Finally, the U.N. steps up and takes some action on Kim Jong-Il.

Interesting visualization.

I’ve put together four Amazon Listmania lists for those who want to easily and quickly purchase the children’s books that go along with the “Five in a Row” (FIAR) series, a popular homeschool supplement.

Five in a Row Volume 1 Book List

This list includes:
• The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
• Lentil (Picture Puffins) by Robert McCloskey
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
and more…

Five in a Row Volume 2 Book List

This list includes:
• Giraffe That Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton
• Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan
• Wee Gillis (New York Review Children’s Collection) by Munro Leaf
and more…

Five in a Row Volume 3 Book List

This list includes:
• The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
• Andy and the circus, by Ellis Credle
• The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
and more…

Five in a Row Volume 4 - Book List

This list includes:
• Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
• The Raft by Jim LaMarche
• Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell
and more…

It has now been over a month since I completed the book Presumed Guilty by James Scott Bell, and as I thought I had already written a review, I had moved on to other reading materials. It has come to my attention that I never posted a review and so here I am, the last of the ACM Reviewers for Presumed Guilty, so I’ll get right to it. :-)

In short, I really enjoyed this book. This book was not slow moving in any sense of the word. Mr. Bell jumped straight into the conflict of the story, amost before we even knew the characters well enough, and the book was hard to put down after the first few chapters.

The plot had several unexpected twists and turns and in the course of the story the gospel was clearly presented through the doubts and personal struggles of the characters. The only caveat I would offer with this book is that there is an element of darkness and evil that the more sensitive reader might be inclined to want to avoid. Despite the fact that the author deals with real and difficult problems, there are some who may prefer to stick with more benign subject matter than pornography, murder, addiction, adultery and evils that exist even within the church.

Consider the responses from Mom2Mom Connection:

After I finished it, I wanted to get away from it for a while because it contained so many distasteful images for me. Then I realized what the author’s main message was, and how he skillfully wove a tale that allowed me to see how faith in God can bring a family through ANYthing, even something as disgusting as what took place between the pages of Presumed Guilty.

Contrasted with that of Two Talent Living:

I received this book, started it, skimmed through some of it, and made the decision I would not read it. It is because I simply do not want the dark, graphic images in my mind. I don’t even want the ones that are there now because I checked the book out and read/skimmed parts of it.

In short, the book is about a popular pastor of a megachurch who is accused of murdering a young woman of questionable reputation. (Sorry, due to Google searches, I’m not spelling it all out here.) His wife is trying to find out the truth. I realize this sound rather innocuous, but as it all plays out, all kinds of things happen that I’m simply not going to write about on this blog.

I don’t know where the line is to be drawn for Christians regarding what we are to put into our minds. Perhaps there are some Christians who can read this kind of book and not be impacted spiritually and emotionally by it. I don’t know. I’m not their personal Holy Spirit and I guess it is enough of a gray area for a lot of folks that Christians have to make their own choices. For me, it is not enough that the characters are Christians trying to work out their faith in extremely difficult circumstances. That “redeeming” aspect of it doesn’t erase the images, storylines and dialogue that become a part of me when I read something like this.

If you’re looking for a thrilling mystery, a page turner that will keep you awake too long at night, and a book that integrates real faith into the lives of characters with real character flaws and struggles, then this book is for you! I would pick up another James Scott Bell book in a heart beat.

***

Note: This book was given to me from Active Christian Media as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of review.

Read this. Kid puts injured snake out of its misery, neighbor girls’ parents report animal cruelty, 13 year-old is charged with felony. Amazing.

Richard’s mom, Terry, said she doesn’t see why the case went that far.

“He wasn’t committing a crime,” she said. “He was putting an injured animal out of its misery - this is ridiculous. If you’re going to charge him, then fly strips should be illegal. And what about mousetraps?”

She said the police should apologize to her son.

She’s got a good point.

It’s not often that I find something on NPR worth linking to, but this article is pretty good.

After listening to the results of this project for several weeks, I knew I could do three minutes, too. Certainly not on world peace or the search for meaning in an increasingly distracted world or anything as grave and serious as all that, but on a belief just as true.

I believe in barbecue. …

Despite the fact that this next step has been telegraphed to anyone who has been paying attention, it’s still shocking that it’s actually happening.

Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals.

The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party said on its Web site it would be officially registered Wednesday, proclaiming: “We are going to shake The Hague awake!”

The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.

“A ban just makes children curious,” Ad van den Berg, one of the party’s founders, told the Algemeen Dagblad (AD) newspaper.

Dan over at Riehl World View thinks Google will stumble due to non-existent customer service.

I agree that Google’s service is pretty bad, but their products are free. And sugesting that GMail only having 2.5% of the market share of email is a bad thing is, in my opinion, missing a key point. 2.5% of all email? In less than a year? Getting people to switch email addresses at this point in the evolution of the internet is actually a pretty big accomplishment. (Maybe that’s not what “the market” means, it may be referring to web mail). I suggest the reason is that all the junk mail is going to the old email accounts, inflating the numbers. :-)

The ninth circuit court has ruled that it is ok for public school kids to be put through a role play that recites prayers, memorizes professions of faith, and chanting praises to god at the teacher’s direction.

You might be surprised at this news, until you realize that the god they endorse is Allah.

In our brave new schools, Johnny can’t say the pledge, but he can recite the Quran. Yup, the same court that found the phrase “under God” unconstitutional now endorses Islamic catechism in public school.

In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it’s OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:

Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . .”

Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: “Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger.”

Chanting “Praise be to Allah” in response to teacher prompts.

Professing as “true” the Muslim belief that “The Holy Quran is God’s word.”

Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially “becoming a Muslim” for two full weeks.

IBD thinks it’s a national security issue.

So what? By infiltrating our public school system, the Saudis hope to make Islam more widely accepted while converting impressionable American youth to their radical cause. Recall that John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” was a product of the California school system. What’s next, field trips to Mecca?

This case is critical not just to our culture but our national security. It should be brought before the Supreme Court, which has outlawed prayer in school. Let’s see what it says about practicing Islam in class. It will be a good test for the bench’s two new conservative justices.

Michelle adds:

Meanwhile, creeping sharia in the public schools continues apace. Seattle is preparing to consider a proposal to accomodate Muslim student prayers.

Related: Kids in Kentucky are fighting to recite the Lord’s Prayer at commencement.

If you haven’t seen ‘em yet, check out the documents that Wired News has posted.

Here we present Klein’s statement in its entirety, with inline links to all of the document excerpts where he cited them. You can also download the complete file here (pdf). The full AT&T documents are filed under seal in federal court in San Francisco.

Subsequently, Wired explains why they are publishing these documents which were under a limited court seal.

Based on what we’ve seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public’s right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T’s claims to secrecy.

As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF’s primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein — information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked “proprietary,” and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues.

…

The court’s gag order is very specific in barring only the EFF, its representatives and its technical experts from discussing and disseminating this information. The court explicitly rejected AT&T’s motion to include Klein in the gag order and declined AT&T’s request to force the EFF to return the documents.

Wired’s conclusion?

This is the infrastructure for an Orwellian police state. It must be shut down!

Great quote from the Indianpolis area today, after Comcast went down due to a power failure.

“We’re missing ‘Will and Grace,’ ” cried Janet Cowan, who lives with her husband in the 1900 block of Skiles Street.

When told she could watch it by unplugging the cable connection and tuning to the network station, she, like others who got the suggestion, was relieved.

“You mean I can still watch the news if I unplug the cable?” said Eloise Valinet, who lives near Township Line Road and 86th Street. “Oh, thank you.'’

I’m thinking maybe unplugging the cable a bit more often would be a good idea.

The TSA has a new system for spotting terrorists, it’s the creative idea of watching people’s behavior as they go through airport checkpoints. There is even a clever acronym: Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT).

But they are quick to point out, in the interest of not offending Middle Eastern males, that the program is just for show and has no real brains behind it.

Here’s how it works: Select TSA employees will be trained to identify suspicious individuals who raise red flags by exhibiting unusual or anxious behavior, which can be as simple as changes in mannerisms, excessive sweating on a cool day, or changes in the pitch of a person’s voice. Racial or ethnic factors are not a criterion for singling out people, TSA officials say. Those who are identified as suspicious will be examined more thoroughly; for some, the agency will bring in local police to conduct face-to-face interviews and perhaps run the person’s name against national criminal databases and determine whether any threat exists. If such inquiries turn up other issues countries with terrorist connections, police officers can pursue the questioning or alert Federal counterterrorism agents. And of course the full retinue of baggage x-rays, magnatometers and other checks for weapons will continue.

“Man, that guy matches the ethnic and gender profile of 99% of the those who have carried out terrorist attacks. Oh, wait, I can’t notice that, I have to check to see if he’s sweating or if his voice changed pitch.”

Incredible.

The SPOT program comes none too soon, since the current TSA system of screening for threats on airplanes has been, well, spotty. Earlier this month TSA screeners not trained in the SPOT program pulled over three Marines in dress uniform for special screening. After being patted down and scrutinized closely, the Marines were finally let go and allowed to continue their duties — escorting the body of one of their colleagues killed in Iraq.

Trading one useless process for another. Just in the nick of time.

Victor Davis Hanson makes a point.

Previously, we reviewed the book Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed! and raved about it.

The second book by Ms. DeBrecht, Help! Mom! Hollywood is in My Hamper! is definitely clever and has an excellent message, yet didn’t get me laughing as hard. Most likely the reason is that I’m really not that much into Hollywood, I don’t follow the lives of the various “stars” with much interest at all. That said, however, even I was able to recognize the figures like Barbra Streisand, Britney Spears, etc. I come down on the side of recommending this book, but not as strongly as Katharine DeBrecht’s first one.

The basic message is essentially that Hollywood is making you discontent and causes you to want and do silly things.

DaddyPundit sums it up well:

The story involves Janie and Sam, two sisters who want to start a babysitting business to save money for a new bike. But they are also big fans of certain celebrity shows (along the lines of Entertainment Tonight or just about anything you see on E! Entertainment Network). Soon Janie and Sam start paying attention to what these celebrities have to say about fashion, manners, and other things and that’s when everything goes awry.

Broken Masterpieces liked the artwork in this book a bit better than “Liberals” but agrees with me that it’s not as funny.

***

This book was provided to me by Word Ahead Publishing through Active Christian Media. No compensation was received for this review apart from the book.

Wow. What’s the world coming to when a student gets sued for making fun of the teacher? Sure, it’s not a great character quality to make fun of other people, but what kind of teacher sues a student for something silly like this?

Teacher Robert Muzzillo pursued the charges against Alex and another student after noticing a profile with his name attached on MySpace.com. The profile talks about Muzzillo liking Michael Jackson and having a “gay old time,” like the Fred Flintstone song.

Davis said he only wrote that Muzzillo lost an eye wrestling with alligators and midgets.

When the school found out that Davis was involved, he received three days in-school suspension. Then he learned the teacher had filed charges against him.

While some may cry that it’s a tragedy of justice, it seems that death and martyrdom were just what Moussaoui wanted. Life without the possibility of parole seems to me to be a worse punishment than death. After 50 years in the super max with no outside contact (which let’s hope means no book deal), he’ll certainly not be enjoying himself and taunting 9/11 victims.

Moussaoui lost, America won today. Some may say life is too good for him, but I think justice has been served.

And we don’t have to spend the next three years following a series of high profile appeals continuing to mock the victims of 9/11.

:::

But Rusty defends his position, maintaining that the “don’t make him a martyr” thinking can’t really work consistently, and he has a point.

UPDATE: Fuzzy logic alert from friends and readers. So, you’re happy that Moussaoui got life in prison because killing him would have made him a martyr? That does make a kind of superficial sense, but think about it. By that logic, no jihadi should ever be killed!

Ayman al-Zawahiri shouldn’t be killed because that would make him a martyr. Osama bin Laden’s cave shouldn’t be bombed because getting 72 virgins is what he wants anyway. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi wants to be a martyr, making him live in the empty quarter is a far harsher punishment.

Allah agrees with the above, “Does that apply to Bin Laden too? If he turns around tomorrow and says the worst thing we could to him is supply him with lots of prostitutes, do we call the Mustang Ranch?”

UPDATE: He won’t be kept in GP–general population–… Instead, he’ll have a private jail cell for the next 30 years, where he’ll have a Koran delivered to him by a prison guard with white gloves every morning, he’ll be given a prayer mat, and he’ll have an imam come visit him once a week to discuss his misunderstanding of the word “jihad” in the Koran.

And Vinnie adds something that I simply cannot agree with:

No matter what you think of the sentencing, the trial, the jurors, always think this:

Never forget, never forgive.

I can go along with “never forget” because forgetting history causes it to be repeated, but to not forgive is a dangerous thing. The anger and bitterness that live alongside of the lack of forgiveness will tear you up inside over time, and then the terrorists have won. Forgive. Remember the tragedy but forgive the actions and free yourself of the burden of bitterness. It’s not just the right Sunday school answer, it’s truth.

Atlanta Rofters thinks the sentence is just.

I think this is the most just verdict. We can’t put the 9/11 killers to death; they’re already dead. And Moussaoui didn’t kill anybody. So, life in solitary confinement is what he deserves. If nothing else, it demonstrates once again the humane superiority of our justice system to that of our enemies.

He also adds, over at Rusty’s comment section:

I support capital punishment, but I think this is the right verdict. Moussaoui didn’t kill anyone, so the death penalty would have been unjust in his case. And justice is what we want from a jury, not vengeance.

The “martyrdom” thing is a red herring. Islamic ideas of the hereafter should have no bearing on how we run our court system.

Joyner disagrees:

Incredible. If Moussaoui doesn’t deserve to die for his crimes, almost no one currently on death row does. Those who argue that the current system of capital punishment is arbitrary and capricious have much more ammunition now.

UPDATE: Now, if we turn him over to France, that would be a travesty of justice.

Midnight Rain has the Bush Peso. Michelle is suggesting you send them in to your Senators when asked for donations.

Watch the full scoop on today’s Hot Air.

Just when you thought Clinton had started to become irrelevant, somehow his foundation has joined with the American Heart Association to make a deal with soft drink makers to sell only diet sodas in schools. No sugar for the youth of our nation, just Aspartame, great idea!

You would think this was satire, mocking the culture of irresponsibility and government silliness … but it’s not.

Tens of millions of students will no longer be able to buy non-diet sodas in the nation’s public schools under an agreement announced Wednesday between major beverage distributors and anti-obesity advocates.

The distributors, working with a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association, also have agreed to sell only water, juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Clinton.

Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies represent “a very significant market share.” The American Beverage Association represents the majority of school vending bottlers.

“It’s a bold and sweeping step that industry and childhood obesity advocates have decided to take together,” Carson said.

UPDATE: I’ve changed the title of this post from “Government Prescribes…” to “Industry Prescribes…” because in re-reading this article, I have realized that, if it is accurate, the government had little to do with this, just the industry and some “advocates.” I guess kids’ hearts may be healthier, even if their brains become toxic.

One of the best opening paragraphs I’ve read in a long time…

Poor Big Brother. George Orwell’s famous symbol of intrusive security has acquired some frighteningly absurd lines in our time. Gone are ‘War Is Peace,’ ‘Freedom Is Slavery,’ and ‘Ignorance Is Strength.’ Instead we have warnings like ‘Do not iron clothes on body,’ ‘Caution, hot beverages are hot,’ ‘Remove occupants from stroller before folding,’ and ‘Do not attempt to stop chainsaw blade with hands.’

Wow.