Athwart, The Game

Of all the screeching portents of doom from conservatives of days past here anthologized , this is my favorite: “[I]t would make it practically impossible for any publisher in the United States to accept any food, drug, or cosmetic advertising without facing squarely into the doors of a jail.” — Federal Trade Commission Chair Ewin L. Davis, in 1935, on the dangers of empowering the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the food, drug, and cosmetic industries Indeed so.

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Athwart, The Game

 
Don pushes racial line in 1 Malaysia (The Malaysian Insider)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — Mingguan Malaysia columnist Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah today pushed the powder-keg issues of race and religion further, by arguing that the Malay-Muslim’s majority meant they had more rights and accused the other races of putting their interests above national needs.

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Don pushes racial line in 1 Malaysia (The Malaysian Insider)

 
Tim Lott: Personal choice, not a calendar, should tell us when to change (Independent)

For most people, 1 January represents a time of potential change and renewal. New Year’s resolutions make the promise of a new you – a non-smoking you, a thin you, a good you, a sober you.

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Tim Lott: Personal choice, not a calendar, should tell us when to change (Independent)

 
Not all Catholic groups are created equal

The Senate’s passage of health care reform legislation was a major victory, though there’s a big difference between winning a battle and winning the war. There’s no solid evidence as of yet that the House is going to accept the Senate’s legislation as it’s written

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Not all Catholic groups are created equal

 
No "Necessity" Defense In Trial of Accused Killer of Abortion Doctor

On Tuesday, a state trial court judge in Wichita, Kansas, held that Scott Roeder, the accused murderer of abortion doctor George Tiller, will not be permitted to assert the defense of “necessity” at his trial that will begin next month. Yesterday’s Christian Post reported that the judge said while he might permit Roeder to argue that he believed he was saving the lives of fetuses, he will not permit Roeder to assert the defense that he broke the law to prevent a greater harm.

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No "Necessity" Defense In Trial of Accused Killer of Abortion Doctor

 
Sikh groups join hands ‘to oust Badal from SGPC’

Bringing up a joint front against the Badal government, Panthic organisations have decided to contest the upcoming SGPC polls urging Sikh groups across the world to prevent SAD members from addressing religious gatherings in their areas. The announcements came following a rally held by these radical groups which came together at the Jor Mela on Friday. Taking a tough stance against the SAD president and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, members of the Khalsa Action Committee (KAC), SAD (Panch Pardhani), Dal Khalsa, Panthic Council and Sikh Students’ Federation joined hands to “cleanse” the SGPC from the corrupt “gang of Badal and his coterie”.

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Sikh groups join hands ‘to oust Badal from SGPC’

 
2009: A year of unintended consequences

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa last March, he made countless pleas on behalf of the poor and the war-weary. Yet the words that got the most attention were spoken on the papal plane when he said condoms are part of the problem, not the solution, to Africa’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. And so it was in the year of religion in 2009, when well-intended gestures of good will and reconciliation erupted into firestorms of controversy

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2009: A year of unintended consequences

 
Christmas Sermon 25 of Leo the Great

Pope St. Leo the Great Sermon 25 The Nativity of the Lord CHAPTER 1 My beloved people, although the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he clothed himself with the flesh of our nature, is ineffable, I make bold to speak, not trusting in my skill, but relying on his inspiration, so that in this way, on the day which was chosen for the mystery [sacrament] of the restoration of man, we may offer something that can edify those who hear it

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Christmas Sermon 25 of Leo the Great

 
Final Defendants Sentenced In Tax Fraud Scheme By Hasidic Rabbi

According to a press release issued Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, a California federal district judge has sentenced Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz, the Brooklyn, New York, Grand Rabbi of Spinka, to two years in prison for orchestrating a money-laundering tax evasion scheme. Weisz plead guilty last summer to a criminal conspiracy charge (see prior posting ), admitting to a scheme in which several of his charitable organizations solicited donations with secret promises to refund large percentages of the donations back to donors who deducted the entire amounts on their tax returns.

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Final Defendants Sentenced In Tax Fraud Scheme By Hasidic Rabbi

 
Christmas Day

Today we celebrate the audacious reality of God becoming human. The intermingling of divinity and humanity which allow us a share of God’s divine nature. Ian Oliver, in a poem titled, A Christmas Prayer , writes that as a result of this “inexpressible” enclosure of dvinity and humanity in the one body of Christ, “to be human was never the same, but forever thereafter, carried a hint of its close encounter with the perfect.” And that is a central part of the message of Christmas

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Christmas Day