More bad news. Today we were informed that a friend lost a 20-year-old child this week of undisclosed cause. Losing a child must be the worst of all life experiences.I could not help but hear my old grandmother’s voice saying “death comes in threes”, because this is the third death in recent history for our extended group of friends. As logical as I am, her superstition still resonated in the back of my mind.Interesting dynamic. Somehow I know if there is a fourth, I’ll hear Nana warning me about two more to come. As silly and innane as those “bobbi-misers” are, they somehow still rear themselves when the circumstances permit.Infectious memes. Desperate attempts to feel control where there is none. Anything to make the unpredictable seem predictable. Why can’t our intelligent brains rid ourselves of our grandparents’ mythologies? Am I brainwashed, doomed forever to have this silliness in my head?

March 15, 2007 ? This spring the debate over belief versus disbelief, faith versus atheism, intensifies with the national airing of A Brief History of Disbelief on public television stations, premiering May 4. Hosted by Jonathan Miller, the three-part series comes in the midst of the upcoming release of two provocative books on atheism: Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and Joan Konner’s The Atheist’s Bible.God has rarely been such a contentious issue. The God Delusion and Letter to a Christian Nation are the top two bestselling religion hardcover books in the country, according to Publishers Weekly (week of March 12). Those and other bestsellers have forcefully challenged the sacred cows, doctrines and dogmas of conventional religious belief. A Brief History of Disbelief is a deeply intelligent and rational journey through the highly divisive topic. A Brief History of Disbelief premiers in the U.S. on most public television stations on Friday, May 4, 2007 (check local listings). The series is presented by the Independent Production Fund, executive director Alvin Perlmutter.Written and narrated by acclaimed British intellectual Jonathan Miller ? author, lecturer, TV producer/host, director of theater, opera and film, and neurologist ? A Brief History of Disbelief originally aired on the BBC in the U.K. It was the first-ever historical look at the controversial topic on television. It is only during the last few years in the U.S. that atheism can be fully and widely discussed. More and more leaders and celebrities are “coming out of the closet.” Just this week, longtime U.S. Congressman Pete Stark publicly declared that he does not believe in a supreme being. “This series is about the disappearance of something: religious faith,” Miller says in the opening. “It’s the story of what is often referred to as ‘atheism,’ the history of the growing conviction that God doesn’t exist.”

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) — Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has vowed to continue in his bid to become the country’s next president despite opposition from lawmakers and military chiefs and a massive public demonstration in Istanbul on Sunday.Gul’s nomination, supported by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has raised concerns among Turkey’s secular establishment over growing Islamist influence within government.In a parliamentary vote on Friday, Gul fell short of the two-thirds majority necessary to be elected after opposition lawmakers boycotted the process and called on Turkey’s constitional court to render it void.On Friday evening military chiefs said in a statement they could intervene if the election process threatened to undermine Turkish secularism.But Gul told reporters on Sunday: “It is out of the question to withdraw my candidacy. The Constitutional Court will make the right decision.”On Sunday at least 300,000 demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, to protest against Erdogan’s Islamist-influenced government in defense of the country’s secular political traditions, The Associated Press reported.”Turkey is secular and will remain secular,” flag-waving protesters shouted as they demanded the resignation of the government and called Erdogan a traitor.”This government is the enemy of Ataturk,” said 63-year-old Ahmet Yurdakul, a retired public worker, invoking the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founded of the modern Turkish republic. “They want to drag Turkey to the dark ages.The rally was the second anti-government demonstration in two weeks after around 300,000 people gathered in the capital, Ankara, a fortnight ago.

Thx Jason

SCHAGEN, Netherlands (April 28) – The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was thrown open Saturday – you could say it was the first time in 4,000 years – drawing a crowd of curious pilgrims and townsfolk to behold the wonder. Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark, built by Dutch creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan’s fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house. Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold. “The design is by my wife, Bianca,” Huibers said. “She didn’t really want me to do this at all, but she said if you’re going to anyway, it should look like this.” A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine – biblical scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and occasional help from his son Roy. Construction began in May 2005.

Talented guy — to bad he didn’t donate his time to Habitat for Humanity, instead opting to build a boat like the mythological ark. What possible good can come of this effort?

WASHINGTON (AP) – Randall Tobias, head of the Bush administration’s foreign aid programs, abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring, said two people in a position to know the circumstances of his departure.It was Tobias’ own decision to resign, according to one of the people, who said the issue came up only in the past day or so. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.Tobias submitted his resignation a day after he was interviewed by ABC News for an upcoming program about an alleged prostitution service run by the so-called D.C. Madam.ABC reported on its Web site late Friday that Tobias confirmed that he had called the Pamela Martin and Associates escort service to have women come to his condo and give him massages. More recently, Tobias told the network, he has been using a service with Central American women.

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070428/D8OPJJR00.htmlDemocrats like call-girls too, they just don’t resign over it