To hear liberals tell it, George W. Bush doesn’t have a prayer of succeeding. What
with the war in Iraq, soaring gasoline prices, and the high cost of medical care, the
President’s critics dismiss him on good days as ineffectualon bad days as a dunce.

Yet, the President, with his cockeyed optimism and can-do American spirit, seems
to believe he can and will succeed. And he believes that much of the credit can be
attributed to prayer.

You see, this is a praying President. Maybe that’s why he catches so much flack
from the media elite, who never met a praying man that they liked. This is a
Commander-in-Chief who believes strongly in the power of prayer to give wisdom,
counsel, and fortitude to a leader. He believes that prayer not only moves
mountains, but changes hearts.

And he believes that the power of the Almighty is stronger than the power of the
chairman of the Democratic Party.

At a White House celebration of the National Day of Prayer, Bush said, “America is a
nation of prayer. It’s impossible to tell the story of our nation without telling the
story of people who pray. At decisive moments in our history and in quiet times
around family tables, we are a people humbled and strengthened and blessed by
prayer.”

In fact, this President was bold enough to say that prayer is the greatest gift a
citizen can offer him. Not a vote. Not a contribution to the Republican Party.
Prayer.

“In my travels across the great land, a comment that I hear often from our fellow
citizens is, ‘Mr. President, I pray for you and your family.’ It’s amazing how many
times a total stranger walks up and says that to me. You’d think they’d say, ‘How
about the bridge?’ Or, ‘How about filling the potholes?’ No, they say, ‘I’ve come to
tell you I pray for you, Mr. President.’”

Yet, this is not a President who is commanding people to prayas some on the left
would have you believe.

“We are a people united by our love for freedom, even when we differ in our
personal beliefs. In America, we are free to profess any faith we choose, or no faith
at all.”

Unfortunately, for many of us, the National Day of Prayer is a national day of regret.
This is because we are not really free to pray at times in the land of the free. For
instance, our children are banned from offering an earnest prayer at schoolwhere
prayer is often needed the most.

A number of liberals would like to shut down churches where pastors are bold
enough to dare speak against modern-day ills such as abortion, the break-up of the
family, and pornography. They claim such clergymen are venturing into the
religious no-man’s land of politics.

Retailers routinely secularize religious holidays, refusing to acknowledge God at all.
This is curious, given the fact that national public opinion polls actually show that
most people do believe in Him.

This was a nation founded on deeply-held religious principles of right and wrong.
Our laws are based on the Judeo-Christian tradition of morality. Our founding
fathers did, in fact, have more than a casual acquaintance with the Bible.

Eliminating God from the public sphere is a short-sighted strategy. You may be
able to keep peace with atheists in the short-term that way but, over the long haul,
all it does is further divide our nation.

Simply put, we need more than a national day of prayer. We need 365 days of
national prayer.

Copyright © 2006 by Nathan Tabor

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The view of poor & developing countries, In generally we found that women & adolescent girls are more vulnerable to HIV infection on each sexual encounter because of the biological nature of the process and the vulnerability of the reproductive tract tissues to the virus, especially in adolescent girls. For example, young women are generally disadvantaged by gender disparities. In terms of food intake, access to health care and growth patterns, girls are often worse off than boys. The inequalities become evident soon after birth, and by adolescence many girls are grossly underweight. Social Cultural and economic forces make women more likely to contract HIV infection than men. Women are often less able to negotiate for safer sex due to reasons such as their lower status, economic dependence and fear of violence, adolescent girls in the countries.

Adolescents in poor families often do not have the option to make real choices about their sexual and reproductive lives, such as when and whom to marry, whether and when to have children and how many to have, and whether to use contraceptives. Women tend to marry very young: nearly two thirds of adolescents in most South Asian countries marry before 18 years of age, and many even before 15 years, despite laws exclusion such early marriage.

In many poor regions, Women’s limited economic opportunity, and relative powerlessness, may force them into sex work in order to survive with household financial disaster. This exposes them to HIV infection and they in turn will transmit HIV to their clients. In those areas girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, because of intergenerational sexual relationships, violence, and limited access to information. In addition, discrimination and stigma obstruct adolescent girls’ access to health services. Poverty causes increased migration to look for work.

Gender analysis, in relation to HIV/AIDS, has tended to focus on women of reproductive age, and infrequently on young girls, because Young women and girls are increasingly being targeted for sex by older men seeking safe partners and also by those who erroneously believe that a man infected with HIV/AIDS will get rid of the disease by having sex with a virgin. So HIV/AIDS epidemic has been fuelled by gender inequality or discrimination. Unequal power relations, sexual coercion and violence is a widespread phenomenon faced by women of all age-groups, and has an array of negative effects on female sexual, physical and mental health.

In many developing countries, poverty, and gender discrimination between women and men, are both strongly linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Gender and age analysis shows the ways in which women and girls of different ages are vulnerable to the infection, and in require of support to allow the survivors to overcome the financial and social effects of the epidemic. In responding to HIV/AIDS and poverty alleviation approaching are interconnected. Therefore health and development workers should work on holistic policies and programmes to reduce poverty and address HIV/AIDS, and Emphasize the need for special efforts to be made to protect women and girls exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS. Ensure that the legal, civil and human rights of those affected and infected are protected and that women have access to treatment, counselling and support on an equal footing with men.

Source: Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation

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Steve Irwin’s sudden death this week has left his fans and admirers in a state of shock. News and tributes have been pouring in from around the world since the news was announced.

Steve’s life and accomplishments were truly extraordinary, and can serve as a source of inspiration for anyone who values making a meaningful contribution.

For a start, Steve Irwin did what he truly loved. He didn’t choose his career for the opportunity to make lots of cash, because ‘there was a good market out there’, or for any of the other reasons many marketing and success gurus talk about. He loved Nature and wildlife with a passion that came through in everything he said or did. The fact that there was a huge audience for his projects, resulting in mega-bucks and international fame, was a bonus. He used a portion of that money to purchase habitats for endangered wildlife.

Another amazing thing about Steve’s life was that he didn’t separate family and career. His wife Terri shared his passion for wildlife and conservation, and their children, Bindi Sue and Robert, quickly became an integral part of their projects. Steve often spoke about how family was the most important thing in his life, and he created a situation where he shared the bulk of his time with them. That’s a great accomplishment if you can pull it off.

Finally, Steve made it by being himself. He did not ‘dress for success’, modify his broad working-class Australian accent, or tone down his over-the-top personality. One of the reasons many Americans said they admired him was because he was so down to earth and genuine.

Australians sometimes complained that Steve Irwin projected a negative image of the country because of his lack of sophistication and unbridled enthusiasm. His use of the 1950’s slang term “crikey” made us cringe. Others criticised his ’sensationalist’ approach to his subject. But the response to his death has demonstrated the overwhelmingly high regard in which he was held.

Steve Irwin’s legacy is the increased awareness he has promoted worldwide of the importance of protecting wildlife. He was a true conservationist, and many people have written to him over the years to let him know that they’ve became active conservationists themselves, or entered the field on a professional level, as a direct result of his influence.

What a wonderful legacy.

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Each year during Hurricane Season people bring up the thought; wouldn’t it be great to control the weather? What if we could stop or kill a massive Hurricane? Why can’t we steer this Hurricane away from Miami, Tampa or the Gulf Coast. Lately Hurricanes seem to be getting bigger and more fierce for instance this year we had five category 5 Hurricanes all in the same season; Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. The 2005 Hurricane Season passed the record of 13 Hurricanes in one season and the most named storms ever in one Atlantic Hurricane Season with Hurricane Beta and Tropical Storm Alpha. Some hate to think what the 2006 Hurricane Season will bring, but we all know that it will not be pretty.

Isn’t it time we worked on ways to fight Hurricanes or stop them from forming? Surely if we can design stealth fighters, liberate whole countries, put a probe on Mars, then their must be a way to steer, stop or kill a rotating tropical storm or Hurricane. You know like turning off a vacuum cleaner, just unplug it or something?

Actually as far fetched as this sounds there have been many ideas floated recently on potential ways to match Mother Nature’s Wrath and soon we will have the answer we need to better control, modify or stop the weather, but for now we wait and wonder which weather and what storm will be next. Think on this.

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Did you know that law requires companies to send you mail? It is true, for instance Federal Regulation of banks, credit cards, stock market, insurance companies, health car companies and government notification are often required to be sent out. Yet if all the post offices in let’s just say New Orleans are fully submerged or are going to be torn down, this does not relieve the companies of their obligation under laws, rules and regulations to hold that mail until a later date. In fact they are to send it out, whether or not the post office actually still exists. Meaning the mail has to go somewhere? Guess where? Well much of it ends up in large distribution centers, which quite frankly ran out of space the third day. Now all that mail is piling up and some is being sent back. Return to sender, address underwater?

It is not as if you could get to your mail if you could find where it was backed up at. In fact if you have a check in the mail, well forget it. Indeed, some of the mail for certain zip codes is not even being accepted if you try and mail a package or any sort of item other than a pre-stamped letter, which will not get their anyway.

We all know the saying from the Pony Express Days; the mail must go on? But no one ever figured on mailing a letter to Atlantis or perhaps a modern day city under water. Something to think on next time you are waiting for the mail. Oh, that check might be in the mail floating out there somewhere? Think on this.

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