Careful Thought

Fro the San Francisco Chronicle :

Two girls who were expelled by a Christian high school because the principal believed they were lesbians won the state Supreme Court’s permission to sue the school Wednesday in a case that tests the reach of California’s anti-discrimination law in a private religious academy. The court unanimously denied review of an appeal by the California Lutheran High School Association, which argued that a religious school has a constitutional right to exclude gays and lesbians. Wednesday’s action did not resolve that issue but allowed the suit to proceed toward a possible trial.

The girls, both juniors at the school in the Riverside County town of Wildomar, were expelled in September. According to their lawsuit, which was filed in December, school Principal Gregory Bork said he had learned that the students might be involved in a relationship and coerced one of them into saying she loved the other one.

In a letter to the girls’ parents, Bork said the students had violated the school’s code of conduct, which prohibits actions ‘contrary to Christian decency.’ The school is owned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which considers homosexuality sinful.

The suit did not disclose the girls’ sexual orientation but said the school had violated California’s Unruh Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation. The school argues that it is not a business and is thus exempt from the law. It also says its constitutional rights would override any state law.

From the International Herald Tribune :

China Steps Up Web Controls Published: June 30, 2006

(BEIJING, AP) China is tightening controls on blogs and search engines to block material deemed subversive or immoral, the government said Friday.

The announcement comes amid a media crackdown by President Hu Jintao’s government, with Web sites being shut down and journalists jailed.

‘As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS, blog and search engine under control,’ said Cai Wu, director of the Information Office of China’s Cabinet, quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

China encourages Internet use for business and education, but tries to block access to material deemed obscene or politically dangerous.

It has the world’s second-biggest Internet user population after the United States, with 111 million people online.

China launched a campaign in February to ‘purify the environment’ of the Internet and mobile communications, Xinhua said.

The government will step up research on monitoring technology and issue ‘admittance standards’ for blogs, the report said, without giving details.

China has 37 million Web logs, or blogs, Xinhua said, citing a study by Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Drudge links an article over at Defense Tech about a group of clowns (literally) who broke into a nuclear missile enclosure in NoDak to do petty vandalism. It was the usual group of tired ex-hippies dutifully recycling 60’s peacenik mantras. The cool part was in the comments where the sins of the military industrial complex nation were revealed:

“America is not a nation, it is a war crime, since James Town (sic)… no, since Columbus…The USA is an ecocidal and genocidal entity, a collective psychopathy. Protesting plans and tactics for nuking people is the lords work.

Blessed are the peacemakers…” [Posted by: PieceNik]

I’m feeling that collective Amerika-is-at-fault guilt again.

Nah, it was just that burrito from dinner.

Barry at Southern Knight Files picked up this piece on the further decay of mainline Protestantism:

“In an overwhelming vote by the House of Deputies of the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church refuses to affirm that the name of Jesus Christ is the ‘only name by which any person may be saved.’

Read the article here …

Dr. Michael Howell of the Diocese of Southwestern Florida said, ‘If we cannot affirm the unique salvific power of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are no longer a Christian church.”This clearly shows that we are of a mind that does not affirm Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And we should not be surprised that our church is dying spiritually,’ said Howell.”

Here today, gone to Maui Kona.

From KVOA News in Tucson :

Troops scare would-be illegal immigrants away from border, officials say “SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico — The arrival of U.S. National Guard troops in Arizona has scared off illegal Mexican migrants along the border as a whole, significantly reducing crossings, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

U.S. authorities said Monday that detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border have decreased by 21 percent, to 26,994, in the first 10 days of June, compared with 34,077 for the same period a year ago.”

Okay, so we now know what works and what doesn’t work. Time for some more troops down there…

By way of Hokule’a at My Wide Blue Seas .

1. My boys getting along… ‘Nuff said.
2. Thunderstorms, complete with horizon-to-horizon lightning shows.
3. “Upsides,” as in when the Holy Spirit smacks you upside the head with a new understanding of a Scriptural truth.
4. Phone calls from old college buddies for no particular reason.
5. Flyfishing the South Platte.
6. Completing a project at work and getting a thumbs-up from the customer.
7. Sunsets over Pikes Peak. The air is so clear that edges of the mountains are razor sharp.
8. “Dinner is on us.”
9. Making coffee for Cyndie in the morning before she’s up.
10. “I read your blog.”

I’m supposed to tag 10 other bloggers, but how about Barry at Southern Knight , Steve-O — who is Carrying On Unabashedly — and Laurie.

FOXNews.com - Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore Vie to Create Next-Generation Nuclear Weapon :

“LOS ANGELES:  The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are competing to design the nation’s first new nuclear bomb in two decades.

Scientists at both facilities are working around the clock on plans that will be presented to the Nuclear Weapons Council, a federal panel that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons. The council will choose a winner later this year.

‘I have had people working nights and weekends,’ said Joseph Martz, the head of the Los Alamos design team. ‘I have to tell them to go home. I can’t keep them out of the office.’

We’re the #1 search at Google for converting to islam cheat sheet . Yikes…

More lunacy absolving us from our actions.

Study says millions have ‘rage’ disorder (LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer, Mon Jun 5) CHICAGO - To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it  ’intermittent explosive disorder’ and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.

‘People think it’s bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don’t know … is that there’s a biology and cognitive science to this,’ said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago’s medical school.

I would rather take responsibility for my own actions than blame a fictitious disorder. Our actions have consequences. It’s time we recognized that.

Paul recognized it: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galations 6:7-8, NKJV)

Tags: rage disorder, responsibility, societal decay