Fri Jul 13, 2007
Sectarian extremists invaded the U.S. Senate chamber Thursday, chanting
"There's only one true God" and denouncing religious pluralism as an
"abomination."
The noisy assault on American values and traditions unfolded as the Senate was
opening with its daily prayer.
Rajan Zed, the director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Nevada,
began his brief invocation with the words, "We meditate on the transcendental
glory of the deity supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the
life of the sky and inside the soul of the heaven. May He stimulate and
illuminate our minds."
As he spoke two women and a man in the Senate gallery attempted to shout him
down.
Even as Capitol police removed the trio from the gallery, they continued to
taunt the first Hindu cleric to open a session of the Senate. One of the zealots
shouted "we are Christians and patriots."
Some leading conservative religious figures hailed the interruption, including
Pastor Wiley Drake, a former 2nd Vice President of the Southern Baptist
Convention, who said, "When not one of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate would
object on the record, and in proper order, the opening of the U.S. Senate July
12, 2007, Christian observers had no choice but to speak from the gallery of the
Senate. Had I been present I too would have stood and objected since none of the
Senators would."
The three individuals who did object udentified themselves as members of
Operation Save America/Operation Rescue, a militant anti-abortion rights group,
which issued a statement denouncing the Senate's show of respect for religious
diverity.
"The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on
a level playing field with the one true god, Jesus Christ," it declared. "This
would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers."
On this point, the protesters are wrong.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the concept that the United States should
maintain a "wall of separation" in order to avoid the development of a state
religion of the sort that had existed in the monarchies of Europe, was a student
Hinduism. His library included Hindu texts, and when he wrote the Virginia Act
for Religious Freedom, which laid the groundwork for the Constitution protection
of religious practice and pluralism, he specifically avoided making reference to
the Christian faith -- though its adherents dominated the public life of
Virginia and other colonies -- because he wanted it to be known that all
religions, including Hinduism, were respected and welcomed in the United States.
In his notes on the Virginia statute, Jefferson specifically argued that
Hinduism and other faiths would be afforded the full protection and privileges
of the act.
Noting the overwhelming rejection by Virginia legislators of an amendment to his
statute that proposed to insert a reference to Jesus Christ, Jefferson found
"proof that they (the legislators who enacted the measure) meant to comprehend,
within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and
the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the (non-practicing and disbelieving) infidel of
every denomination."
Jefferson's respect for religious pluralism in general, and Hinduism in
particular, led him to compare notes with other founders of the American
experiment. The third president and his predecessor, John Adams corresponded at
some length about their respect for the teachings of the Hindu religion.
It was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who invited Rajan Zed do the
chamber Thursday. But he did so in the name of Jefferson, Adams and the other
founders who believed that America should make no religion supreme but rather
should recognize and respect many faiths -- including Hinduism.
Congress has become obsessed with the Chinese currency.
Forty-two members recently demanded formal action against China under Section
301 of the 1988 Trade Act. The Bush administration rejected that, so a powerful
group of lawmakers is proposing a bill that would make China vulnerable to
antidumping penalties for alleged currency misalignment. Major presidential
candidates have advocated heavy tariffs on imports from China if it fails to
appreciate its currency.
Why is this happening? US job losses in manufacturing industries and the trade
deficit with China – which amounted to about $230 billion last year according to
US government calculations – have put many American elected officials under
pressure to do something.
Congressional critics say China's undervalued currency is the root of the
problem. While China's currency may well be undervalued, the fundamental causes
of the job losses and the trade deficit actually lie elsewhere. Sometimes
solutions that seem like common sense and draw popular support turn out to be
ineffective when examined more closely.
It's true that low-wage Chinese workers have taken jobs from Americans and that
cheap Chinese imports have pumped up the trade deficit. But three other factors
explain the state of US-Chinese trade:
•The low savings rate by Americans means the US will continue to have a large
global trade deficit. Forcing Chinese currency appreciation will just shift the
deficit to other countries.
•When Congress focuses on the currency issue, it is addressing the least
important source of the US trade deficit.
•If Congress pressures the Inter-national Monetary Fund to censure China
regarding its currency, the IMF might be obligated to censure the US for its
domestic economic policies that are a more important cause of its global trade
deficit.
China's exchange rate is a very small factor in US job losses in manufacturing.
US productivity gains are far more important. Jobs lost to China and other
countries are compensated by job gains elsewhere in America's flexible and
growing economy. In fact, US unemployment is remarkably low in spite of the
trade deficit.
Critics of China's currency system need to be careful what they wish for.
Appreciation of its currency will not reduce America's global trade deficit by
much and it will create few if any US jobs.
Completely freeing China's currency and capital flows could backfire. China has
the equivalent of more than $4 trillion deposited in relatively weak banks
earning barely more than 2 percent after taxes. Freeing China's currency and
capital flows would allow some of this money to flow to safer and more lucrative
uses in other countries, causing the Chinese currency to depreciate.
Conversely, if China suddenly stopped intervening in the foreign exchange
market, it might trigger a sharp short-run decline in the international value of
the US dollar and drive up US interest rates. That could cause a housing market
collapse and a recession.
How did this problem arise? At the turn of the century, China's leaders finally
achieved a reasonably well-balanced trade account. Rapidly rising exports were
offset by imports that were growing equally fast. Economic growth was coming
from housing, cars, infrastructure, and retail sales. Then an explosion of US
imports and Chinese exports wrecked the balance.
Following the NASDAQ collapse in 2000, US consumption exploded due to relaxed
monetary policy and a large swing in the federal budget from surplus to deficit.
These policies kept the recession short and mild, but they also sucked in
imports and created a massive US global trade deficit. China's exchange rate had
very little to do with this. The US housing boom financed greatly increased
consumption and removed the need for household savings, so American imports
ballooned.
Second, Japan's huge trade surplus is increasingly credited to China. As Asian
countries move final assembly of computers, shoes, and much else to China, the
former surpluses of Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong increasingly show up as
China's, while the good jobs and profits largely remain in those other places.
While China's share of the US trade deficit increased (from the previous peak of
27 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2006), the share of the rest of East Asia
actually fell (from 43 percent in 1997 to 17 percent in 2006). America's trade
problem with Asia has become proportionately smaller, but a superficial
understanding of China's numbers makes it appear worse.
Third, China has experienced an explosion of credit, investment, and
productivity. Banks had a lending frenzy that the Hu Jintao administration was
slow to control. And China's privatization of urban housing and numerous state
enterprises freed up large amounts of money for investment.
Simultaneously, the restructuring and privatization of China's inefficient state
enterprises led to drastic improvements in manufacturing productivity and thus
in China's competitiveness. There is no way that currency appreciation could
have compensated for China's phenomenal productivity growth since 2001.
China's undervalued exchange rate is primarily China's problem. It creates too
much domestic liquidity in China, which is driving potentially dangerous stock
market speculation and other bubbles. The US Treasury Department is correct in
trying to persuade China to marketize its currency faster on the basis of
Chinese interest rather than foreign pressure.
While often well-intentioned, proposals to protect the US economy from foreign
goods can backfire. A more protected US economy would be, like France's, an
economy of far higher unemployment.
ATLANTA, District Attorney David McDade has handed out
some 35 copies of a video of teenagers having sex at a party.
McDade says Georgia's open-records law leaves him no choice but to release the
footage because it was evidence in one of the state's most turbulent cases —
that of Genarlow Wilson, a young man serving 10 years in prison for having oral
sex with a girl when they were teenagers.
McDade's actions have opened him up to accusations that he is vindictively
misusing his authority to keep Wilson behind bars — and worse, distributing
child pornography.
"This has been a ferocious, vindictive prosecution of Genarlow Wilson," said
state Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat. "What is going on is a vendetta."
McDade, who is district attorney in Douglas County, in suburban Atlanta, did not
immediately return calls Thursday.
He has said that while the law required him to release the video, he also
believes the footage helps his case — by showing that Wilson is not the
squeaky-clean football star and honor student portrayed by his supporters.
"Most of those who do not want people to see the tape know that it's damning to
their position," McDade told The Associated Press.
He released the video after receiving an open records request from the AP, and
said he has given it to about three dozen people, including reporters, lawmakers
and several members of the public who requested it.
It shows Wilson, then 17, receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl and having
intercourse with another 17-year-old girl. It was shot at a 2003 New Year's Eve
Party at a hotel room by another partygoer.
Earlier this week, Georgia's chief federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney David
Nahmias, said the video "constitutes child pornography under federal law," and
he called on McDade's office to stop releasing copies.
"These laws are intended to protect the children depicted in such images from
the ongoing victimization of having their sexual activity viewed by others,"
Nahmias said.
Nahmias' office refused to say whether he would bring criminal charges against
the D.A.
Critics say that at the very least, McDade should have obscured the faces of the
underage girls to conceal their identity, or sought a protective order to keep
the material under seal.
Such steps are common in sex abuses cases, especially those involving underage
victims, said Diane Moyer, legal director for the Pennsylvania-based National
Sexual Violence Research Center.
"The bottom line is we need to have respect for the victims in these kinds of
cases," Moyer said. "To release this kind of thing, to me it's prurient and it
takes the open records law too far."
Several Wilson supporters likened McDade to disgraced Duke lacrosse prosecutor
Mike Nifong and called on Georgia's attorney general to investigate.
"Mike Nifong lost his license, and if he lost his license, then certainly a
district attorney that distributes child pornography ought to be investigated,"
the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said
Thursday.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones said he would introduce legislation to block district
attorneys from handing over photographic images in sex cases.
"I'm going to call it the David McDade Act," Jones said. "Sometimes we have to
protect our kids from district attorneys."
Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with
the 15-year-old girl. He has served more than two years of a mandatory 10-year
sentence.
The law Wilson was convicted of breaking made consensual oral sex between teens
a felony. It has since been changed by the Georgia Legislature. But the state's
courts have held that the new law cannot be applied retroactively.
A judge last month called Wilson's sentence "a grave miscarriage of justice" and
ordered him set free. But prosecutors are trying to block his release. The
Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear the case next week.
McDade fought a bill in the Legislature earlier this year that would have helped
Wilson. Some lawmakers who were on the fence changed their mind after seeing the
tape.
Three agencies could soon be investigating the Orleans Parish
district attorney after the top prosecutor drew sharp criticism over the
dismissal of a quintuple-murder case.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan has asked a national group to
review his office. He also announced Friday that he is reshuffling his staff,
with all homicide cases going to the Violent Offender's Unit.
According to a news release, Jordan has invited the National District Attorneys
Association, which looks at district attorney offices nationwide, to conduct an
evaluation of his office.
New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow, meanwhile, released a letter
Friday asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to conduct a performance review of
Jordan's office.
"The current crime situation in New Orleans is dire, and the apparent
ineffectiveness of the DA?s office needs immediate attention at all levels,"
Fielkow's letter said.
The moves come the same week that Jordan dismissed murder charges against
Michael Anderson, the man accused of gunning down five teens in Central City
last summer.
According to Jordan, the key witness in the case was being uncooperative and
couldn't be found.
But less than a day later, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley told
reporters that his officers had found the witness within hours of Jordan's
announcement -- a revelation that prompted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to
question Jordan's leadership in prosecuting violent cases.
New Orleans Councilwoman Shelley Midura sent out an open letter Thursday, asking
Jordan to resign.
The mayor stopped short of saying Jordan should resign, but he said the
situation "may get to that."
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti is also working with the district
attorney's office to develop a short-term plan, with the National District
Attorneys Association handling the long-term review.
Nestled at the foot of Syria's coastal mountains, an ancient
citadel has been put on the tourist map by restoration and excavation that
revealed mysteries of the medieval Assassins sect, once based here.
Saladin, the great Muslim leader, laid siege to Masyaf castle in the 12th
century. But he thought twice before launching an assault on the Assassins, who
had a reputation for mounting daring operations to slay their foes.
"Anyone who tried to take the Assassins' castle would be dead the next day,"
said Haytham Ali Hasan, an archaeologist involved in the restoration project.
Although Saladin had conquered Crusader castles with much stronger defenses,
historians believe the Assassins' death threats forced the Kurdish warrior to
lift the siege at Masyaf.
Perched on a rock and overlooking a boulder-strewn plain, the castle has been
restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Tons of debris have been cleared from the site since 2000, allowing researchers
to learn more about the citadel's secretive occupants.
One of the main conclusions, Hasan said, was that the Assassins were not very
good at building castles, even if the site has lasted well and looks impressive
to visitors today.
"The system of defense is very poor," he said, reviewing newly acquired
knowledge about Masyaf's construction.
The Assassins had tried to copy the castles of the Crusaders and Saladin, "but
not very well," he said, suggesting the fort's weaknesses might be evidence of
the group's relative poverty.
But what the Assassins lacked in might, they made up for in stealth. Saladin
himself narrowly escaped one assassination attempt by their knife-wielding
agents.
The Assassins were led by Rashid Al-Din Sinan, also known as "The Old Man of the
Mountain." He used Masyaf as a base for spreading the beliefs of the Nizari
Ismaili sect of Islam to which he and his followers belonged.
Nizari Ismailis, followers of a branch of Shi'ite Islam, today take the Aga Khan
as their spiritual guide.
CISTERNS, SECRET PASSAGE
The restoration project, completed during the last year, has revealed much about
the history of Ismailis in Syria while also saving parts of the castle from
collapse.
Chambers, wells, passageways, coins and ceramics from the time have been
unearthed. "We now know more about the life of Sinan. This is very important for
writing the history of the Ismaili community in Syria," Hasan said.
Ismailis were living in the castle as recently as the last century and the
fortress is still part of the fabric of Masyaf town.
Locals had built houses right up to the castle's main gate and 12 were bought
and demolished as part of the project, making the site easier for tourists to
visit.
"Getting inside the castle used to be a challenging operation," said Ali Esmaiel,
head of the Aga Khan Development Network in Syria.
Supposed to have been completed in three years, the project took double that
because of the wealth of discoveries, said Baidaa Husseino, an architectural
engineer and site coordinator.
"You'd find the edge of something and want to know what it was," she said. "We'd
work for many extra hours."
The discoveries included a tunnel thought to be a secret escape passage, a
traditional bath house and a system of channels designed to carry rain water
into cisterns beneath the castle.
TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES, MATERIALS
Much of the restoration work was done by hand using traditional techniques.
Materials were reproduced to match those used by the original builders. Concrete
used in preservation efforts in the 1980s was replaced with authentic materials.
Syria already boasts a list of well-preserved castles dating to the period,
including the imposing Krak des Chevaliers -- a Crusader fort just an hour's
drive from Masyaf.
Like the Citadel of Saladin near today's coastal city of Latakia and the
fortress at the city of Aleppo, Krak des Chevaliers has the status of a UNESCO
World Heritage site.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture has also conducted restoration work at the
citadels of Saladin and Aleppo.
Husseino, herself an Ismaili, hopes tourists will add the smaller fortress at
Masyaf to their list of sites to see.
"It deserves to be visited," she said.
Despite its nickname, the Sunshine State, Florida's heavy rains
and pricey real estate mean it has never been considered a good place to set up
big solar energy plants.
So a new initiative by the fourth most-populous U.S. state to get its utilities
to generate 20 percent of their power from sun, wind and other renewable
resources will mean wiring rooftops rather than building huge solar or wind
farms.
Utilities say large solar power plants would simply not be cost effective.
"The cloud cover in Florida limits the amount of power that can be produced,"
said Mayco Villafana, a spokesman for Florida Power & Light, the state's largest
electricity company.
But Florida has plenty of sunshine to power rooftop solar panels and renewable
energy advocates are urging the state to help residents create thousands of mini
power plants in their homes.
Gov. Charlie Crist announced this week that he wants utilities to generate
one-fifth of their electricity from renewables to combat global warming --
joining several other states that have adopted measures to reduce greenhouse
gases in the absence of action by the federal government.
Crist's executive orders, which he was due to sign at a climate change summit in
Miami on Friday, did not contain a target date for the 20 percent goal. State
officials could not provide figures on the current share of renewable energy.
But Mike Sole, secretary of the state's Department of Environmental Protection,
said on the sidelines of the conference that the target date is 13 years from
now.
"We are proposing and have recommended to the governor that it be 2020," he
said. "Now we have to work with the Public Service Commission (regulators) to
get that implemented."
Crist's initiative calls on the state to permit people who generate power at
their homes and businesses to lower utility bills by feeding excess electricity
back into the grid.
SUNSHINE STATE
The American West's vast open spaces provide all the ingredients for alternative
energy plants -- vast tracts of cheap desert land, steady winds and year-round
sunshine. Florida's expensive real estate, unreliable wind and severe rainy
season limit its prospects, according to experts.
FPL Group, the parent of Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, is
the top U.S. wind power generator with 47 wind farms in 15 states. Yet it does
not have one in Florida.
It has a major solar plant in California's Mojave Desert, but none in the
Sunshine State, even though Florida has as much sunshine -- 5 to 6 kilowatt
hours per meter squared per day -- as parts of California.
"We're not look at Arizona-style or Nevada-style solar fields as a primary
target," said Sole. "We're looking at rooftops."
Photovoltaic systems that collect the sun's rays and turn them into energy can
cost $30,000 or more for an average U.S. home, so solar advocates are pushing
Florida to expand incentives to help residents with initial costs.
James Fenton, director of the Florida Solar Energy Center, said a monthly charge
of $1.50 on a utility bill could raise more than $200 million a year to invest
in a panel installation program.
California, which has a "Million Solar roofs" program under way, puts more than
$300 million yearly into installation of solar panels on rooftops.
"The utilities have to find a way to own the PV power plant on my roof so they
can profit from it," Fenton said.
He said Florida has twice the sunshine of Germany, a global leader in solar
power, and believes local utilities are ready to hop on the bandwagon.
"They like big power plants," he said. "So it's about switching over this
mindset from a big power plant to a small one. But I think they are coming
around."
Villafana said FPL generally supports Crist's initiative but is taking a
wait-and-see attitude until state regulators explain how the plan would work.
Asked if FPL is interested in owning photovoltaic rooftop installations on
private homes, he said: "We haven't even discussed that."
Testing exhaled breath with a small sensor array can detect lung
cancer with moderate accuracy, researchers report.
The testing device, which contains 36 spots impregnated with chemically
sensitive compounds, works by detecting patterns of volatile organic compounds
in exhaled breath. These spots change colors when exposed to particular
chemicals.
The goal of the study reported in the medical journal Thorax was to determine if
various color patterns could be identified that accurately detect lung cancer.
The study included 49 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, 73 with various
other, non-malignant lung diseases, and 21 healthy "controls." Data from 70
percent of the subjects were used to identify a pattern that indicated the
presence of lung cancer, which was then tested in the remaining 30 percent.
The predictive pattern identified by the researchers was able to spot 73 percent
of cancers, while it incorrectly identified 28 percent of nonmalignant
conditions as cancerous.
"Further work may clarify the nature of the distinct breath constituents,"
conclude Dr. Peter J. Mazzone, from The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, and colleagues.
"This would help to guide refinement of the sensor array and breath collection
system to maximize the diagnostic accuracy of the test."
The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a great
show this year, peaking in mid-August with a display of dozens of shooting stars
each hour.
The Moon will be out of the way, leaving dark skies for good viewing as Earth
plunges through an ancient stream of comet debris. Little bits, most no larger
than sand grains, will vaporize in Earth's atmosphere, creating
sometimes-dramatic "shooting stars."
"It's going to be a great show," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment
Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. "The Moon is new on
August 12, which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors."
How many?
This year the Perseid meteor shower could deliver one or two visible streaks
every minute during peak times, Cooke said in a statement yesterday. Urban
skywatchers will see fewer due to local light pollution.
The meteors in this shower all appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus.
The best times to watch will be late night Aug. 12 through dawn Aug. 13.
"The August Perseids are among the strongest of the readily observed annual
meteor showers, and at maximum activity nominally yield 90 or 100 meteors per
hour," said Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Skywatching columnist. "However, observers with
exceptional skies often record even larger numbers."
Observing tips
To see the show, one need only find a comfortable spot with a clear view of the
northeast horizon, away from local lights. A dark rural location is best. Lay
back on a blanket or lounge chair and scan the entire sky. In the late evening,
starting around 9 p.m. local time, sharp-eyed observers might see "earthgrazing"
meteors that skim the northeast horizon.
"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful," Cooke said. "They are among the most
beautiful of meteors." But don't expect more than a handful in an hour, he said.
Later and during the overnight hours, the shooting stars will be higher in the
sky as Perseus rises. Some skywatchers enjoy counting the number of meteors they
see per minute, per hour or during a 15-minute interval and comparing notes.
Telescopes and binoculars are no help, as the meteors move too swiftly and are
best observed with the naked eye.
The cosmic rivers of debris have been laid down for millennia by the comet
Swift-Tuttle, which passes through the inner solar system every 130 years.
Perseid meteoroids are exceptionally fast, entering Earth's atmosphere at
roughly 133,200 mph (60 kilometers per second) relative to the planet, slamming
into the air like bugs hitting a windshield.
Anger really can trigger a heart attack. But then, so can
getting sick, being too hot, being too cold, air pollution, lack of sleep,
grief, overeating, natural disasters, exercise and sex.
In fact, simply waking up is the worst thing you can do if you're trying to
avoid a heart attack.
Heart attacks, strokes and cardiac arrests seem to come out of the blue, but
actually most occur upon waking up in the morning, according to the July 2007
issue of the Harvard Heart Letter.
Before waking, our bodies release stress hormones into the bloodstream to give
us the energy to get out of bed, but this also stresses the heart slightly. That
nudge can cause a cardiac event if one's arteries already are rife with
festering cholesterol-rich plaque.
The dehydration that normally occurs after a night of sleep also puts a
plaque-plagued circulatory system at risk. Also, heart medications wear off
during the night.
A bout of anger can increase the chances of having a heart attack up to 14-fold
for two hours following a flare-up, the Letter states.
Strenuous exercise such as shoveling snow or running can be a trigger, but
exertion is much less likely to cause trouble in people who exercise regularly.
So stay in shape, the authors advise.
Infectious diseases such as pneumonia and the flu can also trigger heart attacks
and strokes.
The fact is that most people sleep too little, rise and shine, make love, shovel
snow, eat too much, overheat, argue and recover from the flu without getting a
heart attack.
"Still, knowing what sets off heart attacks, strokes or cardiac arrests can help
you avoid triggers or blunt their power," the Letter states.
