Incense Causes Cancer

Watch out, stoners!  You cover up may be causing cancer.

Burning incense may create a sweet scent, but regularly inhaling the smoke could put people at risk of cancers of the respiratory tract, researchers reported Monday.

In a study of more than 61,000 ethnic Chinese living in Singapore who were followed for up to 12 years, the investigators found a link between heavy incense use and various respiratory cancers.

Incense is usually derived from fragrant plant materials, like tree bark, resins, roots, flowers and essential oils. Past research has found that burning these materials can produce potentially cancer-causing substances, including benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

However, no studies until now had linked the practice of burning incense to an increased cancer risk over time, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Jeppe T. Friborg of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen.

Rejects Taboo On Hot Sex

“What’s wrong with married couples having hot and holy sex?” is the question more and more pastors and Christian counselors are posing to believers.

Once regarded as a hush-hush topic in church, sex is increasingly being openly discussed and even promoted by an unlikely ally – Christian pastors. But this effort comes with strings attached – it’s only meant for married couples.

“People carry a lot of guilt from parents who said sex is bad,” said the Rev. Kerry Shook, senior pastor of the 15,600-member Woodlands Church outside Houston, according to ABC news. “We help them (couples) to have a healthy sex life. One of the things we cover in scripture is how to meet each other’s needs in bed.”

Earlier this year, popular emerging church leader Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle opened the floor up to questions about sex from the mainly young adult congregation. The open talks were part of his sermon series “Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions.”

During his sermon on sex, birth control and abortion, Driscoll said God didn’t create sex only for procreation, but also for pleasure, comfort and protection within marriage.

“There are books … even from Christians who love Jesus that talk about all the pleasures and joys and the anatomical structure of the body and the ways to please your spouse and to have the most joy,” Driscoll said in response to an attendant’s question about pleasing one’s spouse. “And you know what? I would whole-heartedly encourage it.”

FLDS Kids Back In Custody

How many times will Texas continue to play this game?

Some of the children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch, placed in foster care and then returned to their parents could be headed back to foster care again.

Texas child welfare authorities are asking Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to put eight children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, back in state custody, alleging their mothers have refused to limit contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.

Individual hearings for the four mothers involved are scheduled to begin Monday.

None of the children currently live at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, where authorities swept roughly 440 children into foster care in April. Officials said at the time that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which established the ranch, was forcing girls into underage marriages and grooming boys to be adult abusers.

In the new CPS petitions seeking foster placement for the eight children, the agency detailed alleged underage marriages involving the children’s fathers or stepfathers, though only one faces any criminal charges.

Rod Parker, a church spokesman, said that even though the families are getting individual hearings this time, the argument that they shouldn’t be allowed to retain custody of their children remains unfair.

Iraq Arrests Sunni Fighters

The government of Iraq is moving against the “Awakening” fighters that have helped make the surge a “success”.

The Shiite-led government is cracking down on U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters in one of Iraq’s most turbulent regions, arresting some leaders, disarming dozens of men and banning them from manning checkpoints except alongside official security forces.

The moves in Diyala province reflect mixed views on a movement that began in 2007 among Sunni tribes in western Iraq who revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq and joined the Americans in the fight against the terrorist network.

U.S. officials credit the rise of such groups, known variously as Awakening Councils, Sons of Iraq and Popular Committees, with helping rout al-Qaida.

But Iraq’s government is suspicious of such groups, fearing their decision to break with the insurgency was a short-term tactic to gain U.S. money and support. The government fears they will eventually turn their guns against Iraq’s majority Shiites.

Government officials would not comment on specific claims about the push in Diyala. But aides close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, said the government was not willing to tolerate the existence of armed groups with “blood on their hands.”

“The continuation of the Awakening Councils as they are now is unacceptable,” said Ali al-Adeeb, a close al-Maliki aide and a senior member of his Dawa Party.

U.S. officers worry that disbanding the Sunni groups without providing alternate incomes could push the fighters back into the insurgency.

One Shiite official who is close to al-Maliki said the prime minister believes his successful crackdown this year on Shiite militias has given him enough authority to go after Sunni armed groups without alienating Sunni politicians.

But a lawmaker from the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni party, warned that the government must take into consideration the groups’ contribution to improved security.

Absurd News: Saudi Men With Dogs

- Every single man knows: Walking a dog in the park is a sure babe magnet. Saudi Arabia’s Islamic religious police, in their zeal to keep the sexes apart, want to make sure the technique doesn’t catch on here.

The solution: Ban selling dogs and cats as pets, as well as walking them in public.

The prohibition went into effect Wednesday in the capital, Riyadh, and authorities in the city say they will strictly enforce it _ unlike previous bans in the cities of Mecca and Jiddah, which have been ignored and failed to stop pet sales.

Violators found outside with their pets will have their beloved poodles and other furry companions confiscated by agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the official name of the religious police, tasked with enforcing Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic code.

The commission’s general manager, Othman al-Othman, said the ban was ordered because of what he called “the rising of phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families” as well as “violating proper behavior in public squares and malls.”

The religious police prowl streets and malls throughout the kingdom, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers.

They also often make attempts to plug the few holes in the strict gender segregation that innovations bring. In 2004, for example, they tried to ban cameras on cell phones, fearing that men and women would exchange pictures of each other _ though the prohibition was quickly revoked.

You think it is hard to meet the perfect woman in the US…then stay away from Saudi Arabia.

Rev. Warren And His Silly Forum

Would you like the snooze….oh sorry…the news from a two long yawn-a-thon, then read on McDuff.

What did anyone learn from this exercise in boredom?  Obama is a christian and is black; McCain is an Episcopalian who attends a Baptist church in Phoenix, that alone should tell you all you need to know about his character, and he is a white guy.
The one theme that got the biggest chuckle out me was, They did strike some common ground, such as the importance of rising above self-interest to serve one’s country.  What a crock of crap! They want to be the most important person in the world–country is just part to the sell job.

Obama is an hypocrite on abortions, McCain is just plain hypocritical on everything.

Shall I go on or do you get the picture?  Both are self-serving arrogant pricks that want your vote so they can continue the domination of the working class by the ruling elite.

If a voter was watching this silly exercise, then they are more confused now than ever.  Why?  The two major candidates are one in the same–kinda like Harvey Dent in Batman.

I Knew That Cucumbers Were Evil!

Besides the terrible killings inflicted by the fanatics on those who refuse to pledge allegiance to them, Al-Qa’eda has lost credibility for enforcing a series of rules imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life.

They include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables, according to one tribal leader in the western province of Anbar.

Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni elder, told Reuters: “They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram.

“They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men.”

Other farcical stipulations include an edict not to buy or sell ice-cream, because it did not exist in the time of the Prophet, while hair salons and shops selling cosmetics have also been bombed.

The Gospel Of Divine Sex

He has been dubbed the high priest of Catholic Kama Sutra, but Polish Friar Ksawery Knotz says that by giving married couples tips on how to practice divine sex he is simply doing God’s work.

“I certainly encourage married couples to pray for a good and happy sex life — it’s a way for them to become closer to God,” the 43-year-old Roman Catholic monk told AFP. “At first people are usually slightly shocked but at the same time happily surprised,” says Knotz, who like all Catholic clergy has taken a vow of celibacy.

“If you believe in God, then you believe God is involved in life, in love, marriage and in sex and sexuality — it seems natural to talk about sex to remove taboos and the label of sinfulness,” says the monk, who resides in a monastery of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in Stalowa Wola, southern Poland.

The friar admits the popular teachings of the Roman Catholic church on the subject of sex have been weak — if not downright dissuasive. “It’s been labeled taboo or sinful,” Knotz says, but is quick to point out that in keeping with the church’s teaching, he preaches only about the joys of sex restricted to marriage between a women and men. He encourages husbands to take their time to “fully appease” their wives. The monk explains he was originally inspired by the open atmosphere of his family home and the early teachings of late Polish-born Pope John Paul II who broached the subject of sexuality in his book.

Lieberman/Hagee Love Fest

One of John McCain’s most prominent supporters on Tuesday praised an evangelical leader whom the Republican presidential candidate repudiated after a string of controversial remarks were made public.

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent who frequently campaigns with McCain, said pastor John Hagee’s support for Israel outweighed the remarks that led McCain to reject his endorsement.

“The bond that I feel with Pastor Hagee and each and every one of you is much stronger than that, and so I am proud to stand with you tonight,” Lieberman told several thousand members of the group, which urges U.S. support for Israel.

“I don’t agree with everything that Pastor Hagee’s done and said … but there is so much more important than that that we agree on,” Lieberman said.

Let me see if I have this right–Rev. Wright makes comments that are offensive and it is STILL being used by the media and yet, this yahoo spouts crap and is not that important.  So much for fair and balanced reporting.

See, He Is No Better Than Any Other Candidate

Democrat Barack Obama said yesterday that if elected president he would set aside more than $500 million a year in federal funds for religious organizations to help the disadvantaged, sharply expanding a Bush administration program that has strong support from evangelical Christians.

Political analysts said Obama’s proposal appeared to be part of an attempt to shift to the center and recruit moderate, evangelical Christians and mainstream Catholics, two voting blocs that consistently supported Bush and have embraced Republican candidates.

Groups cannot use the money to proselytize those in need, he said, and they cannot refuse to hire someone of a different religion. Federal dollars granted directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs, Obama said, adding that close monitoring will “ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.” The People for the American Way, a liberal public-interest group, issued a statement yesterday applauding Obama for those safeguards, but questioning why he would allow direct government payments to houses of worship, something that “is neither necessary nor appropriate.”

Obama is just becoming the candidate I was waiting him to become.  In the past I have said that I was not yet an Obama supporter and this is why I wait.  Democratic candidates start getting votes because they are left leaning, then as the general approaches they almost always move to the center.  This is just a pandering piece to try and wrangle the religious from the Repubs.