Say Anything Blog

Humans Are Not 98% Genetically Identical to Chimpanzees

Commentary by Wesley J. Smith. Note: This article originally appeared on Smith’s blog, http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/

August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I have been researching the purported genetic near-identity between humans and chimps - asserted as the “scientific” basis for the Great Ape Project - and found (unsurprisingly) that the entire advocacy line that “humans and chimps share 98% of our genes” is plain false. This gets a little complicated, so stick with me.

First, the 98% figure is probably overstated. An article in Science puts the actual figure at 94%. (Jon Cohen, “Relative Differences: The Myth of 1%, June 29, 2007). But even these figures are only measuring about 2% of our total genetic makeup - that is, those genes that code for proteins, the building blocks of our physical bodies and functions.

The vast majority of our DNA, known as “non-coding DNA” - sometimes called “junk DNA” because it was once thought not to have function - is very different in humans from most non-coding genes found in chimps and other apes. However, recent research has found that, contrary to previous belief, this repetitive DNA isn’t “junk” after all, but has distinct purposes.

Research continues as to the exact nature and functions of non-coding genes, but given the wide differences between human and ape non-coding DNA, even if the purported 98% genetic similarity to coding DNA is true, it is actually only 98% of a much smaller percentage of our total genetic makeup, perhaps as low as 98% of 2%!

Proponents of the Great Ape Project might reply in defense that the coding genes are the ones that really count, but that is not scientifically supported anymore. And even if true, as we have discussed previously here at SHS, the 2-6% difference constitutes tens of millions of biological differences.

So this is the bottom line: Creating a human/chimp moral equivalency is not scientifically justified based on a close biological relationship between us that is actually quite vast. Rather, as one scientist quoted in the Science article referenced above put it about this issue:

“I don’t think there is any way to calculate a number [percentage of similarity]. In the end, it’s a political and social and cultural thing about how we see our differences.”

Exactly. This is about politics and ideology, pure and simple.

“Now the genetic difference between human and his nearest relative, the chimpanzee, is at least 1.6. That doesn’t sound like much, but calculated out, that is a gap of at least 48,000,000 nucleotides, and a change of only 3 nucleotides is fatal to an animal; there is no possibility of change.” (Human Genome Project, Quantitative A Disproof of Evolution, CEM facts sheet. Cited in Doubts about Evolution?)

Evolutionsists will NOT be convinced by this research. Creation Research and I.D. folk will brag about this being one more arrow in their quiver to strike at the heart of Darwinism.

The truth is, neither Darwinian Evolutionary Theory nor the two Supreme Designer explanations for the origins of life can be absolutely proven, they are both to a very large extent faith based religions. Nonetheless, this data supports other data that it should, if people were objective, at the very least end the line of arguement about the close biological relationship between apes and man.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081308.html

Teenage sister of youngest soldier to die in Afghanistan follows him into Army ranks

I deeply admire the love of family and country that produces such incredible people. The loving parents lose their son in Afghanistan, then they have their daughter go into the Army, to serve her country and honor her brother.

Emma Ford

Ben Ford

A year ago they lost their 18-year-old son, when he became the youngest British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.

Today, Trevor and Jane Ford watched with a mixture of pride and trepidation as their teenage daughter courageously followed in her brother’s footsteps at an army passing out parade.

It’s probably only a matter of time before Emma Ford, 17, is posted to the war zones of Iraq or Afghanistan. When that day comes her parents will no doubt be desperately worried about their only remaining child. But they were putting on a brave face as the teenager successfully completed the first stage of her army career on a day of high emotion.

After a rain-soaked parade at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Emma said:’Today meant a lot to me, I wanted to make my brother proud.

‘This last year has been fine physically but emotionally it has been a bit difficult.’ ‘What I want to do now is get on with my life in the army but I will always be thinking of my brother.’

Ben was a private serving with the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment in Helmand Province when the vehicle he was in was blown up during a routine operation on September 5 last year. Another 23-year-old soldier also died in the explosion. Ben had joined the army at 16 and was on his first overseas posting when he died.

Emma had already decided to join the army as well and was due to start her year at the military college when news of her brother’s death came through. She delayed starting the course for several weeks and after much soul-searching continued with her chosen career.

Emma was among 600 young soldiers passing out at the college. She will now join the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and hope for the long and rewarding career which was so tragically denied to her elder brother.

Mrs Ford, 50, of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, said:’It’s been Emma’s day today and we are both so proud of what she has done. She’s a star and despite the terrible weather, she looked good on parade. ‘Obviously as well as being very proud of Emma, we were also thinking of Ben and he is in the back of our minds a lot.

A truly incredible young lady and a family that should be very proud they raised such decent, honorable and selfless children. My prayers for all of them and to Ben and Emma I offer a hand salute

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044989/Teenage-sister-youngest-soldier-die-Afghanistan-follows-Army-ranks.html

Man slices out girl’s tongue, ignites her after ‘heated debate on religion’

Saudir Arabian Muslim father cut out his daughter’s tongue and lit her on fire upon learning that she had become a Christian.

The child became curious about Jesus Christ after she read Christian material online, the Gulf News reported.

Her father read of her Internet conversation, detached her tongue and burned her to death “following a heated debate on religion,” according to an International Christian Concern report.

It doesn’t say how old, but her last memories are of her father cutting out her tongue so she could not mention Jesus and by that act blaspheme Allah; then with the excrutiating pain, major loss of blood and fear, she was burned to death by the man that should have loved her and protected her no matter what she might have done.

The father is employed by the muwateen, or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The muwateen are police tasked by the government with enforcing religious purity. The man has been taken into custody, and his identity has not been released.

The ICC pointed out the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported textbooks at the Saudi Arabian government school in Northern Virginia teach, “It is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate (a convert from Islam).”

Saudi Arabian oil money is used to export Wahabbism – a version of Islam said to be least tolerant toward non-Muslims – to other nations, including the U.S., ICC notes

This is Islam - mutilations, torture and murder are their answers to anything which may question Allah.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72273

Iraq minister: US troops will pull out in three years under deal

American soldiers will withdraw from cities across Iraq next summer and all US combat troops will leave the country within three years, provided the violence remains low, under the terms of a draft agreement with the Iraqi Government.

In one of the most detailed insights yet into the content of the deal, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, has also told The Times that the US military would be barred from unilaterally mounting attacks inside Iraq from next year.

In addition, the power of arrest for US soldiers would be curbed by the need to hand over any detainee to a new, US-Iraqi committee. Troops would require the green light from this joint command before conducting any operation.

The Pentagon refused to comment last night on the proposals laid out in the draft agreement between Baghdad and Washington that covers the status of US forces beyond 2008. Britain will strike its own deal with Iraq but Gordon Brown hopes to withdraw most British troops from Iraq by next summer, reducing the number of soldiers from 4,10 to “a few hundred” by then.

This bothers me a bit:
1. I like getting out by next summer, we should call it a victory now, before Buch leaves office; but . . .
2. The U.S. cannot launch operations unilaterally, which many mean even if to defend their own positions. That leaves them too vulnerable.
3. They’ll have no arrest authority, only to detain suspects for an Iraqi committee. So, it can mean that no matter how guilty a person is, a Shiite committee member can release terrorists if they are Shiites to go back and kill Americans.

“The idea is really to keep these forces outside the main cities, the population centres. It doesn’t mean that they could not enter or come through,” the Foreign Minister said. The US Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment on the content of the framework accord, while describing the continuing talks as “constructive”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4526313.ece

I feel a damn ingrate Iraqi leadership is operating here, I could be reading it wrong, but it bothers me.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)—A gunman entered the Arkansas Democratic Party headquarters Wednesday and shot the party chairman, who was hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.

The gunman asked to speak to the party chairman, Bill Gwatney, and fired three shots at the office near the state Capitol.

“He came in and went into this office and started shooting,” police Lt. Terry Hastings told reporters near the party headquarters.

Gwatney, a former legislator, was in critical condition, Hastings said. Party officials confirmed the victim was Gwatney.

The suspect was chased into Grant County, south of Little Rock, and apprehended after being shot, the police spokesman said. The suspect’s condition and motive were not known.

Sarah Lee, a sales clerk at a flower shop across street from the party headquarters, said that around noon Gwatney’s secretary ran into the shop and asked someone to call 911.

Lee said the secretary told her the man had come into the party’s office and asked to speak with Gwatney. When the secretary said she wouldn’t allow him to meet with Gwatney, the man went into his office and shot him, Lee said.

She said the secretary described the man as in his 40s and white and drove off in a blue truck.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEMOCRATIC_PARTY_SHOOTING?SITE=SCCHA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Iraq war veteran thrown off train after ticket row as conductor tells him: ‘It’s not as if you’ve taken a bullet’

A soldier returning from Iraq in full combat uniform was thrown off a train after the conductor demanded proof he was eligible for an armed forces discount.

Rifleman Zachary Holland, 19, had been unable to pick up his services railcard in barracks and was angry when the official insisted the cheaper ticket he had been issued for being a soldier was not valid without it.

But his frustration turned to fury when the conductor said to him: ‘I don’t know what you are complaining about. It is not as if you’ve taken a bullet or anything.’

With the help of a friendly passenger Mr Holland had managed to find the £50.50 to pay the full fare, but he swore at the official when he made the insensitive ‘bullet’ remark - and was asked to leave at the next station.

The conductor took the extra fare and then ordered him off the train at Chesterfield because of his attitude.

There is more to the story at the link below. The fact is, this guy was returning from Iraq, in full combat gear and rather than honor that, the conductor (I suspect a liberal) demanded he either show the documents to prove he was eligible for a military discount or else. Despite another passenger paying the full fare for him, the conductor still booted him off the train at the next stop. The passengers aware of this situation were understandably upset.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044469/Iraq-war-veteran-thrown-train-ticket-row-conductor-tells-Its-youve-taken-bullet.html

Electronic cuffs planned for dads
‘I don’t see any safeguards. This presumes men guilty’

Men in divorce cases, never having been convicted of a crime may be, at a judges discretion ordered to wear GPS bracelets during and even after the divorce, to protect the wife from perceived acts of violence against the wife.

Illinois has joined a growing contingent of states to adopt a law that will put electronic GPS tracking bracelets on men who have not been convicted of any crime, but might be involved in a messy divorce.

The plan, named in memory of Cindy Bischoff, who was attacked and murdered by a former boyfriend, was signed into law just days ago and is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

And while its goal of protecting women and children from out-of-control husbands and fathers is good, it goes too far and violates the civil rights of innocent fathers, according to a lawyer for a group that will challenge it.

“Electronic tagging devices can be appropriate as a condition of parole or probation,” said attorney Jeffery M. Leving, who is a nationally known fathers’ rights advocate, the author of “Fathers’ Rights” and “Divorce Wars” and founder of DadsRights.com. “The Cindy Bischof Law goes far beyond this, placing long-term electronic tags on men who have never been found guilty of any crime.”

There is no longer in this situation or many other situations around the country, a presumption of innocence and a requirement for a fair trial before people can be treated as convicted criminals. In Connecticut just a disgruntled neighbor complaining about the trash in your yard is an excuse for the police having any guns in the house permanently confiscated. Sadly, even many conservatives agree that a presumption of innocence is an outdated concept and accusations should be sufficient to hang the accussed.

“A man can accidentally be in the same park or mall as his ex-wife/girlfriend, and the electronic monitoring device could lead to his arrest even if he never actually saw her. Some men have even been tricked into violating the orders by former spouses. The device will make this easier-a woman could call her estranged husband, tell him she needs him to come to her house because of a crisis with their children, and then have an electronic record of his violation,” he said.

“Perhaps such a drastic measure would be warranted if the men forced to wear the devices had meaningful and fair trials, and were found to be guilty of violent or dangerous crimes. However, the Bischof Law empowers judges with the ability to mandate the GPS tracking device on anyone who is accused of violating an order of protection,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the rush to protect the abused is so incredibly aggressive that the rights of the accused have been violated,” Leving said. “I don’t see any safeguard in this law. This law basically presumes in these situations [men] are guilty.”

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72215

FCC Commissioner: Return of Fairness Doctrine Could Control Web Content

There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.”

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks.

The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told the Business & Media Institute the Fairness Doctrine could be intertwined with the net neutrality battle. The result might end with the government regulating content on the Web, he warned. McDowell, who was against reprimanding Comcast, said the net neutrality effort could win the support of “a few isolated conservatives” who may not fully realize the long-term effects of government regulation.

“Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else,” McDowell said. “So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?”

This election may determine whether or not the Fairness Doctrine under some other name may be resurrected!

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080812160747.aspx

From American Pundit:

George Clooney once famously declared he could never run for public office because he’d ‘slept with too many women, done too many drugs and been to too many parties’.

But now the Hollywood heart-throb has entered the political arena at
the highest level – by becoming an unofficial adviser to US Presidential front-runner Barack Obama.

Oscar-winner Clooney, 47, is said to be helping the Democratic candidate to polish his image at home and abroad.

But he is also sharing with Obama his strong opinions on Iraq and the Middle East.

Sources say the actor has tried to hide the pair’s friendship for fear his Left-wing views and playboy image would hurt the Presidential hopeful’s bid for the White House.

But Democratic Party insiders have revealed that Clooney and Obama regularly send texts and emails to each other and speak by phone at least twice a week.

One said last night: ‘They are extremely close. A number of members of the Hollywood community, including Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, offered to help raise funds for Barack but it was with George that he struck up this amazing affinity.

‘George has been giving him advice on things such as presentation, public speaking and body language and he also emails him constantly about policy, especially the Middle East.

‘George is pushing him to be more “balanced” on issues such as US relations with Israel.

George is pro-Palestinian. And he is also urging Barack to withdraw unconditionally from Iraq if he wins.

So, Actor George Clonney, unsolicited or not is advising Obama and is promoting himself as an expert on the Middle East, and it appears that advice is anti-Israel.

Mayby Secretary of State George Clooney?

http://amerpundit.com/2008/08/11/good-news-clooney-advising-obama-on-foreign-policy/

Lawmaker tells pastor arguments are ‘bull----’
Family group lobbying for legislator to apologize

A pro-family group is lobbying for a California lawmaker to apologize to a pastor who appeared before a recent committee hearing after the legislator interrupted the minister and called his argument “bull----.”

“This type of behavior from an elected official is simply unacceptable,” said Karen England, chief of the Capitol Resource Institute. “But this is the attitude that many in the majority party have towards the ‘little people’ who come to Sacramento to participate in the legislative process. Even when our staff is belittled publicly by arrogant lawmakers, we have never been cursed at; this is beyond the pale.”

It happened while pastor Robert Jones of Oak Park United Methodist Church was appearing before an informational hearing on the state’s efforts to cut emissions.

Jones had contended that when government imposes mandates and taxes, it hurts the poor and vulnerable. Less than two minutes into his testimony, Sen. Pat Wiggins, a Democrat, interrupted with, “Excuse me, but I think your arguments are bull----.”

Jones sat with a stunned look before he could say anything. “Well…,” he started, but almost immediately was cut off again, this time by Sen. Christine Kehoe, who jumped into the situation and praised the pastor for visiting with the committee and promised that community members would be part of the decision-making process.

This is, I believe, typical of government today, they are arrogant, at all levels of government a significant number of our legislators believe they are the elite ruling class, that they are superior to the little people. It is a far cry from a nation by and for the people, with citizen legislators. We now have professional, nearly unbeatable career legislators no longer willing to listen to the people. In California the legislators are openly contemptuous of the will of the people, time and time again ignoring or bastardizing referenda passed by the people.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72138

Democratic convention chief wants reparations for blacks
Shares controversial ‘liberation’ theology with Obama’s ex-pastor Jeremiah Wright

The woman commissioned by the Democratic Party to direct its presidential nominating convention in two weeks espouses the same black liberation theology pursued by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose church presumptive nominee Barack Obama was forced to leave because of its controversies.

Those included Wright’s condemnation of America and a vicious attack on Hillary Clinton from the pulpit, and WND reported when, finally, the Obama campaign announced the candidate resigned his 20-year membership in the church.

Now a profile in the New York Times reveals Rev. Leah Daughtry, a Pentecostal minister who leads a congregation of 20 in Washington, embraces “black liberation theology” beliefs such as the “debt” the U.S. “owes” all blacks for slavery.

To be fair, it doesn’t appear from this story that Obama was directly involved in this choice or even approved, it seems Howard Dean was behind this appointment. However, a person espousing the same Black Liberation Theology and contempt for America as Obama’s former pastor, will be in charge of crowning Obama as the Democrat Party Nominee.

While the media hounded Wright for his anti-American rants and while presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Hussein Obama divorced him as his personal pastor, Obama’s head will be crowned by Leah Daughtry, who ardently believes in the same Marxist ‘Black Liberation Theology’ preached by Wright,” McLeod wrote on Canada Free Press.

This is the modern Democrat Party, not just a socialist party, but promoting some very extreme policies for America. It seems Black Liberation Theology will not only have a part to play in the convention, with a high powered man sympathetic to their cause in the White House, I think we are going to see that philosophy becoming popular throughout the government.

Black Liberation Theology:
“A moral or theological appeal based on a white definition of morality or theology will serve as a detriment to our attainment of black freedom. The only option we blacks have is to fight in every way possible, so that we can create a definition of freedom based on our own history and culture. We must not expect white people to give us freedom. Freedom is not a gift, but a responsibility, and thus must be taken against the will of those who hold us in bondage.” Reverend James Cone

”This truly is a time for change.  This is truly a time to stop keeping the black community down.  This is truly a time for the black community to stop keeping themselves down.  But who needs to pull the plank out of their eye?” Rev. James Wright

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72149

We are just plain suicidal!

After more than two decades on the books, a little-known yet strictly enforced federal law barring foreigners with HIV or AIDS from entering the country is on its way out.

Tucked in a bill pledging $48 billion to combat the disease, signed into law by President Bush last week, was language stripping the provision from federal immigration law.

But that change didn’t fully lift the entry ban on visitors with HIV or AIDS, which applies whether they’re on tourist jaunts or seeking longer stays. The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services still needs to delete HIV from the agency’s list of “communicable diseases of public health significance,” which includes tuberculosis, gonorrhea and leprosy.

An HHS spokeswoman declined to comment, noting administrators are still reviewing the new law. An April report from the Congressional Budget Office said that, based on information from HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV will be dropped from the list and new regulations will be in place in two years.

Both immigrant and HIV awareness advocates, however, say the toughest hurdle has been cleared, that the lifting of the immigration provision has been a long time coming — politics finally catching up with medical knowledge.

“Today everyone knows that you can’t get AIDS from sitting next to someone on an airplane or sharing a bathroom — American policy should reflect this,” said Victoria Neilson, legal director of Immigration Equality, a New York-based advocacy group that has led a years-long campaign against the ban.

We should change the motto on the Statue of Liberty to read: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, with communicable diseases ... I lift my lamp beside the venereal disease door,” then add we don’t care about the health of our citizens, and hell we’ll pick up the damn bill for their health care, and that of the people they infect.

We are not talking about visitors just spreading the disease on visits here, but this is for all future immigrants, immigrants our health care system will have to care for! We are suicidal!

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/national/us_acts_to_open_bordersto_foreigners_with_hiv100.html

Obama supporters to get VP announcement via text

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is close to choosing a running mate, and the first person to find out could be you.
In an e-mail to supporters, Obama’s campaign manager said voters can sign up to receive an e-mail or a text message “the moment” he makes his decision.

“No other campaign has done this before,” campaign manager David Plouffe said in the e-mail. “You can be part of this important moment.”

The e-mail asks supporters to pass the message to friends and family, another way for the campaign to collect information on potential voters and contributors.

Obama has run a technologically savvy campaign, using the Internet to build a network of 2 million volunteers and raise nearly $340 million, as of the end of June.

The campaign’s efforts extend far beyond the official campaign Web site, to a variety of social networking sites that allow supporters to exchange messages with each other, and track the candidate on the campaign trail.

Some of those sites, like Twitter, deliver updates via text message, putting the campaign in near-constant contact with potential voters.

Obama’s latest Twitter update details the campaign’s plan to announce a running mate via text.

Obama is vacationing in Hawaii with his family until Aug. 15. He’ll return with just nine days to go before the Democratic convention, giving him a short window to announce his running mate.

Actually a smart idea, it helps him gauge his support and he has used Email as a source of donations.

The elections I believe are more and more in the hands of blogs and Email lists today than anyone might have expected. Now, does McCain have anyone technologically savvy to use these resources or will he insist on that old time politics?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D92G84200&show_article=1

Hundreds of cancer patients are being left to die on the NHS because of a postcode lottery over who gets life-saving drugs.

A study has found that more than 1,300 patients with rare forms of cancer have been refused access to treatments in less than two years because their case was not deemed ‘exceptional’ enough.

They will be forced to go without the life-saving treatments, unless they can afford to pay privately for the drugs. But if they do so, they risk having all their other NHS care withdrawn, because the Government outlaws ‘co-payments’.

Details obtained by the Rarer Cancers Forum under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that some 5,000 patients were forced to plead with NHS managers to receive high-cost drugs not yet examined by rationing body the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence.

Only 26 per cent of them succeed - some 1,314 over the past 20 months - and there is massive geographical variation, with some primary care trusts funding 100 per cent of the cases that come in front of them, and others rejecting 100 per cent.

Although the Government says treatments should not be refused simply because a trust is short of cash, the report indicates that many areas are refusing drugs for financial reasons.

You have a potentially fatal disease, it is a damn lottery whether or not you get life saving drugs.

You want to pay for the drugs yourself? You lose your NHS.

Don’t you want NHS for yourself and your family, I know I do, this looks really great! <- Sarcasm!

Daily Mail

Fear the mark of the beast?
State offers special license
West Virginia drivers receive exemption from requirement to digitally store photo.

It’s not “666,” but it’s close enough to the New Testament’s “mark of the beast,” says a small religious group in West Virginia who has won an exemption from the state’s requirement that driver’s license photos be stored in a digital database.

Phil Hudok, a high school physics teacher in Randolph County, Pastor Butch Paugh and 12 others raised the issue in 2006 during meetings with Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo as the state prepared to bring its driver’s license policy in line with the federal Real ID Act, passed a year earlier. Under Real ID, states would be required to share information about licensed drivers, including photos, with agencies in other states.

“We see us getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast,” Hudok told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.”

So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

I have some mixed feelings here:
1. I don’t believe that Christians will be here to have to worry about the Scriptural reference to the Mark of the Beast, which is said to be required in the End Times for anyone to buy or sell in all the earth. So, I think this needs more study on Phil Hudok’s part.
2. I have a problem with the idea that everyone finds exemptions to obeying our basic laws which are designed for public safety purposes. Like those Muslim women not wanting to uncover their faces for their Driver’s License photographs. It gets to where everyone can be exempt from almost any law on almost any pretext.
3. I admire anyone that has strong spiritual beliefs and is willing, even when they are wrong, to resist any attenpt to make them compromise their faith and who are willing to accept the consequences of their actions peaceably.
4. I admire anyone, whether faith is involved or not that is willing to fight to defend what they believe are their rights as citizens.
5. If the state does not find the photograph essential to public safety, they did the right thing here. If that is true, why did the state demand it in the first place?
6. Considering the school had exempted this man from wearing the computer bar code next to his picture on his name tag, I don’t think they then have any logical, rational grounds for asking him enforce the rule he was exempted from for students.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71943