Many of us really like ONN, the Onion News Network. But now we have to contend with another ONN, the OneNewsNow.com of the American Family Association.What is really troubling is that I am pretty sure they are both sarcastic in nature. I mean look at the AFA’s ONN, it has an article stating that the president of the American Life League accuses Democrats of using religion for political gains. Clinton and Obama are insincere when they state they are good Christians because they support contraceptive and pregnancy termination rights for all women. Judie Brown does not mention the hypocrisy of Republicans claiming to be Christians for political gain when they support killing innocent children in Iraq in order to provide gas for her SUV. I’d have to say I don’t know which one is really the more sarcastic site. What do you think?Peter Nuhn

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080129/us_nm/bush_faith_dc_1

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – President George W. Bush reflected on his battle with alcohol abuse on Tuesday, acknowledging that he once drank too much, as he sought to showcase the religious-based programs that have been one of the controversial initiatives of his presidency. Bush, who gave up alcohol at age 40, made the comment during a visit to the Jericho program, run by the Episcopal Community Services of Maryland, which helps recently released prisoners re-enter the workforce.The visit was part of an effort to highlight one of his domestic priorities — providing government funding for religious-based organizations to help their communities.”Addiction is hard to overcome. As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life,” said Bush, who has often stated that religion became a greater part of his life after he gave up alcohol.”I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem,” he said.Faith-based programs like Jericho should not be forced to give up their spiritual underpinning to receive federal funding, Bush said.Critics of the initiative oppose the use of taxpayers’ money by faith-based groups because it blurs the line separating religion and government.Some supporters of the program have also voiced concerns that Bush has not provided as much money to these organizations as he promised. A study by the Rockefeller Institute found the number of faith-based organizations that received federal funding rose to 762 in 2004 from 665 in 2002.In his State of the Union address on Monday night, Bush asked Congress to guarantee funding permanently for faith-based groups.

Yes, watch out for those pesky liberals who want to take away these wonderful programs, right?No Mr. president, for the zillionth time, it’s not about the organizations operating as charities, and it’s not even about them getting government money. Religious organizations that genuinely wish to do charitable work have ALWAYS been allowed to do so, by forming a separate organization, with a separate bank account, and operating a charity. They do good work, manage their funds, and provide the same service to all who need it. Piece of cake, many do it.The Faith-based Initiative is NOT about helping the needy — it’s about allowing churches to provide a service, at government expense, WHILE preaching and discriminating, and without oversight to make sure the plans are effective and the money is spent properly. The faith-based organizations receive government funding with the expressed permission to break laws and NOT prove how they spent their (our) money. They are allowed this privilege simply because they believe in a deity. Government-sponsored religious discrimination.Now would be a great time to remind your Congressman that you want your money managed and spent with equality and accountability.

I just discovered another wacko Christian group – the Hollywood Prayer Network. :yawn:Now go out an buy a prayer sticker and pray for a Hollywood mogul or star and all the world’s problems will be resolved. All you have to do is pull out your VISA card and Jesus will love you. I really wish life was as simple as the simpleton Christians make it out to be.Let us wish them all the luck in the world with their prayers for “Reaper” and “Ghost Whisperer”. I know I’ll be praying for the Faux News Network to get a clue.Peter Nuhn

Well, it looks like the war is on. The Church of Scientology’s attempts to squash circulation of a video of Tom Cruise last week seem to have been the final straw for a group that calls itself “Anonymous.” According to a recent report in Wired, the cryptically-named organization recently stated that its main goal is to destroy the leadership of the Church of Scientology.The first public salvo was launched over the past couple of days as a group of hackers claiming affiliation with Anonymous took down the home page of the Church with repeated distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. DDOS attacks flood target servers with requests, so that they become overwhelmed with data and shut down. This results in a site that doesn’t work, which is exactly what visitors to the Scienology Web site experienced during the attack. The attacks flooded Scientology’s Web servers with as much as 220 megabits per-second, which security experts claim is a mid-sized attack. While this attack is not the largest of its kind ever seen, it does show some level of organization, “It’s not just one or two guys hanging out in the university dorms doing this,” said Jose Nazario, a senior security engineer with Arbor Networks. The church has since moved its site to servers run by Prolexic Technologies, a company that specialized in protection from DDOS attacks.

OK I know I’m not commenting much. Part of that is because I’m busy, and part is that sometimes, the comments write themselves!

Ex-pastor pleads guilty to child porn chargesNEW CASTLE A former pastor of a Slippery Rock Township church pleaded guilty this week to two counts of possession of child pornography. No sentencing date has been set for Robert D. Schmidtberger, 52, but prosecutors recommended a sentence of 12 months minus two days to 24 months minus four days with 15 years’ probation. Lawrence County Judge Thomas Piccione, who oversaw the guilty plea, ordered a psychological assessment to determine whether Schmidtberger might be a violent sexual predator.For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:http://www.timesonline.com/articles/2008/01/28/news/doc47994ee49c77b089171946.txt