... [the gay counter-protesters] were also chided when they chanted, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Homophobia has got to go!"

Standing across the street (from gay counter-protesters), Wanda E. White of Atlanta leaned toward the protesters to mimic their chant but replaced "homophobia" with "homosexuals."

"People live their lives like they want to, and I'm not here to judge them, but once you move God out of society, you have a big problem," White said.

"Education is how to make sure we've got a workforce that's productive and competitive. Got four more years, I've got more to do to continue to raise standards, to continue to reward teachers and school districts that are working, to emphasize math and science in the classrooms, to continue to expand Pell Grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma."

President Bush, presidential debate, Oct. 13, 2004

A change in eligibility for Pell Grants to be announced Thursday by the Department of Education would cut some 90,000 students from the rolls of recipients and affect more than 1 million others, an education advocate says.

The department will announce the change -- the first in 15 years -- in the Federal Register, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a trade association representing 2,000 public and private colleges and universities.

In addition to those who will lose their grants completely, "we estimate about 1.3 million students will see reductions in their grants from $100 to $300 per year," he said.

I watched the C-Span telecast of the Washington State Supreme Court arguments this morning on the mistakenly uncounted absentee ballots in Kings County....The SOS's attorney was arguing that the lower court injunction should be lifted and the county canvassing board should be permitted to include these absentee ballots in the manual recount, even though that result would presumably add scores of additional votes for the Democratic candidate and the SOS is a Republican. The SOS is to be commended for taking this position, and I hereby withdraw the innuendo in my previous comment suggesting that the SOS's positions were inevitably influenced by his partisan affiliation.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

The emptiness of the human heart is profound at Christmas for those who don't yet know Jesus. The message of "good tidings of great joy which will be to all people" is meant to be a personal daily experience and not just a yearly public celebration. The inn that Jesus came to fill exclusively is the one in every human heart.

Have you invited Him in? If not, have you considered that He will have no inn for you?

Washington's most populous county is expected to announce its manual vote recount Wednesday, which could swing results in the closest governor's race ever in state history.

Also Wednesday, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether some 730 additional ballots can be hand-counted and added to that total in King County, a Democratic-leaning bastion that includes Seattle.

On Tuesday night, Democrats claimed state Attorney General Christine Gregoire had moved ahead of Republican Dino Rossi for the first time with an eight-vote victory, citing preliminary recount data given to them by King County election officials ... "We're confident Christine Gregoire has been elected the governor of the state of Washington," Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt told the AP. "I believe Dino Rossi should concede."

... After the initial count of statewide ballots in the November race, Rossi led by 261 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast -- a margin small enough to trigger a mandatory machine recount. That retabulation cut Rossi's lead to 42 votes, at which point Secretary of State Sam Reed certified him as governor-elect.

... On Friday, a judge in Tacoma issued a temporary restraining order preventing King County from counting the disputed ballots that election officials say were mistakenly excluded from initial voting and from a machine recount.

... Democrats, backed by the secretary of state, a Republican, argued that the court's earlier ruling only applied to ballots that had been considered and rejected, not ballots that had been excluded by mistake.

In an affidavit, state Elections Director Nick Handy told the court that in the first two counts election officials in at least six other counties had corrected results with ballots found to be processed improperly, as King County wants to do. He also said that Reed's office advised local officials they had the authority to fix errors found as they recounted ballots.

The absentee ballots at the center of Wednesday's court fight originally were rejected because the signatures on the ballots did not match the voter registration signatures in King County's computer system.

Dean Logan, the county's election director, said the ballots were excluded by mistake because the voter registration signatures were never entered into the computer system.

... Republicans have questioned the appearance of hundreds of new votes in the middle of the hand recount, arguing that they had not been kept secure ...

Twins Swap Identities for Jail Break

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Brotherly love was put to the test this week after two 18-year-old identical twins swapped their clothing and traded places so that one could escape jail.

During a visit, the two siblings, neither of whom were named, managed to switch their outfits without anyone noticing.

After visiting hours ended, the inmate walked out, pretending to be his brother. Faced with the prospect of spending the night in jail, his brother admitted the ruse to prison guards.

"We knew there was a certain risk of a mix up, so we took some measures," said Lars-Aake Pettersson, the warden for the jail. "But this was apparently not enough. They managed to dupe us."

"As we move forward in helping the Iraqi people build a free and democratic future, the enemies of freedom seek to derail that transition, and it's important that we continue to go after the Saddam [Hussein] loyalists and the terrorists who want to turn back to the past."

"They will be defeated .... They are being defeated."

WIXOM, Michigan (AP) -- The family of a Marine killed in Iraq is pleading with Internet giant Yahoo! for access to his e-mail account, which the company says is off-limits under its privacy policy.

Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, 20, was killed by a roadside bomb on November 13 during a foot patrol in Al Anbar province. The family wants the complete e-mail file that Justin maintained, including notes to and from others.

"I want to be able to remember him in his words. I know he thought he was doing what he needed to do. I want to have that for the future," said John Ellsworth, Justin's father. "It's the last thing I have of my son."

But without the account's password, the request has been repeatedly denied. In addition, Yahoo! policy calls for erasing all accounts that are inactive for 90 days. Yahoo! also maintains that all users agree at sign-up that rights to a member's ID or contents within an account terminate upon death.

"No one can predict every turn in the months ahead, and I certainly don't expect the process to be trouble-free. Yet I'm confident of the result."

President Bush, speaking at Monday's press conference

BLASTS KILL MORE THAN 20 AT U.S. BASE IN IRAQ
Militant Group Says It Was Responsible

By Christine Hauser and Richard A. Oppel, Jr.
The New York Times

A powerful explosion ripped through an American military base in northern Iraq today, the American military said. More than 20 people were killed and more than 50 wounded, a military official said. A short announcement from the military said the explosion occurred at noon Iraqi time near the city of Mosul, scene of raids by insurgents on police stations in the past six weeks.

... The militant group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for [today's] attack, news agency reports said.

... Today's explosion came on the same day as a surprise visit to Baghdad by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, who vowed that the war against the insurgents would be won and elections held on time. Britain has some 8,000 troops in Iraq, mainly in the south of the country, centered on the city of Basra.

PROPOSED STATEMENT FOR PRES. BUSH

Yeah, there were more bombings today in Iraq. Tough news to get so close to Christmas. But that just proves what I've been sayin' all along.

Those insurgents are out to prevent the election, to attack democracy. They're bombin' and killin' people. I predicted months ago that those insurgents who hate our way of life would just keep on killin' people. So, you see, I was right in my prediction. That's what I meant yesterday when I said, "I'm confident of the result."

Losin' lives in a war ain't so bad when you're able to predict that it's gonna keep happenin' to you. Y'see, it's all about expectations.

God bless America.

"I think Rumsfeld may be not too long for this world. . . . Let's dump him."

The date was April 7, 1971; the speaker was President Richard M. Nixon. And despite Nixon's muttering about "the Rumsfeld problem" -- which in this instance was that Rummy was too critical of the Vietnam War -- the ambitious young White House aide kept his job.

The anecdote, recounted in journalist James Mann's history of the Bush national security team, "Rise of the Vulcans," illustrates several telling facts about this month's leading Washington villain. Rumsfeld is a contrarian whose arrogant manner has made him powerful enemies over the years; he's also a survivor whose political obituary has often been written prematurely.

... But despite Bush's public embrace of Rumsfeld yesterday, it's hard to imagine him lasting four more years.

The defense secretary has become the symbol of an accident-prone Iraq policy -- and even more, of the administration's refusal to admit or learn from its mistakes. The man who bears ultimate responsibility for Iraq policy isn't Rumsfeld, of course, but Bush. But the president has just won reelection, and obviously isn't about to fire himself. So Rummy makes a convenient scapegoat in chief.

In a study to determine how much the public fears terrorism, almost half of respondents polled nationally said they believe the U.S. government should -- in some way -- curtail civil liberties for Muslim Americans, according to a new survey released today (Dec. 17) by Cornell University.

About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government, and 26 percent said they think that mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Twenty-nine percent agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations, in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising. About 22 percent said the federal government should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact that they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage. In all, about 44 percent said they believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans.

Conversely, 48 percent of respondents nationally said they do not believe that civil liberties for Muslim Americans should be restricted.

England stopped short of saying the latest prisoner determined to be wrongly classified as an enemy combat had been held as a mistake.

"I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this. I think this is a gray area," he said.

"We would like to see trends to better understand this [i.e., which detainees are likely to return to the battlefield if released]," England said.

"This is a very tough balance. You don't want to release people who could harm Americans or other people."

"On the other hand, people do have rights."

The Bush administration expressed grave concern Monday about a recent increase in violence in Sudan's Darfur region, accusing both sides of violating a cease fire.

Operations carried out by the government and government-supported militias "have caused untold suffering, displacing tens of thousands of people," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"God saved us," said Abu Ahmed, an employee of Kawther Transportation Co., whose office was just 10 yards from the blast. He was cut by flying glass.

"It's part of the game," Darius said. "Brett threw the ball and Ferguson was wide open. I was just running over trying to make a play, trying to separate him from the ball. I never intentionally try to hurt someone. I love to play the game and I play it 100 mph. Unfortunately, he got hurt. I pray for him. Everybody that saw it from our standpoint said it looked clean."

The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation, Defense Department officials say.

One part of the overall proposal is being drafted by a team led by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a deputy under secretary of defense.

Last year, a (Plano, Tex.) school administrator stopped Jonathan Morgan at the door to his classroom because the "goody bag" he had brought to a school party on the last day before Christmas vacation contained candy canes with a religious message attached. Titled "The Legend of the Candy Cane," it said the candy was shaped in a J for Jesus and bore a red stripe "to represent the blood Christ shed for the sins of the world."

This year, the 9-year-old and his evangelical Christian parents went straight to court. They were among four families who persuaded … the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, to issue a temporary restraining order on Thursday securing their children's right to hand out "religious viewpoint gifts" at school-sponsored holiday parties.

The family had some high-powered help. Two conservative nonprofit law firms, the Liberty Legal Institute and the Alliance Defense Fund, took the case free of charge.

“A candy maker wanted to invent a candy that was a witness to Christ. First of all, he used a hard candy because Christ is the Rock of Ages …”

Bells
Lambs
Burning torches
Doves
Candlesticks
Pelicans
Hands
Triangles
Peacocks
Butterflies
Ships
Grapes
Lilies
Cornerstones
Circles
Daisies
Fish
Rope
Ladders
Fleur de Lis
Sea shells
Crowns
Lamps, and .....
Pomegranates.

The stripping cousin of Argentinean-born Princess Maxima will appear in men's magazine Playboy next year in what has been described as a "very royal" photo shoot in North Amsterdam.

On the wooded heights north of here, a fetid stench rises from the corpses that have lain for three days in the African sun.

The traces of fighting between mutinous soldiers and the army in this eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo are everywhere, and in the centre of the town, what little was left to be pillaged has been taken.

In a trench dug in haste, half a dozen bodies lie under a thick cloud of flies as battalions of ants swarm around the bullet wounds.

The raping of women and girls is an all-too-common tactic in the war raging in Congo's eastern jungles involving numerous militia groups .... But it is not just the militia members who have been preying on the women. So, too, local women say, have some of the soldiers brought in to keep the peace.

... The allegations leveled against United Nations personnel in Congo include sex with underage partners, sex with prostitutes and rape, an internal United Nations investigation has found. Investigators said they found evidence that United Nations peacekeepers and civilian workers paid $1 to $3 for sex or bartered sexual relations for food or promises of employment.

A confidential report prepared by Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the United Nations, and dated Nov. 8, says the exploitation "appears to be significant, widespread and ongoing."

Violators described in the investigation, which continues, appear to come from around the globe. Fifty countries are represented among the 1,000 civilian employees and 10,800 soldiers who make up the United Nations mission in Congo.

Already, a French civilian has been accused of having sex with a girl, though it is unclear where that case stands, and two Tunisian peacekeepers have been sent home, where the local authorities will decide whether to punish them.

The United Nations report details allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers from Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Uruguay, and lists incidents in which some soldiers tried to obstruct investigators.

When they arrive for duty, peacekeepers are presented with the United Nations code of conduct, which forbids "any exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex."

The home countries are responsible for punishing any of their military personnel who violate the code while taking part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

The United Nations, which has had previous scandals in missions in Cambodia and Bosnia, also warns the soldiers against sexual contact with girls under 18, even though the law in Congo permits sex with girls as young as 14.

Parents are not the only people who have difficulty getting visas for workers. All employers face restrictive immigration policies which raise labour costs. Some may respond by trying to fiddle the immigration system, but most deal with the matter by exporting jobs. In the age of the global economy, the solution to the servant problem is simple: rather than importing the nanny, offshore the children.

Many working parents would hardly notice the difference, and there would be clear advantages beyond lower child-care costs. Freeing up rich-country real estate currently clogged with cots [cribs] and playpens would lower rents; liberating time currently wasted in story-telling and tummy-tickling would raise productivity. For parents who wished to be present at bed-time [bedtime], video-conference facilities could be arranged.

Luddites and sentimentalists will whinge [whine, kvetch, bitch] about the disadvantages of raising a brood in, say, Beijing. Language, for instance: what if one found oneself in possession of a posse of mini-Mandarin speakers? Yet in the age of global culture, few sensible modern parents are susceptible to such small-mindedness. If they were, they wouldn't so commonly leave their offspring in the care of monoglot Mexicans or Poles.

SIR – Tom Wolfe's characterisation of co-ed life in the Ivory Tower is far from true, at least for this Ivy Leaguer. My life would surely be much more amusing if I were living in his fictitious Bacchanalia with a gangsta-rap soundtrack. As it is, I'm living in a house with nine guys and I'm still not getting any.

Elizabeth M____
Providence, Rhode Island