The Bethie Bee

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the Kelo case, and if you’re wondering whether iminent domain abuse has really increased since a year ago, check out the reports by The Institute for Justice on the matter:

Consider this fact: in just the past year, more than 5,700 properties nationwide have been threatened by or taken with eminent domain for private development—a figure that compares with more than 10,000 examples over a five-year period preceding the Kelo argument, according to one of five reports released today by the Institute for Justice

But, on the positive side,

Coupled with this increase in eminent domain abuse, however, has been a virtually unprecedented grassroots and legislative response to the most universally despised Supreme Court ruling in recent memory

Visit The Castle Coalition website to see the full reports that:

1) document the growing problem of eminent domain for private development, 2) chronicle the legislative response to Kelo, 3) demonstrate failed redevelopments that followed government’s use of force to acquire property, and 4) expose the common myths put forward by developers and cities defending eminent domain for private use. In another document also released today, the Castle Coalition offers homeowners who face eminent domain abuse an “Eminent Domain Survival Guide.” All are available at www.CastleCoalition.org.

Hat Tip: Acton Institute Power Blog

The Presbyterian Church USA (PC USA) is really living up to its name. Trying to be more “gender inclusive” or P.C. the PC USA is considering changing the names of the three parts of the trinity. That’s right, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” could soon become “Mother, Child and Womb,” “Rock, Redeemer, Friend”, “Lover, Beloved, Love”, “Creator, Savior, Sanctifier”, or “King of Glory, Prince of Peace, Spirit of Love.”

While many of these names do have biblical roots, and are used poetically to refer to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, completely changing the names used to refer to the triune God could completely change the character of the faith. As Dorothy Hill, a youth delegate at the Presbyterian Assembly, and a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary explains, the paper

“suggests viewpoints that seem to be in tension with what our church has always held to be true about our Trinitarian God.”

“She reminded delegates that the Ten Commandments say ‘the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.’

In addition,

On Tuesday, the assembly will vote on a proposal to give local congregations and regional “presbyteries” some leeway on ordaining clergy and lay officers living in gay relationships.

Ten conservative Presbyterian groups have warned jointly that approval of what they call “local option” would “promote schism by permitting the disregard of clear standards of Scripture.”

I’m not Presbyterian, but the college I went to is loosely affiliated with the PC USA, and while I now go to a more conservative church, I grew up in another mainline denomination, and worry about mainline Christian churches, and the future of the faith in general.

One of the suggestions perplexed me more than all of the others–the first person to explain how “King of Glory, Prince of Peace, Spirit of Love” is gender-neutral wins a prize.

Read the whole story here.

Recently, my boyfriend called mother’s day a “Hallmark holiday”, I’m sure that he and many other like him would say the same of Father’s Day. Well, if my arguments didn’t convince him that these days are not merely “Hallmark Holidays” like “Administrative Professionals Day” or “National Teachers Day,” I hope that Carrie Lukas’ column in National Review Online today will. As Lukas explains,

Father’s Day tends to get treated as just another “Hallmark Holiday.” And we have so many: Grandparents Day, Secretary’s (now the more politically correct “Administrative Professional’s”) Day, National Teacher’s Day, Take Your Daughter to Work Day — the list goes on. Yet if ever there was a need for a Hallmark Holiday, Father’s Day is it.

The last few decades have been rough for fathers. If dads once were idealized in popular culture as all-knowing patriarchs, today they’re usually the butt of the joke. The Simpsons, comedy classic though it is, probably is the best known example. Marge is a relatively positive role model; a caring, generally sensible figure (in spite of the hair). Homer is stupid, childish, undisciplined, and completely incompetent. From Malcolm in the Middle to The Family Guy, the modern TV dad is more idiot than ideal. Just as any fictional battle-of-the-sexes today is invariably won by women, positive images of dads in entertainment are rare.

Lukas concludes,

Put simply, children need their fathers. Anyone familiar with social policy today knows the litany of ills caused by their absence: Children raised outside of marriage are more likely to drink to excess, smoke, use drugs, drop out of school, be victims of abuse, have mental problems, and commit crimes. Reformers of the Left and Right increasingly agree that reducing the number of children growing up outside of marriage is an important goal. So a national debate will continue to rage about how government can bring back fathers, either by scrapping programs that subsidize single parenthood or by encouraging marriage.

The hard truth is that no program or policy will fix America’s broken homes until society gets back to valuing dads as indispensable role models. Father’s Day is a good time to start.

So, I hope that we all can see Father’s Day as more than a time to give our fathers a card or a gift, but a time to appreciate their influence on our lives.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

As I’m sure you’ve already heard, it’s official that Zarqawi was killed in an air-raid.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, al-Maliki said.

Loud applause broke out among the reporters and soldiers as al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a news conference that “al-Zarqawi was eliminated.”

But any hopes the Jordanian-born terror leader’s death would help stem the violence in Iraq were dimmed hours later when a car bomb exploded in a Baghdad market, killing 12 and wounding 65.

I like the was Senator John Cornyn put it, “Al Zarqawi has made his last video.”

The “it’s not my fault” disorder has just gotten worse…according to a recent study, millions have a “Rage” disorder.

According to an AP article by Lindsey Tanner,

To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it - intermittent explosive disorder - and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.

“People think it’s bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don’t know … is that there’s a biology and cognitive science to this,” said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago’s medical school.

Road rage, temper outbursts that involve throwing or breaking objects and even spousal abuse can sometimes be attributed to the disorder, though not everyone who does those things is afflicted.

By definition, intermittent explosive disorder involves multiple outbursts that are way out of proportion to the situation. These angry outbursts often include threats or aggressive actions and property damage. The disorder typically first appears in adolescence; in the study, the average age of onset was 14.

The study was based on a national face-to-face survey of 9,282 U.S. adults who answered diagnostic questionnaires in 2001-03. It was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

About 5 percent to 7 percent of the nationally representative sample had had the disorder, which would equal up to 16 million Americans. That is higher than better-known mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Coccaro said.

The average number of lifetime attacks per person was 43, resulting in $1,359 in property damage per person. About 4 percent had suffered recent attacks.

The findings were released Monday in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Look, I’m sure that some people are more prone to “rage” than others–we all have unique personalities, that’s what makes life interesting–I happen to be a laid-back person by nature. Perhaps the study will help us learn new ways to prevent outbursts of rage, but I think it’s more likely that further knowledge of this “disorder” will not lead to a “cure” but will become just one more reason that no bad thing is ever anyone’s fault (except maybe George W. Bush and the evil republicans) in this society.

This is unbelievable…

A judge’s decision to sentence a 5-foot-1 man to probation instead of prison for sexually assaulting a child has angered crime victim advocates who say the punishment sends the wrong message.

But supporters of short people say it’s about time someone recognizes the unique challenges they face.

Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava issued the sentence Tuesday. She told Richard W. Thompson that his crimes deserved a long prison sentence but that he was too small to survive in a state prison.

Though he could have been sentenced to 10 years behind bars, he ended up with 10 years of probation instead. On Thursday, the state’s attorney general, Jon Bruning, promised to appeal within two weeks, calling the sentence far too lenient.

Whatever happened to holding people accountable for their actions…just 10 years of probation for sexually assaulting a child because the poor guy is too short? Unbelievable.

Hat Tip: Ink Well

Apparently, we now live in a police state in which the president is out forcing women to have abortions…right.

I really liked one of the points made on Junkyard Blog about this article:

Oh, by the way, if this was just some lump of tissue you had excised, why are you so worked up about it? I mean, I get a plantar wart sanded off, they don’t give me a column in the Washington Post to write about it. Or was this something more complex than just a lump of inanimate flesh?

But the Sabres game is too damn exciting…Let’s Go Buffalo!!

Also Blogging:The Irish Trojan’s Blog, Jeff.Orcutt, Thingy

Update: Heartbreaking