Way to go, Reuters!

The United Methodist Church signed a contract through an agency to run a series of ads during the Thanksgiving season on the giant Times Square video billboard belonging to the Reuters news service. Reuters quickly nixed the deal, citing its long-standing policy against accepting religious or political advertising, but, when faced with withering criticism from religious liberty and free-speech groups, Reuters flip-flopped and will now permit the ads.

A statement by the National Council of Churches read, in part, "To imply that religious and political speech might be in the same class with messages that are ‘pornographic… libelous, misleading or deceptive in nature,’ as Reuters did in explaining its refusal to carry the United Methodist ad, is a frightening use of the power of media ownership."

Now, Reuters said that perhaps the company should accept any ads, as long as they aren’t confused with Reuters’ news coverage. If that happens, and if Reuters accepts messages that are pornographic, then, I predict, legitimate advertisers like the United Methodist Church will pull their ads, and Reuters will be left with nothing but ads that are "pornographic… libelous, misleading or deceptive in nature."

An Increase in the Number of Beggers?

This is getting ridiculous! I was panhandled out in the front yard, this morning! I went out to the car to put Mother's library books in the trunk, and a man came across the street from the store with a "sob story" about his car breaking down. He asked me for a ride. I told him that I couldn't give him a ride, because my eighty-two year old Mother lived with me, and I couldn't leave her. So he asked for some gas money, five dollars worth, to be exact. I didn't have a five, so I gave him two one-dollar bills, after getting him to agree not to replay me.

That's not too bad, but it comes on the heels of the man that panhandled me yesterday. It was at the Burger King restaurant on High Street. When he asked for help, I suggested that I buy him something to eat. Instead of saying, "Thank you," he wanted to know what I was going to buy him. I asked him what he needed. He replied that he was hungry enough to eat three sausage biscuits. I told him that was two too many and walked into the store. I bought my breakfast and got another to go. When I finished eating and went outside, the guy was nowhere to be seen. I took the breakfast back to the office and gave it to the company secretary, who was glad to get it!

The day before that, which was Thursday, I was panhandled in the parking lot of the Shell convenience store on High Street. I could go on. My point is that there seem to be more people asking for a handout than there used to be. If that is the case, I wonder why?

Trick or Treat!

Woman dressed as clown robs bank

Think of the Children

Chicago teachers take first step toward strike

Hatch proposal angers activists

"Conservatives are furious over a Republican proposal to create two new Michigan-based judicial seats in exchange for getting Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, to lift his blockade on four of President Bush's nominees from that state."

Huge fires continue to burn in California.

Officials said that as of Wednesday night there were 18 confirmed deaths in Southern California, two in adjoining areas in Mexico and that a total of 2,427 homes were destroyed along with 634,000 acres.

Horrors! New study reveals that "more than a third of kids under 6 have a TV in their bedroom." Is it just me, or are children younger than six years of age probably not very discerning judges of what would be good, and what would be harmful, for them to watch on television?

Years ago, the then-Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minnow, proclaimed television to be "a vast wasteland." In my opinion, it hasn't changed for the better.

From an Associated Press article on MSNBC.com

The international Red Cross said Monday it is considering cutting back its operations in Iraq after a bomb attack on its Baghdad headquarters that shook the neutral Swiss-run organization.

Maybe it is self-evident; even so, it bears repeating: That's exactly what the terrorists want! That is why the Red Cross absolutely, positively must not cut back its operations.

After the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations was bombed, that organization cut their staff back to a skeleton crew, and, sadly, I wouldn't be suprised if the International Red Cross did the same, which would, once again, leave the United States of America to do to do the work of others, with scant appreciation.

From the BBC, by way of Drudge Report, comes this story about how a Muslim in Italy succeeded in getting the courts there to ban crucifixes from classrooms in a state kindergarten, a move which has "shocked" the Roman Catholic Church.

"You cannot remove a symbol of the religious and cultural values of a people just because it can offend someone," said a leading prelate, Cardinal Ersilio Tonini.

A number of government ministers were similarly outraged.

"It is unacceptable that one judge should cancel out millennia of history," said Labour Minister Roberto Maroni.

Why didn't the Roman Catholic Church take such a stand in the United States of America were making the same types of rulings?

The number of arrests made by agents of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, under the leadership of Frank Melton, continues to mount.

Eric Stringfellow writes in The Clarion-Ledger newspaper about the lack of cooperation and the incompetance between and among criminal "justice" agencies and personnel in Jackson, Hinds County, and Mississippi.

UFO seen by several people in Colorado.