The Fate of Infidels and Apostates under Islam!

Guest Post by Azam Kamguian.

We Need to Fight the Battle for Enlightenment.

I am delighted to be here today to speak at such a wonderful conference. Here, I talk as an apostate, an atheist who left Islam and religion altogether at the age of 15, a veteran activist of women's rights who survived the atrocities committed by political Islam in Iran.

My being a Muslim, like all other children who are accidentally born into Muslim families, was hereditary. My parents were ordinary Muslims.

My father was relatively open-minded but my mother indoctrinated us and used religious rules for protecting her children.

In my childhood, faith meant that I had an all powerful all knowing father figure watching over me. Anything bad that happened to me - he'd take care of me. To me it was comforting to Know that evil would not triumph, that the anguish of the innocent in this world would not go un-avenged was comforting. The temptation to subordinate your being to a deity ; to a god was immense.

My doubts about God began seriously when I was 12 years old. I would give a lot to be able to believe. But in the end I had to tread the rocky and non-comforting path of atheism. I gave up the shelter of a divine shadow - but I gained a life that could question and explore the life and human existence.

I questioned and rejected religion and became an atheist because I could not answer the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of religion to myself, and because religion limited me as a human being - I remain an atheist because I have discovered myself as human being not alienated by any god or religion and I do not need religion to tell me who I am.

But those years of exploring and searching for truth was soon replaced by horrors years of brutality and atrocities by political Islam in Iran. Though I left Islam, I had to live Islam.

In my youth and young adulthood in Iran, I lived through thousands of days when political Islam shed blood. Since 1979, a hundred thousand men, women and children have been executed in the name of Allah.

I have lived through years of assassination of infidels, apostates and opponents of the Islamic republic inside and outside Iran. Years of suppression of women and brutal treatment of those women who resisted the misery of mandatory Hijab and the rule of sexual apartheid.

I, along with thousands of non - believers and political prisoners, was tortured by order of the representative of Allah and Sharia; tortured, while the verses of the Koran about non-believers were played in the torture chambers. The voice reading the Koran was mixed with our cries of pain from lashes and other brutal forms of torture.

Non-believers - atheists under Islam do not have "the right to life ".

They are to be killed.

According to Islamic culture, sins are divided into great sins and little sins. Among the seventeen great sins, unbelief is the greatest, more heinous than murder, theft, adultery and so on.

Courageous apostates aim to skewer the hypocrisies and inconsistencies of a faith that commands the allegiance of a billion people-as well as the hypocrisies of those Western defenders of Islam who would not tolerate its strictures in their own cultures.

A free discussion of Islam is extremely dangerous not only in countries under Islamic rule but also in the west. Most keep their feelings to themselves.

Those Muslims who disown or even criticize their faith publicly are likely to be accused of apostasy, a crime punishable by death under Islamic law-a penalty enforced by a number of Islamic states, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

The Islamic position on apostasy has been described as: "total disbelief that any sane person could possibly have a genuine reason for leaving 'the most perfect religion'. He or she must therefore, by definition, be acting in bad faith.

Essential aspects of our civilised humanity, such as freedom of speech and freedom of belief, are best exemplified in Islam by those thinkers and writers it calls apostates. The importance of apostates and other religious dissidents is crucial.

Freedom from and of religion does not mean merely the freedom to have a faith but also the freedom to change one's religion, and freedom to be free from religion.

But, under the Sharia, apostasy (either advocating the rejection of Islamic belief or announcing such rejection by word or deed) is not permitted and for a man is punishable by death.

The punishment for a woman is more lenient - she must stay in prison until she reverts, however long it takes.

Even when the death penalty is not applied, those accused of apostasy can be subject to the most violent treatment. This discrimination is clearly contrary to freedom of religion and belief and to the principle that religion should be a private matter for the individual.

In a feeble attempt to disguise the Islamic attitude to apostasy, apologists often quote the Koranic verse: "There shall be no compulsion in religion."

For a Muslim wishing to leave Islam this is simply not true. In Yemen it's punishable by death as it is in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan under the Taliban and other Islamic states.

The most famous incidence of Apostasy was in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini announced a fatwa, or death sentence against Salman Rushdie for his alleged apostasy in writing "The Satanic Verses".

In a similar vein in Iran in July 1998 a man was executed for allegedly converting a Muslim woman to the Baha'i faith, this was even though the woman claimed that her mother was Baha'i and that she was raised according to that faith.

Freedom House's Centre for Religious Freedom recently protested the forthcoming trial, before a Sharia court of Islamic law, of Hamid Pourmand, the 47 year old lay leader of a small Assemblies of God church in the southern port city of Bandar-i-Bushehr. Pourmand, a convert from Islam, is facing charges of apostasy from Islam and proselytising Muslims, both capital offences in Iran.

The government of Iran puts someone on trial for his life solely for his religious belief. The state's criminalisation of apostasy is always subject to political manipulation and indicates an absolute negation of individual rights and freedom.

Iran applies an extremist interpretation of Shiite Islamic law or Sharia, which harshly represses the free expression of belief, including religious conversion by Muslims. Iran's Sharia courts view non-Muslims as second-class citizens, whose testimony is given less weight than Muslims, and sometimes even as non-persons, without any legal protections.

In countries ruled by Islamic law and where political Islam holds sway, writers, thinkers, philosophers, activists, and artists are frequently denied freedom of expression.

Islamic regimes are notorious for the violent suppression of free thought. Often, as a government allies itself closely with Islam, any critics of the government will be accused of blasphemy or apostasy.

In Islam, there exists a horror of putting the Koran to critical scrutiny. Ordinary people do not dare to question the Koran. The result is tyranny, thought police, and stagnation, no intellectual and moral progress.

Even in the academic community it is a taboo to discuss the Koran scientifically.

While there exist a growing critical movement to criticise religion, particularly Islam, Islamists, apologists for Islam, and western governments have come up with the idea of Islamophobia.

They try to silence critics.

Islam must be subject to critical examination. By silencing critics and calling them racists, Islamists and apologists intend to keep religious domination intact.

In Iran the price for criticising Islam is death in its most horrendous way. How many more fates of Theo Van Gogh's are we expecting in the west?

The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.

We must win the right to criticize the religion without fear of retribution.

Criticism, free speech, is the foundation of an open society. We need to criticise and use reason to solve our problems.

No belief, rational or irrational, scientific or divinely inspired, should be exempt from critical examination. If a belief is sound it will stand on its own merits. If it is not it deserves to fail. No religion should seek immunity from the examination of its claims, or seek freedom from moral criticism of its practices.

In the West, the Enlightenment brought about defence of individual freedom and civil liberties.

The battle against the Church and backward culture caused a deep change in society's horizon and values and advanced the society.

Western society shook off backward and religious thoughts and beliefs. Most of our contemporary ideas about freedom of speech and civil liberties come from the Enlightenment.

We the atheist and freethinkers need to fight the battle for enlightenment in the East.

We need to push Islam back to where it rightfully belongs.

We should fight for unconditional freedom of speech including freedom to criticise Islam.

We atheists have to challenge religious authority. For every vilified and oppressed atheist, two more, ten more, a thousand more will spring up.

No matter how brutal inquisitions and slaughter, atheists and freethinkers will spring up because people's minds and needs cannot be imprisoned forever.

Today our society under political Islam is being held prisoner by Islamic captors, who fight to dominate this world.

And I am delighted to say that hopes continue coming from Iran where the society has changed dramatically and deeply since 1979. The movement for secularism and atheism, for modern ideas and culture, for individual freedom, for women's freedom and civil liberties is widespread.

Contempt for religion and the backward ruling culture is deep. Women and the youth are the champions of this battle; a battle that threatens the foundation of the Islamic system. Any change in Iran will not only affect the lives of people living in Iran, but will have a significant impact on the region and worldwide.

Therefore, we must fight the battle for Enlightenment in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East

Azam Kamguian

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://god-101.blogspot.com/

Interview

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://god-101.blogspot.com/

Asshole of the week! #478

Look Below: (Read em' and weep!)

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://god-101.blogspot.com/

Saturday Morning Confusion #46

I have been surfing the Internet this past week to get it straight in my head what the real poop is with Georgie W Bush.

(The reason for this article is at the very bottom!)

Here's some of the stuff I've come up with.

The mark of a good President is someone who is "Pro-active" to events. Bush and his buddies have proven since 9/11 that they are totally "Re-active" to situations and this is a sign of gross incompetence.

Since the failure to act on information about plans for 9/11 here is some of the mistakes this Administration has made.

Lying about the Threat from Iraq.

-Bush and his team deliberately misled Congress and the American public about the rationale for invading Iraq.

-Bush convinced a majority of Americans that Iraq was involved with Al-Qaeda and responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Yet the evidence shows that Iraq was not involved.

-Bush said in his State of the Union Address that "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" to build nuclear weapons. But, he had already been told by the CIA that the evidence was forged.

-Bush claimed to have hard evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But, the UN investigators could not verify any of these claims and searches of Iraq revealed no such weapons.

The real reason they invaded Iraq may have more to do with the fact that Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, and sits strategically in the center of the Middle East.

Illegal Wiretapping of American Citizens

-George Bush authorized the NSA to conduct illegal wiretaps on American citizens. Bush claimed that these were justified on the basis of national security. But, there is a legal mechanism for conducting emergency wiretaps followed by court approval within 72 hours. Bush ignored that mechanism and exceeded his executive authority.

Bush claims he has authority to wiretap anyone he wishes but a federal judge ruled that his actions are unconstitutional.

Torture of Prisoners

Bush and his team have set up a system of prisons around the world where prisoners can be tortured.

They have fought hard to build a legal case for torture but the fact remains that torture is highly illegal.

It is also considered an ineffective means of getting reliable information from a prisoner.

Bush is guilty of violating of the Federal Torture Act, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention.

Violation of International Law

According to the U.S. Constitution, International Treaties are part of the "supreme Law of the Land." They are not something that can be ignored when they are inconvenient.

Bush's violations of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Charter are, therefore, impeachable offenses.

Let's look at some of the lies in greater detail.

Lie #1 - Uranium from Niger - Bush said "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." in his State of the Union Address. The documents supporting that statement were forged.

Lie #2 - Iraq and 9/11 - Bush led people to believe that Iraq was involved with 9/11 by repeatedly linking them in his speeches. This was so effective that at one point 70% of Americans actually believed Saddam was behind 9/11. Bush has since admitted that this was not true.

Lie #3 - Congress Knew - Bush has stated that Congress had access to all the same information that the White House had. Thus he should not be blamed for making the mistake of going to war. But Bush was briefed many times about the falsehood of various stories and this information never reached Congress.

Lie #4 - Aluminum Tubes - Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that some aluminum tubes Iraq attempted to buy were intended for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. But it turns out this evidence had been rejected by the Department of Energy and other intelligence agencies long before Bush used them in his speeches.

Lie #5 - Iraq and Al Qaeda - Bush still insists that there was a "relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the 9/11 Commission released a report saying, among other things, that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The nature of the relationship seems to be that Al Qaeda asked for help and Iraq refused. Al Qaeda was opposed to Saddam Hussein because Saddam led a secular government instead of an Islamic government. On 9/8/06 a Senate panel reported there was no relationship.

Lie #6 - Weapons of Mass Destruction - Bush insisted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but his "evidence" consisted mostly of forged documents, plagiarized student papers, and vague satellite photos. The United Nations was on the ground in Iraq and could find nothing. After extensive searches Bush was finally forced to admit that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.

Lie #7 - Mobile Weapons Labs - Bush and his team repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed mobile weapons labs capable of producing anthrax. Colin Powell showed diagrams of them at his speech before the UN to justify invading Iraq. These claims originated from Curveball, a discredited Iraqi informer who fed Bush many of the stories related to WMD.
On May 29, 2003, two small trailers matching the description were found in Iraq. A team of bio-weapons experts examined the trailers and concluded they were simply designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. But, for over a year, Bush claimed these were part of Iraq's bio-weapons program. The expert's report was suppressed and only recently made public.
Bush wanted so much to convince people of the need to invade Iraq that the White House set up a secret team in the Pentagon to create evidence.

The Office of Special Plans routinely rewrote the CIA's intelligence estimates on Iraq's weapons programs, removing caveats such as "likely," "probably" and "may" as a way of depicting the country as an imminent threat. They also used unreliable sources to create reports that ultimately proved to be false. By lying to Congress, Bush violated US Laws related to Fraud and False Statements.

The evidence below shows that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales are guilty of violating "Federal Torture Act" the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention by ordering and condoning the use of torture. Many prisoners have died as a result.

1/25/02 - White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo advising the President of "the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act," a federal statute, for torturing prisoners. He advised Bush to invent a legal technicality --declaring detainees in the "war on terror" to be outside the Geneva Conventions --which, he said, "substantially reduces" the chance of prosecution.

Gonzales was later promoted to US Attorney General.

2/7/02 - Bush took Gonzales' advice and signed an order declaring that members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not covered by the Geneva Convention.
The memo requires that "detainees be treated humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva." While seeming to call for humane treatment, it is carefully worded to allow for violations of the Geneva Convention when necessary.
Bush moves prisoners to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and holds them for years without charges, trials, or access to lawyers. This is ruled illegal by a Federal Judge on Jan 31, 2005.
Bush sets up secret prisons run by the CIA in foreign countries to escape US laws against torture.

Rice claims European countries supported this plan.

9/26/02 - Canadian Maher Arar was arrested at JFK airport and sent to secret prison in Syria for torture under "extraordinary rendition" program. He was released a year later without charges. He sued the US government but the suit was dismissed by a federal judge David Trager on 2/17/06 citing the need for secrecy.
He wrote, "One need not have much imagination to contemplate the negative effect on our relations with Canada if discovery were to proceed in this case and were it to turn out that certain high Canadian officials had, despite public denials, acquiesced in Arar's removal to Syria." Thus the reason for the secrecy is not for national security but simply to avoid embarrassing guilty parties in government.

This sets a dangerous precedent that may allow Bush to kidnap and torture anyone he pleases.

On 1/26/07 the Canadian government apologized and awarded Arar compensation.

Dec '02 - Alberto J. Mora, the general counsel of the United States Navy, tried to halt what he saw as a disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects.

His 2004 memo details his unsuccessful struggle with the White House to stop the torture.

12/31/03 - German national Khaled al-Masri says he was abducted by the CIA arrested in Macedonia and flown to Afghanistan. He was then tortured for five months and released.

The CIA has admitted making a mistake in this case.

April 2004, photos of prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison make headlines around the world.

Low ranking soldiers are convicted of torture charges, falling on their swords for the White House.

5/24/04 - Seymour Hersh releases article detailing how Rumsfeld's program encouraged torture.

"President Bush was informed of the existence of the program, the former intelligence official said."

October 2005, Senator McCain adds an amendment to a defense bill that would outlaw torture by the United States. Bush and Cheney fight this tooth and nail to block this amendment but eventually give in after the McCain amendment is weakened by the Graham-Levin amendment.

When Bush signs the bill he adds a signing statement that basically says he can ignore the prohibition against torture under his powers as "unitary executive" and "Commander in Chief ."

6/29/06 - Supreme Court rules in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the Geneva Convention applies to prisoners at Guantanamo. The Bush wiretaps violated US law because he was required to get approval from FISA.
He can start a wiretap of a suspected terrorist at any time but must then seek approval to continue within 72 hours.
Attorney General Gonzales claims HJR114 gave Bush authority to conduct the wiretaps. But HJR114 only grants use of the "Armed Forces". HJR114 does not explicitly suspend the Constitution. Also HJR114 requires "The President shall, at least once every 60 days, submit to the Congress a report on matters relevant to this joint resolution, including actions taken pursuant to the exercise of authority granted in section 3".

Congress was not notified of these wiretaps.

Bush may have bypassed FISA because he wanted to listen to and analyze all international signals, not just those of suspected terrorists. He knew this was blatantly illegal so he hid it.

Bush says "We use FISA still. But FISAs is for long-term monitoring. What is needed in order to protect the American people is the ability to move quickly..... to detect."

Then later "There is a difference between detecting, so we can prevent, and monitoring. And it's important to note the distinction between the two."

The distinction is that "detecting" requires listening to lots of calls with a computer to see if someone says certain keywords like "bomb" in Arabic, or maybe even "impeach Bush" in English.

Monitoring is listening to a specific suspected terrorist. The problem with detection is that you have to listen to all calls, including yours and mine.

More evidence that Bush wants to listen to all signals is in Bob Woodward's book
"Bush at War," on page 303. " Bush summarized his strategy: 'Listen to every
phone call and close them down and protect the innocents.'

James B. Comey, acting Attorney General, refused to sign an authorization for the NSA program because it "did not comply with the law".

On March 10th, 2004, Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card tried to bypass Comey be getting a disoriented John Ashcroft to sign an authorization from his hospital bed. Comey rushed to the hospital to stop them. On March 11th, Bush intervened personally to get the Justice Department to authorize the program.

Investigators may have found that Bush applied for an expansion of wiretap capability from FISA, was rejected, and then went ahead and did it anyway.

Bush claims going through FISA is too slow but legal emergency wiretaps helped capture terrorist Mosquera.

According to a report in USA Today, the NSA is collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime.

The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders. The stated goal is to be able to identify who is involved in a network of terrorists. But this same technique can be used to determine who is involved in
a network of political activists who might, for example, oppose the Bush administration.

Under Section 222 of the Communications Act, first passed in 1934, telephone companies are prohibited from giving out information regarding their customers' calling habits. All of the major telecommunications companies cooperated with this program except for Qwest.

Joe Nacchio, CEO of Qwest, was troubled by the fact that there was no FISA approval and that the program was so pervasive.

8/18/06 - In response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, US District
Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the wiretaps are unconstitutional.

So, in a nutshell here is what we have:

-Bush lied to Congress and the American public about the reasons for invading Iraq.
-Bush conducted illegal wiretaps of American citizens.
-Bush violated the Geneva Convention by torturing prisoners of war.
-Bush violated International Law by invading a sovereign country for illegal purposes.
-Bush held prisoners without formal charges and without legal representation.

This brings me to my state of Saturday Morning Confusion............. why is this asshole still in office? Why hasn't he been impeached?

Your "wondering" scribe;
Allan W Jansen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

'Bin Laden' urges U.S. to convert to Islam.

You know, every once in a while ya gotta sit back and say to yourself "what the fuck!"

How "nuts in the head" are some people that they live in a dream world totally divorced from reality.

So, before we get to the main course I will give you some examples of fucked up thinking to the max.

-Argentina invades the Falklands and thinks Britain will just say "Oh well!"
What were they thinking!!!

-A guy who tried to put an ejection seat in a helicopter.
What was he thinking!

Or these:
-Inflatable dart board.
-A book on how to read.
-Wooden barbecue
-Glow-in-the-dark sunglasses.

Well, you get the idea! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!

"I don't know, but you ain't seen nothin' yet boys and girls.

Remember Osama? Osama bin Laden! You know..... tall guy, stupid beard, long robes!

Yea, that's him.

Listen to this, a new video tape purportedly made by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has urged the American people to embrace Islam in order to stop the war in Iraq.

The release of the tape comes ahead of the sixth anniversary of the 11 September attacks.

It appears to show Bin Laden sitting at a table, dressed in a white robe and turban and beige cloak. His beard looks shorter and darker than in the video issued in 2004. Beneath him a banner reads in English "A message from Sheikh Osama Bin Laden to the American people".

Now the first part is sort of within the bounds of normalcy in that there is nothing obviously nuts about what he says:

"You made one of your greatest mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war," the speaker in the tape says, according to the transcript obtained by ABC News.

"You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you... to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The next statement is sort of sane as well. The speaker tells the American public that there are two ways to end the war in Iraq:

"The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you."

Now, this is where we enter the Twilight Zone. The second way, he continues, is to reject America's democratic system and convert to Islam.

RIGHT! Islamic Radicals have terrorized America and most of the world and they think in their twisted little brains that we might convert to Islam to make them stop their war on us.

These assholes run around yelling "convert or we will kill you" and then say in all sincerity, "Either that, or you can convert!" (Or we will kill you!)
What are they thinking!!!

"It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interest of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations". "I invite you to embrace Islam," the speaker (bin Laden) says.

I wonder.......... if it's late a night and Osama is sitting by himself in his cave or tent or whatever and he is thinking about stuff......... do you think he drools and has sort of a vacant stare?

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

Islam Undermining Britain From the Inside.

Nearly half of Britain’s mosques are under the control of a radical Islamic sect whose leading preacher strongly opposes Western values, it was reported today. The Deobandi movement runs more than 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques, according to a police report.

It goes on to allege that a series of sermons by one of its main preachers, Riyadh ul Haq, are anti-Western. The paper claims that Mr ul Haq “heaps scorn” on any Muslims who say they are “proud to be British” and that he says friendship with a Jew or a Christian makes “a mockery of Allah’s religion.”

It says other sermons have warned believers to stay away from the “evil influence” of British non-Muslims and music was used by Jewish people to corrupt young Muslims.

It goes on to say that its investigation casts “serious doubts” on government statements that foreign preachers are to blame for spreading radical Islam in British mosques.

After all is said and done, it doesn't really matter where the radicals come from. What is important is that we have a group that is working against societal norms and acceptable behaviour.

In different times their actions would have been looked upon as treasonous, but in today's P.C . climate the only Religion that has to mind it's P's and Q's is Christianity.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/

Wiki under "lie detector" test.

Because anyone can edit Wikipedia, the web encyclopedia's reliability varies wildly. Now a computer science professor hopes to give users a better baloney detector: software that flags questionable lines in Wikipedia entries.

Developed by Luca de Alfaro and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the software will colour text some gradation of orange if there is reason to doubt its content. The deeper the orange, the more likely it is malarkey.

How does the software have any clue about that? Mainly by analyzing the reputations of the contributors responsible for each line.

By diving into Wikipedia's open volumes of edit histories, the software counts the degree to which any given contributor's work survives subsequent edits by other people. In general, the less tinkering your work on Wikipedia engenders, the more trustworthy you are deemed to be.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://god-101.blogspot.com/

This guy will go to church on Sunday.

You might have seen these picture already but if not this guy will be going to church this Sunday!

He hit the guardrail on the right side of this picture, flipped end over end and landed on all four wheels facing backwards on the left side of the picture. But, take a look at the photo below!



The truck landed about two feet from the edge. Good thing it didn't bounce!

Go back to where you came from.

This article was sent to me by my brother-in-law in Glasgow. Apparently it's a true story so I thought I would pass it on!

A Muslim woman dressed in a Burkha (A black gown & face mask) was
standing with her shopping in a queue at the checkout.

When it was her turn to be served, and as she reached the cashier,
she made a loud remark about the English Flag lapel pin, which the female
cashier was wearing on her blouse.

The cashier reached up and touched the pin and said, "Yes, I always
wear it proudly. My son serves abroad with the forces and I wear it for him".

The Muslim woman then asked the cashier when she was going to stop
bombing and killing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.

At that point, a Gentleman standing in the queue stepped forward, and
interrupted with a calm and gentle voice, and said to the Iraqi woman.

"Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of men and women, just like this
ladies son have fought and sacrificed their lives so that people just
like YOU can stand here, in England, which is MY country and allow you
to blatantly accuse an innocent check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen".

"It is my belief that if you were allowed to be as outspoken as that in
Iraq, which you claim to be YOUR country, then we wouldn't need to be
fighting there today".

"However - now that you have learned how to speak out and criticize the
English people who have afforded you the protection of MY country, I
will gladly pay the cost of a ticket to help you pay your way back to Iraq".

"When you get there, and if you manage to survive for being as
outspoken as what you are here in England, then you should be able to
help straighten out the mess which YOUR Iraqi countrymen have got you
into in the first place, which appears to be the reason that you have
come to MY country to avoid."

Apparently the queue (lineup, for you Americans) cheered and applauded.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

Would have been better if he had just gone blind!

Just ran across this little tid-bit about the perils of being too religious!

A man cut off his own penis and threw it in a toilet ‘so he would stop sinning.’

The 30-year-old was recovering in the Hospital Clinico Universitario in Salamanca in western Spain.

Doctors said his condition was ‘stable’ and he was not in danger of losing his life.

The man, from Salamanca, cut off his penis with a knife on Thursday morning.

The local newspaper La Gaceta reported when relatives called emergency services, he told ambulance workers he did it “so would not sin any more.”

A relative found the man, who has not been named, in the house where they lived in the city and raised the alarm. He was bleeding heavily.

The newspaper said it was not known if the man’s penis could be sewn back.

There was also a suggestion he may be suffering from psychological problems.

Duh!

(My grandfather used to say there was nothing worse than being cut to the quick, and if you've ever had a cut quick you know what I mean!)

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

Homosexuals affecting the weather!

A Church of England bishop has claimed that last month's flooding in the north of England was God's judgment on our sinful ways.

"We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage that we have caused," said Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle.

He singled out the Government's backing of gay rights as a key factor "of a general scene of permissiveness."

Does he seriously believe sexual practices of which he does not approve have an adverse effect on the weather? Does he think extra-marital sex contributes to global warming?

But there is more going on here. Dow (right) provides a chilling glimpse into the desperation of the Church of England as it attempts to move with the times.

Recently it has competed with David Cameron in trying to push green issues up the agenda. Here is a great opportunity for the Church, goes the thinking, to show its relevance by emphasising the need to be good stewards of God's creation, by issuing 'prophetic' warnings about the earth's precious resources.

But when Evangelical bishops join in, it all goes tits-up. They can't help blaming homosexuals for the increase in carbon emissions and the frequency of extreme weather conditions.

The bishop seems to be in a rhetorical muddle. He wants to join his with-it colleagues warning about climate change. And yet he also wants to signal his Evangelical credentials.

The Church of England is breaking up, and the Evangelical wing is preparing for independence. Bishop Dow's comments should be seen as an attempt to put clear flood water between himself and the liberals, and so impress his fellow Evangelicals with his defiantly biblical thinking.

In other words, this is once again another example of religion being twisted to fit and bolster a human agenda.

Your humble scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

For Your Viewing Pleasure!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

The Battery is Dead!

Guest Post by Grant Slater - AP News

Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine.

An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 800 kilometres roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 80 kilometres of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

"It's a paradigm shift," said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-based ZENN Motor Co., which has licensed EEStor's invention. "The Achilles' heel to the electric car industry has been energy storage. By all rights, this would make internal combustion engines unnecessary."

Clifford's company bought rights to EEStor's technology in August 2005 and expects EEStor to start shipping the battery replacement later this year for use in ZENN Motor's short-range, low-speed vehicles.

The technology also could help invigorate the renewable-energy sector by providing efficient, lightning-fast storage for solar power, or, on a small scale, a flash-charge for cellphones and laptops.

Skeptics, though, fear the claims stretch the bounds of existing technology to the point of alchemy.

"We've been trying to make this type of thing for 20 years and no one has been able to do it," said Robert Hebner, director of the University of Texas Center for Electromechanics. "Depending on who you believe, they're at or beyond the limit of what is possible."

EEStor's secret ingredient is a material sandwiched between thousands of wafer-thin metal sheets, like a series of foil-and-paper gum wrappers stacked on top of each other. Charged particles stick to the metal sheets and move quickly across EEStor's proprietary material.

The result is an ultracapacitor, a battery-like device that stores and releases energy quickly.

Batteries rely on chemical reactions to store energy but can take hours to charge and release energy. The simplest capacitors found in computers and radios hold less energy but can charge or discharge instantly. Ultracapacitors take the best of both, stacking capacitors to increase capacity while maintaining the speed of simple capacitors.

Hebner said vehicles require bursts of energy to accelerate, a task better suited for capacitors than batteries.

"The idea of getting rid of the batteries and putting in capacitors is to get more power back and get it back faster," Hebner said.

But he said nothing close to EEStor's claim exists today.
For years, EEStor has tried to fly beneath the radar in the competitive industry for alternative energy, content with a phone-book listing and a handful of cryptic press releases.

Yet the speculation and skepticism have continued, fuelled by the company's original assertion of making batteries obsolete - a claim that still resonates loudly for a company that rarely speaks, including declining an interview with The Associated Press.

The deal with ZENN Motor and a US$3 million investment by the venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which made big-payoff early bets on companies like Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., hint that EEStor may be on the edge of a breakthrough technology, a "game changer" as Clifford put it.

ZENN Motor's public reports show that it so far has invested $3.8 million in and has promised another $1.2 million if the ultracapacitor company meets a third-party testing standard and then delivers a product.

Clifford said his company consulted experts and did a "tremendous amount of due diligence" on EEStor's innovation.

EEStor's founders have a track record. Richard Weir and Carl Nelson worked on disk-storage technology at IBM Corp. in the 1990s before forming EEStor in 2001. The two have acquired dozens of patents over two decades.

Neil Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners, an investor in clean technologies, said the nearly $7 million investment in EEStor pales compared with other energy storage endeavors, where investment has averaged $50 million to $100 million.

Yet curiosity is unusually high, Dikeman said, thanks to the investment by a prominent venture capital group and EEStor's secretive nature.

"The EEStor claims are around a process that would be quite revolutionary if they can make it work," Dikeman said.

Previous attempts to improve ultracapacitors have focused on improving the metal sheets by increasing the surface area where charges can attach.

EEStor is instead creating better nonconductive material for use between the metal sheets, using a chemical compound called barium titanate. The question is whether the company can mass-produce it.

ZENN Motor pays EEStor for passing milestones in the production process, and chemical researchers say the strength and functionality of this material is the only thing standing between EEStor and the holy grail of energy-storage technology.

Joseph Perry and the other researchers he oversees at Georgia Tech have used the same material to double the amount of energy a capacitor can hold. Perry says EEstor seems to be claiming an improvement of more than 400-fold, yet increasing a capacitor's retention ability often results in decreased strength of the materials.

"They're not saying a lot about how they're making these things," Perry said. "With these materials (described in the patent), that is a challenging process to carry out in a defect-free fashion."

Perry is not alone in his doubts. An ultracapacitor industry leader, Maxwell Technologies Inc., has kept a wary eye on EEStor's claims and offers a laundry list of things that could go wrong.

Among other things, the ultracapacitors described in EEStor's patent operate at extremely high voltage, 10 times greater than those Maxwell manufactures, and won't work with regular wall outlets, said Maxwell spokesman Mike Sund. He said capacitors could crack while bouncing down the road, or slowly discharge after a dayslong stint in the airport parking lot, leaving the driver stranded.

Until EEStor produces a final product, Perry said he joins energy professionals and enthusiasts alike in waiting to see if the company can own up to its six-word promise and banish the battery to recycling bins around the world.

"I am skeptical but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong," Perry said.

A heart warming elephant story.

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from North Western University.

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.

Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Mbembe was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.

The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.

The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe’s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn’t the same elephant.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/

Here we grow again!

As we sit here on the day after Labor Day I would like to welcome our new staff members.

With the incredible amount of news and gossip floating around the Internet and other Media it was becoming almost impossible to keep up with it all. We had to hire more people!

With the addition of seven Journalism School graduates, that brings our total to twelve and should offer us a better opportunity to stay on top of things.

Seen here: Front Row; Howard and Kevin. Back Row; Lisa, Nancy, Barb, Jerry, Bill, Ted, Joe, Frank, Me, Mary and Bashiba.

Please make them feel welcome!

Allan

Anna, Larry and Howard. The Three Stooges!

Anna Nicole Smith is becoming more like Marylin Munroe all the time. Even in death she just won't go away!

Here is the latest poop out of the gossip pages;

Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern are gay lovers, an explosive new book has claimed.

Birkhead, the father of the late Anna Nicole Smith's daughter Dannielynn, and her former lawyer Stern - who battled for custody of her baby and control of her fortune - are said to have been lovers who conspired to secure the former Playboy model's millions.

The sensational claims have been made by former MSNBC journalist Rita Cosby in her upcoming book 'Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death'.

Cosby accuses Birkhead and Stern of cutting a secret deal after Anna Nicole's funeral in March, with Birkhead getting custody of Dannielynn in return for Stern being named executor of the star's estate.

Dannielynn - who turns one on Friday (07.09.07) - stands to inherit millions of dollars pending a court case regarding the estate of Anna Nicole's late husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.

The book also includes allegations from Jackie Hatten - described as a close friend of Anna Nicole's - that she once caught Birkhead and Stern engaged in an oral sex act.

Hatten is quoted in the book as saying: "Their bodies were intermingled. It was obvious what was happening."

The book claims Anna Nicole knew Birkhead and Stern were gay but her obsession with late Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe made her choose Birkhead as her lover because she wanted a blonde, blue-eyed baby.

Both men vehemently deny the allegations. Birkhead fumed: "None of it is true. I'm gonna sue Rita Cosby for it.

"If she printed that then she is really getting sued. My attorneys are going after her and that is absolutely false. And I am sure Howard and the estate and everyone else involved is going to sue her too. This is just nonsense."

Stern's lawyer, Lin Wood, branded the book "false and defamatory."

Wood said: "Cosby has taken the coverage to a disgusting new low for which she will be held legally accountable."

Your "hush, hush, and on the Q.T." scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Survey says.

On a survey done in Britain over the weekend more than half of the respondents professed a belief in God. At the same time well over half also said that religion was "harmful!" (We have been saying that here all along!)

The YouGov poll commissioned by John Humphrys, the broadcaster and writer, found that 62% of the 2,200 people taking part considered religion had a harmful effect.

One reason might be the publicity attracted by a handful of mad mullahs and their hate-filled rhetoric, writes Humphrys in his new book, In God We Doubt, an extract of which appears in the Sunday Times News Review.

Only 16% of those polled called themselves atheists; 35% believed in God; 35% believed in something, but were not sure what; and 14% regarded themselves as agnostics - like Humphrys himself, who had a religious upbringing in Wales but calls himself a doubter.

He writes: Even though the dominant faith - by a massive margin is Christianity, only 17% thought the influence of religion was beneficial. That is even fewer than those who claim that they believe in a personal God. And yet when we asked which of the main religions was most effective in getting its message across, most thought it was Christianity. Only 10% cited Islam compared with 42% who said Christianity.

In the survey 52% said they never prayed, 38% hardly prayed, and 10% prayed every night.

More than half of those who say they believe in a personal God cannot be bothered to pray to him every night, writes Humphrys.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Bush Helps Kidnappers.

In a surprise move that stunned the State Department, President George W. Bush has issued a communique in support of the ideals and aims of his kidnappers.

His long, rambling letter expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause and the Arab conflict with the Multi-National Oil Companies. He also condemned the suppression of Muslims throughout the Middle-East by Christian "Crusaders!"

Bush decried the spread of Western Values through the Arab World, the lack of morals in Western Society and the shameful exhibitionism of Western Women. He said at the end of his statement that he was leaving immediately for the mountains of Afghanistan to join Osama bin-Laden and fight for Islamic values and the eradication of all "Infidels!"

State Department officials were at a loss for words except to venture a guess that perhaps President Bush was suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome" and was not responsible for his actions.

In the meantime Bush has disappeared and his whereabouts or destination are unknown!

More news as it becomes available.

Your "on the front" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Bush Kidnappers Told to Keep Him!

In a surprising turn of events, "Perspective's" crack team of investigative reporters has uncovered secret communications between the White House and Military Command in Iraq.

According to our dedicated professionals it has been learned that the White House has instructed Major General Ura Dick of the Joint Chiefs to pay the insurgents 25 million dollars to keep President Bush untill the end of his term.

The White House and the Joint Chiefs would neither confirm or deny this information but it looks as if this drama is not over yet.

Stay Tuned!

On the Front;
Allan W Janssen

Bush Kidnappers Make Demands.

In a statement just released, Ibin so-Naughty, spokesman for the Iraqi radical group "Cus u-Betta" has issued a statement that they will pay any other group 10 million dollars to take George Bush off their hands.

After consultations amongst "u-Betta" senior officials it was decided that Bush's constant whining was too irritating. Since he was the President of the United States they couldn't just kill him so they would be better off paying to get rid of him!

Your "On the Q.T." scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Bush Kidnappers Make Contact.

Just one hour after kidnapping the President on his arrival in Iraq the group responsible for the abduction of the Commander in Chief has issued a statement:

"After spending the last hour with President Bush we have come to the conclusion that we might have been a little hasty in kidnapping him and would like to talk to the authorities about arrangements to return him.

There are quite a few legitimate grievances that we have but this is neither the time nor place to discuss them.

We wish to make arrangements for President Bush's return at the earliest possible time. (P.S. Is He always this much of a "pain in the ass?")

Military spokesman Major General Ura Dick was quoted as saying that the authorities are weighing all options but advise against any hasty action.

Your "give em hell" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

President Bush Kidnapped in Iraq.

Bulletin: 9:49 a.m. Monday September 3, 2007.

Just one year after the movie "Death of a President" in which Georgie Boy is assassinated, someone took this movie to heart and kidnapped the President as soon as he arrived in Iraq this morning.

Military sources say an armed group surrounded the Presidential convoy as it left the airport and after a fierce gun battle they made off with President Bush and took him to an undisclosed location.

No ransom or any form of demand has been received so far, but the first statement from Military headquarters was not encouraging. Major General Ura Dick was quoted as saying: "Fuck 'em, He's their problem now!"

The White House could not be reached for comment.

Stay Tuned!
Your "live from the front" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

ONLY IN AMERICA:

1. Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

2. Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

3. Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

4. Only in America......do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

5. Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

6. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

7. Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

8. Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

9. Only in America.....do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

10. Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

11. Only in America......can a homeless combat veteran live in a cardboard box and a draft dodger live in the White House. (This was popular when Clinton was in office)

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

Sunday Morning Funnies #231

I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women differ so much.

I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart.

FOR EXAMPLE: One evening last week, my wife and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me."

I said "WHAT??!! What was that?!"

So she says the words that every husband on the planet dreads to hear... "You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man."

She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?"

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The next day I opted to take the day off work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at Sears. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take so I told her we'd just buy them all.

She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said lets get a pair for each outfit.

We went onto the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings.

Let me tell you...she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck.

I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey."

Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, "I think this is all dear,let's go to the cashier."

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it."

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled WHAT?"

I then said "honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman."

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?"

Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either.

A boss wondered why one of his most valued employees had not phoned in sick one day.

Having an urgent problem with one of the main computers, he dialled the employee’s home phone number and was greeted with a child’s whisper: “Hello.”
“Is your daddy home?” he asked.
“Yes,” whispered the small voice.
“May I talk with him?”
The child whispered, “No.”
Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, “Is your mummy there?”
“Yes.”
“May I talk with her?”
Again, the small voice whispered, “No.”
Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, “Is anybody else there?”
“Yes,” whispered the child, “a policeman!”
Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee’s home, the boss asked, “May I speak with the policeman?”
“No, he’s busy”, whispered the child.
“Busy doing what?”
“Talking to daddy and mummy and the fireman,” came the whispered answer.
Growing more worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, “What is that noise?”
“A helicopter” answered the whispering voice.
“What is going on there?” demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.
Again, whispering, the child answered, “The search team just landed the helicopter.”
Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, “What are they searching for?”
Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle: “ME.”

LITTLE FLAB!!
One morning while making breakfast, a man walked up to his wife, pinched her on the butt and said... "If you firmed this up, we could get rid of your control top pantyhose."While this was on the edge of intolerable, she kept silent.
The next morning, the man woke his wife with a pinch on each of her breasts and said.... "You know, if you firmed these up, we could get rid of your bra."
This was beyond a silent response... So she rolled over and grabbed him by his 'DANGLER.'
With a death grip in place, she said... "You know, if you firmed this up, we could get rid of the gardener, the postman, the pool man and your brother!"


A man had two great tickets for the Football Cup final.
As he sits down, another man comes down and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.
"No,” he says, "the seat is empty.”
"This is incredible!" said the man, "who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the finals, the biggest sporting event in the year, and not use it?"He says, "well, actually, the seat belongs to me. My wife was supposed to come with me, but she passed away. This is the first Cup Final we haven't been together since we got married".
"Oh .. I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. I guess you couldn't find someone else, a friend or relative or even a neighbour to take the seat?"
The man shakes his head...
"No. They're all at the funeral".

The Rules of Bedroom Golf:
1. Each player shall furnish his own equipment for play, normally one club and two balls.
2. Play on course must be approved by the owner of the hole.
3. Unlike outdoor golf, the object is to get the club in the hole and keep the balls out.
4. For most effective play, the club should have a firm shaft. Course owners are permitted to check shaft stiffness before play begins.
5. Course owners reserve the right to restrict club length to avoid damage to the hole.
6. Object of the game is to take as many strokes as necessary until the owner is satisfied play is complete. Failure to do so may result in being denied permission to play again.
7. It is considered bad form to begin playing the hole immediately upon arrival. Experienced players will normally take time to admire the entire course, paying special attention to well formed mounds and bunkers.
8. Players are cautioned not to mention other courses they have played or are currently playing to the owner of the course being played. Upset owners have been known to damage a players equipment for this reason.
9. Players are encouraged to have proper rain gear, just in case.
10. Players should not assume that the course is in shape to play at all times. Players may be embarrassed if they find the course temporarily under repair. Players are advised to be extremely tactful in this situation. More advanced players will find alternate means of play when this is the case.
11. Players should assume their match has been properly scheduled particularly when playing a new course for the 1st time. Previous players have been known to become irate if they discover someone else is playing what they considered a private course.
12. The owner of the course is responsible for the pruning of any bushes, which may reduce the visibility of the hole.
13. Players are strongly advised to get the owners permission before attempting to play the backside.
14. Slow play is encouraged, however, players should be prepared to proceed at a quicker pace at the owners request.
15. It is considered an outstanding performance, time permitting, to play the same hole several times in one match.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com

Good Old Days #2

We showed you what life was like in the year 1500. Now let's get ahead about 400 years. The year is 1907. One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for the Year 1907:

The average life expectancy was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage in 1907 was 22 cents per hour.
The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
An accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all doctors had NO UNIVERSITY EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as "substandard."
"Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound."
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering into the country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.A!

Now, I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it to you and others all over the United States & Canada, possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!
Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/