Iranian pastor faces death for rape, not apostasy – report

By Dan Merica, CNN

updated 9:29 PM EST, Fri September 30, 2011

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani will executed for several charges of rape and extortion, not his original sentence of apostasy.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Iranian official calls Nadarkhani “rapist … guilty of security-related crimes”
• NEW: Official says Iran doesn’t execute people because of their religion
• Nadarkhani got death sentence for rape and extortion
• He is the leader of a network of house churches in Iran

Washington (CNN) — Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani will be put to death for several charges of rape and extortion, charges that differ greatly from his original sentence of apostasy, Iran’s semi-official Fars News agency reported Friday.

Gholomali Rezvani, the deputy governor of Gilan province, where Nadarkhani was tried and convicted, accused Western media of twisting the real story, referring to him as a “rapist.” A previous report from the news agency claimed he had committed several violent crimes, including repeated rape and extortion.

“His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” Rezvani told Fars. “He is guilty of security-related crimes.”

In a translated Iranian Supreme Court brief from 2010, however, the charge of apostasy is the only charge leveled against Nadarkhani.

“Mr. Youcef Nadarkhani, son of Byrom, 32-years old, married, born in Rasht in the state of Gilan is convicted of turning his back on Islam, the greatest religion the prophesy of Mohammad at the age of 19,” reads the brief.

The brief was obtained by CNN from the American Center for Law and Justice and was translated from its original Farsi by the Confederation of Iranian Students in Washington.

It goes on to say that during the court proceeding, Nadarkhani denied the prophecy of Mohammad and the authority of Islam.

“He (Nadarkhani) has stated that he is a Christian and no longer Muslim,” states the brief. “During many sessions in court with the presence of his attorney and a judge, he has been sentenced to execution by hanging according to article 8 of Tahrir — olvasileh.”

Rezvani, the official from Gilan province, confirmed that his execution is “not imminent” nor is it final.

He is a Zionist and has committed security-related crimes.
Gholomali Rezvani

Mohammadali Dadkhah, the pastor’s lawyer, said through a translator that even in light of the Fars News report, he does not believe Nadarkhani will be put to death.

“The case is still in progress,” Dadkhah said. “There’s a 95% that he won’t get the death penalty. Yes, I still believe that.”

Dadkhah spoke briefly of the trial proceedings, stating that he presented documents to the court that should be convincing, including documents from Shi’ite leaders that state the crime does not warrant the possible punishment.

“This is a legal process that should take its course, and it should stand, on its own merits. It should succeed,” Dadkhah said.

Nadarkhani, the leader of a network of house churches in Iran, was first convicted of apostasy in November 2010, a charge he subsequently appealed all the way to the Iranian Supreme Court. After four days of an appeals trial that started Sunday at a lower court in Gilan Province, Nadarkhani refused to recant his beliefs.

That said, Rezvani — echoing an earlier report from Fars — insisted that “Nadarkhani’s crime and his death sentence have nothing to do with his beliefs.

“No one is executed in Iran for their choice of religion,” he added. “He is a Zionist and has committed security-related crimes.”

The possible execution of Nadarkhani, based on an assumption it is tied to his Christian belief, has elicited responses from the highest levels of the United States government, too.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement Friday that said the United States stands with “all Iranians against the Iranian government’s hypocritical statements and actions.”

The White House released a statement on Thursday, stating that Nadarkhani “has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for people.”

“That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency and breaches Iran’s own international obligations,” reads the statement.

Leonard Leo, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, says a trial for apostasy in Iran is rare. According to him, this is the first apostasy trial since 1990.

Nadarkhani’s trial and his possible execution have engaged American Christians, as well. Todd Nettleton, spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs, a Christian organization that attempts to assist with persecuted and minority churches around the world, called the news of the new charges proof that international attention on the issue is working.

“They are feeling the attention, they are feeling the weight of the eyes of the world watching how they are treating this man,” Nettleton said. “I am dumbfounded, though, that at this stage in the game, this is what they would trot out.”

Voice of the Martyrs manages a Facebook page that has brought a lot of attention to Nadarkhani’s trial. With comments updated by the minute, thousand of people have taken to Facebook to spread the word about the pastor.

In light of this news, Nettleton said the Facebook page would continue to be active.

“I think our first response will be prayer for pastor Youcef,” Nettleton said. “Prayer that justice will be done and that he will remain faithful no matter that the days ahead may bring for him.”

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/world/meast/iran-christian-pastor/

Happy Birthday, got change for a ten?

DH’s birthday was yesterday, wish I had thought of this.

 

Man celebrating his birthday gets shot over $10 gift

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta police are looking for a rude gift-giver who allegedly shot a man for refusing to return part of the birthday present.

Around 3:20 a.m., police were called to the Chinese Buddha restaurant at 100 10^th Street when the shooting was reported.

The victim was celebrating his birthday with friends on the restaurant patio when the gunman pulled up in a black Nissan Altima and offered the victim $10 as a gift, police say.

The man returned shortly and asked for $4 back.

When the birthday celebrant refused, the man went for a handgun. As the armed man returned to the patio, several party-goers tackled him.

But the gun went off, hitting the birthday victim once in the abdomen, police said.

The birthday victim was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The gunman got in his car and drove away.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/man-celebrating-his-birthday-1191966.html

Obama gives $737 million to Pelosi’s brother in law

Crony Socialism: Obama Gives $737 Million to Solar Firm Linked to the Pelosi Clan

Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 12:14 PM

It’s as if Solyndra never happened. The Obama Administration is giving $737 million to a Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve. PCG is an investment partner with SolarReserve. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law happens to be the number two man at PCG.

Team Obama is spending $737 million to create 45 permanent jobs.
The Hill reported, via Free Republic:

The Energy Department announced Wednesday that is has finalized a $737 million loan guarantee for a Nevada solar project.

The decision comes several weeks after a California-based solar manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration in 2009 filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers, setting off a firestorm in Washington.

The $737 million loan guarantee will help finance construction of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev. The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.

Crescent Dunes is the latest solar project to receive a loan guarantee from the Energy Department in recent weeks. The department announced a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar for a solar generation project in California and a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies for a Massachusetts solar manufacturing project earlier this month.

The Energy Department says the project will result in 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs.

It looks like Rep. Allen West was right.
Obama IS trying to destroy the economy.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/09/more-crony-socialism-obama-gives-737-million-to-pelosis-brother-in-laws-solar-firm/

Iranian Pastor Sentenced to Death: Nadarkhani Refuses to Convert

This man is willing to die for Christ, the least we can do is pray for him.

By Daniel D. Tovrov | September 29, 2011 10:35 AM EDT

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is facing the death penalty, again refused to convert to Islam to save his life.

Nadarkhani was arrested in 2009 for the crime of apostasy because he allegedly abandoned Islam for Christianity. As a pastor, Iranian clerics believe that Nadarkhani was preaching in order to convert Muslims.

Before his last hearing Wednesday, Nadarkhani had been given three previous chances to repent, and all three times he has refused. After his final refusal Wednesday, no verdict has been announced, but many expect that he could be put to death as soon as Friday.

The case has slowly garnered international attention, and there are a number of Christian rights groups advocating for his release.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner also has spoken out against Iran. “While Iran’s government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith. This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity. I urge Iran’s leaders to abandon this dark path, spare [Nadarkhani's] life, and grant him a full and unconditional release,” said Boehner.

There were rumors on Wednesday night that Nadarkhani’s execution sentence was to be waived after the final trial, but contradicting reports indicate that the news was incorrect.

“We’ve had some reports that there has been a verbal announcement from the court in Iran that the sentence is annulled but we urge caution,” said Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a religious group campaigning for Nadarkhani’s release.

“It’s been known that verbal announcements have been directly contradicted by later written statements. We are still calling for international pressure to be kept up.”

The American Center for Law and Justice said in a message titled “Troubling News” that the rumors were spread by the Iranian secret service in an attempt to get the media to stop reporting the story. ACLJ said Nadarkhani’s lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah called the center Wednesday to say the death sentence hasn’t been overturned.

Even if the sentence were commuted, Nadarkhani could still face life in prison. And even if he were released, there would still be danger.

“In Iran about 18 years ago, they had released a pastor, but then came and assassinated him and his bishop later. We cannot stop the pressure,” Pastor Firouz Sadegh-Khandjani, a Member of the Council of Elders for the Church of Iran, told the ACLJ.

Between June 2010 and January 2011, more than 200 people in Iran were arrested for their religious beliefs, according to Elam Ministries, a United Kingdom-based church with ties to Iran.

In August, a pastor named Haghnejad was arrested for the third time, according to Christian Solidarity. Police also confiscated 6,500 bibles, which Iran’s social issues committee deemed were being used to deceive youths.

While no one has been hanged for the crime of apostasy in Iran for more than 20 years, the country has the second highest execution rate of any nation in the world. So far in 2011, there have been about 400 executions, a quarter of which occurred in September.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/222139/20110929/iranian-pastor-sentenced-to-death.htm

We can hope, can’t we?

Fmr. Clinton Adviser: ‘Very Possible’ Obama Will Bow Out of Presidential Race – For Now

By Grant M. Dahl

September 29, 2011

Subscribe to Grant M. Dahl’s posts

In an interview with conservative radio icon Sean Hannity, former President Clinton adviser and campaign manager Dick Morris stated that, after speaking with a Democratic strategist, he thinks it is “very possible” that President Obama might acquiesce to requests from the Democratic leadership in Congress and bow out of the 2012 race, leaving the door open for him to return sometime in the future.

“I asked a top Democratic strategist the other day and he thought that it was possible that, in January, Harry Reid comes to Obama and says, ‘Look you cost us control of the House last year, you’re going to cost us control of the Senate this year. For the good of the party you have to step aside’” said Morris.

“And, then, (Obama) pulls a Lyndon Johnson, he says ‘I’m fighting to solve the recession, and problem is because of partisanship and my re-election people reject everything I say because of partisanship, so I’m going to not run for president and focus my full time attention on solving this recession’ and then go out popular,” Morris added.

The strategy proposed here is an interesting one. With his approval ratings at an all time low, Obama is looking at a very high likelihood of a defeat in the 2012 elections and forecasters, using the examples of the 2011 special elections in New York City and Nevada, have forecast a very high probability of losses across the nation for the Democratic Party because of Obama.

A withdrawal by President Obama, with a statement that the reason he’s bowing out is to solve the recession, would likely allow the Democratic Party to recover some of its popularity and allow the president to present himself as rising above the partisan fights in Congress with a higher goal in mind. This would help the Democrats to better portray the Republicans, and especially the Tea Party, as the stubborn, non-compromising party uninterested in truly solving the nation’s problems.

Morris added that he thinks that this strategy could also set up Obama for a presidential run in a later election.

“The twenty second amendment does not preclude non-consecutive terms, he is young, (he could) preserve himself as a possible candidate down the road” said Morris. “We’ve seen how Bill Clinton is much more popular now then he was when he was leaving office, same with Jimmy Carter.”

Intriguing as that possibility is, however, non-consecutive presidential terms have only happened once before in American politics, though they have been attempted by a few former presidents. The only president to successfully serve non-consecutive terms was Democrat Grover Cleveland who won election in 1884, lost in 1888, and won in 1892.

http://cnsnews.com/blog/grant-m-dahl/fmr-clinton-adviser-very-possible-obama-will-bow-out-presidential-race-now

Anti Obama Billboard: Change Me, I Stink

Anti-Obama sign in Uptown neighborhood draws controversy

wwltv.com

Posted on September 28, 2011 at 2:29 PM

Updated today at 10:39 AM

Make sure you check out the Gallery

See all 8 photos »

Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News

NEW ORLEANS — There are several political signs attracting all kinds of attention in one Uptown neighborhood.

On Wednesday, crowds gathered at the corner of Calhoun and Coralie streets, looking at several signs depicting President Barack Obama as either a dunce, a puppet or a crying baby in a diaper.

“It disrespects the nation — and President Barack Obama represents our nation,” said Skip Alexander, as he looked at one of the signs. “He represents everybody, not some people.”

Dozens of protesters came by the house in the 1500 block of Calhoun throughout the day, demanding the sign come down.

“He wouldn’t do that to [President] Bush, I’m sure. It’s just insulting. It’s insulting,” said C.C. Campbell-Rock. “He’s going to have to take them down.”

“This is nothing put pure racism,” said Raymond Rock. “This is a disgrace.”

The home is owned by Timothy Reily, who declined to be interviewed about the signs. Former Mayor Ray Nagin showed up at the house and went inside to speak with Reily. He emerged later and would not comment on what they discussed.

Some neighbors tell Eyewitness News that Reily has been putting the signs up for months. Some of the protesters learned about the signs through a local radio station on Wednesday morning.

“He can put up a sign if he wants to. It doesn’t bother me,” said Harold Gagnet, a neighbor.

“I think it’s fine. It’s on his property,” said Katherine deMontluzin. “He can say whatever he wants.”

The signs have created such a firestorm of controversy, though, that police came to the scene– called in by City Council Member Susan Guidry. She represents the district where the home is located. Guidry said she was concerned about public safety and was trying to figure out if the sign was even legal. She also said she spoke to Reily, but didn’t get far.

“We have to determine that there is a zoning law that prohibits perhaps the size of the sign, perhaps the way that it’s erected, that it is leaning over onto public property,” Guidry said. “Whatever we can use, we will, but of course, we do have to balance that with First Amendment rights.”

Yet, the signs remain in place, fanning the flames of a free speech debate on both sides of the fence.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Controversial-political-sign-raises-eyebrows-130727418.html

Another Dead Satellite to Crash Land in November

By Denise Chow

Published September 29, 2011

| Space.com

A defunct NASA satellite that fell to Earth last week sparked some worldwide buzz, but it’s not the only spacecraft falling out of space.

The decommissioned German X-ray space observatory, called the Roentgen Satellite or ROSAT, will tumble to Earth sometime in early November, but it’s still too early to pinpoint exactly when and where debris from the satellite will land, according to officials at the German Aerospace Center.

The 2.4-ton spacecraft’s orbit extends from the latitudes of 53 degrees north and south, which means the satellite could fall anywhere over a huge swath of the planet — stretching from Canada to South America, German Aerospace officials said. [6 Biggest Uncontrolled Spacecraft Falls From Space]

The latest estimates suggest that up to 30 large pieces of the satellite could survive the intense and scorching journey through Earth’s atmosphere. In all, about 1.6 tons of the satellite components could reach the surface of the Earth, according to German Aerospace officials.

The re-entry will be similar to NASA’s 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which plunged into the southern Pacific Ocean on Saturday (Sept. 24).

ROSAT coming home

In 1998, ROSAT’s star tracker failed, which caused its onboard camera to be pointed directly at the sun. The event permanently damaged the spacecraft and ROSAT was officially decommissioned in February 1999.

Scientists are actively tracking the dead satellite, but many of the details will remain uncertain until roughly two hours before it hits Earth.

“It is not possible to accurately predict ROSAT’s re-entry,” Heiner Klinkrad, head of the Space Debris Office at the European Space Agency, said in a webcast posted on the German Aerospace Center’s website. “The uncertainty will decrease as the moment of re-entry approaches. It will not be possible to make any kind of reliable forecast about where the satellite will actually come down until about one or two hours before the fact.”

It will, however, be possible to rule out certain geographical regions from the potential drop zone about a day in advance, Klinkrad said. The largest piece of debris is expected to be the telescope’s heat resistant mirror.

“Generally speaking, whenever a satellite re-enters the atmosphere, about 20 to 40 percent of its mass actually reaches the Earth’s surface,” Klinkrad said. “In the case of ROSAT, this figure could be slightly higher because one of its characteristic features is that it carries heat-resistant mirror structures on board.” [Related: Falling Satellites & Space Junk: Q&A with Orbital Debris Expert]

Small risk to public

Fragments from ROSAT could fall back to Earth over a 50-mile (80-kilometer) wide path, but despite the uncontrolled nature of ROSAT’s re-entry, the odds of personal injury or property damage are extremely remote, German Aerospace officials said.

When NASA’s UARS satellite fell to Earth, for example, NASA said the chances of parts of the spacecraft striking any one of the nearly seven billion people on the planet were about 1 in 3,200. The actual personal risk of being hit for an individual person, however, was about 1 in several trillion, NASA officials said.

To date, there have been no reported serious injuries or casualties from falling space debris, NASA scientists have said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/29/another-dead-satellite-to-crash-land-in-november/?test=faces#ixzz1ZLzjMC8S

Gunrunning Informant Used Taxpayer Money to Buy Drugs, Guns

Gunrunning Informant Used Taxpayer Money to Buy Drugs, Possibly Guns, Lawmakers Allege

By William Lajeunesse

Published September 28, 2011

Congressional investigators are confronting the Justice Department about evidence they say indicates an FBI informant used U.S. taxpayer money not only to buy drugs but also possibly to buy guns for the Sinaloa cartel.

Those facts apparently were known by the FBI and DEA as early as 2009 but not passed on to key people in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which went on to spent millions of dollars and thousands of man hours trying to identify that informant and others gun traffickers like him through the controversial Operation Fast and Furious.

The informant first received at least $3,500 in official law enforcement funds as payment for illegal narcotics, according to a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder from Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley. Issa and Grassley, who don’t elaborate on the nature of that payment, say the informant then became the “financier” for a firearms trafficking ring while cooperating with the FBI and receiving “additional payments as a confidential informant.”

Click here to read the letter.

The informant, identified only as “CI#1,” was allegedly buying guns in January 2010 from Manuel Celis-Acosta, the Phoenix man considered the main target of Operation Fast and Furious, which began about the same time. It was intended to follow guns purchased by so-called “straw buyers” in the United States to the traffickers who were selling them to the cartels in Mexico.

Fast and Furious came under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that U.S. authorities let illicit sales proceed but then lost track of hundreds of the guns, some of which ended up at the scenes of violent crimes, including the killing of a U.S. border agent.

Issa and Grassley, both Republicans, asked Holder to tell Congress how much the Department of Justice paid the informant, when he became an informant and how much the informant spent buying guns for the cartels.

“If ATF had known in January 2010, as the DEA and the FBI apparently knew, that the straw purchasing ring was procuring weapons for CI #1, then Operation Fast and Furious may have ended 10 months sooner than it did,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “This would have prevented hundreds of assault type weapons from being illegally straw purchased on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.”

The lawmakers, citing confidential sources, said the informant regularly traded information for money with Jim Roberts, the DEA’s agent-in-charge in Juarez, Mexico. The letter also for the first time names higher-ups within the Justice Department who knew Celis-Acosta was moving “heavy-duty firearms” to the Mexican cartels.

“Sources have indicated that this information was communicated to numerous senior people in the (DOJ) Criminal Division, including Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and several of his top deputies, including Jason Weinstein, Kenneth Blanco and John Keeney,” the letter says.

As for the frequent criticism that the ATF unnecessarily prolonged Operation Fast and Furious, the letter says the agency knew by July 2010 that Celis-Acosta had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border 15 times, but chose not to arrest him, even though those crossings — and the hundreds of guns ATF agents witnessed him receiving — constituted probable cause.

Grassley and Issa have requested Holder turn over the requested documents by Oct. 4. So far, the Justice Department has provided just 12 documents over the last month, according to a Grassley spokesman.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/28/gunrunning-informant-used-taxpayer-money-to-buy-drugs-possibly-guns-lawmakers/#ixzz1ZItad99O

 

India files biopiracy lawsuit against Monsanto

India files biopiracy lawsuit against Monsanto, says biotech giant is stealing nature for corporate gain

NaturalNews) Representing one of the most agriculturally bio-diverse nations in the world, India has become a primary target for biotechnology companies like Monsanto and Cargill to spread their genetically-modified (GM) crops into new markets. However, a recent France 24 report explains that the Indian government has decided to take an offensive approach against this attempted agricultural takeover by suing Monsanto for “biopiracy,” accusing the company of stealing India’s indigenous plants in order to re-engineer them into patented varieties.

Brinjal, also known in Western nations as eggplant, is a native Indian crop for which there are roughly 2,500 different unique varieties. Millions of Indian farmers grow brinjal, which is used in a variety of Indian food dishes, and the country grows more than a quarter of the world’s overall supply of the vegetable.

And in an attempt to capitalize on this popular crop, Monsanto has repeatedly tried to commercially market its own GM variety of brinjal called Bt brinjal. But massive public outcry against planned commercial approval of Monsanto’s “frankencrop” variety in 2010 led to the government banning it for an indefinite period of time.

But Monsanto is still stealing native crops, including brinjal, and quietly working on GM varieties of them in test fields, which is a clear violation of India’s Biological Diversity Act (BDA). So at the prompting of various farmers and activists in India, the Indian government, representing the first time in history a nation that has taken such action, has decided to sue Monsanto.

“This can send a different message to the big companies for violating the laws of the nation,” said K.S. Sugara, Member Secretary of the Karnataka Biodiversity Board, to France 24 concerning the lawsuit. “It is not acceptable … that the farmers in our communities are robbed of the advantage they should get from the indigenous varieties.”

You can watch the full France 24 video report of India’s lawsuit against Monsanto here:
http://www.france24.com/en/20110921…

Farmers and active members of the public in India have been some of the world’s most outspoken opponents of Monsanto’s attempted GM takeover of agriculture. Besides successfully overturning the attempted approval of Bt brinjal, these freedom fighters have also successfully destroyed several attempted Monsanto GM test fields.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033714_bi…#ixzz1ZI2yEeIi

Does your Fifth grader know how to use a condom?

Fifth Graders Quizzed on Proper Condom Use
Posted 10:36AM EDT 9/22/2011 Jennifer LeClaire

http://www.charismanews.com/culture/…2BHeadlines%29

condom use taught to fifth graders A child holds condoms ripped off an banner reading SIDA (AIDS) during an HIV/AIDS awareness event staged by the Red Cross. (AP Images/Vadim Ghirda)

Does your fifth grader know how to use a condom? They may soon learn if they go to school in Washington, D.C.

The District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent on Education is pushing out standardized tests for sex education. The District takes its authority to administer sex education tests to fifth, eighth, and tenth graders from the Healthy Schools Act of 2010.

Here’s how it works: Children as young as 10 will be asked 50 questions. One of the questions reads: “TJ wants to remain abstinent, but also wants to know how to properly use a condom in case he is ever in a situation where he might become sexually active. Give TWO reasons why using a condom properly is important and describe THREE people or places that could give TJ accurate information about condom use.”

“The guideline questions necessitate age-inappropriate instruction for 10 and 11-year-olds. Previously, comprehensive sex education advocates would have the minimal—but insufficient—courtesy of allowing parents to opt their children out of their classes,” says Emmett McGroarty, executive director of the Preserve Innocence Initiative. “Now, parents are being informed that a non-mandatory class is being replaced by a mandated test.”

McGroarty argues that sexual decisions have serious moral and spiritual implications, and even comprehensive sexual education curricula openly acknowledge it. As he sees it, now is time to find solutions that empower parents to address issues related to STDs rather than undermining parental authority, meddling in admittedly spiritual decisions and imposing a one-size-fits-all test on local schools.

“As a man who was raised in inner-city Washington, I know that many District families believe that sex is more than biological—that it should be a full expression of committed, life-giving love,” McGroarty says. “Many families will be horrified that the District education establishment is demeaning sex-related education topics to the level of a standardized test.”

Here’s one of the comments that just made me shake my head because you just can’t fix stupid! It’s freakin’ Africa, use them for what they were intended and you wouldn’t have kids starving to death.

“On tv, I saw kids in Africa blow them up and wrap string around them to make a kick ball to play with. I thought that was a great use for little kids!”