Officials from Columbia, Md.-based W.R. Grace & Co., which operated a vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont., from 1963 to 1990, were well-aware that the asbestos-tainted vermiculate products they were profiting from were endangering the lives of mine workers, customers and residents of Libby and the surrounding communities, according to an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Montana on Feb. 7 |
     Approximately 1,200 residents in the Libby area -- 70 percent of whom did not work at the Libby Mine -- have asbestos-related health abnormalities, according to the indictment |

¶ 19:41 0 comments

Find out exactly where Baxter Immigration Centre is located

"Slap-bang in the middle of one of the world's hottest deserts, Baxter is a facility (prison)built by the Australian federal government for holding asylum seekers, some of whom have been languishing there for years. Cornelia Rau should not have been imprisoned there (because she is an Australian citizen, and was listed for months as a missing person). On the other hand ... nobody should be imprisoned there. From all accounts, if you're not crazy when they throw you in Baxter, you will be by the time you get out."

¶ 19:28 0 comments

"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.
The traitor is the plague."

¶ 13:57 0 comments

...two official projections -- one by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and a somewhat less pessimistic projection by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have found that the President's assertions lack credibility, and may even mislead the public to achieve a real gutting of Social Security resources.
     The CBO doesn't project trust-fund depletion until a decade later, in 2052, and figures that the benefits cuts wouldn't be so severe, a reduction to 78% of promised benefits. But either way, even a "bankrupt" system would continue to provide most of what's promised currently.
     A more detailed analysis is provided

¶ 07:05 0 comments

34- “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35- For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36- I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37- “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38- When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39- When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40- “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41- “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42- For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43- I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44- “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45- “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

So why did Jesus say that not helping the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the person with no clothes, the sick, or the person in prison, was the same as not helping Him?

I am not entirely sure, but I am sure that the body of Christ (the church) not only has a responsibility to share the gospel (e.g. to say repent and be saved), but to also say “You don’t have to worry, I am here. Here is my shoulder you can lean on me.” Of course, it is not my shoulder that is needed, but the shoulder of Jesus. But think about it, the Church is the Body of Christ, so that means you and I as Christians are that sholder - a sholder which according to Jesus' words is not only meet spiritual need, but physical needs too!

Consequently, I can’t turn my back on the hungry, the stranger, the person with no clothes, the sick, or the person in prison and so on. But I do not become a shoulder that matters unless I am united with other Christians - that was the whole point of my Philippians post below – we need to act in unison as the Body of Christ.

Of course, many many Christian organizations do and are acting to deal with these and many other issues. But to really address the issue and end world hunger, the entire church would need to rise up and act in unison. In the mean time do some math - if 25 million people die a year of hunger - how many died since my last post yesterday? So is you have ideas about how we can stand up and act in unison on these ussues share them - so that we can stand up together - and turn the world upsidedown!

¶ 03:29 0 comments