Sunday, February 25, 2007

Here We Go Again

Apparently, there is some interesting (or not so interesting) things going on in the archaelogical world...or so says James White and Michael Spencer. Don't be surprised if this is exactly what itching ears want to hear.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Be Not Ignorant

The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election is coming up, and this is going to be an important one. Arm yourself with information, and make a good choice. Below is a list of potential candidates. Click on their name to reach their website.

Democrat
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
Bill Richardson
Joe Biden
Dennis Kucinich
Chris Dodd
Tom Vilsack
Mike Gravel
Rev. Al Sharpton

Republican
Rudy Giuliani
John McCain
Sam Brownback
John H. Cox
Duncan Hunter
Mitt Romney
Michael Charles Smith
Jim Gilmore
Mike Huckabee
Ron Paul
Tom Tancredo
Tommy Thompson
Newt Gingrich

Independent/Third Party
Kat Swift (Green Party)
Steve Kubby (Libertarian Party)
George Phillies (Libertarian Party)
Christine Smith (Libertarian Party)
Doug Stanhope (Libertarian Party)
Gene Chapman (Libertarian Party)
Robert Milnes (Libertarian Party)
Steve Adams
Gene Amondson (Prohibition Party)
Bob Hargis
Daniel Imperato

Also, these are the major parties' websites sot that you can familiarize yourself with their positions and platforms.

Republican Party
Democratic Party
Green Party
Libertarian Party

Take the time to learn, and be not ignorant.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

DesiringGod Blog

John Piper, Jon Bloom, Matt Perman, David Mathis, Lukas Maugle, and Justin Taylor have started the DesiringGod Blog. Read it here at http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/.

Tibetan tells of Chinese 'torture'

DHARMSALA, India (AP) -- Nearly three dozen Tibetans captured by Chinese troops as they tried to sneak out of their homeland were tortured with cattle prods and forced into hard labor, a teenager who identified himself as one of the former detainees said Tuesday, in the first reported account of the fate of the group.

Jamyang Samten, 15, said he was one of 75 Tibetans who were making their way over a 19,000-foot-high Himalayan pass on September 30 when Chinese border guards opened fire, killing a 25-year-old Buddhist nun and another person. The incident was filmed by a mountaineering expedition and broadcast by a Romanian television station, prompting an international outcry.
Forty-one refugees managed to reach India, but 32 others were caught and detained. While Samten said some of those detained have since been released, he is the only member of the group known to have again tried to flee and made it.

Samten's account of his detention and flight, told to The Associated Press at a center for Tibetan refugees in Dharmsala, the home of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was the first report of the fate of those captured in September. His account, nearly impossible to verify, echoed stories that have long filtered out of isolated Tibet, where each year thousands who are unable to get passports attempt to flee Chinese rule, trekking over the Himalayas to Nepal and then India.

Chinese officials in Beijing did not respond to Samten's allegations late Tuesday. In Dharmsala, the director of the Tibetan Reception Center, Dorjee, said Samten arrived Monday after escaping from Tibet through Nepal following his release. "He was part of the group trying to cross the Nanpa La Pass in September. He was arrested by the Chinese and taken back to Tibet and he is lucky to escape this time," said Dorjee, who uses one name. He added that Samten would soon meet the Dalai Lama, who is currently visiting Mumbai.

Samten told the AP that his group of 32 -- all under 20 years old -- was traveling behind the first group when Chinese border guards opened fire. Their guide told them to hide behind boulders and wait while he investigated. He never returned, Samten said, and the group waited for three days in the snowy peaks until their food ran out and they made another go at the pass. "As we went across, the Chinese guards started shooting near us to frighten us," he said. They surrendered, were arrested and thrown into a truck, he said. Inside there was the body of a dead nun and a wounded man who had rags tied around a bullet wound in his leg, Samten said.
Shortly after the shooting, the Chinese government, in a statement that appeared to describe the same incident, said its border forces killed one person when they clashed with some 70 people trying to leave the country illegally. It said a second person died later. But it said Chinese forces were attacked and acted in self-defense.

Samten said his group was taken from an army camp to a police station four hours away. There they were questioned over a three-day period during which they were repeatedly hit with an electric cattle prod, he said. "It went on until I fainted," said Samten, adding that police repeatedly asked him to identify the dead nun. Seven members of the group who were under 15 years old -- including a 4-year-old child -- were not questioned, he said. After three days, they were taken by truck to a prison in Shigatse, Tibet's second-largest city, Samten said. They were questioned again while chained to a wall, he said. "A guard wearing a metal glove would hit us in the stomach," Samten said. They were held there for 48 days during which they dug ditches, built fences and tilled fields, he said.Samten said he was released alone but had heard from other Tibetans that the others were freed a day later.

After being turned over to members of his family by Chinese authorities he tried to escape Tibet again, this time successfully, paying two Nepalese men to smuggle him and two others over the border, he said. From Nepal he made his way to India, which has become a center for Tibetan exiles since the Dalai Lama fled there in 1959 after a failed uprising against China, settling in the northern town of Dharmsala. Many Tibetans say China, which sent its troops into the Himalayan area in 1950, has attempted to destroy Tibetan Buddhist culture by flooding Tibet with China's ethnic Han majority. China says Tibet has been part of China for centuries.

Source: Here

100,000 homeless in Jakarta floods

Flooding has killed at least five people and left more than 100,000 others homeless in the Indonesian capital, officials said Saturday as neck-high waters submerged large sections of the city.

The country's meteorology department forecast more rains Saturday and over the next two weeks. "We must be on guard. The weather is still our enemy here," said Hendri, an official monitoring water levels on major rivers. "Those who live in flood prone areas, please seek refuge."

Two days of incessant rain caused rivers to burst their banks across Jakarta on Friday, inundating more than 20,000 homes, government buildings and businesses, and forcing authorities to cut off electricity and water supplies. Waters from the worst flooding to hit the city in five years had receded slightly Saturday in some city-center districts, but continued to rise in outlying areas, media reports and witnesses said. Several main roads leading to the city of 12 million people were blocked, and the rail network was crippled. Scores of callers to local radio station el-Shinta reported they were trapped in their houses.

Sunardi, from the National Coordination Agency for Disaster Relief, said that five people had died since Friday, having been either electrocuted or drowned. More than 106,000 people had been made homeless, said Sunardi, who goes by a single name. Those left homeless were staying with family or in mosques, schools and government buildings on higher ground, officials said.
Seasonal rains cause flooding each year in Indonesia, including the capital, but Friday's were the worst since 2002, when waters washed into the presidential palace and the lobby of a five-star hotel.

Source: Here