Who are the Sunnis and the Shiites and why are they killing each other in Iraq? The media reports that violence is at an all time high between these groups. In Sadr City near the heart of the Shiite Muslim community more then 200 people were killed. The other group responded by burning Sunnis alive and destroying Sunni mosques and homes. It’s reported that 3,700 civilians were killed in October, more then any month since the fighting began. These two…
Since much of the world’s turmoil is related to religious belief’s, a working idea of some of the non-Christian major religions is helpful. Christianity, with it’s many divisions and sects, has about 2.1 Billion believers world wide, but the other major religions have a comparable number of members world wide as well. What follows is a very brief and sketchy outline which is not intended to be complete. There are roughly 1.4 Billion people who follow the religion of Islam,…
"Age is a quality of mind, If you have left your dreams behind, If hope is cold, If you no longer look ahead, If your ambitions fires are dead – Then you are old. But if from life you take the best, If in life you keep the jest, If love you hold; no matter how the years go by, No matter how the birthdays fly – You are not old."
"God pity them both! and pity us all, Who vainly the dreams of youth recall. For of all the sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’ Maud Miller by John Greenleaf Whittier "Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced or cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning…
Around the corner I have a friend, In this great city that has no end; Yet days go by, and weeks rush on, And before I know it, a year is gone, And I never see my old friend’s face, For Life is a swift and terrible race. He knows I like him just as well as in the days when I rang his bell And he rang mine. We were younger then, And now we are busy, tired men:…
It is reported that Americans spend $220 Billion on pharmacedutical drugs each year. But under FDA procedures it relies upon on the pharmaceutical industry to conduct research on the risks and benefits of new drugs. The law assumes the drug companies will conduct objective studies regarding the risks and problems of their products with the expectation the drug companies to promptly and accurately report back to the FDA the results. In spite of the fact the industry is a multi…
A friend gave me a book "What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World." by M.L. Rossi which is informative and which explains complicated world issues in an understandable manner. Before reading this book, I didn’t know that the Republic of Indonesia has more then three hundred ethnic groups and is 88% Muslim. Nor did I realize it has a population of 228 million people in a republic with some seventeen thousand islands! The inhabitants range from…
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1912 as honorable organization to help American business interests. Today, however, it has become a front organization to influence the election of judges and to engage in a national covert campaign to influence the outcome of judicial and other elections but at the same time, keeping the real source of the money it uses, secret. It’s purpose is to cripple the American civil justice system in favor of big business. It has…
WA has had a record rainfall which has caused widespread flooding and damage. Mount Rainier National Park was closed for the first time in memory when the Nisqually River destroyed a popular picnic and camping area at Sunshine Point and took 65′ of road into the park at the same time. See a report of damage to the park. Our vacation log cabin is threatened by the damaged dike that protects the property in the area. Some 17.9 inches of…
Democrats sweep U.S. elections, Rumsfeld resigns
