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It's Terry Schiavo All Over Again. Hopefully Italy Gets It Right.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:40:06 PM

FRESH DEBATE OVER WOMAN IN 16-YEAR COMA



(ANSA) - Rome, July 22 - The 16-year saga of a woman
trapped in a coma took another twist on Tuesday, after MPs
began debating over judicial involvement in the case, while
prosecutors suggested they may appeal the latest court
ruling.
A Milan appeals court ruled in June that 35-year-old
Eluana Englaro's life support system could be switched off
but the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee has
questioned the courts' ability to make such decisions.
The appeals court reconsidered the case after an October
decision by Italy's supreme court, the Court of Cassation,
which said a person's right to decide their own medical
treatment should be respected even if this would cause their
death.
But a narrow vote in the Senate committee on Monday
suggested some MPs believe the Court of Cassation overstepped
its judicial role in reaching this decision.
A report by the committee chair Carlo Vizzini concluded
that Cassation judges had strayed into law-making rather than
merely applying existing legislation.
The report, which was approved by 14 votes in favour and
12 against, called for the Court of Cassation's decision to
be challenged at the Constitutional Court.
The committee decision means only that the report will
now go before the Senate assembly but the outcome of the vote
has sparked fierce criticism from the centre-left opposition.
Enzo Bianco, the committee representative for the
largest opposition group, the Democratic Party, said the
Court of Cassation had not invaded the legislature's role but
had reached its decision based on its own experience in this
field.
But those who backed the report point to the fact there
is currently a legislative void in Italy on issues such as
living wills and related end-of-life questions. They say the
courts do not have the authority to take such sensitive
decisions without clear backing from the legislature.
Other critics of the decision to turn off the life
support system have accused judges of sneaking in euthanasia
through the backdoor.
Meanwhile, the Milan prosecutor involved in the case,
Gianfranco Montera, said on Tuesday he would not make any
hasty decisions on whether to appeal the June 9 decision of
the Milan appeals court.
Montera said there was no sign the woman's father,
Beppino Englaro, would switch off her support before the
60-day deadline for filing an appeal, so he intended to take
his time.
''The decision involved, which we thought would be a
quick one, has turned out to be so complex we will need all
the time available under the law to consider it,'' he said.
Commenting on the case on Tuesday, Equal Opportunities
Minister Mara Carfagna said ''life must be defended from the
beginning to the end.
''I understand the difficulties of the families of the
terminally ill and others suffering but I believe that life
is one of those inalienable values pertaining to
individuals''.
Health Undersecretary Eugenia Roccella urged Englaro's
father not to hurry the situation.
''We know Beppino Englaro is firmly convinced that
cutting off food and water to his daughter is the best
solution. But Eluana is first and foremost an Italian citizen
and in whatever condition of life or death she has the right
to a clear and final decision''.
Englaro's elderly father has been trying to have his
daughter's life support system turned off since 1999 in order
to free her from ''the inhumane and degrading condition in
which she is forced to exist''.
He argues that his daughter, who was injured in a car
crash in her Lombardy hometown of Lecco in 1992 when she was
19, said plainly during her life that she would not wish to
live in a vegetative state.
He has also expressed concern about what will happen to
her when he himself dies.
The Englaro case has often been compared to that of
American Terry Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged Florida
woman whose case sparked a worldwide debate over end-of-life
issues.
Schiavo died in March 2006 after her feeding tube was
removed at court orders and over the objections of her
parents.

photo: photos of Eluana Englaro at pro-life
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Thank God. I Thought This Record Would Never Fall.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:53:16 PM

ITALIAN BREAKS UNDERWATER CYCLING RECORD



(ANSA) - Portofino, July 23 - Italy's Vittorio Innocente
has set a new world record in underwater cycling, pedalling
his specially adapted bike to a depth of 65 metres in the sea
near Genoa.
The new mark bettered Innocente's own record of 60m, set
three years ago.
The 62-year-old scuba diver was expected to set the
record in a televised event on Wednesday but it had to be
called off because Innocente damaged an eardrum in his last
test on Monday.
But a Guinness Book of Records judge from London
authenticated the record on Wednesday after vetting eye
witness accounts and checking the computerised depth gauge on
Innocente's modified mountain bike.
Innocente said he was sorry he was unable to repeat his
Monday feat because of doctor's orders but happy to have
taken his mark up a notch.
He thanked a team of local scuba divers who helped him
get onto his bike as well as the Carabinieri police who
oversaw his effort.
Innocente was lowered into the calm waters of
Portofino's maritime reserve at about midday Monday.
He mounted his vehicle at a depth of 28m and started out
along a 110m underwater slope, dodging mud pools and rocks.
Nine minutes later he reached the 65m mark.
''It was tough because I ran into more mud than I
expected,'' he said. ''I had to click up a gear to make
pedalling easier''.
Apart from raising money for cancer research, Innocente
is on a self-appointed mission to prove that mountain bikes
can go anywhere.
He has already cycled over glaciers, deserts and
mountains from Alaska to Kenya. Then, about seven years ago,
he decided to continue the mission by uniting his two
passions - scuba-diving and cycling.
Since then Innocente has been honing his technique and
gradually pushing up the record for undersea cycling.
Needless to say, he dominates the sport.
To make sure he stays on the seabed his bike is weighed
down with about 35 kilos of ballast and its tyres are pumped
up with water instead of air. The 'Nautilus' also has fins
and spoilers to help him drive it through the water.
Born in Milan, Innocente learned to swim as a child in
the 'Navigli,' the now polluted canals that run into the
southern and eastern part of the city.
One of his first achievements as an underwater cyclist -
which also earned him a mention in the Guinness record book -
was to cover a kilometre along the bed of a canal in just 13
minutes.
In 2001 he also set the speed record for underwater
cycling when he pedalled 1,200 metres in a swimming pool at
an average speed of 87 cm/second.
Innocente says he first got the idea for the sport 25
years ago when he was leading a party of German tourists in a
scuba diving expedition off the island of Elba.
When one of the party found an old bicycle on the
seabed, Innocente climbed into the saddle for a joke and
tried to ride it.
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Ohio Judge Grants Teens Abortions

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:29:46 AM
pilate
From Citizen Link. Here is the pull quote.

"I don't think I'm playing God at all," Browne told The Columbus Dispatch. "That is their choice. That's the decision they are going to have to live with.”

This reminds me of something.

Matthew 27:24
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"

And this.

Luke 17:2
2. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

The whole story.

Parental-involvement laws are supposed to protect teen girls, but an Ohio judge freely sidesteps those laws and allows every teen she sees to have an abortion.

Ohio is one of 36 states that requires parental notification or consent before a girl younger than 18 can abort her preborn baby. Most of those states allow judges to bypass parents if they feel the girl could face abuse.

Kim Browne, a judge in Franklin County, said she has never denied a request.

"I don't think I'm playing God at all," Browne told The Columbus Dispatch. "That is their choice. That's the decision they are going to have to live with.”

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst at Focus on the Family Action, said Browne may or may not be playing God, but she is certainly playing parent.

“This judge is denying parents their right to be involved in a major decision in their daughter’s life, plus she’s encouraging girls to shut out their parents,” she said. “That’s just wrong.”





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Terrorist Advertise In NY Subway.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:49:16 AM
This should make you feel comfortable about taking the Subway. The last thing you will read before the explosion.

NYC Subway Ad Campaign to Promote Islam

--A US-based Muslim group has stirred controversy in New York with its plan to launch in September a campaign promoting Islam in advertisements on the New York City subway.

The campaign coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as well as the seventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"You deserve to know," the ads posted in subway cars will read, offering the tagline and contact information for the Islamic Circle of North America as a response to "questions" about the Prophet Mohammed [PBUH] and Islam.

The group is paying the Metropolitan Transit Authority 48,000 dollars to run the ads.

The Islamic Circle of North America describes itself as "a leader in pioneering up to date strategies to better convey the true understanding of Islam to others and clarify many of the misconceptions of Islam," its website says.

"This project is executed with cooperation of several major Islamic organizations and communities," it says.

Republican lawmaker Peter King has urged the MTA to cancel the campaign.

"I strongly believe the MTA should pull the ads," King said.

"They are especially shameful because the ads will be running during the seventh anniversary of September 11, and because the subways are considered a primary target of terrorists."

Source: AFP



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Shocker: " New PBS program says Bible isn't true, stories made up "

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:42:27 AM
Just like most of their stories.
secure.afa.net

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), probably the most liberal network in America, will present a program this fall that says the Old Testament is a bunch of made-up stories that never happened. "The Bible's Buried Secrets" says the Bible is not true. It is scheduled to air on November 18.

Producer Paula Apsell said: "...It's (The Bible's Buried Secrets) designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. …it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible in a modern way a chance. If we insist on reading the Bible literally, in 25 years, nobody will read it any longer."

Among highlights of "The Bible's Buried Secrets":

• The Old Testament was written in the sixth century BC and hundreds of authors contributed.
• Abraham, Sarah and their offspring didn't exist.
• There is no archaeological evidence of the Exodus.
• Monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.
• The Israelites were actually Canaanites.
• The Israelites believed that God had a wife.



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They Should Have Burned The Flag At The Same Time. Then All Would Have Been Well.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:36:43 AM
www.onenewsnow.com
Students reprimanded for singing national anthem

flagpoleOfficials at the California State Capitol are under fire for stopping a student tour group from singing the national anthem in the capitol rotunda.

 

Launch into an a cappella version of the Star Spangled Banner in the California State Capitol and a group could find themselves facing Capitol Security and officers of the California Highway Patrol. And that is what happened, says Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, when a group of students touring the capitol, as part of the "City on a Hill" education program, spontaneously began to sing the national anthem.
 
"Upon hearing the students, a security guard there silenced them and said that they could not sing the national anthem unless they had a special permit to do so," explains Dacus. "This was an egregious abuse of discretion and a violation of the First Amendment rights of these students to be able to express patriotism and their love for their country."

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Obama Visits The Middle East.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:27:48 AM
butt-world-map
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Slow News Day?

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:16:30 AM
www.connexionfrance.com
Nudist camp bans ‘dirty’ visitors
July 22, 2008
A black list of naughty nudists has been published after the information commission allowed a naturist camp to keep it.

The existence of a list of undesirables, kept by the René Oltra camp at Cap D’Adge in the Hérault was revealed after a client complained about being refused entry.

Inspectors from the Commission nationale de l'informatique et de la liberté (CNIL) found the existence of a list banning people who broke rules which ranged from parking illegally and not paying bills, to a lack of personal hygiene.

CNIL has allowed the list to be held, but all those on it must be informed and should be removed after three years.

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Only 80%. They Need To Keep Reading.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:09:55 AM

www.interfax-religion.com

80% of Islamic literature in Russian offers wahabi ideas - expert

Chelyabinsk, July 22, Interfax - Eighty percent of Muslim literature published in Russia reflects ideas and principles of wahhabism, islamologist Roman Silantyev said.

"It contains appeals not to observe laws of non-Muslim states (and Russia is a non-Muslim state), to liquidate peoples with other religious convictions," Silantyev told journalists at the Chelyabinsk Interfax press center.

According to him, the same can be referred to informational sources as "many of them are financed by wahabis and promote ideas of radical Islam.'

Silantyev believes the key problem is that certain Islamic leaders are identified with all Russian Muslims.

"We often see that a Muslim leader speaks out with radical statements or threats and serve them up as an opinion of the significant part of Muslims. While the reputation of the leader is often questioned," the islamologist said.

He reminded, "according to the information of Russian general prosecutor's office, people's court twice condemned co-chairman of Russia's Mufti Council Nafigullah Ashirov for robbery and disorderly c onduct."
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File This Under "We Don't Give A Rats A$$ What England Thinks."

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 3:00:12 AM
Who will they coming running to when the real trouble starts. The U.S. that's who. It's real easy to criticize when the heat is not on. What a bunch of tools.

www.iht.com
British panel doubts U.S. on torture

LONDON: Britain should no longer rely on assurances by the United States that it does not torture terrorism suspects, an influential parliamentary committee said in a report released Sunday.

Britain had previously taken those assurances at face value, but after the CIA acknowledged using waterboarding techniques on three detainees, Britain should change its stance, according to the report, by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, told Parliament in April that the technique, in which suspects are tied down and water is poured over their hooded faces to simulate drowning, amounted to torture.

"Given the clear differences in definition, the U.K. can no longer rely on U.S. assurances that it does not use torture, and we recommend that the government does not rely on such assurances in the future," the report said.


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What The Muslims Really Think.

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:53:48 AM
The New York Sun reports on the The Saudi religious dialogue conference. Here are the pull quotes.

So much for tolerance.

"The Saudi king gave a speech calling for tolerance and moderation. Then, a government official from the United Arab Emirates urged Muslim leaders to avoid the company of Zionists."

Not in my back yard. No church's or synagogues that is.

"At the conference, one of Saudi Arabia's most senior religious figures, an imam of the grand mosque in Mecca, Saleh bin Humaid, defended his country's ban on churches and synagogues. "From a religious point of view, they can't build a synagogue or a church because it's a sacred place for Muslims,"

Death to Homosexuals.

"...textbook for 10th graders on Islamic jurisprudence not only says it is permissible in Islam to murder a homosexual, but recommends the methods for doing so: burning alive, stoning, or throwing one off a high building,"

People as props.

Even Rabbi Michael Lerner, who was positive about the conference overall, conceded in an e-mail that "The Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and others who were in attendance here were props" and that though there were some women in attendance, they were essentially excluded from the dialogue. For all the oil money the Saudis have, the Madrid conference underscores the difficulty they will have in buying legitimacy in America or among the other world religions.

Read the whole thing.



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