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Cedar Rapids, Iowa- U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich opened a long-shot bid for the White House yesterday by altering one of his long-standing positions, promising Iowa Democrats he would be “pro-choice” on the question of abortion.

Kucinich, starting his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in a state that will host the first major contest of the 2004 presidential race, said in answer to a question that “as president, I would protect that right [to abortion], and I would also make sure that appointees to the Supreme Court protected that right.”

In Congress, Kucinich, who represents Cleveland’s West Side and western suburbs, has generally voted against abortion rights and has consistently opposed federal funding of abortion for poor women, a record he acknowledged at a later stop in Iowa City.

What a surprise, another Democrat with presidential aspirations changes his stance on abortion. That is really going against the current and doing something that has never been done before. He is really separating himself from the pack of pro-aborts running for president.

What caused this epiphany that abortion isn’t murder? As always we get no explanation for this so-called change of heart. Just the usual hiding behind the word choice. This is just like Al Gore who said he was pro-life until he had aspirations for the Senate. I just find it hard to believe that anyone who was truly pro-life could change their mind so conveniently.

Blanche Skelton was feeding her baby when she heard
something besides the soothing sound of ocean waves coming from a toy attached
to the crib.

It was saying, “I hate you.”

After asking her husband, her parents-in-law, and
everyone else in the home east of Hazel Dell, they were convinced. The toy was
definitely, albeit quietly, saying “I hate you.”

Blanche’s 6-month-old son, Alex, got the toy as a
Christmas present. It makes soothing sounds and music for baby to fall asleep
to, with an illuminated picture of a cartoon-style aquarium on the front.

But in between the white noise of ocean waves, a tiny
babyish voice pipes up with childhood angst.

Made in China, the toy was sold by Wal-Mart and carries
the Kid Connection brand, which is a store brand. [Full
Story]

Will of the blog Mysterium Crucis which gets better by the day is currently
without commenting. In his sidebar he has posted

Enetation is the perfect commenting system for a religious weblog.
It treats everyday like the Sabbath. It primarily does this by not working. If
you would like to comment, I humbly request your patience and a return visit.
Thank you. -Will

I don’t agree that this is the perfect religious weblog commenting system, we
must remember in Mark 2 it says “The Commenting system was
made for man, not man for the Commenting systems.” So Enetations is of the
Pharisitical variety since it binds heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lays them
on men’s shoulders. The first four letters of Haloscan would seem to make it the perfect Religious weblog
commenting system, but it now seems to be of the Jehovah’s Witness variety since
it has closed it’s doors to new sign-ups after the first 144,000
elect.

I once went through the trials of using Enetation so I
know what he is saying. Recently three people have had decrees of canonization
written because it was demonstrated they had heroic virtue in the form of
patient by actually waiting for a Enetation comment box to come
up.

PARIS, DEC. 24, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The latest officially
recognized miracle at Lourdes involves a Frenchman who was once paralyzed by
multiple sclerosis, a newspaper reported.

Le Monde dedicated an entire page to the scientifically
inexplicable cure of an illness that began affecting Jean-Pierre B�ly in 1972.
He was classified by the French health system as a total invalid by the time he
went on pilgrimage to Lourdes in October 1987, at age 51.

Those who accompanied B�ly did not think he would survive
the trip. At the end of the pilgrimage he received the anointing of the sick in
the shrine’s esplanade. When he returned home, he was already able to walk.
Today, virtually all traces of the illness have disappeared.

Patrick Fontanaud, an agnostic physician who looked after
B�ly, said there is no scientific explanation for what occurred. It was Lourdes’
66th officially recognized miracle since the 1858 apparitions of the Blessed
Virgin.

The head of the Lourdes Medical Office, Dr. Patrick
Theillier, told Le Monde that there are two other miraculous cures about to be
recognized: a 25-year-old Frenchwoman and a 60-year-old Italian woman, both
cured in 1995.
[Zenit
Story] [Story from the Lourdes website]

(Sermon Notes by Venerable John Henry Newman, 1851)

1. INTROD.�[The] two chief festivals [of the Church are]
Easter and Christmas; [of these] Easter [is] the greater.

9. Let us rejoice in Him.

I am sorry about stepping into the territory of Quenta N�rwenion with this Newman
post and I promise not to post on Tolkien since I discovered Tolkien even later
than I came into Christianity.

CHILDREN as young as 11 are being encouraged by the Government
to show an interest in bomb-making. A briefing document, which tells science
teachers how to engage pupils� interest, includes the suggestion that they �use
ball-bearings to make tilt switches for bombs�.
Tilt switches, which are triggered by movement, are believed to have been used
on the Bali bombs, which killed more than 190 people last month. [Full story]

French filmmaker Joel Soler’s documentary Uncle Saddam, which
premieres on Cinemax Nov. 26, reveals a man who seems to be preoccupied with
cleanliness. “It’s preferable to bathe twice a day, but at least once a day. And
when the male bathes once a day, the female should bathe twice a day,” Saddam
says in the documentary. “The reason is that the female is more delicate and the
smell of a woman is more noticeable than the male.” [Full
story]

I knew Saddam was part of the Iraqi Baath Party, I
just didn’t consider the ramifications of the name.

The Canadian government is considering banning the
Palestinian terrorist group that claimed responsibility for bombing a Jerusalem
bus crowded with schoolchildren and commuters yesterday, the National Post has
learned.

As Israelis dealt with yet another suicide bombing, which
killed 11 victims and injured 49, a proposal by Canadian officials was making
its way to Cabinet calling for the addition of Hamas to Canada’s list of
designated terrorist organizations.

If Cabinet approves the recommendation, Hamas would be
outlawed under the Criminal Code as an “entity knowingly engaged in terrorist
activity,” giving police authority to arrest anyone giving support to the
group.

A Cabinet decision is expected by the end of the month.
Hamas, an Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, has used Canada as
base for fundraising for a decade, in part by soliciting donations it claims are
for humanitarian aid.
[Full story]

Considering banning? This is a slam dunk and should have been accomplished a
long time ago.

Researchers have discovered what they believe is the
reason the ancient Mayans suddenly left their densely populated cities on the
Yucatan Peninsula in Latin America hundreds of years ago.

…The Mayans’
activity caused ecological changes that made the areas where they lived too
arid. Before people came to those areas, the territory is thought to have been a
permanent bog. Leveraging those bogs, they created complex systems of storage
reservoirs, helping the civilization prosper for several centuries. [Full
story]

Every Golden Corral restaurant
will offer a free dine-in dinner buffet to all veterans and active duty military
personnel as our way of showing gratitude to all the men and women who serve and
are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect ours.

This offer is also
extended to members of the U.S. Reserves and the National Guard. All that is
required to receive the free dine-in buffet is that all honored military guests
state their military status when coming through the ordering line the night of
the event.