Can You Care…

…enough to get beyond feelings of contempt (or even lust)?

Prostitute keeps working despite friends’ killings:

Lindsey, a 20-year-old prostitute in Ipswich, huddles into her furry red hood as she tells how she is still working to feed her huge drug habit, even amid fears of a serial killer on the loose.

…having been close friends with the first two women to be murdered — Gemma Adams, 25, and 19-year-old Tania Nicol.

The mother-of-one says that she has a 300-pound (446-euro, 590-dollar) per day crack cocaine and heroin habit….

“If that’s the only life you know, then that’s the easy way of life to get through drug habits,” she added.

“This is our way of earning money, is working the streets and selling ourselves,” Lindsey said, taking a pull from the can of lager in her hand.

Who will pray for Lindsey?

Unduly Provoked

The Neighbor Might Beat Cut You Up

The threat of terrorism in Indonesia is growing under a combination of anti-Western backlash and the coming of Christmas.

Open Doors’ Carl Moeller says despite the promise of stepped-up security, “Christians have been asked by their leadership there to keep their celebrations modest so that it doesn’t unduly provoke Muslim neighbors in Indonesia.”

Rev. Simon Timorason, head of Christian Communication Forum of Indonesia says radical Muslim groups have been monitoring the churches more intensely after the Idul Fitri (a major Islamic holiday). This might lead to more church closures.

Let’s Talk!

The Damned of Darfur

A half-million dead in Darfur; 2.5 million refugees – not counting the corpses lost in the sands or terrified survivors in hiding. Surely, the world will act?

No. The world talks.

What Comes After the Retreat

The Iraq Study Group report . . . is not a “fruit salad”, Mr Baker insists. It is a grand strategy. To my mind, the sort of grand strategy the British Foreign Office came up with in the late 1930s: keep negotiating . . . .

Haredim: What’s That?

Haredim in US may set up ‘mehadrin’ airline

In the face of an imminent boycott of El Al, haredi businessmen in the US have expressed interest in setting up a haredi-owned airline, said Monday Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknoph, secretary of the Rabbinic Council for the Holiness of Shabbat.

For what do you stand?

And how strong are those convictions?

And to what extent would you go not to violate them?

Commendable But Doomed

Nobel peace winner unveils bold vision for ending poverty:

Micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, founder of Grameen Bank, has unveiled a bold vision for ending global poverty as he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Poverty is a threat to peace,” the economist turned humanitarian banker said in accepting the 1.1 million euro (1.4 million dollar) prize. “The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society in the world.”

The Grameen Bank, which shared the award, has helped millions in Bangladesh extricate themselves from penury through tiny, collateral-free loans, and has been successfully emulated throughout the world over the last decade.

I commend Mr. Yunus and Grameen Bank for their helpful vision. And generous, too, by the sound of it.

But the lofty vision of eliminating poverty is a doomed cause. Jesus said we would have the poor with us always.

Of course, that does not mean we should not help the poor and try to help at least some out of poverty.

Sense and/or Nonsense

I got this first one from Kim Priestap over at WizBangBlog. Thanks!

Blair Nixes Multiculturalism?

Tony Blair formally declared Britain’s multicultural experiment over yesterday as he told immigrants they had ”a duty” to integrate with the mainstream of society.

Tony Blair yesterday: ‘We don’t want the hate-mongers’

In a speech that overturned more than three decades of Labour support for the idea, he set out a series of requirements that were now expected from ethnic minority groups if they wished to call themselves British.

These included “equality of respect” – especially better treatment of women by Muslim men – allegiance to the rule of law and a command of English.

Sounds good to me, Mr. Blair.

Bolton’s Successor

Zalmay Khalilzad, who was announced this week as leaving as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is the leading prospect to replace John Bolton as envoy to the United Nations.

President Bush was reported by aides as looking for someone who approximates Bolton’s combination of toughness and diplomatic skill and has tentatively decided on Khalilzad. A native of Afghanistan, he has served in government posts dating back to 1985 and is the highest-ranking Muslim in the Bush administration.

Mr. Bush, this one sounds otherwise to me, but now I sound anti-Muslim or Islamophobic or something. 🙁

Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005