Focus on Politics

Well, well, well. Guess what didn’t pass. The House was 55 votes short of overriding President Bush’s veto of the stem-cell research bill (HR 810). Thank God the issue was placed on the back burner, at least until November. Actually, God probably is glad that the bill didn’t pass.

Using embryonic stem-cells for research is like playing God, which is something we should never attempt. For those of you who are not quite clear what I mean by playing God (many of you probably think I mean playing God by curing diseases, which is far from the truth) playing God means determining who lives and who dies and when. Only God can determine who will live and die at a certain time. When we start to control this, we are trying to play God. And He doesn’t look too highly on that. That is why murder is a sin.

Stem-cell research is killing on person so we can (hopefully) find a cure for certain diseases, although that’s never been proven. We are trying to kill one person to cure another. Many people think that cells in a Petri dish are not life, but we all start as a group of cells. Just because it doesn’t have a heart or a brain yet, doesn’t mean it’s not alive. There is absolutely no excuse to kill these embryos.

Diseases will always exist, and we should find a cure for them. But we need to find cures without killing other people. Scientists have been curing diseases and/or minimizing the symptoms for years without killing other people. For those of you who don’t believe in God, you may not care about killing these embryos. But I don’t think I should pay for something I see as ethically and morally wrong.

I understand why people who have deadly diseases or are paralyzed would love to find a cure. My uncle has a rare and incurable kidney disease that also affects my cousin (his daughter). I wish there was a cure for him. I wish he could find a kidney transplant, but I also accept the fact that the whole purpose in life is to live and die. We can try to live longer, but in the end God will determine when we will die.

Support your representatives that do not support embryonic stem-cell research. Unfortunately, Senator John McCain voted for this stem-cell research bill, but McCain needs to know that there are people out there who do not support this type of research. If you live in Arizona, contact him and let him know what you think. You can reach him by email through his contact form at Senator John McCain

Or you can write to him at

Washington
241 Russell Senate Ofc. Bldg.
United States Senate
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2235
Fax: (202) 228-2862

Phoenix
5353 North 16th Street
Suite 105
Phoenix, Arizona 85016
Phone: (602) 952-2410
Fax: (602) 952-8702

Tempe
4703 S. Lakeshore Drive
Suite 1
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (480) 897-6289
Fax: (480) 897-8389

Tucson
407 W. Congress Street
Suite 103
Tucson, Arizona 85701
Phone: (520) 670-6334
Fax: (520) 670-6637

Also, here is a great website that gives you facts about stem-cell research. Concerned Women for America

Associated Press
Jul. 21, 2006 07:00 AM
LONDON - An ill-tempered parrot left English police a vital clue to the thief who took the bird from a pet shop.

Tristand Maidment, 23, pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing a macaw named Mickey from a pet shop in Frome, southwestern England, last month.

Maidment said he couldn’t remember being bitten by the parrot, but the wound left a trail of blood, which allowed police to make a DNA match to the suspect.

Mickey’s owner, Angus Hart, said the parrot was notoriously bad tempered and about 50 years old.

Maidment also admitted charges of burglary and animal cruelty, and an unrelated count of theft. He was ordered to be held in custody pending a court appearance on Aug. 3.

Associated Press
Jul. 21, 2006 07:00 AM
CORONA DEL MAR, Calif. - There was good news and bad news when Crash, the California brown pelican that earned her nickname when she flew beak-first into a car windshield, was released back into the wild.

As soon as workers with the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center released Crash on Big Corona Beach on Thursday, she stumbled and fell beak-first into a pile of rocks.

But after taking a few moments to gather her bearings, Crash shook her tail, bobbed in the surf and then headed for the heavens.

“She took off just fine and she was flying really well,” said Debbie McGuire, the center’s wildlife director.

McGuire blamed Crash’s stumble on reporters and photographers who distracted her.

“What happened was, there were so many cameras,” she said. “She looked back and then took a step.”

That stumble was nothing compared to the June 22 encounter Crash had with a car on Pacific Coast Highway. The accident left her with a 4-inch gash in her pouch and a mangled toe.

After the wound was stitched and the toe stabilized, Crash was given time to recuperate, then turned loose on the beach.

Officials blamed the accident on domoic acid poisoning that they said likely came from eating tainted algae.

The condition, which can be deadly, leaves a bird with the same symptoms as a person who has had too much to drink.

Associated Press
Jul. 21, 2006 10:42 AM
LAS VEGAS - In an effort to curb charity that is having unintended consequences, the City Council has make it illegal to give food to homeless people in city parks.

Residents complained that the large numbers of homeless gathering in the parks make it impossible for others to use them, said city spokesman David Riggleman.

“We’re trying to empathize with both camps,” he said. “We’re hoping we can improve their lives and improve the lives of people living around the park, some of whom have people urinating and defecating in front of their door.”

The law, which went into effect Thursday, targets so-called “mobile soup kitchens.” It carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

Riggleman said that by shutting down such soup kitchens, homeless people will be encouraged to go to a center or charity that offers services such as mental health evaluations or job placement.

Gail Sacco, who operates a mobile soup kitchen seven days a week, said the city doesn’t have adequate homeless services and that she is undeterred.

“There’s no way for people to get out to those services in triple-digit weather,” she said. “My plan is to do anything I feel is needed to keep these people alive.”

The law defines a homeless person as an indigent “whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance.”

American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada lawyer Allen Lichtenstein said the language makes the law unenforceable.

“The ordinance is clearly unconstitutional and nonsensical,” he said. “How are you going to know without a financial statement who’s poor and who’s not poor?”

“It means they can discriminate based on the way people look,” Lichtenstein said.

Associated Press
Jul. 21, 2006 12:07 PM
PHILADELPHIA - Police may have a 5-year-old murder witness. A youngster who picked up the phone when a neighbor called Wednesday night told her, “Mommy is on the chair dead.”

The neighbor called police when she was unable to get into the house, and investigators found 25-year-old Tiffany Bond dead on the couch. She had been stabbed in the chest.

They’re trying to piece together what happened and what the boy saw.

Jul. 21, 2006 07:00 AM
Associated Press

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. - Anyone looking to sport the same red-white-and-blue shoes President Bush received from a Wisconsin company last week is out of luck.

Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corp. says it won’t duplicate the patriotic wingtips it gave Bush when he visited its Port Washington factory July 11.

“We think that would take away from the gift that we gave to President Bush,” said Mark Birmingham, chief operating officer of Allen-Edmonds. “As it said in the insole, they were made exclusively for President Bush, and we want to honor that.”

About 130 people had some role in making the shoes, which took about a day, Birmingham said.

“It was a great source of excitement for everybody, a real morale booster and something everybody could rally behind, regardless of your politics,” he said. “We make shoes for the left and the right. This was more about the office of the president.”

Bush is a regular customer of the 84-year-old shoe company.

“Just giving him another pair of black dress shoes didn’t seem appropriate,” Birmingham said.

Associated Press
Jul. 20, 2006 12:01 PM
PAINESVILLE, Ohio - To stay out of jail, two paintball shooters will have to take aim at their own cars.

That was the lowdown from a judge wo found the guys guilty of splattering up another man’s vehicle with paintballs in May.

Joshua Breeding, 20, and Christopher Lyons, 19, each got a sentence of 60 days in jail. But Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti gave them the option of shooting their own cars with paintballs and then cleaning up the mess. And, they’ll have to spend 40 hours painting at a Habitat for Humanity home.

The judge also ordered the pair to apologize to their victim and pay court costs.

Associated Press
Jul. 21, 2006 07:00 AM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A software developer running for governor and the U.S. Senate felt so strongly that voters should have “None of the Above” as a choice that he made it his middle name.

The State Election Commission voted 5-0 to nix the middle name from the ballot.

Now, David “None of the Above” Gatchell is challenging the commission in court to get the words on the Nov. 7 ballot. “I feel so strongly about this and I knew that it should be my name,” he said. “That’s who I am.”

Gatchell, 58, ran as an independent in the 2002 governor’s race on the platform that Tennessee election ballots should include a “None of the Above” choice for voters who don’t care for any of the candidates.

Gatchell, who won 6 percent of the gubernatorial vote in 2002, decided in January that he would run for the two seats, and he’ll be listed in both races as an independent.

He changed his middle name from Leroy in August.

State law says the election commission can omit a portion of the name or require that further information about the candidate be included on the ballot if four or more members agree the name is confusing or misleading.

Gatchell argues that a number of state gubernatorial candidates are already allowed to include their nicknames and that his middle name has been widely reported by news media and is known across the Internet.

Nevada is the only state to offer a choice of “None of the Above,” and it first appeared in 1976. The option is nonbinding - it’s only to serve as a gauge of public opinion and could never win an election.

Associated Press
Jul. 20, 2006 01:16 PM
PELHAM, N.Y. - A pink-and-white gardening glove was missing Thursday morning from another porch in Pelham, but there was no mystery about who’d taken it.

Willy, the cat who loves gloves, had struck again. The feline felon has carried off at least two dozen gardening gloves since April.

The gloves are on a clothesline that’s strung across the front fence at Willy’s home, which he shares with Jennifer and Dan Pifer. Above the line is a sign that says “Our cat is a glove snatcher. Please take these if yours.”

Nine pairs of gardening gloves and five singles are strung up.

Jennifer Pifer says Willy brings the gloves home, proud as can be, and leaves them on the front porch as a gift. She figures “it’s better than if he was bringing home dead birds.”

In winter, Willy doesn’t become a mitten kitten. His off-season prey is dirty socks, which he carries off from the family’s laundry room.

Associated Press
Jul. 20, 2006 10:32 AM
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand policewoman has been censured for some unauthorized “undercover” work — a stint moonlighting as a prostitute — but is being allowed to keep her day job after giving up the night duties.

While prostitution is legal in New Zealand and police are allowed to take approved second jobs, a top officer said sex work and police work don’t mix.

The policewoman had worked for a limited time as a prostitute in the northern city of Auckland before her clandestine activity was uncovered, police said. Her name and rank have not been made public.

Police media communications manager Jon Neilson said he understood the officer had taken up “secondary employment due to financial difficulties,” but had not sought police approval to work in the sex industry.

She has been counseled over the matter, which “under police procedures …. amounts to a censure,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Lyn Provost.

“I can assure the public that … this type of secondary employment would never be approved given that the type of work is inappropriate and incompatible with policing,” Provost said.

A spokeswoman for the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective said that depending on the brothel in which she worked, the police officer could have earned 500 New Zealand dollars (US$312) on a busy night.

Had she heard of other police officers moonlighting as sex workers?

“We have law students that are sex workers, we have doctors that are sex workers, I mean anyone can be a sex worker,” the woman said, asking that she not be named due to the sensitive nature of her job.

“NZPC’s philosophy is that we support people that are in that (for) secondary employment,” she added.

Police Minister Annette King called the matter an internal police employment issue. It was “inappropriate” for her to comment.