilian population … now it’s beginning in the armed forces.

I don’t mind anyone practicing their religious faith. Many American’s serve in the armed forces with strong religious convictions, but when it comes to basic rules and standards each conform and this practice should never be compromised regardless of religious affiliation.

The armed forces have a look and style that is unquestionably identifiable. Allowing some to march to a different drummer is unacceptable. The armed forces are a united front and there is no question in anyone’s mind as to who is or is not the enemy.

If by chance the armed forces were to patrol our streets and there appeared some dressed differently I would be less likely to trust them or want to follow their instructions. Therefore, compromising values and rules, particularly in the armed forces, is a bad idea and should not be under consideration at any time.

As for Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi, I admire his desire to practice his faith, as well as his desire to serve our country. But to seek special treatment to not conform to a dress code that is all American, is in my mind, unacceptable.

Ragbag Headliners

Same-sex Marriage Moves To Maine

Voters in Maine will decide next week whether to overturn the legislation signed by Gov. John Baldacci nearly six months ago that allows same-sex couples to wed.

Baldacci, who originally opposed the legislation, said upholding the bill comes down to a fundamental understanding of equal protection and constitutional responsibility.

"Initially, I had the opinion for several years that civil unions were the limitations of what I was willing to support," Baldacci said. "But, the research that I did uncovered that a civil union didn't equal a civil marriage."

On May 6 when Baldacci signed the legislation, he did so knowing there was a possibility that voters could overturn it.

"Just as the Maine Constitution demands that all people are treated equally under the law, it also guarantees that the ultimate political power in the state belongs to the people," Baldacci said in a statement released as he signed the bill.

On September 2, opposition groups delivered the 55,087 signatures necessary to put the legislation to a vote on the November 3 ballot.

California's state Supreme Court issued a similar ruling in May 2008 after which some 18,000 gay and lesbian couples got married there. But in November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

If the legislation is upheld, Maine would join Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut and New Hampshire in allowing same-sex marriage. –CNN

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Home Depot Fired Him Over God Button

A former cashier for The Home Depot who has been wearing a "One nation under God" button on his work apron for more than a year has been fired, he says because of the religious reference. The company claims that expressing such personal beliefs is simply not allowed.

"I've worn it for well over a year and I support my country and God," Trevor Keezor said Tuesday. "I was just doing what I think every American should do, just love my country."

The American flag button Keezer wore in the Florida store since March 2008 says "One nation under God, indivisible."

Earlier this month, he began bringing a Bible to read during his lunch break at the store in the rural town of Okeechobee, about 140 miles north of Miami. That's when he says The Home Depot management told him he would have to remove the button.

Keezer refused, and he was fired on Oct. 23, he said.

"It feels kind of like a punishment, like I was punished for just loving my country," Keezer said.

A Home Depot spokesman said Keezer was fired because he violated the company's dress code.

"This associate chose to wear a button that expressed his religious beliefs. The issue is not whether or not we agree with the message on the button," Craig Fishel said. "That's not our place to say, which is exactly why we have a blanket policy, which is long-standing and well-communicated to our associates, that only company-provided pins and badges can be worn on our aprons."

Fishel said Keezer was offered a company-approved pin that said, "United We Stand," but he declined.

Keezer's lawyer, Kara Skorupa, said she planned to sue the Atlanta-based company.

"There are federal and state laws that protect against religious discrimination," Skorupa said. "It's not like he was out in the aisles preaching to people."

Keezer said he was working at the store to earn money for college, and wore the button to support his country and his 27-year-old brother, who is in the National Guard and is set to report in December for a second tour of duty in Iraq.

Skorupa noted the slogan on Keezer's pin is straight from the Pledge of Allegiance.

"These mottos and sayings that involve God, that's part of our country and historical fabric," Skorupa said. "In God we trust is on our money."

Michael Masinter, a civil rights and employment law professor at NOVA Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said any lawsuit over religious discrimination might be a tough one to win.

"Because it's a private business, not one that's owned and operated by the government, it doesn't have to operate under the free speech provisions of the First Amendment," Masinter said.

"But we're not talking about religious displays here," he said. "This sounds more like a political message ... Wearing a button of that sort would not easily be described as a traditional form of religious expression like wearing a cross or wearing a yarmulke." -Yahoo News

Happy Halloween

You know you are too old to trick or treat when:

10. You get winded from knocking on the door.

9. You have to have some one else chew the candy for you.

8. You ask for high fiber candy only.

7. When someone drops a candy bar in your bag, you lose your balance and fall over.

6. People say: "Great Boris Karloff Mask," and you're not wearing a mask.

5. When the door opens you yell, "Trick or..." and can't remember the rest.

4. By the end of the night, you have a bag full of restraining orders.

3. You have to carefully choose a costume that won't dislodge your hairpiece.

2. You're the only Power Ranger in the neighborhood with a walker.

1. You keep having to go home to pee.

Have A Safe & Fun Halloween

The Heart of a Teacher

The child arrives like a mystery box...
with puzzle pieces inside
some of the pieces are broken or missing...
and others just seem to hide.

But the HEART of a teacher can sort them out...
and help the child to see
the potential for greatness he has within...
a picture of what he can be.

Her goal isn't just to teach knowledge...
by filling the box with more parts
it's putting the pieces together...
and creating a work of art.

The process is painfully slow at times...
some need more help than others
each child is a work in progress...
with assorted shapes and colors.

First she creates a classroom...
where the child can feel safe in school
where he never feels threatened or afraid to try...
and kindness is always the rule.

She knows that a child
can achieve much more
when he feels secure inside
when he's valued and loved...
and believes in himself
...and he has a sense of pride.

She models and teaches good character...
and respect for one another
how to focus on strengths...not weaknesses
and how to encourage each other.

She gives the child the freedom he needs...
to make choices on his own
so he learns to become more responsible...
and is able to stand alone.

He's taught to be strong and think for himself...
as his soul and spirit heal
and the puzzle that's taking shape inside...
has a much more positive feel.

The child discovers the joy that comes...
from learning something new...
and his vision grows as he begins
to see all the things that he can do.

A picture is formed as more pieces fit...
an image of the child within
with greater strength and confidence...
and a belief that he can win!

All because a hero was there...
in the HEART of a teacher who cared
enabling the child to become much more...
than he ever imagined...or dared.

A teacher with a HEART for her children...
knows what teaching is all about
she may not have all the answers...
but on this...she has no doubt.

When asked which subjects she loved to teach,
she answered this way and smiled...
"It's not the subjects that matter...
It's all about teaching the CHILD."

by Paula Fox
Click Here To View Paula’s Book

A Date With The Devil

"The devil made me do it" was the famous line the comedian, Flip Wilson, used when joking about the devil. But the truth is, the devil is no joke. He is not only real but he also hates God as well as everything and everyone that God made---including you and me! The world has given the one who causes the misery and suffering in the world has been given a special holiday. Millions of dollars are spent for a special holiday once a year dedicated to the Devil.

In the name of clean fun for both youngsters and grown-ups, Trick or Treat, has become an annual tradition, just like the equally devil-inspired modern-day celebration of Christmas, Easter, and other so-called "Christian" holidays. But the truth is: Trick or Treat is the devil's seemingly harmless introductory lesson in extortion and other criminal acts for children. The beginning lesson on how to demand something which one never properly earned or owned. Robbery, rape, kidnapping, and other crimes are the adult realities of Trick or Treat; a criminal demands or takes something ---a favor or a"treat"---which he/she never truly deserves. It is just like the Devil himself, who has claimed the world and God's creation which he does not own. In one of the temptations in the wilderness, Satan tried to play Trick or Treat with Christ by offering the Creator the world, if He would kneel down and pay homage to Satan, the usurper. What a truly dumb trick !

And think of the costumes which the children wear to go trick or treating. The most popular get-ups are: ghosts, witches, vampires complete with fake fangs, skeletons, monsters, undesirable characters--like pirates, extra-terrestrial figures--like fairies, make-believe fairytale or cartoon characters.

And then there are the decorations which depict evil and the macabre---tombstones, witches' cauldrons, black cats, bats associated with horror, abandoned haunted houses, pumpkins carved to look grotesque, sinister and evil.

But the worst insult to all sensibility is when so-called "Christian" churches think nothing of holding parties in the church social hall to glorify the Devil with the innocent little ones and even pets [cats and dogs] dressed up as evil-appearing characters and the supposed "house of the Lord" made to look like "the Devil's den" or a haunted house decorated with spider webs and colors associated with funeral and death, and music, food, and entertainment to depict evil.

That is how deluded many have become in the name of "clean and harmless fun" when in reality, it is plain and simple glorification and celebration of evil. Halloween in reality is indeed nothing more than a special date with Satan.

Shared by my Friend, Ralph

Origin Of Some Common Expression

It is interesting how many of today's buzz words and common expressions originally had an entirely a different meaning.

For example, the word "gay" used to mean "happy", not a male homosexual. And the word "merry" originally meant "brave" --- as in Robin Hood & His Merry Men.

Below is the history of how a few of today's words and expressions originated.

Before the days of cameras and photographs, one's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of showed a person standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Painters' fees were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs [arms or legs] were to be shown in the painting. The more limbs, the more expensive. Hence, the expression: 'it costs an arm and a leg'.

*******

Before the advent of the modern bathroom, men and women took baths only twice a year---usually in May and in October. Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads to avoid lice and bugs, and they wore wigs. The wealthy and prominent men in society were able to afford better quality and more expensive wigs made of wool. But they did not wash their wigs, lest they might shrink or get deform. So, in order to clean the wig, the "insides" of a loaf of bread were carved out, the wig was put inside the "bread shell", and baked for about 30 minutes. The heat made the wig bigger and fluffier, hence the term 'big wig'. Today, the term 'big wig' applies to someone who has authority, power, and/or wealth.

*******

In the days when houses and home furnishings were too expensive for the common masses, most houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, the chair was just a long wide board which folded down from the wall where the 'head of the household' sat during mealtimes while everyone else sat on the floor to eat. When a male guest came and was invited for a meal, the chair was offered to him. To sit on the chair meant one was important and was "in-charge". Thus, the term 'chairman' or 'chairman of the board'.

*******

Since personal hygiene in olden days was not the best, many women and men developed skin blemishes. To hide ugly facial scars and skin imperfections, the women spread bee's wax to camouflage and give the appearance of a smooth complexion. While socializing, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told, to 'mind your own bee's wax.' If the wax cracked, hence the term 'crack a smile'. And, if a lady happened to sit too close to the fire and the wax started to melt, the lady would then be 'losing face'.

*******

Ladies wore corsets, which laced up in the front and tightly tied or laced. A proper and dignified woman was always 'straight laced'.

*******

One common form of entertainment in the olden days was playing cards. For some reason, when one purchased a deck of playing cards, a tax was levied on the "ace of spades" only. To avoid paying the tax, it was common to take out the "ace of spades", which left only 51 cards instead of the usual 52. A person who was thought to be stupid or lacking intelligence was referred to as 'not playing with a full deck'.

*******

Before the days of mass communications [newspapers, radio/TV] in order to determine what the people considered important, the early politicians sent their assistants [spies] to local taverns, pubs, and bars with the instruction to 'go sip some ale' while listening to people's conversations and listen for any comments of political importance. Various assistants were dispatched at different times of the day to 'go sip here' and to 'go sip there'. The two words---go sip'---was eventually spelled as 'gossip'.

The related expression "eaves dropping" which means listening to people's conversation originated from people taking shelter under the eaves [of a roof] during a heavy rain/downpour and listening to people's talk/gossip.

*******

In the old local taverns, pubs, and bars, drink was sold in pint- and quart-size containers. It was a barmaid's job to keep an eye on the customers and made sure to keep the drinks coming. But she also had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking from 'pints' and 'quarts'. Hence, the term 'mind your Ps and Qs'.

*******

During the early days of big ships, for protection against pirates and "enemies", cargo ships/freighters and warships [of course], carried iron cannons which fired iron cannonballs. It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannonballs near the cannon. To prevent the cannonballs from rolling about on the deck, they were arranged in a square-based pyramid with 16 balls in the bottom-most layer, 9 balls on top of the 16, four balls on top of the 9, and one ball on top of the 4 which made a supply of 30 cannonballs stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. The problem was how to prevent the bottom-most layer from sliding or rolling away [which would undo the pyramid]. The solution was a metal plate called a 'monkey' with 16 round indentations. The original "monkeys" were made of iron. However, iron quickly rusted [oxidized] especially when left outside and exposed to salty sea air. The solution was to make 'brass monkeys'. However, it was later found that the brass contracted faster and greater than the iron when there was a drop temperature, and when the temperature dropped really low, the indentations in the brass monkey shrank so much that the iron cannonballs came out of the indentations and rolled around. Thus, when there was a really cold spell, it became quite literally 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'. (So what was thought by the uninformed as a "dirty expression" with a sexual connotation did not refer to an ape/monkey at all. It only proved that some simply had a filthy mind!)

Author Unknown

"City On Our Knees"
by TobyMac

Happy Halloween

Attitude

Jerry was a restaurant manager who was always in a good mood and had something positive to say. When asked how he was doing, he would reply: "If I were any better, I would be twins!" Whenever he changed jobs, many waiters and waitresses followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always supportive and told the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Having heard about Jerry made me really curious.

So, one day I went to the restaurant where Jerry worked and told him that I've heard so many good things about him and his upbeat attitude, and I told him: "I don't get it. Certainly, it is not possible that everyday is a nice day. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning when I wake up, I tell myself: I have two choices. I can choose to be in a good mood or a bad mood. Then, I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be just a victim or I can choose to learn from it; I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to just listen to the complaint or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose to point out the positive side of life."

"But it's not always that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is. Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a matter of your choice. You can choose how to react to situations. You can choose how people will affect your mood. You can choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It's your choice how you want to live your life," Jerry replied.

Several years later, I heard that one evening, as he was closing up the restaurant, Jerry accidentally left the restaurant's back door open---that is one thing you must never do in the restaurant business, especially at night! That was the time that three armed men broke in and tried to rob the restaurant. When the robbers ordered him to open the safe, his hand shook nervously and slipped off the combination. One of the robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital. After hours of surgery and weeks in the hospital, Jerry was discharged with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

Six months after the incident, I saw Jerry. When I asked him how he was, he gave his usual reply, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Want to see my scars?"

I politely declined, but did ask him what went through his mind during the robbery.

Jerry said: "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have kept the back door locked. Then, after I got shot, as I laid on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared?" I asked.

Jerry continued: The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctor and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read: 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, when a nurse asked if I was allergic to anything. The doctors and nurses stopped everything as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'."

Thanks to the skill of the doctors, nurses, and hospital staff as well as Jerry's amazing attitude, Jerry lived.

From him I learned that: everyday one has the choice to either enjoy and love or hate life. The one and only thing which no one can control or take away is your ATTITUDE. If one can master taking the proper attitude, everything else in life becomes much easier.

Atheist Ads To Adorn New York

Some New Yorkers may want to reconsider exclaiming "Thank God" when arriving at their destination subway station beginning next Monday.

Or at least that's what a coalition of eight atheist organizations are hoping, having purchased a month-long campaign that will place their posters in a dozen busy subway stations throughout Manhattan.

The advertisements ask the question, written simply over an image of a blue sky with wispy white clouds: "A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?"

On October 26, a dozen bustling New York City subway stations will be adorned with the ads as "part of a coordinated multi-organizational advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about people who don't believe in a god", according to a statement from the group, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason.

New York City's subway system is one of the busiest in the world with over 5 million riders per day and over 1.6 billion total passengers in 2008, according to the Metro Transit Authority.

Recognizing this, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason decided the "best bang for the buck" was to place posters in popular subway stations to capitalize on the amount of potential viewers, says Michael De Dora Jr., Executive Director of the New York Center for Inquiry, one of the associated atheist groups.

De Dora says the ambitions behind the advertisements are threefold.

First, the coalition hopes the promotion will enhance awareness of New York City's secular community. He explained that the coalition also hopes to encourage "talking and thinking about religion and morality," as well as support involvement in groups that encourage a sense of a social community for non-believing New Yorkers.

John Rafferty, President of the Secular Humanist Society of New York, another member group of the coalition, said the ads are in no way an anti-religious campaign. They are looking to reach out to more people who have similar feelings, but might not be aware of an outlet to express their beliefs, he said.

Rafferty and De Dora cite the American Religious Identification Survey, released earlier this year, as evidence of a shift away from organized religion. Those checking "none" for religion rose from 8% of the population in 1990 to 15% in 2008, effectively making "no religion" the fastest growing religious identification in the United States.

De Dora said that the "million" New York nonbelievers mentioned in the advertisements is the result of an extrapolation based on the survey's findings. With over 8 million residents living in New York's five boroughs, the organization projects over a million potential atheist New Yorkers.

De Dora said individuals "don't need religion to be good people and productive members of society" and ultimately he feels that groups of nonbelievers are "adding to cultural life of NYC."

The United Coalition of Reason, which is a national organization that helps local groups advocate atheist ideas, approached the New York nonbeliever associations in August with an offer of a donation from an anonymous source to help fund the subway station ad campaign. The donation amount was for exactly $25,000 and specifically allocated for the subway advertising promotion.

Rafferty says the groups involved expect no substantial backlash over their ads. Since news of the campaign was made public early this week "reaction has been mixed," De Dora said. He emphasizes that the Big Apple Coalition of Reason ads are not "forcing issues, they're just getting ideas out there," with the hope of fostering discussion in New York.

The ads are "not poking fun at religion and not being outright nasty," he said.

A year ago some unease was caused by advertisements that ran inside subway cars promoting Islam. While the ads themselves weren't controversial, they were partially funded by an imam of a Brooklyn Mosque who served a character witness for convicted 1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman.

In a statement to CNN, Metro Transit Authority Spokesman Aaron Donovan said, "The MTA maintains basic advertising guidelines with prohibitions on nudity, four-letter words, and the like. Beyond that, to accord with the First Amendment, our advertising guidelines are written so as to not prohibit the free exercise of religion or abridge the freedom of speech."

According to the Big Apple Coalition of Reason in their statement, the New York City campaign is just one component of a "nationwide effort" by the United Coalition of Reason that will see billboards and postings in transit systems across the United States. –CNN

Inner Peace

If you can start the day without caffeine,

If you can still be cheerful in spite of your aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment ,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

....YOU MUST BE....

the family dog!

And you thought I was getting all spiritual.

Author Unknown

Why I Forward Jokes

This explains why I forward jokes. A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'

'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.

'There should be a bowl by the pump.'

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope That's hell.'

'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

Soooo...

Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word.

Maybe this will explain.

When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes.

When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes.

When you have something to say, but don't know what, and don't know how, you forward jokes.

Also to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke.

So, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile.

You are all welcome at my water bowl anytime!

Author Unknown
Shared from my Friend, Emily

“I Believe” by Micah Stampley

Near-death Experiences Are In The Mind

For Laura Geraghty, April 1, 2009, started out just as any other day. It was sunny but cool, she remembers.

The mother of two, also a grandmother, was at her job, driving a school bus for the Newton Public School District in suburban Boston, Massachusetts.

Her passengers, special-needs children, were wheelchair-bound.

Seemingly in good health and in good spirits, Geraghty was finishing up her late-morning run, transporting a student and teacher back to Newton South High School, when she realized she was in trouble.

As she was pulling into the school parking lot, she began having sharp stomach pains. She was able to park her bus, but she kept feeling worse.

The pain "went right up my arm and into my chest, and I said, 'Uh-oh, I'm having a heart attack,' " she said.

The teacher ran from the bus to get help. Newton South's nurse, Gail Kramer, and CPR instructor Michelle Coppola arrived moments later with the school's new automated external defibrillator.

Geraghty, barely conscious, was fading fast. She was weak and having trouble breathing. And then she went into full cardiac arrest.

"Her eyes were wide, and all of a sudden she stopped talking to us," Coppola said. "I grabbed the two pads, stuck them on her, started it up, and I'd say within 20 seconds, she had her first shock."

Coppola and Kramer performed CPR while they waited for paramedics.

At that point, Geraghty says, her body died. She remembers watching the scene unfold -- as if from above.

"I floated right out of my body. My body was here, and I just floated away. I looked back at it once, and it was there."

Geraghty says she saw deceased loved ones, her mother and her ex-husband.

"It was very peaceful and light and beautiful. And I remember like, when you see someone you haven't seen in a while, you want to hug them, and I remember trying to reach out to my ex-husband, and he would not take my hand. And then they floated away."

Next, she says, she was overwhelmed by "massive energy, powerful, very powerful energy."

"When that was happening, there were pictures of my son and my daughter and my granddaughter, and every second, their pictures flashed in my mind, and then I came back."

What Geraghty had was a near-death experience, fairly common in people who go into sudden cardiac arrest.

Geraghty was down for 57 minutes. No blood pressure, no pulse, no oxygen, no blood flow. She was shocked 21 times before she finally came back with tales of the afterlife.

According to the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, nearly 800 near-death experiences happen every day in the United States.

Dr. Kevin Nelson, a neurologist in Lexington, Kentucky, studies near-death experiences and says they're not imagined. The explanation, he says, lies in the brain itself.

"These are real experiences. And they're experiences that happen at a time of medical crisis and danger," Nelson said.

Humans have a lot of reflexes that help keep us alive, part of the "fight or flight" response that arises when we're confronted with danger.

Nelson thinks that near-death experiences are part of the dream mechanism and that the person having the experience is in a REM, or "rapid eye movement," state.

"Part of our 'fight or flight' reflexes to keep us alive includes the switch into the REM state of consciousness," he said.

During REM sleep, there is increased brain activity and visual stimulation. Intense dreaming occurs as a result.

And the bright light so many people claim to see?

"The activation of the visual system caused by REM is causing the bright lights," Nelson said.

And the tunnel people speak of, he says, is lack of blood flow to the eye. "The eye, the retina of the eye, is one of the most exquisitely sensitive tissues to a loss of blood flow. So when blood flow does not reach the eye, vision fails, and darkness ensues from the periphery to the center. And that is very likely causing the tunnel effect."

Nelson is doing studies now to prove that the same effect results from fainting.

"The most common cause of near-death experience in my research group is fainting. Upwards of 100 million Americans have fainted. That means probably tens of millions of Americans have had these unusual experiences."

But Geraghty says this was no dream. "I know I went someplace else. I know I went someplace else other then here."

Dr. Bill O'Callahan, the emergency room doctor who shocked her back to life, agrees. "Cynics out there would say and agnostics would say that's phenomenon that comes from a dying brain. I think that's hogwash. I firmly believe that people experience these events."

Bob Schriever, co-founder of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, was refereeing a high school football game seven years ago when he went into cardiac arrest, died and was revived.

He, too, questions the dream explanation. "Why are so many people dreaming the same thing? How can so many people, and there's hundreds of thousands of people who have experienced this, how can we all be dreaming the same thing and describe the exact same thing?"

Schriever says these experiences are so profound that only someone who has gone through them can truly understand.

Seven years later, he is still consumed with his own near-death experience.

"I think about that every morning when I wake up, first thing, during the day, I don't know how many times and every night before I fall asleep. I think about that. People do not understand or appreciate what we go through."

For Geraghty, it's a daily struggle to put the pieces back together again.

"I've been someplace that not everybody can go, and there's not a lot of people you can sit down and have that conversation with," Geraghty said. "My own daughter tells me, 'It's freaky, Mom.' I've literally lost friends over this the minute they hear it."

Geraghty says she became depressed once she left the hospital because her perspective on her entire life changed. She still gets depressed, she says, and is on medication.

"I actually went to my doctor and said to her, 'I think I'm losing my mind. This can't be really happening,' you know, and she said it's OK, it's very hard to understand when you've been through an experience like that."

Geraghty has joined the cardiac arrest group, hoping that connecting with others who understand what she's been through will allow her to come to terms with what happened to her that cool spring day six months ago. And allow her to heal and move on. -CNN

Meet John Holmgren

Have you heard about the trucker who has painted his cab and trailer with the names of all those who lost their lives on 9/11? The trucker's name is John Holmgren from Shafer, Minn. He has been 'pulled over' numerous times just so the troopers can get their picture taken with the truck. Pass this along so all can see. To view the pictures better, click on the slide frame to enlarge.

The Heavens Declare The Glory Of God

Memorial Violates Constitution

"Religion is always very hard fought in the Supreme Court, and this is no exception," said Thomas Goldstein, a Washington appellate attorney and co-founder of scotusblog.com.

"A single cross on a single plot of land has given rise to this huge constitutional controversy. The court will look at whether Congress, with a kind of wink and a nod, (can) say that this governmental cross is now on private land or are we (going to) say, no this is a governmental war monument and it has a religious symbol on it."

Riley Bembry, who served as a medic in World War I, helped erect the cross in 1934. It sits on a 4,000-foot plateau and was a place of reflection for many vets who retreated to the desert in part to recover from severe lung diseases caused by mustard gas attacks during the Great War. An annual Easter service is held there, but until recently only locals knew about it. The site is not on any maps. To watch a video about the Mojave monument click here.

Bembry never got permission from the government to erect the cross, but for decades nobody seemed to care. He was the caretaker of the memorial for five decades until he died in 1984.

In 1994, 1.6 million acres of desert -- including the land with the cross on it -- was transferred to the National Park Service. A few years later, a resident wanted to put up a Buddhist shrine near the cross. The request was denied.

Frank Buono, a former deputy superintendent of the preserve, filed a lawsuit with the help of the ACLU, claiming federal officials were acting unfairly.

"He thinks that the government is in effect misappropriating this sacred symbol and trying to give it just a secular meaning," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney of the ACLU of Southern California.

"It strikes me as sort of odd that it just happens to be in that shape," Eliasberg said. "If what they really wanted to do was have a war memorial, there are hundreds of other shapes that it could be in. ... Mr. Buono does not have an objection to the government having a war memorial there that's in the shape of a soldier, or that's in the shape of the Vietnam memorial."

A federal court ordered the cross removed earlier this decade. A judge ruled that until the dispute is settled the cross had to be covered.

In 2001 Congress got involved. Lawmakers prohibited the Park Service from spending federal dollars to remove the display. A year later, they designated the site a national memorial similar to the Washington Monument and Mount Rushmore.

More importantly, the Republican-led Congress agreed to transfer one acre of land around the cross in exchange for five private acres inside the preserve. A San Francisco, California-based appeals court turned that offer down, saying it failed to satisfy Constitutional concerns.

The land swap "would leave a little donut hole of land with a cross in the midst of a vast federal preserve" the court said.

The Supreme Court has traditionally taken a case-by-case approach to similar First Amendment cases. Among other things, it has upheld tax exemptions for churches and the mention of "God" on U.S. currency.

At the same time, it has banned government-sponsored school prayer and imposed limits on public aid to parochial schools.

In 2005, a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas Statehouse grounds was allowed to stand because it was surrounded by historical markers. But the same day, the placement of Ten Commandment parchments in two Kentucky county courthouses was ruled unconstitutional. The high court called them "a governmental effort substantially to promote religion."

Earlier this year, the justices ruled that a small religious group could not erect a granite monument in a Utah park next to an existing Ten Commandments display.

This time, the Obama administration will argue in favor of keeping the cross and allowing the land transfer.

The implications of the case could extend beyond the Mojave Cross. Individual gravestones are not at issue, but war memorials have long featured religious imagery.

"There are 5 million veterans that we represent ... would be quite shocked and horrified to know that those memorials and the symbols chosen by vets 75 years or 100 years ago would suddenly have to be torn down by a bulldozer," said Hiram Sasser, attorney for the Liberty Legal Institute.

Wanda and Henry Sandoz have been taking care of the memorial since Bembry passed away. They shake their heads over the legal fight that will take them to Washington.

"I hope it won't be too long before we can look at the cross again without that stupid box," Wanda Sandoz said.

"Yep, really. We'll repaint it," Henry Sandoz said.

"I already bought some white paint," Wanda Sandoz said. -CNN

Massive Ring Around Saturn

Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.

The ring's orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles (12 million km).

Its diameter is equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side to side. And its entire volume can hold one billion Earths, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said late Tuesday.

"This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Verbiscer and two others are authors of a paper about the discovery published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The obvious question: Why did it take scientists so long to discover something so massive?

The ring is made up of ice and dust particles that are so far apart that "if you were to stand in the ring, you wouldn't even know it," Verbiscer said in a statement.

Also, Saturn doesn't receive a lot of sunlight, and the rings don't reflect much visible light.

But the cool dust -- about 80 Kelvin (minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit) -- glows with thermal radiation. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, used to spot the ring, picked up on the heat.

One of Saturn's moons, Phoebe, orbits within the ring. As Phoebe collides with comets, it kicks up planetary dust. Scientists believe the ice and dust particles that make up the ring stems from those collisions.

The ring may also help explain an age-old mystery surrounding another of Saturn's moons: Iapetus.

Astronomer Giovanni Cassini, who first spotted Iapetus in 1671, deduced the moon has a white and dark side -- akin to a yin-yang symbol. But scientists did not know why.

The new ring orbits in the opposite direction to Iapetus. And, say researchers, it's possible that the moon's dark coloring is a result of the ring's dust particles splattering against Iapetus like bugs on a windshield.

"Astronomers have long suspected that there is a connection between Saturn's outer moon Phoebe and the dark material on Iapetus," said Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland in College Park -- one of the three authors reporting on the findings in the journal Nature.

"This new ring provided convincing evidence of that relationship." -CNN

The Grace Of God

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

Author Unknown

D.C. To Introduce Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill said it appears unlikely that Congress will block a bill to be introduced Tuesday that would allow same-sex marriages in the District.

D.C. Council leaders have vowed to expedite the bill and said they hope to put it to a final vote before Christmas. But even if same-sex couples start marrying next year, the long-term survival of the practice would be in doubt for years, depending on the makeup of the House and Senate, congressional officials said.

On Tuesday morning, D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) will introduce his bill, which says that "any person . . . may marry any other eligible person regardless of gender." The legislation, which has 10 co-sponsors including Catania, is expected to sail through the council's committee process. Under Home Rule, Congress will have 30 legislative days to review the council's action before it becomes law.

Given the stakes for the gay community locally and nationally, many city leaders and activists have begun calculating how Congress might react to the sight of same-sex couples getting married in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.

"It's going to be a big symbolic issue, and the question is, are conservatives really going to make a stand?" said Linda McClain, a law professor at Boston University who is studying the same-sex marriage debate.

Despite the uncertainty, many D.C. Council members said they are taking a risk by putting the same-sex marriage issue before Congress as it gears up for next year's midterm elections. –The Washington Post

Shroud Of Turin

An Italian scientist says he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, a feat that he says proves definitively that the linen some Christians revere as Jesus Christ's burial cloth is a medieval fake.

The shroud, measuring 14 feet, 4 inches by 3 feet, 7 inches bears the image, eerily reversed like a photographic negative, of a crucified man some believers say is Christ.

"We have shown that is possible to reproduce something which has the same characteristics as the Shroud," Luigi Garlaschelli, who is due to illustrate the results at a conference on the para-normal this weekend in northern Italy, said on Monday.

A professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia, Garlaschelli made available to Reuters the paper he will deliver and the accompanying comparative photographs.

The Shroud of Turin shows the back and front of a bearded man with long hair, his arms crossed on his chest, while the entire cloth is marked by what appears to be rivulets of blood from wounds in the wrists, feet and side.

Carbon dating tests by laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona in 1988 caused a sensation by dating it from between 1260 and 1390. Sceptics said it was a hoax, possibly made to attract the profitable medieval pilgrimage business.

But scientists have thus far been at a loss to explain how the image was left on the cloth.

Garlaschelli reproduced the full-sized shroud using materials and techniques that were available in the middle ages.

They placed a linen sheet flat over a volunteer and then rubbed it with a pigment containing traces of acid. A mask was used for the face.

PIGMENT, BLOODSTAINS AND SCORCHES

The pigment was then artificially aged by heating the cloth in an oven and washing it, a process which removed it from the surface but left a fuzzy, half-tone image similar to that on the Shroud. He believes the pigment on the original Shroud faded naturally over the centuries.

They then added blood stains, burn holes, scorches and water stains to achieve the final effect.

The Catholic Church does not claim the Shroud is authentic nor that it is a matter of faith, but says it should be a powerful reminder of Christ's passion.

One of Christianity's most disputed relics, it is locked away at Turin Cathedral in Italy and rarely exhibited. It was last on display in 2000 and is due to be shown again next year.

Garlaschelli expects people to contest his findings.

"If they don't want to believe carbon dating done by some of the world's best laboratories they certainly won't believe me," he said.

The accuracy of the 1988 tests was challenged by some hard-core believers who said restorations of the Shroud in past centuries had contaminated the results.

The history of the Shroud is long and controversial.

After surfacing in the Middle East and France, it was brought by Italy's former royal family, the Savoys, to their seat in Turin in 1578. In 1983 ex-King Umberto II bequeathed it to the late Pope John Paul.

The Shroud narrowly escaped destruction in 1997 when a fire ravaged the Guarini Chapel of the Turin cathedral where it is held. The cloth was saved by a fireman who risked his life.

Garlaschelli received funding for his work by an Italian association of atheists and agnostics but said it had no effect on his results.

"Money has no odor," he said. "This was done scientifically. If the Church wants to fund me in the future, here I am." -Yahoo News

1 in 4 People Worldwide Is Muslim

Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim -- and they are not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new study that aims to map the global Muslim population.

India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

China has more Muslims than Syria.

Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion.

There are about 2.25 billion Christians, based on projections from the 2005 World Religions Database.

Brian Grim, the senior researcher on the Pew Forum project, was slightly surprised at the number of Muslims in the world, he told CNN.

"Overall, the number is higher than I expected," he said, noting that earlier estimates of the global Muslim population have ranged from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.

The report can -- and should -- have implications for United States policy, said Reza Aslan, the best-selling Iranian-American author of "No God but God."

"Increasingly, the people of the Middle East are making up a smaller and smaller percentage of the worldwide Muslim community," he told CNN by phone.

"When it comes to issues of outreach to the Muslim world, these numbers will indicate that outreach cannot be focused so narrowly on the Middle East," he said.

"If the goal is to create better understanding between the United States and the Muslim world, our focus should be on south and southeast Asia, not the Middle East," he said.

He spoke to CNN before the report was published and without having seen its contents, but was familiar with the general trends the report identified.

The team at the Pew Forum spent nearly three years analyzing "the best available data" from 232 countries and territories, Grim said.

Their aim was to get the most comprehensive snapshot ever assembled of the world's Muslim population at a given moment in time.

So they took the data they gathered from national censuses and surveys, and projected it forward based on what they knew about population growth in each country.

They describe the resulting report as "the largest project of its kind to date."

It's full of details that even the researchers found surprising.

"There are these countries that we don't think of as Muslim at all, and yet they have very sizable numbers of Muslims," said Alan Cooperman, the associate director of research for the Pew Forum, naming India, Russia and China.

One in five of the world's Muslims lives in a country where Muslims are a minority.

And while most people think of the Muslim population of Europe is being composed of immigrants, that's only true in western Europe, Cooperman said.

"In the rest of Europe -- Russia, Albania, Kosovo, those places -- Muslims are an indigenous population," he said. "More than half of the Muslims in Europe are indigenous."

The researchers also were surprised to find the Muslim population of sub-Saharan Africa to be as low as they concluded, Cooperman said.

It has only about 240 million Muslims -- about 15 percent of all the world's Muslims.

Islam is thought to be growing fast in the region, with countries such as Nigeria, which has large populations of both Christians and Muslims, seeing violence between the two groups.

The Pew researchers concluded that Nigeria is just over half Muslim, making it the sixth most populous Muslim country in the world.

Roughly nine out of 10 Muslims worldwide are Sunni, and about one in 10 is Shiite, they estimated.

They warned they were less confident of those numbers than of the general population figures because sectarian data is harder to come by.

"Only one or two censuses in the world ... have ever asked the sectarian question," said Grim.

"Among Muslims it's a very sensitive question. If asked, large numbers will say I am just a Muslim -- not that they don't know, but it is a sensitive question in many places," he said.

One in three of the world's Shiite Muslims lives in Iran, which is one of only four countries with a Shiite majority, he said. The others are Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain.

Huge as the project of mapping the world's Muslim population is, it is only the first step in a Pew Forum undertaking.

Next year, the think tank intends to release a report projecting Muslim population growth into the future, and then the researchers intend to do the whole thing over again with Christians, followed by other faith groups.

"We don't care only about Muslims," Grim said.

They're also digging into what people believe and practice, since the current analysis doesn't analyze that.

"This is no way reflects the religiosity of people, only their self-identification," Grim said. "We're trying to get the overall picture of religion in the world." -CNN

Abortion Support Falls

Support for abortion rights has fallen sharply in the past year, with Americans now split roughly 50-50 between those who back legal access to abortion and those who oppose it, according to a new survey.

The findings mark a dramatic shift in public opinion, supporters of abortion rights have outnumbered opponents for many years, with one brief exception, studies have shown.

But only 47 percent of Americans now feel abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a drop from 54 percent a year ago, according to the poll.

Meanwhile, 45 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases. That's up from 41 percent a year ago.

Given the survey's margin of error, the two camps are statistically tied.

"These data suggest that a number of people have changed their minds in the past year," said Gregory Smith of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, one of the survey's authors.

It's not only one type of person or group whose opinion has changed, he said.

"There was a drop seen in many, many demographics: men and women, people with a college degree and those with less education, people with various religious backgrounds," he said.

The only groups whose opinions on abortion did not change were African-Americans -- who tend to oppose it -- and young people and those not affiliated with any particular religion, who tend to say it should be legal, he said.

"Beyond that, this movement [was] across the board," he said.

Anti-abortion activists welcomed the findings.

"This is great news. This poll shows that the pro-life movement is winning hearts and minds. Pro-lifers are making an effective case that all women deserve better than abortion and that every child deserves a chance to be born," said Cathy Ruse, the senior fellow for legal studies at the anti-abortion Family Research Council in Washington.

The Rev. Flip Benham, a Dallas, Texas-based anti-abortion activist, said the survey reflected a change he had already seen taking place.

"It's something that we have known for a long, long time that's been beneath the radar," he said. "The heart of America is changing and only with time do the laws reflect that change."

"When the church will come out into the streets, we win the battle," said Benham, director of operations for Operation Save America.

"We have to return to the God of our founding fathers and our pilgrim fathers," he said.

But Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, firmly rejects religious opposition to abortion.

"Abortion is a blessing when it is chosen freely by a woman who needs it. It is a blessing," she said, citing the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School.

O'Neill has been in that position herself, she said.

"When I was in my early 20s, I thought I needed an abortion. I was escaping a very violent marriage that lasted about eight months," she said. "The young man I was married to exploded and severely battered me."

She fled to her parents' home. A month later, she began to suspect she was pregnant with her abusive husband's child.

"If I had had a baby, I would have been tied to that man for the rest of my life," she said. "I didn't need the abortion, as it turned out, but if I had needed that abortion, it would have been a blessing.

"I knew I was going to become a mother, but not with that man, not with that pregnancy," she said.

She said it was important to distinguish between people who oppose abortion and those who want it to be against the law.

"I do realize that a lot of people in this country consider themselves to be pro-life," she said. "They also don't want it to be a crime for a woman to get an abortion."

Smith, the researcher, suspects the election of President Obama, a pro-choice Democrat, may be one cause of the shift in public opinion.

"Look at the timing," he said. "Through October of last year, the findings were consistent, with supporters outnumbering opponents," he said.

Pew first noticed the change in public opinion in a survey in April, and did a larger study in August to confirm it.

Opponents of abortion feel more strongly about it than supporters of legal access, he said.

"Some people, particularly on the right, have become more entrenched, more certain of their own positions on abortion," he said.

"Conservative Republicans are more certain about the correctness of their own position and less likely to say they want to see compromise. They are concerned that Obama will go too far in supporting abortion rights as president," he said. "On the left you see some relaxing of views."

But the survey also found that the number of people who felt passionately about abortion is falling.

About four out of 10 people in the survey could not define Obama's position on abortion.

"That is an indicator that although opinions have moved, this issue right now is not at the top of the political debate," Smith said.

But the subject has crept into the battle to reform America's health care system, with opponents of abortion in both parties determined to prevent federal dollars from funding abortions. Under the Hyde amendment, federal money currently can be used to pay for abortions only in case of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.

There have been at least two abortion-related slayings in the United States this year, one on each side of the debate.

George Tiller, a doctor known for performing abortions, was killed in May.

Tiller was shot in the head at point-blank range on May 31 as services began at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old anti-abortion activist, is charged in Tiller's killing. He has pleaded not guilty.

Anti-abortion activist Jim Pouillon, 63, was shot dead outside a school in Owosso, Michigan, on September 11. He was associated with Benham's Operation Save America.

Harlan James Drake, 33, is accused of shooting him and another man in separate locations that day.

Authorities do not believe that Drake knew Pouillon; only that he was offended by anti-abortion material that Pouillon had displayed across from the school all week, according to Sara Edwards of the Shiawassee County prosecutor's office.

The Supreme Court, the country's main legal battleground on abortion, has ruled only once on the hot-button subject since 1992, in a close 2007 decision that upheld federal restrictions on a controversial late-term abortion procedure called "partial birth abortion" by its opponents.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, then a federal appeals court judge, deflected questions about abortion this summer when she faced Senate confirmation hearings for a seat on the Supreme Court. She was confirmed. The court has not announced any abortion-related cases on its 2009-2010 docket.

The 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade effectively legalized abortion in the United States.

In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000, according to data compiled by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which aims to "advance sexual and reproductive health worldwide through research, policy analysis and education."

About 2 percent of American women age 15-44 had an abortion in 2005, the latest year for which the institute has information. The rate has been falling gradually since 1981, when it peaked at just under 3 percent, institute figures show.

The new findings come from a telephone survey of more than 4,000 adults in August 2009, conducted by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press. –CNN

SHOCKED

Astonished, stunned, bewildered was I
As I entered heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Not the lights nor its decor.

But 'twas the folks in heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp—
The sinners: the liars, the thieves, the sluts,
The drunkards---the scum, the human trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who stole my lunch and money twice.
And next to him was the crabby neighbor,
Whose lips said nothing nice.

Then, there was Herb, the druggie,
Who I thought went straight to hell,
But there he was--sitting smug, content,
And looking really swell.

I then asked the Lord, 'What is the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How did all these sinners get up here?
God, there must be some big mistake!

'And why's everyone so suddenly quiet?
Pray tell me, God; give me a clue.'
He said: 'Dear child, they're all in shock
At the sight of seeing you.'

Author Anonymous

Oldest Human Skeleton

The oldest-known hominid skeleton was a 4-foot-tall female who walked upright more than 4 million years ago and offers new clues to how humans may have evolved, scientists say.

Scientists believe that the fossilized remains, which were discovered in 1994 in Ethiopia and studied for years by an international team of researchers, support beliefs that humans and chimpanzees evolved separately from a common ancestor.

"This is not an ordinary fossil. It's not a chimp. It's not a human. It shows us what we used to be," said project co-director Tim White, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi," is a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Aramis, Ethiopia. That makes Ardi more than a million years older than the celebrated Lucy, the partial ape-human skeleton found in Africa in 1974.

Ardi's 125-piece skeleton includes the skull, teeth, pelvis, hands and feet bones. Scientists say the data collected from Ardi's bone fragments over the past 17 years push back the story of human evolution further than previously believed.

"In fact, what Ardipithecus tells us is that we as humans have been evolving to what we are today for at least 6 million years," C. Owen Lovejoy, an evolutionary biologist at Kent State University and project anatomist, said Thursday. –For rest of the story see CNN

God doesn’t care about what you are.
God care’s more about who you can be.

For what you are He knew in the beginning.
What you can become is what He created you to be.

So take all that you are by being all that you can be.
For in the end you will have fulfilled His creation.

-Pj-