Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
I took this picture in Woodburn (Oregon) yesterday morning. I have not photoshopped it.
OK, you explosives experts (and wannabes, too) — was the bomb in the building or outside?
Click the image for an 800×400 version for better study of important details and potential clues.
And you photoshop experts, how would you fix this photo to look more like Woodburn was struck by terrorists?
The dead body of a 14 year old Christian boy was found on the railway track today near All Saints College, Thiruvanandapuram, the capital city of Kerala. He was a tenth standard student of St Josephs Higher Secondary School.
 The boy identified as Nithin, was the only son of Napolean and Nirmala, residing behind G V Raja School. It was the local people who found the body today morning. |
| A fisherman has saved a seven-year-old girl whose father threw her in the river because he could not pay the steep expenses necessary to treat her. Sarita has suffered from renal failure for three years and in recent weeks, she had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Mumbai. Her father, Bakheru Sonkar, a resident of the village of Devkali, district of Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), is a vegetable seller and he cannot afford to pay for the long treatment, which according to police would cost at least 300,000 rupees. On 9 July, he accompanied his daughter to Mumbai, but he has been accused to pushing her into the river when they returned.
Fishermen rescued Sarita after they heard cries of “Papa, papa…help me.” The child was admitted to a local hospital after being rescued. The father disappeared and police are searching for him. Sarita has returned home. Her mother is at a loss to explain what her husband has done, especially after he had been taking his daughter for treatment for five months. |
Here’s a bit of an interesting report from Mission Network News:
| Open Doors’ Brother Andrew says now, more than ever, the belief systems of Islam and Christianity are clashing head-on. “The conflict that we face today is a new one. We’ve never, in the history of the world, faced a situation like this where they (Muslims) have unlimited resources, strong belief and eschatology, their right to be heard, not only by the power of persuasion, but by the power of the sword.”
The resulting tensions have fueled a great deal of persecution against the indigenous church, especially those who’ve converted from Islam. Their plight is behind Brother Andrew’s most recent book Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ. In it, he and coauthor Al Janssen tell the stories of Muslims who encounter Christ and determine to become Christians, despite ostracism and death threats. It also shares the reality faced by Christians struggling to become mature in their faith in the midst of a hostile and increasingly violent Muslim society. That is born out in the mass exodus of Christians out of the war-torn Middle East. In many of these areas, the conflict has forged a stronger, more determined remnant church, while in others, the fighting has created a “diaspora” effect, resulting in great change. |
Take this as a call to prayer for these secret believers.
Oregon man flies 193 miles on a lawn chair and 105 balloons
Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks — and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.
Destination: Idaho.
With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast — he could turn a spigot, release water and rise — Couch headed into the Oregon sky.
Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer’s field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.
[…]
Couch decided to stop when he was down to a gallon of water and just eight pounds of ballast. Concerned about the rugged terrain outside La Grande, including Hells Canyon, he decided it was time to land.
He popped enough balloons to set the craft down, although he suffered rope burns. But after he jumped out, the wind grabbed his chair, with his video recorder, and the remaining balloons and swept them away. He’s hoping to get them back some day.
H. R. 2232 (Introduced-in-House)
| Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
In order to dispel any public confusion, Congress hereby repudiates any assertion that Federal employees are not protected from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. |
If you want to learn more of how “sexual orientation” is defined, read here:
The US government will criticize the Iraqi government:
| It concludes among other things that the Iraqis have failed to pass long-promised laws that the administration has called key to national cohesion and economic recovery, such as legislation that would fairly divide Iraq’s oil resources. |
Somebody needs to list “long-promised laws” that the Americans “have failed to pass.”
Will the US government demand that the Iraqis be more iron-fisted and less democratic than the Americans?
If the US President promises a law, is it his task alone to make it happen? Not in our system of government.
If someone in the US Congress promises a law, is it his task alone to make it happen? Not in our system of government.
But the US government expects something different from the Iraqis, eh?
shrug
Politicians.
😉
A micro earthquake occurred at 8:53:20 PM (PDT) on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
| The magnitude 2.9 event occurred 2 km (1 miles) NW of Barlow, OR.
The hypocentral depth is 26 km (16 miles). |
Did you feel it?
