RWC Unfiltered 11-3-11

• 3^rd Woman Accuses Cain of Sexual Harrasment
• Catholics Want Chrystal Cathedral
• Syrian Rebels Want “No fly” Zone
• Israeli Civilians Fed Up With Hamas Attacks.
• ObamaCare Uglier Still
• “Good” Vampire Bacterium

A third former employee of the National Restaurant Association has come forward to say that Herman Cain sexually harassed her, inviting her up to his corporate apartment when he was chairman of the group.

She told the Associated Press that she considered filing a complaint against Cain for his “aggressive and unwanted behavior,” but eventually decided against it.

The woman’s revelation was just one of many hits that Cain took on Wednesday as it became clear that the accusations against him are threatening to grow into a full-blown scandal with the potential to derail his campaign.

Other developments included:

• Conservative radio host Steve Deace complaining that Cain made “inappropriate comments” to two female staff members during a visit to his studio in Des Moines, Iowa;
• A man who worked for the restaurant association giving an eyewitness account of Cain’s alleged harassment;
• The lawyer for one of the women who made formal complaints against Cain approaching the National Restaurant Association asking for his client to be released from the confidentiality agreement that prevents her from speaking publicly; and
• Cain snapping at reporters who tried to ask him questions about the burgeoning scandal.

The third woman - who like the other two has not been publicly identified - told the AP that Cain told her that he had mentioned to colleagues how attractive he thought she was. He then gave what she described as “a private invitation” to his corporate apartment outside of work.

She described his actions which, she said, included making sexually suggestive comments, as “inappropriate and it made me feel uncomfortable.”

This third woman is not believed to be subject to any confidentiality agreements with the restaurant association, unlike the two who made formal complaints, and there is no record that she received any pay-off when left the group.

However, she insisted on anonymity because she feared retaliation.
She said she did not make a formal complaint because as time went on, she had less and less contact with Cain at work.

Cain has spent the past three days battling allegations that he harassed two female employees in the late 1990s when he headed the restaurant association. Details have only now started to trickle out about what he is alleged to have done.

Joel Bennett, the lawyer for one of the women, said he had asked the association to allow his client to speak, although the association said they had had no contact with him. Cain hasn’t said anything about that.

The third woman’s accusations capped a terrible day for Cain, which started when he went to Alexandria, Va. to give a talk on health care. He curtly told reporters “I’m here with these doctors and that’s what I’m going to talk about. So don’t even bother asking me all of those other questions that you are all curious about.

When one reporter tried to pin him down on whether he would agree to release his accusers from their confidentiality agreements, Cain snapped, “Excuse me! Excuse me! What part of no don’t some people understand?”

His day got worse when Chris Wilson, who worked for the restaurant association in the 1990s - and now works as a pollster for the campaign of Cain rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry - told a radio station in Oklahoma City that he had witnessed Cain in a restaurant in Crystal City, Va. with one of the women who made formal complaints about his behavior.

He said that for him, too, there were legal reasons why he could not go into details of what happened. But he said Cain’s actions were so bad that if the woman in question came forward and talked about it, “It’ll probably be the end of his campaign.”

In an interview on KTOK radio, Wilson described the woman as a low-level staffer, a couple of years out of college. “Everybody was aware of it,” Wilson said. “It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left.”

He said he believes the restaurant association will be left with no choice but to agree to allow the women to speak publicly about Cain’s behavior and that the candidate is only digging himself deeper into a hole by continuing to challenge the women.

Deace’s claim was even more bizarre. It only came after Cain’s own campaign manager, Mark Block, had insisted that Cain had “never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story.”

But then, unprompted, Block revealed a new allegation.

“As the hours go by, it’s interesting that we even hear from a radio talk show host of Iowa that a receptionist thought that Mr. Cain’s comments were inappropriate,” he said.

The website Politico, which originally broke the sexual harassment story on Sunday, asked Deace to explain. The nationally syndicated host replied with a cryptic email, saying, “Like awkward/inappropriate things he’s said to two females on my staff, that the fact the guy’s wife is never around…that’s almost always a warning flag to me.”

When Politico pressed him to be more explicit, Deace wrote, “Many a man has been done in by the inability to control his urges. I am no different and just as vulnerable as any other man, which is why I put safeguards around me and hold myself accountable to my wife and other men in my life.

Especially since I have very talented employees that happen to be women. I go out of my way to treat them like my sisters. For example, I wouldn’t tell them or any other woman I am not married to nor related to how pretty she is.”

Deace told Politico he had no idea how Block would know about his staff’s unease.

“To the best of my knowledge neither me nor anyone on my staff has ever spoken to Block.”

Cain accuses the Perry campaign of planting the sexual harassment story.

3% of U. S. doctors account for two thirds of the 14,000 overdose deaths from prescription drugs in the nation..

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, Calif., has filed a petition in bankruptcy court to block the sale of the famed Crystal Cathedral’s 40-acre campus to Chapman University, stating that the plan will not pay creditors in full and will set up the ministry for failure.

The diocese’s offer of $53.6 million is a better bid for the Crystal Cathedral property than the $50 million offered by Chapman University, its attorneys argue in the petition, according to the Orange County Register. Rewportedly Chatham matched the Catholic offer.

Last week, administrators at the bankrupt cathedral, which Robert H. Schuller founded, announced that their board had selected Chapman as the preferred buyer.

The difference between the two plans is that Chapman offers the church the option to lease back core church buildings and buy them back within five years, while the diocese’s plan calls for a three-year leasing plan and proposes that the ministry move to an alternative worship space the diocese offered at a reduced rate, according to the diocese’s petition.

Crystal Cathedral Ministries then would have the option to buy that property at 90 percent of the market rate, the filings state.

The diocese requests that the court order Crystal Cathedral and the creditors’ committee to accept its offer rather than the Chapman offer or require the property to be sold via an auction.

Chapman officials were not available for comment to the Register.

Two-out-of three likely U.S. Voters (64%) think society in this country is fair and decent. Twenty-six percent (26%) disagree and feel American society is unfair and discriminatory.

The Syrian opposition has been quietly meeting with NATO to
discuss the establishment of another no-fly zone in the Middle East.

Opposition sources said their leadership has convened with key members
of NATO to examine the formation of a no-fly zone mission over Syria. They
said the no-fly zone was vital to stop the regime of President Bashar Assad
from using its fixed- and rotary-wing military aircraft fleet against the
hundreds of thousands of protesters.

“This issue is under serious discussion in the decision-making circles,”
opposition leader Radwan Ziyadah said.

On Oct. 28, thousands of Syrians held demonstrations that called on the
international community to impose a no-fly zone. The demonstrators called on
the United Nations and the Arab League to protect them from the Assad
regime.

Ziyadah, a member of the Syrian National Council, said the opposition
was lobbying for a United Nations Security Council resolution that would
establish a no-fly zone over Syria. He said the opposition was also pressing
the international community to approve the formation of a buffer zone along
the Syrian border with Turkey as a haven for defecting soldiers.

The sources said the United States, which withdrew its ambassador from
Damascus on Oct. 22, was pressing other NATO allies for military
intervention in Syria in an effort to oust Assad. They said Turkey has also
agreed to host any NATO operations as well as establish a buffer along the
Syrian border.

“We consider the ambassador’s withdrawal a strongly-worded American
warning to Damascus and the prelude for an imminent American escalation to
curb the massacres that are committed against the Syrian people after
concluding the Libyan matter and turning to the Syrian dossier,” Ziyadah,
director of the Syrian Strategic Studies Center, said.

The sources said the opposition leadership was heartened by the
assertion by U.S. Sen. John McCain that the international community could
soon examine the feasibility of a no-fly zone similar to that imposed by
NATO over Libya since March. They said the no-fly zone would harm the
Assad regime and hasten the pace of defections from the military.

A no-fly zone was also expected to significantly bolster the growing
rebel forces, many of them comprised of defectors from Assad’s military. The
sources said the protest against Assad was giving way to armed operations
amid the regime crackdown that has killed more than 3,600 people.

“I believe there are two reasons why demonstrations will significantly
diminish,” opposition activist Louay Hussein said. “First, the violent
oppression by the authorities recently and second, the increase in the
number of armed operations by groups opposed to the authorities such as the
Free Syrian Army. Moreover, I worry that if we fail to reach a homegrown
settlement of the conflict very quickly, we will clearly witness different aspects of a civil war in the near future.”

A Miami police officer is accused of driving 120 mph because he was late for his off-duty job working security at a school. It can be a felony charge.

Israel is seeing its first ever crisis of confidence between a large normally docile civilian population and the heads of the armed forces.Mayors and local council heads representing the three quarters of-a-million inhabitants of the southern towns of Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat and Gan Yavneh, announced Sunday night, Oct. 31, that they don’t believe the army’s claim the missile offensive besetting them since Saturday is over.

Their schools stayed closed Monday, Oct. 31, in defiance of Home Front Command orders to lift the security restrictions that were imposed Saturday, when eight Israeli towns were pounded by scores of missiles, causing one death, dozens of injuries, substantial damage and the disruption of lives.

After a decade of missile violence from Gaza, the people still living there are saying enough is enough. They are fed up with being told that the military and powers-that-be know best how to handle the terrorism from the Gaza Strip. The missiles start flying whenever it pleases the Gazan Palestinians, a recurring blight which has seriously stunted the region’s development.

Analysts attribute this newfound combativeness to seven causes.

Conflicting statements from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the army chiefs. Whereas Netanyahu stated Sunday that there is no ceasefire, army officers informed the South that a truce is in force and only needs time to take hold.

 An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was announced as going into effect Sunday morning, Oct. 30 at 0600 hours (after more than 35 missiles were fired Saturday). That whole day, the Palestinians continued their attacks which they divided into two stages: Soon after the 0600 deadline, they shot 15 Grads and mortar rounds into Israel and paused. In the evening, other round of 9 Qassam missiles hit Ashkelon regional council and Eshkol district.

 The Iron Dome batteries, designed by Israel to intercept short-range rockets, failed to stop any Sunday, starting a wave of rumors across the South.

Few heeded the words of ex-security officers turned pundits who explained that even wonder systems have mechanical breakdowns. After the IDF issued a bulletin asserting the Jihad Islami had used “innovative firing technology” - without specifying what it was - many assumed that the Iron Dome had been neutralized - not by the technologically-challenged Palestinian extremists, but by specialist officers sent to Gaza but their masters in Tehran.

The brief television appearance of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, answering a question with the words: “We shall do what needs to be done.” As he spoke, sirens sounded and missiles and mortar shells exploded  in Ashkelon, Sderot and other locations abutting on the Gaza Strip.

As Sunday wore on, the lack of clarity over government intentions deepened . The population realized that no substantial military operation was planned and their trouble was there to stay.  A new truce deadline was said to be scheduled for  2200 Sunday night. The Palestinians chose that hour to resume their attacks on Ashkelon regional council and Eshkol district.

As Monday morning, Oct. 31 dawned with no sign that the radical jihad Islami intended to hold its fire, Home Front Minister Mattan Vilnai aired his first message to the South:

“This round is over,” he said. “It was the work of the Jihad Islami alone. Hamas, which as Gaza Strip rulers are responsible, stood aside.”

Military sources: This is a further Netanyahu government step to relieve Hamas of the burdens of responsibility for the violence emanating from its territory.

This anomalous situation arose from an unsatisfactory exchange between Jerusalem and Cairo. Egypt informed Jerusalem it had managed to persuade Jihad Islami to halt its missile offensive but not to stop its fellow radical Palestinian groups in the Gaza from shooting or even withhold the missiles for them to continue their assaults.

The prime minister and defense minister were reluctant to admit to the public that they had placed their reliance for the security of southern Israel on the military rulers of Egypt - and then only with partial success.

Community leaders in the south are preparing to take a leaf out of two popular campaigns which managed in recent weeks to shock the Netanyahu government out of its complacence: This week, 19 new bills were put before the Knesset’s winter session in response to the demands of the Social Justice movement; and last week, the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s release was achieved, partly as a result of popular pressure.

Several community leaders warned that the South is now on the march to finally break the devastating cycle of ceasefires imposed and violated at the convenience of the Palestinian aggressors and force the government and army to root out the plague of the Palestinian missiles once and for all.

The current missile barrage can be laid to the fouled up Lybian situation that leaked tesn of thousands of deadly missiles from under the noses oif U. S. and NATO forced in an unlimited flood of arms to Hama.

Head-counters around the world marked Halloween as the day when the world’s population hit the 7 billion mark. It’s a date that has served as the focus for musings on the problems and possibilities facing our species and our planet. But how do experts know that Oct. 31 is the precise day that the world’s 7 billionth human being was born? 1999 marked the 6^th billionth birth. Experts say popularion will hit 8 billion in by 2023 and 9 billion by 2041. It is all estimation. There were just 300 million people on earth when Jesus Christ was born.

Under the heading of unintended consequences or maybe just stupid bureaucrats 3-years before ObamaCare kicks in 30% of employers say they will end health care for employees because taxpayers will pay $11,000 of a $12,000 the aveerage annual health insurance premiums.  Employers and employees could cooperate with employers paying the $2,000 fine and splitting $10,000 savings with employees.

A new Rasmussen  poll finds 59% want ObamaCare scraped.

The President and his buddies seem to be fans of the “Occupy” movement. Some even claim they created it. They neglect to mention that there is a great deal of ANTI-SEMITISM and hate and even violence in this group. Mainstream media has completely ignored that.

 A vampire-like bacteria Micavibrio aeruginosavorus that leeches onto specific other bacteria - including certain human pathogens - has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates.

The bacterium, , was discovered to inhabit wastewater nearly 30 years ago, but has not been extensively studied because it is difficult to culture and investigate using traditional microbiology techniques. However, biologists in the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences, Martin Wu and graduate student Zhang Wang, have decoded its genome and are learning “how it makes its living,” Wu said.

The bacterium “makes its living” by seeking out prey-certain other bacteria-and then attaching itself to its victim’s cell wall and essentially sucking out nutrients. Unlike most other bacteria, which draw nutrients from their surroundings, M. aeruginosavorus can survive and propagate only by drawing its nutrition from specific prey bacteria. This kills the prey-making it a potentially powerful agent for destroying pathogens.

One bacterium it targets is Pseudomonas aeruginosavorus, which is a chief cause of serious lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients.

His study, detailing the DNA sequence of M. aeruginosavorus, is published online in the journal BMC Genomics. It provides new insights to the predatory lifestyle of the bacterium and a better understanding of the evolution of bacterial predation in general.

“We used cutting-edge genomic technology in our lab to decode this bacterium’s genome,” Wu said. “We are particularly interested in the molecular mechanisms that allow it to hunt for and attack prey. This kind of investigation would have been extremely difficult and expensive to do only a few years ago.”

He noted that overuse of traditional antibiotics, which work by either inhibiting bacteria propagation or interfering with cell wall formation, are creating so-called “super bugs” that have developed resistances to treatment strategies. He suggests that new approaches are needed for attacking pathogens without building up their resistance

 A 19-year-old man is in a Galveston, Texas jail awaiting psychiatric evaluation after he broke into a woman’s home and tried to suck her blood claiming he was a 500 - year -old vampire.

An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will fly near Earth on Nov. 8. While there is no danger of it hitting the planet, a Purdue asteroid impact expert says a similar-sized object hitting Earth would result in a 4,000-megaton blast, magnitude 7.0 earthquake and, should it strike in the deep ocean, 70-foot-high tsunami waves 60 miles from the splashdown site.

NASA scientists reported this week that the asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass between the Earth and the moon and come within 201,000 miles of Earth on its closest approach.

 Jay Melosh, an expert in impact cratering and a distinguished professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, physics, and aerospace engineering at Purdue, said the asteroid’s orbit and trajectory mean there is no chance of an impact.

 “What is unique about this asteroid flyby is that we were aware of it well in advance,” Melosh said. “Before about 1980 we wouldn’t know about an asteroid of this size until it was already making a close pass, but now it is unlikely that such an asteroid will approach the Earth without our knowledge.”

 NASA’s Near Earth Object, or NEO, program celebrated a milestone earlier this year by announcing that current search programs have discovered more than 90 percent of near-Earth objects more than six-tenths of a mile in diameter. A larger number of smaller objects have yet to be found, however.

 Spacewatch, a program created to discover and track all large asteroids crossing the Earth’s orbit, discovered YU55 in 2005. This close approach has been expected since then, he said.

Melosh used the asteroid impact effects calculator he developed to estimate what would happen if the asteroid, which is a quarter mile in diameter, hit the Earth. The calculator, “Impact: Earth!” allows anyone to calculate potential comet or asteroid damage.

Users first enter a few parameters, such as the diameter of the approaching object, its density, velocity, angle of entry and where it will hit the Earth.

The site then estimates the consequences of its impact, including the atmospheric blast wave, ground shaking, size of tsunami generated, fireball expansion, distribution of debris and size of the crater produced. The calculator is available here.

For example, YU55 would strike with a velocity of 11 miles per second. Although it would begin to disintegrate as it passed through the atmosphere, the fragments would strike in a compact cluster that would blast out a crater 4 miles in diameter and 1,700 feet deep, Melosh said.

Sixty miles away from the impact site the heat from the fireball would cause extensive first-degree skin burns, the seismic shaking would knock down chimneys and the blast wave would shatter glass windows.

If YU55 were to strike a large city like Chicago, it would obliterate the entire city and leave few survivors. Fortunately, the chance of a large impact targeted on a city is very small, he said.

According to NASA, the last time an asteroid this size came close to Earth was in 1976, and the next known approach of such a large asteroid will be in 2028.

The most recent impact of this size is not known, but there are about 20 similar craters known in the geologic record, including the Wetumka crater in Alabama and the Rock Elm crater in Wisconsin.

Of the known large craters, the most recent are the six-mile-wide Bosumtwi crater in Ghana, which is about 1 million years old, and the nine-mile-diameter Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan, which is about 900,000 years old, Melosh said.

“Impacts from asteroids of this size are very rare,” he said. “They occur about once every 100,000 years, so the chances of an actual collision with an asteroid like YU55 is about 1 percent in the next thousand years. Apophis, a similar-sized asteroid about one-third of a mile in diameter is the biggest threat in our near future. It has a tiny chance of striking the Earth in 2036.”

Melosh is a co-author of a 2010 NRC report “Defending Planet Earth” that explores the feasibility of detecting all Earth-crossing asteroids down to a diameter of 140 meters, or about one-tenth of a mile, and of ways to mitigate their hazard.

 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

The f0ollowing is adapted and edited from the UK Guardian newspaper’s claims Tuesday Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government. Left unsaid in the expose’ is that the U. S. paid 80% of all the UK cost for the recent Libyan campaign.

In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air- and sea-launched campaign.

The Guardian has spoken to a number of Whitehall and defence officials over recent weeks who said Iran was once again becoming the focus of diplomatic concern after the revolution in Libya.

They made clear the US president, Barack Obama, has no wish to embark on a new and provocative military venture before next November’s US election. But they warned the calculus could change because of mounting anxiety over intelligence gathered by western agencies, and the more belligerent posture that Iran appears to have been taking. The pragmatic know that Obama will do whatever he thinks necessary to get reelected regardless of the consequences. Iran is pushed full speed to a nuclear warhead believing that will emasculate anyd such threat of an attack on it by the U. S., its allies and/or Israel.

One senior Whitehall official said the regime had proved “surprisingly resilient” in the face of sanctions, and sophisticated attempts by the west to cripple its nuclear enrichment programme had been less successful than first thought.

He said Iran appeared to be “newly aggressive - and we are not quite sure why”, citing three recent assassination plots on foreign soil that the intelligence agencies say were co-ordinated by elements in Tehran.

On top of that, the agencies now believe Iran has restored all the capability it lost in a sophisticated cyber-attack last year.

The Stuxnet computer worm, thought to have been engineered by the Americans and Israelis, sabotaged many of the centrifuges the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.

Up to half of Iran’s centrifuges were disabled by Stuxnet or were thought too unreliable to work, but diplomats believe this capability has now been recovered, and the International Atomic Energy Authority believes it may even be increasing. Other sources believe Iran has assembled warheads sans fissile materials and bombs can be assembled within hours of sufficient enriched material being available.

Ministers have also been told that the Iranians have been moving some new, more efficient centrifuges into the heavily fortified military base dug beneath a mountain at the city of Qom.

The concern is that the centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium for use in weapons, are now so well protected within the site that missile strikes may not be able to reach them. The senior Whitehall source said the Iranians appeared to be shielding “material and capability” inside the base.

Another Whitehall official, with knowledge of Britain’s military planning, said that within the next 12 months Iran may have hidden all the material it needs to continue a covert weapons programme inside fortified bunkers. He said this had necessitated the UK’s planning being taken to a new level.

“Beyond [12 months], we couldn’t be sure our missiles could reach them,” the source said. “So the window is closing, and the UK needs to do some sensible forward planning. The US could do this on their own but they won’t. So we need to anticipate being asked to contribute. We had thought this would wait until after the US election next year, but now we are not so sure. President Obama has a big decision to make in the coming months because he won’t want to do anything just before an election.”

Another source added there was “no acceleration towards military action by the US, but that could change”. Next spring could be a key decision-making period, the source said.

The MoD has a specific team considering the military options against Iran. The Guardian has been told that planners expect any campaign to be predominantly waged from the air, with some naval involvement, using missiles such as the Tomahawks, which have a range of 800 miles. There are no plans for a ground invasion, but “a small number of special forces” may be needed on the ground, too.

The RAF could also provide air-to-air refuelling and some surveillance capability, should it be required. British officials say any assistance would be cosmetic: the US could act on its own but would prefer not to.

An MoD spokesman said: “The British government believes that a dual track strategy of pressure and engagement is the best approach to address the threat from Iran’s nuclear programme and avoid regional conflict. We want a
negotiated solution - but all options should be kept on the table.”

The MoD says there are no hard-and-fast blueprints for conflict but insiders concede that preparations at headquarters and at the Foreign Office have been under way for some time.

One official said: “I think that it is fair to say that the MoD is constantly making plans for all manner of international situations. Some areas are of more concern than others.

“It is not beyond the realms of possibility that people at the MoD are thinking about what we might do should something happen on Iran. It is quite likely that there will be people in the building who have thought about what we would do if commanders came to us and asked us if we could support the US. The context for that is straightforward contingency planning.”

Washington has been warned by Israel against leaving any military action until it is too late. Western intelligence agencies say Israel will demand that the US act if Jerusalem believes its own military cannot launch successful attacks to stall Iran’s nuclear programme. A source said the “Israelis want to believe that they can take this stuff out”, and will continue to agitate for military action if Iran continues to play hide and seek.

It is estimated that Iran, which has consistently said it is interested only in developing a civilian nuclear energy programme, already has enough enriched uranium for between two and four nuclear weapons.

Experts believe it could be another two years before Tehran has a ballistic missile delivery system. British officials admit to being perplexed by what they regard as Iran’s new aggressiveness, saying that they have been shown convincing evidence that Iran was behind the murder of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi in May, as well as the audacious plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, which was uncovered last month. “There is a clear dotted line from Tehran to the plot in Washington,” said one.

The International Atomic Energy Authority is due to publish its latest report on Iran this month. Earlier this year, it reported that it had evidence Tehran had conducted work on a highly sophisticated nuclear triggering technology that could only be used for setting off a nuclear device. It also said it was “increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed nuclear-related activities involving military-related organisations, including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”

Last year, the UN security council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran to try to deter Tehran from pursuing any nuclear ambitions.

Last weekend, the New York Times reported that the US was looking to build up its military presence in the region, with one eye on Iran. According to the paper, the US is considering sending more naval warships to the area, and is seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

More and more Catholics are going into the confessional saying ” You first father.”

Backyard Skeptics, another misguided atheist group, is unveiled a billboard in Orange County, California with a picture of Thomas Jefferson next to a quotation that they attribute to him.  The quotation reads, “I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature, it is founded on fables and mythology.”

The skeptic group is already coming under attack by Christians and conservatives claiming that Jefferson never said or wrote what Backyard Skeptics attribute to him. When questioned about the authenticity of the quotation, the group’s director, Bruce Gleason, admitted that they had not verified the quotation before paying for the billboard

Gleason also admitted that the Jefferson Library Collection in Monticello is the leading authority on Jefferson and his quotations. And it turns out that the Jefferson Library Collection has no record of it.  They do list it on their website, but it is listed in a section of dubious quotations.

Raising the quotation’s origin brings one to a book Six Historic Americans by John E. Remsburg.  According to Remsburg’s book, the quotation came from a letter written by Jefferson to a Dr. Woods. Yet, the Jefferson Library Collection has no record of a Dr Woods or of Jefferson ever writing to such a person.

Faced with the information on the dubious origin of the quotation, Backyard Skeptics are accepting Remsburg’s version to be accurate and will not take any action to alter or remove the quotation from the board.

I would strongly urge Backyard Skeptics and others who claim Jefferson was a deist to do some further research into his writings. Keep in mind that a deist believes that God created everything and then has no involvement in His creation.

I contend that Jefferson was not a deist but did believe in God, although some of his views on Christianity were quite liberal as are many in the church today. Jefferson was not an atheist, so it’s surprising that an atheist group would use him to support their cause. Here are some quotations from Jefferson along with the references. Note his use of the Bible, God’s providence, and prayer (”supplications”) for political guidance:

“I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications, that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do, shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.”  Thomas Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805.

“The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, he has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus, and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses.”  Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Fishback, Sept. 27, 1809. Albert Ellery Bergh, ed. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., Washington D.C., 1907, V. 12,  p.315.

“The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.”  Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Moses Robinson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, Washington D.C., 1907, V. 10, pp. 236-237