Much of Black America is slipping fast into Third - World Economic Status - Drowning in Poverty

Much of Black America Is Slipping Fast into
Third-World Economic Status Drowning in Poverty

GUEST COLUMN: Phillip JacksonJuly 24, 2006
Source of Article

A recent report by the Heartland Alliance confirms what much of black America already knows: Black America is in serious trouble economically, and many black people are living in "deep poverty."Black people in America are not just poor by American standards; many of us are "third-world" poor.While some economists praise the American economy with talk of low unemployment, record housing starts and a booming gross national product, none of this tells the real story of a quickly declining black economy within America. For instance, 30 percent of black Americans in Illinois live in poverty compared with only 8 percent of white Americans.

According to the Children's Defense Fund, nearly one million black children in the United States are living in extreme poverty. While the official national unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, the official unemployment rate for blacks is 10 percent. Of course, the official unemployment rate does not include people who have given up looking for work and those who are underemployed. In 2003 in New York City, 48.2 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 were officially unemployed!

As American cities become more expensive to live in, black people, with our declining wealth, are forced by economics to leave these cities. Although things might be good economically in America, the majority of black people are living through their worst economic depression since slavery!Ironically, even as black people earn more money in the United States, the wealth gap between blacks and whites grows dramatically. Misery indices in the Black community -- poor and useless educational preparation, mass unemployment, low-quality housing stock, disintegrating communities, and failing families -- are rising.

According to a 2004 study by the Pew Hispanic Trust, between 1996 and 2002, the median net worth of blacks dropped by 16 percent.Black net worth declined to a paltry $5,998 per household, while the net worth for white households grew by 17 percent during the same period to $88,651. Twenty percent of black median net worth was in cash, approximately $1,200, with the balance comprised of home equity. The housing foreclosure crisis of the past eight years has caused Black America to lose between $72 billion and $93 billion in housing-equity wealth. "Black families lost 25 percent of their wealth during the jobless recovery from the recent recession," said Thomas Shapiro, a Brandeis University professor of law and social policy.This means that more black people are struggling in 2006 with such basic conditions as securing employment, paying rent or a mortgage, paying utilities and insurance, obtaining affordable health coverage and buying food.Shapiro also stated that only 26 percent of black families could survive more than three months after a major income interruption. The other 74 percent would be forced to seek government assistance, dip deep into savings, sell off assets, relocate with a friend or relative, file bankruptcy or become homeless!

In this economic depression, college is an unaffordable luxury for many black people. Higher education, once the reliable key to moving from low-income to middle-income status, is no longer an option. The portals that lead away from poverty, crime and despair are closing or have already closed. Generational poverty is inextricably intertwined with race. Hope for breaking the poverty cycle diminishes and another generation of the impoverished is born. Many blacks in America are slipping from poverty to deep poverty into a third-world status.We as black American families cannot wait for the government to save us. Annually, black Americans generate about $700 billion within the U.S. economy.

However, a 2005 report by the Target Market Group shows that we don't use our dollars wisely to improve our plight in America. For example, in 2004, we had collective purchases that included $22 billion for clothes, $10.7 billion for furniture, $28.7 billion for cars, $14 billion for phone service, $3.7 billion for consumer electronics (not computers) and $2.3 billion on alcoholic beverages.Unfortunately, the only area where we showed restraint in our spending was on books, where we spent only $257 million, down from $303 million in 2002. We spent more on our fingernails and our hair -- $6.3 billion on personal care -- than on books and reading materials.We must take control of our economic destinies to improve black personal finances, our family wealth and our community economies, and to help lift many blacks out of deep poverty.

TEN KEY SOLUTIONS FOR BLACK ECONOMIC WELL-BEING:
1. Start your own business. By starting your own business, you can hire family, friends, and community members. Click here for one great business to become a member of...
2. Get as much education as you can.
3. Stop renting an apartment. Save enough money to make a down payment on a house. Then buy a house.
4. Open savings accounts for your children, teach your children the value of money and take personal finance classes.
5. First, invest your money and your time in your skills, your knowledge base and your self-improvement. Second, learn how to let big companies work for you rather than you only working for them through stock ownership. And third, invest your money in the U.S. and global stock markets.
6. Manage your credit carefully and avoid unnecessary debt.
7. Get married! Two-person headed households are more viable economically. Marriage can be an economic advantage when both parties are aligned on financial priorities and fiscal realities.
8. Create a living strategy that includes good nutrition, plenty of exercise and proper rest so that you can share your good fortune in a long and healthy life. Health is wealth!
9. Contribute to your faith-based institution or invest in a social cause.
10. Create a will to pass on your accumulated wealth.Phillip Jackson is founder and executive director of The Black Star Project in Chicago. You may reach him at 773.285.9600 or by e-mail at http://mc620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=blackstar1000@ameritech.net.

A letter from Michael Moore that's very interesting

MichaelMoore.com Mike's Letter
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=235
Monday, September 29th, 2008The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore

Friends,
Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it. "Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages. "At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees. "Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.comMichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks.

There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the W! hite House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW. Join Mike's Mailing List Join Mike's Facebook Group Become Mike's MySpace Friend

Lord have mercy! This is tragic...

Source of Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_as/myanmar

Red Cross: Up to 128,000 may have died in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar - The Red Cross on Wednesday boosted its estimate of the cyclone death toll in Myanmar to as many as 128,000 — a much higher figure than the government tally. The U.N. warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly.

The grim forecast came as heavy rains drenched the devastated Irrawaddy River delta, disrupting aid operations already struggling to reach up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter.

"Another couple of days exposed to those conditions can only lead to worsening health conditions and compound the stress people are living in," said Shantha Bloemen, a spokeswoman for UNICEF.

A tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal added new worries, but late in the day forecasters said it was weakening and unlikely to grow into a cyclone.

Myanmar's government issued a revised casualty toll Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, however, put the number of dead at between 68,833 and 127,990. It said it arrived at the figure by pooling and extrapolating assessments by 22 other aid groups and organizations in 58 townships.
U.N. officials said there could be more than 100,000 dead.

The Red Cross estimated the number of people needing help after cyclone surged over the low-lying delta on May 3 at between 1.64 million and 2.51 million.

But the junta still refused to accept help from foreign aid experts, who have vast experience in handling humanitarian crises.

It insisted Myanmar can handle the disaster on its own — a stance that appeared to stem not from the isolationist regime's ability but from its deep suspicion of most foreigners, who have frequently criticized its human rights abuses and crackdowns on democracy activists.

"The government has a responsibility to assist their people in the event of a natural disaster," said Amanda Pitt of the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs.

"We are here to do what we can and facilitate their efforts and scale up their response. It is clearly inadequate, and we do not want to see a second wave of deaths as a result of that not being scaled up," she said.

Myanmar's prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, told visiting Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Wednesday that the government was in control of the situation and didn't need foreign experts.

"They have their own team to cope with the situation," Samak said after returning to Bangkok. He said the junta gave him a "guarantee" that there was no starvation or disease outbreaks among survivors.

But critics say the government is woefully lacking in helicopters, trucks and boats as well as planning expertise needed to distribute aid to survivors, who have jammed into monasteries and relief centers or are camping outside.

U.N. agencies and other voluntary groups have been able to reach only 270,000 of the affected people, said Elisabeth Byrs of r the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva.

She said the World Food Program would need 55,000 tons of rice to feed 750,000 people for three months, but the agency had been able to ship in only 361 tons so far.

The junta did grant approval Wednesday for a Thai medical team to visit the delta, said Dr. Thawat Sutharacha of Thailand's Public Health Ministry. If the team goes as scheduled Friday, it will be the first foreign aid group to work in the ravaged delta.

Myanmar has limited the few international aid workers in the country to Yangon, the country's biggest city, and used police to keep foreigners from going to the delta.

The government gave a little ground to demands that it let in more experts. It announced it would allow in 160 relief workers from neighboring countries — India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand. It was not clear whether they would be permitted to go to the delta.

In New York, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes welcomed the junta's move. But he said it was not enough and demanded that Myanmar open its borders to foreign relief specialists and let outsiders work in the Irrawaddy delta.

"The relief getting through under the kind of restrictions we're operating under is by no means adequate to the task, and it's hard to see how just continuing with the status quo can ever be sufficient in the current critical time period that we're working in," Holmes said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called a meeting of key donors and Myanmar's neighbors to weigh options for speeding aid to cyclone victims.

"Even though the Myanmar government has shown some sense of flexibility, at this time it's far, far too short," he said. "The magnitude of this situation requires much more mobilization of resources and aid workers."

He also expressed frustration that he had not been able to arrange direct talks with the junta's chairman, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, despite repeated phone calls and letters.

While it has kept out all but a few foreign aid workers, the regime has accepted tons of provisions sent by international donors, including the United Nations and the United States.

Five U.S. C-130 military transport planes delivered drinking water, blankets, mosquito nets and plastic sheets Wednesday. Lt. Col. Douglas Powell said 197,080 pounds of provisions had been sent in on eight U.S. flights since Monday.

The State Department renewed an appeal for the junta to allow in outside disaster relief experts and more assistance. "This is not a political issue. This really is simply a humanitarian issue," said deputy spokesman Tom Casey.

The European Union's top aid official, Development Commissioner Louis Michel, said he was not opposed to the idea of parachuting aid into Myanmar, but said he did not think it was workable. Others have suggested unilateral air drops to circumvent the junta's restrictions.
___
Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer and John Heilprin at the United Nations, Matthew Lee in Washington and Sutin Wannabovorn in Bangkok, Thailand, contributed to this report.

When ants attack...

Source of this Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants

By LINDA STEWART BALL, Associated Press Writer

DALLAS - In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

"They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. "There's just thousands and thousands of them. If you've seen a car racing, that's how they are. They're going fast, fast, fast. They're crazy."

The ants — formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens" — have spread to five Houston-area counties since they were first spotted in Texas in 2002.

The newly recognized species is believed to have arrived in a cargo shipment through the port of Houston. Scientists are not sure exactly where the ants came from, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean.

"At this point, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ant because it is so widely dispersed," said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist.

The good news? They eat fire ants, the stinging red terrors of Texas summers.

But the ants also like to suck the sweet juices from plants, feed on such beneficial insects as ladybugs, and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken.

They also bite humans, though not with a stinger like fire ants.

Worse, they, like some other species of ants, are attracted to electrical equipment, for reasons that are not well understood by scientists.

They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet.

Exterminators say calls from frustrated homeowners and businesses are increasing because the ants — which are starting to emerge by the billions with the onset of the warm, humid season — appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.

"The population built up so high that typical ant controls simply did no good," said Jason Meyers, an A&M doctoral student who is writing his dissertation on the one-eighth-inch-long ant.

It's not enough just to kill the queen. Experts say each colony has multiple queens that have to be taken out.

At the same time, the ants aren't taking the bait usually left out in traps, according to exterminators, who want the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen restrictions on the use of more powerful pesticides.

And when you do kill these ants, the survivors turn it to their advantage: They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide.

"It looked like someone had come along and poured coffee granules all around the perimeter of the rooms," said Lisa Calhoun, who paid exterminators $1,200 to treat an infestation of her parents' home in the Houston suburb of Pearland.

The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with A&M researchers and the EPA on how to stop the ants.

"This one seems to be like lava flowing and filling an entire area, getting bigger and bigger," said Ron Harrison, director of training for the big pest-control company Orkin Inc.

Source of this Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants

Is it Mother Nature doing this or God? Who is controlling the weather? Can we arrest them?

Marcus Comments: "My teacher taught me that whatever you see happening afar off will be at your doorstep tomorrow. When you see tragedies happening like this in the world do you ever think about those people for even a moment and the great sadness and devastation that this unfortunate event has caused. We are seeing calamity after calamity in the world and there is more on the way. What's going on? Why is this happening? Why is the weather so out of control?What do you think?"

Source of this Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_cyclone

Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000:
state radio

YANGON, Myanmar - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported.

Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said.

Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the Irrawaddy River delta region, which is regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.

"From the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, said in a statement.

Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns wielding knives and axes joined Yangon residents Tuesday in clearing roads of ancient, fallen trees that were once the city's pride. And soldiers were out on the streets in large numbers for the first time since the cyclone hit, helping to clear trees as massive as 15 feet in diameter.

President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the U.S. to help. The White House said the U.S. will send more than $3 million to help cyclone victims, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.

"We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country," he said.

Bush spoke at a ceremony where he signed legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar's military regime has signaled it will welcome aid supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone, the U.N. said Tuesday, clearing the way for a major relief operation from international organizations.

But U.N. workers were still awaiting their visas to enter the country, said Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"The government has shown a certain openness so far," Byrs said. "We hope that we will get the visas as soon as possible, in the coming hours. I think the authorities have understood the seriousness of the situation and that they will act accordingly."

The appeal for outside assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of international organizations and closely controlled their activities. Several agencies, including the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, have limited their presence as a consequence.

Allowing any major influx of foreigners could carry risks for the military, injecting unwanted outside influence and giving the aid givers rather than the junta credit for a recovery.

However, keeping out international aid would focus blame squarely on the military should it fail to restore peoples' livelihoods.

Some aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region but said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.

The cyclone came only a week ahead of a key referendum on a constitution that Myanmar's military leaders hoped would go smoothly in its favor, despite opposition from the country's feisty pro-democracy movement. However, the disaster could stir the already tense political situation.

State radio also said that Saturday's vote would be delayed until May 24 in 40 of 45 townships in the Yangon area and seven in the Irrawaddy delta, which took the brunt of the weekend storm. It indicated that the balloting would proceed in other areas as scheduled.

The decision drew swift criticism from dissidents and human rights groups who question the credibility of the vote and urged the junta to focus on disaster victims.

Myanmar's generals have hailed the referendum as an important step forward in their "roadmap to democracy." It offers the first chance for voters to cast ballots since 1990, and the probability is high they will approve the constitution — a legal framework the country has lacked for two decades.

But critics, including the United Nations, the United States and human rights groups, question whether it will lead to democracy.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.

At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests in September led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.

Washington has long been one of the ruling junta's sharpest critics for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

The history of Abortion / My God this is horrible...

Someone shared this with me in an email so I thought I would pass it right along to you the viewers of this Blog. This Blog is devoted to sharing knowledge, wisdom and understanding on all kinds of subjects....

In the early middle ages abortion was induced by herbs and manipulation and was used as a form of birth control in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. It was generally accepted in Europe, in the early months of pregnancy. Later on in the 19th century many changed their view on abortion in the Roman Catholic Church. It was completely prohibited under any circumstance. In the Muslim community it was also prohibited unless the woman was sexually abused or the woman’s health was at risk. During the 19th century, in England and the United States antiabortion laws were passed. Many people became liberal toward the situation in the 20th century. After several debates and court hearings the three types of abortion was finally legalized under a Supreme Court ruling in 1973.

The types of abortion being Therapeutic abortion, Spontaneous abortion and abortion in general. Therapeutic abortion is an induced abortion performed to preserve the health or life of the mother. Spontaneous abortion is a miscarriage that is used to signify delivery of a nonviable embryo or fetus due to fatal or maternal factors, as opposed to purposely induced abortion. Abortion in general is a expulsion of the products of conception before the embryo or fetus is viable.

There are six ways to perform an abortion. The first one being RU-486. This is a drug given to the mother after her first missed period, that blocks the progesterone ( a crucial hormone during pregnancy). Without the progesterone the developing baby receives no food, fluid, and oxygen, so the baby can no longer survive. Then a second drug is given, which causes the uterus to contract and the baby is then expelled from the womb. Secondly is the Aspiration abortion. This type of abortion is done by stretching the cervical muscle and cutting into the uterus, the baby is then sucked out in pieces into a small bottle. The third type of abortion is Dilation and Curettage. This procedure a curette is inserted into the uterus and the baby the placenta is cut into pieces and scraped out into a basin. The fourth abortion (being the cruelest) type is a Dilation and Evacuation abortion. With this procedure the abortionist must dilate the cervix before the abortion. The abortionist then inserts a pliers-like tool through the cervix into the uterus and begin to tear the body apart, until the only the baby’s head is left. Then the skull is crushed and pulled out. The abortionist reassemble the body parts to make sure the baby is fully out of the uterus. The fifth abortion type is the Prostaglandin abortion. This abortion is done by injecting a feticide (a drug that kills the fetus) into the babies heart due to complications of the mother. After this procedure the abortionist administer prostaglandin and a dead baby is delivered. Lastly is the Dilation and Extraction abortion. This type of abortion the baby is positioned in the breech position (feet first faced down). The abortionist hooks their fingers over the babies shoulders and insert surgical scissors into the base of the baby’s skull, and a suction is inserted into the baby’s skull and the brain is sucked out. Many of these types of abortions are not force upon the patients. It is only by choice or to help save the mothers life.

Many of us in today’s society are not aware of how many lives are being killed by way of abortion. Each year about 1,500,000 babies are killed by way of abortion and each day the rate of abortion is increasingly high. Between the years of 1973-1996 a total of 35,273,792 children were aborted. Currently 1 in every 4 of our generations are not living due to abortions and 1 in every 6 women had abortions.

It is very important that we are aware of the importance of planning parenthood. If many of us in today’s society promoted avoiding non-marital sex, a numerous amount of women could avoid considering abortion or killing a young innocent baby as being an option. This will decrease the loss of lives each year.

But due to the lack of positive influence in their lives this is not considered in most cases. Abortion or neglect of the child is then an option as a result of unplanned parenthood. So the mother is either left to take care of her child in most cases, which is not sufficient for the child because the baby is not receiving the proper care that is needed from both parents. The mother is then left to only three options, to work to help provide for her family and not create a bond with her child, give her child up for adoption or an abortion. Now the child is neglected by both parents.

It was recently reported that many women who have abortions are most likely to commit suicide, than those who did not have abortions. But many are not aware that this will effect them mentally in the long run. On the physical side many women who had an abortion their first pregnancy was at higher risk of getting breast cancer than the average woman by 1.7%. If a women had aborted her child her second, third or fourth pregnancy she had an even higher risk by 4.0 times.

Many women who were victims of breast cancer did not know that it was as a result of their abortion.

Those same women who were at a higher risk of breast cancer, also dealt with the psychological and emotional trauma. Knowing that they were another statistic by killing another innocent child and they had to deal with it for the rest of their lives. Oft-times these kinds of thoughts lead to depression, alcohol and drug abuse and mental health issues. This is what causes our children in today’s society to be violent, cold-hearted and rebellious. Many of us want the luxury of sex but not responsibility, so we think that abortion is the way, not knowing that the child that is in your womb could be the greatest blessing ever or a gift from God. The women today who get abortions don’t see the consequences of damaging her body mentally and physically and her child’s body physically, until later on in the future. It all ends with suicide or a severely damaged mind.

Many are left in the dark of what produces the thought of abortion. It starts from being raised in a singled-family household. When the parents neglect the child because their was no commitment in the beginning of the relationship. So the child is left to bond with a child care provider not knowing why their parents are not there.

It is essentially important that a commitment is established, in a relationship between male and female, before the decision to be sexually involved is made. The reason is simple, the responsibility of providing for their child(ren) oft-times men decide to neglect their child(ren) and leave the women with the decision of whether or not she desires to bear the responsibility of raising her child(ren) alone, with very little financial assistance. However, the decision to abort should not be an option, with the exception of rape, incest or any health risk. By allowing women to continue to make the decision to abort, society is promoting recreational sex and negligence of men. This is why parents, teachers, the artistic community and diverse organizations should emphasize this especially to the youth because a quarter of the abortions performed per year are by women under twenty; who are most likely not married. This epidemic will not end until we as a society and nation discipline ourselves by promoting strong and healthy relationships, especially to our youth.

In September of 1975, a woman took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. This was very difficult for her to deal with, knowing she already had two sons and was single. She had no financial help because the father of her two sons walked out on her and failed to take care of them as he should. So she decided that she would abort her child. Between the months of September 1975 and January of 1976 she attempted to abort her child three times, and each time she failed at doing so. On April 21,1976 her baby girl was born, two months premature. Later on that following year in 1977 the baby’s mother passed away, and her father and grandmother took care of the baby and her two brothers. As the baby grew up, as a young girl her father explained to her what her mother attempted to do. The situation did not become clear to her until she was eighteen, married and five months pregnant. She did some research and retrieved her mothers medical records, which stated that her mom tried to terminate her unborn child three times. At this moment she knew she would not make the same mistake her mother did. Today Amy is twenty-five years old and is happy with a family and is now speaking out against abortion. If their were not as many abortions today, their could be many successful people in this world today just like Amy. So before you make a decision such as, abortion think it over because you might regret it in the future.

Bibliography

http://www.afterabortion.info/news/teens2.htm%20Pg.1
Priscilla K.Coleman, “Resolution of Unwanted Pregnancy During Adolescence. Through Abortion Childbirth: Individual and Family Predictors and Psychological Consequences.”
Journal of Youth and Adolescence (2006)

Howe HL, Senie RT, Bzduch H. Herzfeld P (1989) ET.AL, “Int.J. Epidemiol. 18:3004

http://www.afterabotion.info/news/suicide205.html%20Pg.1
M.Gissler et.al, “Injury Deaths, Suicides and Homicides Associated with Pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000, “European J.Public Health 15(5):459-63 (2005)

M.Gissler et.al, “Pregnancy Associated Deaths in Finland 1987-1994 definition problems and benefits of record linkage, “Acta Obsetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica 76:651-657(1997)

DC Reardon et. Al, “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome;A record Linkage Study of Law Income Women, “Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41 (2002)

M.Gissler et.al, “ Methods for Identifying Pregnancy- Associated Deaths: population-baseddata from Finland 1987-2000,” Paediatr perinat Epidermiol 18(6);448-55(2004)

Louis Farrakhan “ A Torchlight for America” Pg.109-111 FCN Publishing Company Chicago,Illinois

http://www.abortionfacts.com/ Pg.1-3 Performed abortion types, Heritage House 174

http://www.abortionfacts.com/ Pg.1, Heritage House 174 ‘A True Survivor Story”.

Abortion and the effect it has on today’s society.
________________________________________

I. History behind abortions.

A. When abortions were legalized.

B. The three types of abortions

C. Six ways abortions are preformed

II. What you need to know about abortions.

A. Statistics

III. The importance of planning parenthood.

A. Avoid premarital sex

B. The results of unplanned parenthood

C. The importance of commitment between male and female

IV. The havoc that abortion has caused.

A. The aftereffect of abortion.

1. Suicide

2. Breast Cancer

3. Psychological and emotional trauma

B. Circumstances in which thoughts of abortion are conceived.

1. Singled family households

2. The neglect of men

3. Sexual abuse

Is it God or Mother Nature doing this?

Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080503/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather

Twisters tear up parts of 4 states; 8 killed in Arkansas

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 52 minutes ago

DAMASCUS, Ark. - Violent storms unleashed tornadoes, high winds and hail in four central states and killed eight people in Arkansas, including a teenager who died when a tree fell into her bedroom as she slept.

The storms late Thursday and early Friday ripped off roofs and toppled train cars near Kansas City, Mo.; pelted parts of Oklahoma with hail; and knocked over tents at a popular open-air market in east Texas. Severe thunderstorms were moving into Kentucky and could make for a wet Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Greg Carbin, a meteorologist for the national Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said as many as 25 tornadoes may have cut through stretches of Oklahoma, Arkansas, eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

Six of those killed were in two north-central Arkansas counties, Conway and Van Buren, that also saw fatalities from a devastating tornado Feb. 5. Gov. Mike Beebe declared those counties and five others disaster areas.

"This year it just seems like we're getting pounded," Van Buren County Sheriff Scott Bradley said.

He said a man, a woman and a preschool-age child died when the storm hit their house just south of Bee Branch.

"There wasn't anything left," Bradley said. "It was demolished."

Another child who lived at the home had already left for school, escaping injury.

A father and two sons died in Conway County when a possible tornado hit their mobile home. A twister demolished a chicken farm in Center Springs, leaving thousands of dead birds on the ground.

Near the Oklahoma line in a working-class neighborhood of Siloam Springs, a 15-year-old girl died in the early morning when apparent straight-line winds toppled a tree into her family's mobile home. She and her 10-year-old brother were sleeping in bunk beds; the boy survived with minor injuries.

"She was on (the top bunk). He was on bottom. When it fell it just crushed her and pinned her on top of him," with a mattress between them, said Chad Tilghman, who lives across the street and helped pull the boy from the storm debris.

The seventh death was reported in Pulaski County, south of Little Rock.

More than a dozen injuries were reported, and about 350 homes were damaged or destroyed in several Arkansas counties.

Around the Van Buren County town of Damascus, deputies, firefighters and volunteers were going farm-to-farm to check on everyone.

Just north of town the wind knocked the roof off a new church that has yet to hold its first service. Members of a work crew ran inside the Southside Baptist Church after a neighbor warned them of the coming storm; they later exchanged soaked clothes for white choir robes.

Nearly 6,000 homes and businesses lost power in Arkansas, and about 40,000 lost power at the peak of the storms in the Kansas City area, where two small tornadoes touched down and several minor injuries were reported.

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said 100 homes suffered significant damage in the city alone. Damage was also reported in the suburbs and in Lawrence, to the west. An 18-wheeler was blown over on Interstate 29 in Riverside, near five empty train cars that were toppled.

In northeast Kansas City, dozens of homes had chunks of their roofs missing, and trees were knocked from their roots and lying along the roads and in ditches. Police blocked off roads around the damaged neighborhoods Friday.

A twister ripped the roof off 74-year-old Ann Johnson's duplex in the suburb of Gladstone.

"The ceiling actually came down on top of her while she was in bed," said her daughter, Cindy Hopkins.

Johnson was able to roll out from under the collapsed debris but cut her foot on glass from a shattered window. A neighbor who heard her yells helped nurse the wound until paramedics arrived. Johnson, whose cut required seven stitches, remained at the hospital Friday afternoon.

"The fact that she is alive is the greatest gift," said Hopkins, of Richmond.

Tornadoes appeared to touch down in at least three east Texas towns, uprooting trees, flipping cars and yanking down power lines.

A tornado hit Canton, Texas, as visitors began to show up for a popular open-air market that draws thousands each month. The winds toppled tents and snapped power lines, but the market was soon back in business.

Three people in Canton were taken to hospitals; two had been at the market and had reported chest pains. City Secretary Julie Seymore said that no major injuries were reported and that overall damage was minimal.

At least three tornadoes raked central and northern Oklahoma, including one in Osage County near Tulsa that was an estimated 100 yards wide, but no serious injuries were reported there. A home was destroyed and about a dozen others were damaged in northeastern Oklahoma, and a hotel under construction near Tulsa was destroyed.

The storms moved into Kentucky and Tennessee on Friday evening, and other severe weather developed in Illinois, forcing the cancellation of more than 200 flights at Chicago's busy O'Hare International Airport.

A day before the Kentucky Derby, some race fans at Churchill Downs sought shelter Friday when the storms arrived in Louisville. The Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of far western Kentucky, and meteorologist John Gordon said two more waves of storms were expected Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Rain was possible until about 6 p.m. EDT Saturday, just as the race is scheduled to start, but Gordon said he didn't think it would be extreme enough to affect the race.

Churchill Downs spokesman John Asher said the track was monitoring the weather but didn't anticipate heavy rain to interrupt racing.

"This track handles water as well as any track in the country," he said.
___
Associated Press Writers Kelly P. Kissel in Siloam Springs, Ark., Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Andale Gross in Gladstone, Mo., contributed to this report.

Source of this topic:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080503/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather

Is God a Terrorist? When the weather is this bad, what's going on?

Source of this Topic:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather;_ylt=Ajip2FmBH6CuT9xK8rzfSxms0NUE

Residents return after tornadoes smash houses in Virginia

By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer

SUFFOLK, Va. - Weary residents and business owners returned to what was left of their homes and livelihoods Tuesday after three tornadoes smashed houses, piled cars on each other and injured more than 200 people.

One twister in this city outside Norfolk cut a zigzagging path 25 miles long through residential areas, obliterating some homes in sprays of splintered lumber while leaving others just a few feet away untouched.

Search teams with dogs found no sign of deaths or any additional injured victims, Suffolk City Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said.

"The only thing I can say is we were watched over and blessed," Outlaw said.
Most home and business owners were blocked from damaged areas until officials could assess the damage. It wasn't clear when they could return.

Brenda Williams, 43, returned Tuesday to the shopping center where she was buried beneath a collapsed ceiling in a manicure shop during the storm. She was pulled to safety by a stranger, she said.

"I'm not lucky, I'm blessed," said Williams, who had a 2-inch gash stitched above her left eyebrow and stitches on her right forearm. "I'm fine. I'm here. I'm in the land of the living."
She retrieved possessions from her car, which was flipped on its roof and destroyed in the parking lot.

Several roads were closed Tuesday morning, and traffic was backed up leading into downtown Suffolk, a city of approximately 80,000 outside Norfolk.

Of the 200 injured, only six were listed in critical condition and six were listed as serious.

Officials listed 125 Suffolk homes and 15 buildings as uninhabitable.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency, which frees up resources for those areas hit hardest. Kaine planned to visit some of the most damaged areas on Tuesday.

"It's kind of amazing there were not more significant injuries," Kaine said in an interview with WTOP Radio in Washington. He said he would ask President Bush for a disaster declaration. Jennifer Haines and her two young girls hid in a cubbyhole in her house in Suffolk as the tornado hit about three blocks away.

"It sounded like someone shuffling a giant deck of cards or a herd of wild animals coming through. You could feel the house shaking and hear the wind coming in through the cracks in the windows," Haines said.

"It was so scary I felt like I was having a heart attack." Keith Godwin and his wife and two kids took shelter in their bathroom after he looked out a window and saw one of the funnel clouds.

The Godwins' home is fine except for some debris, as are the rest of those on their side of the street. But houses across the street were badly damaged, including two completely wiped off their foundations and one that was tossed on top of another home.

"All that's left is a concrete slab," Godwin said.

Insulation, wiring and twisted metal hung from the front of a mall stripped bare of its facing. At another store, the sheet metal roofing was rolled up like a sardine can lid. Some of the cars and SUVs in the parking lot were on top of others.

"It's just a bunch of broken power poles, telephone lines and sad faces," said Richard Allbright, who works for a tree removal service in Driver and had been out for hours trying to clear the roads.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes struck Suffolk, Brunswick County, about 60 miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."

The Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path, Jackson said. It struck first, at about 1 p.m., said Mike Rusnak, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield.

The second struck Colonial Heights around 3:40 p.m., he said.

The tornado believed to have caused damage over a 25-mile path from Suffolk to Norfolk touched down repeatedly between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Rusnak said.

At least 200 were injured in Suffolk and 18 others were injured in Colonial Heights, south of Richmond, said Bob Spieldenner of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Sentara hospital spokesman Dale Gauding said about 70 people were treated there, "lots of cuts and bruises" and arm and leg injuries. Three were admitted in fair condition.

Property damage also was reported in Brunswick County, one of several places where the weather service had issued a tornado warning. State Police Sgt. Michelle Cotten said a twister destroyed two homes. Trees and power lines were down, and some flooding was reported.
___
Associated Press writers Dena Potter and Larry O'Dell contributed to this report from Richmond.

Source of this Topic:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather;_ylt=Ajip2FmBH6CuT9xK8rzfSxms0NUE

Now this is interesting...

Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/ts_nm/palestinians_carter_dc

Carter calls Gaza blockade a crime and atrocity

By Jonathan Wright Thu Apr 17, 4:00 PM ET

CAIRO (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity on Thursday and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.

Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death," receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. "It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. it's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said.

Israel has been blockading Gaza most of the time since Hamas took control of the impoverished coastal strip in June last year, allowing only basic supplies to enter.

Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.

Carter said Israel and its ally the United States were trying to make the quality of life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah group is in control.

"I think politically speaking this has worked even to strengthen the popularity of Hamas and to the detriment of the popularity of Fatah," he added. The United States has been trying to achieve the opposite outcome.

"EXAMPLE TO BE EMULATED"

Carter, who helped make peace between Egypt and Israel while president in the 1970s, said the Hamas leaders he has met so far told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas -- the Fatah leader and Palestinian president -- if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.

Israel and the United States say they refuse to deal with Hamas as long as the Islamist movement does not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence.

But Carter said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, had to be involved in any arrangements that could lead to peace.

"One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others... I know that there are some officials in the Israeli government that are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future," he added.

Carter's talks in Cairo were with former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and former Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, who did not speak to reporters.

Zahar and Seyam came to Cairo on Wednesday after the Israeli authorities refused to let Carter into Gaza from the Israeli side. Carter has already met a West Bank leader from Hamas and is expected to meet overall leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.

Earlier on Thursday, Carter met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. No details were available from either side.

(Writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Will Rasmussen and Jon Boyle)

Source of this topic:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/ts_nm/palestinians_carter_dc

How to become a 'Ghetto Superstar' and get on You Tube before going to jail...

Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_us/teen_beating

8 teens charged in videotaped attack

LAKELAND, Fla. - Eight teenagers have been arrested on charges alleging they beat another teen in an "animalistic attack" so they could make a videotape to post on YouTube.

Seven of them remained in juvenile detention Tuesday, authorities said. A boy who was charged as an adult had been released on bail.

Victoria Lindsay was attacked on March 30 by six teenage girls when she arrived at a friend's home, authorities said.

One of the girls struck the 16-year-old victim on the head several times and then slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious, according to an arrest report.

Later, according to a clip of the video that was released by the Polk County sheriff's office, the teens can be seen blocking a door and hitting Victoria.

"It's absolutely an animalistic attack," Sheriff Grady Judd said Tuesday on NBC's "Today." "They lured her into the home for express purpose of filming the attack and posting it on the Internet."

Victoria's father, Patrick Lindsay, said the teens intended to post the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.

Christina Garcia, mother of one of the defendants, said her daughter had turned the tape over to police.

The sheriff's office said that after the attack, three of the teens forced the victim into a vehicle and drove her to another location, where she was told she would be given a worse beating if she contacted police.

All eight suspects were arrested April 2 and charged with battery and false imprisonment. The three teens who took Lindsay to the second location are also charged with felony kidnapping.
Lindsay was treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, police said.

Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_us/teen_beating

I wonder what the NRA would have to say about this...

Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23986213/

3-year-old girl finds gun, shoots self in head
Detroit toddler reportedly in critical condition; parents questioned

updated 11:08 p.m. ET, Sun., April. 6, 2008

DETROIT - A 3-year-old girl found a gun in a bedroom of her home and shot herself in the head Sunday, police said. One of the girl's parents apparently owned the gun, and at least one parent was home when she shot herself Sunday afternoon. Police questioned the parents and took the gun, the Detroit Free Press reported. The girl was taken to Sinai Grace Hospital, then transferred to Children's Hospital of Michigan. The Detroit News reported she was in critical condition.

Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23986213/