Step Aside - What's Done In The Dark

There are no words for how this makes me feel!

Study: No increased autism risk from mercury-based perservative in vaccines

Exposing a fetus or young infant to vaccines with the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal does not increase the risk for autism, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

"This study adds to the evidence that thimerosal-containing vaccines do not increase a child's risk of developing autism," lead study author, Dr. Frank DeStefano of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tells CNN.

Researchers studied the medical records of 256 children diagnosed with autism and 752 typically developed children born between January 1994 and December 1999. The children were between 6 and 13 years old when the medical data was reviewed – 85 percent of them were boys. The research concluded that there was no evidence that children exposed to the mercury in the vaccines were at risk for getting autism.

According to the CDC, an average of 1 in 110 children in the United States have some form of autism and boys are 4 to 5 times more likely to have autism than girls.

In 2004 the Institute of Medicine reviewed existing research regarding a possible link between vaccines and autism and concluded "that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism."

Still several advocacy groups and many parents believe vaccines caused their children's autism.

Earlier this year, a federal court set up by Congress to decide claims over vaccine safety, ruled scientific evidence presented did not establish a link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism.

Dr. Geraldine Dawson, Chief Science Officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks calls the study in Pediatrics significant because it found higher levels of thimerosal exposure were not linked to a higher risk for autism. "One study can't answer all questions, but this study adds to a large body of evidence indicating that early thimerosal exposure through vaccination does not cause autism." She adds, "we encourage parents to have their children vaccinated and to establish a trusting relationship with their child's pediatrician so they can discuss any concerns they have."

Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has long argued that there is no connection. He writes about how believing in this connection can put children at risk in his book "Autism's False Prophets." Offit says "this is at least the 6th study done on thimerosal - they've all shown the same thing. There's not a relationship between thimerosal and autism." Offit suggests it's time to move on and focus on other possible causes of autism.

"1,000 TIMES NO!"

Los Angeles Parents Put Daughter's Naming Rights on the Market for $750,000

Sure, it's expensive to raise a kid these days, but really? A pair of Los Angeles musicians are hoping to fund the rearing of their daughter the way cities fund stadium construction: naming rights. The couple posted a craigslist ad Saturday offering up their unborn baby's middle name to corporate sponsors. The $750,000 price tag seems a bit steep. This baby girl will initially weigh in at less than 15 pounds, and Izod got an entire sports arena for $1.4 million a year. But as her proud parents point out, the winning corporation "will be presented to thousands of potential customers every month as our baby grows and is signed up for scouts, called on in classrooms, and mentioned in pediatrician offices." Although the parents sound open to just about anything ("we're having a girl but product name needn't be feminine"), they do, like all good parents, have some favorite names picked out: "Our list of hopefuls includes SONY, SAAB, Jet Blue, Converse, Hot Pocket, Gibson, and Ludwig (we're musicians)."

Credits:Slate Magazine

Super Mario Bros. has sold how many copies?

Super Mario Bros., the most classic of all Nintendo games, celebrates its 25th anniversary this week. In the quarter century that followed, the game's hero – a mustachioed, red-capped plumber – has appeared in more than 200 titles.

Mario is clearly a cash cow for Nintendo, a company that has always banked on nostalgia. How many copies are we talking about?

Nintendo says the original Super Mario Bros. has sold more than 40 million copies. Many of those came bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System, but the number has ticked ever higher, thanks to re-releases and the Wii's virtual console.

But what if you added in all the "core" Mario titles? (Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, etc.) Roll 'em all up, and you've got 240 million copies sold. That's definitely enough coins to earn a 1-up.

Credits: Chris Gaylord, Christian Science Monitor

If a co-worker gets you down

Strife due to difficult relationships at work, either with a boss or co-workers, can turn the workday into drudgery. It may seem easy to categorize others and justify our indifference to them, but instead there’s a healing, solution-oriented route to take.

Some time ago I was working in close quarters with a producer, editing a television show. We were in a small closet that was stuffy, warm, and uncomfortable, and my temper was hot. Running the tape back and forward, adding music and voice over and over again, was tedious. Trying to agree on what should be left in and what should be taken out led to a grinding conflict. I wanted to throw away the whole project and leave, but I knew that wasn’t going to solve anything. I had to calm my thought and see my fellow worker and boss, as well as myself, as inherently good, a child of God.

I knew from my study of Christian Science, in which I was seeking to know more about God, our Creator, that He is Love. He created all things good and flawless. Nothing can oppose this mighty truth. Mental stress, dislike, irritation, antagonism are mortal thinking. They have nothing to do with our true being, the reflection of Love.

Mary Baker Eddy recognized this when she discovered Christian Science and wrote a textbook for self-instruction titled “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” In it she wrote: “A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God” (p. 507).

In my situation in the studio, I saw that it was not a person who was the problem, but impatience, self-will, and self-justification that were in the way. Deep down I knew these had no power. God’s all-power is independent of material conditions. I remembered this statement of Mrs. Eddy’s: “When error strives to be heard above Truth, let the ‘still small voice’ produce God’s phenomena” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 249).

So I refused to be intimidated by fear, hatred, or inharmony of any kind. I held to the fact that unreasonableness and bad temper do not belong to the sons and daughters of God. Soon the work progressed. We were finished, and we both felt satisfied.

The true sense of work and our relationships with others is found in right thinking. Love lifts us above every limitation. As God, who is divine Principle, is recognized as the only cause, there can be no discord. We can accept and realize the omnipresence of divine Love.

Credits: Nancy Robison, Christian Science Monitor

You Are Custom-Made

We recently purchased a sofa with a somewhat unusual shape that fit the room exactly where we needed it. It seemed custom-made, even though it was secondhand.

Because the sofa certainly had not been specially manufactured for us, I began to think about why I even thought of it in the context of being custom-made, since that notion often elicits a sense of unaffordable luxury. Certainly, the sofa wasn’t luxurious – or expensive. No, what made me think of it this way was that it appeared just when I needed it, complete and perfect.

The sofa to me was more than an attractive furnishing for comfort. My delight in it came from the qualities it represented – its perfect fit in economy, form, color – all qualities that can be seen in spiritual ways. Those qualities are understood in the theology of Christian Science as having their source in God and are evident in so many ways. God is Spirit, the only Creator of the universe, including each of us as the ideas He has conceived. What God creates is like Him – entirely and provably spiritual. And we’re created to include everything we need – all the qualities of His goodness.

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Monitor, recognized with impeccable spiritual logic that what God has made expresses His nature in every attribute. She described in this way the ideas that God, as the divine Mind, has created: “From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 512).

Each quality and condition of what is good and needed is actually found in Spirit. And that means each individual includes them also. The divine Parent of all identities is constantly providing the atmosphere of pure joy, the environment of infinite possibilities, the substance of spiritual good, for each one. We are created to fit in life, or being, in the most fulfilling, delightfully individual way.

The book of Isaiah in the Bible describes this. As recorded in the King James Version, God declares, “This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise” (Isa. 43:21). “The Message” paraphrases that passage with this encouraging statement: “a people custom-made to praise me.”

Every man, woman, and child is precision-created to express God’s divine purpose – and to joy in it. Viewed another way, purpose, joy, and fulfillment are spiritual qualities that express the divine will. God creates no mass-produced individualities. Even the concept is self-contradictory. Individuality is the unique expression of our loving, even doting, divine Parent, of the divine intelligence that creates and forever nurtures our growth and development.

God creates no misfits, no unneeded identities. There are no lapses where someone has fallen through the cracks, missed his calling, outlasted her usefulness. Infinite Mind loved each one into being, with a creative intelligence that never fails to prepare and secure the perfect place for each one, for now and eternity. Every individuality is forever wanted and needed, and therefore is perfectly planned for. New satisfaction, freshly orchestrated by God, continues to come to us through our unfolding understanding of God’s plan for us.

We were created to fit the niche where we can best express and glorify our Creator and express our uniqueness. You were created by your Creator to fill your niche. It uniquely fits you, in order to lift you, enlarge your capacities, and bless you. That will bless others as well. You can trust this and move forward in your life on its basis. You are custom-made.

Credits: Suzanne Riedel, Christian Science Monitor

Is College a Good Investment?

Among the American middle class, there is a belief that all people have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of matching Bed, Bath and Beyond coordinates for their child's college dorm room. Starting college is, as the Washington Post's Sarah Kaufman puts it, "a rite of passage, part of orderly progression toward success." Or is it? Kaufman asks whether the freshmen currently flocking toward campuses are falling prey to a "herd mentality" that is actually hurting their chances for success. After all, Americans are now more weighed down by student-loan debt than credit-card debt. If someone invested $200,000 instead of spending it on tuition at a top-flight school, in 50 years they'd have $2.8 million to help console them over their lack of a degree. Yes, on average, college grads make more than people with just a high-school education, but Kaufman's experts point out that that's an average. "If you major in accounting or engineering, you're pretty likely to get a return on your investment," one economics professor says. "If you're majoring in anthropology or social work or education. ... I've talked to some of my own students who've graduated and who are working in grocery stores or Wal-Mart. The fellow who cut my tree down had a master's degree and was an honors grad."

Credits: Slate Magazine

John Calipari visits 102-year-old fan

Here's a bummer about getting old: Until you get really, really, really old -- the kind of old that's so old you're not sure if you want to be that old -- people don't care. Being 80 is rarely seen as an accomplishment. But when you reach a certain threshold, people care more than ever. You get your photo on the "Today Show." Your relatives mention you in casual conversation. ("My grandpa is 104, and he still walks a mile every day!") People clap for you at weddings.

And, perhaps most importantly, high-profile college hoops coaches come visit you on your birthday.

At least, one does. Kentucky coach John Calipari, master of the positive public relations stunt (and, by all accounts, a genuinely caring and outgoing guy), visited Dr. Gifford Blyton, a 102-year-old Kentucky season-ticket holder for 62 years and a former professor under eight different presidents at Kentucky, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Calipari is traveling in support of his latest book, "Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life," but he stopped the book tour for the momentary visit with Blyton at Fat Boys restaurant in Georgetown, Ky. (Mmm. Fat Boys. I've never been there, but any restaurant named "Fat Boys" is bound to be delicious. I bet there's lots of gravy.)

In any case, Calipari left the meeting with a ready-made quote straight from the inspirational coachspeak handbook:

“You give money, and you're giving a fraction of what you have,” Calipari said last week. “But when you give your time, you're giving everything.”

Which, like all good inspirational coachspeak handbook quotes, has the benefit of being both hokey and true. Fans eat this stuff up, and it's no wonder why. Calipari is good at a lot of things -- recruiting, meshing teams together, coaching defense -- but creating a genuine sense of outreach and community in his adopted home might be his best, and perhaps most admirable, trait.

Credits: Eamon Brennan, ESPN

Ten things I know about the mosque

1. America missed a golden opportunity to showcase its Constitutional freedoms. The instinctive response of Americans should have been the same as President Obama's: Muslims have every right to build there. Where one religion can build a church, so can all religions.

2. The First Amendment comes down to this: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." It does not come down to: "The First Amendment gives me the right to repeat the N-word 11 times on the radio to an inoffensive black woman, and when you attack me for saying it, you are in violation of my First Amendment rights."

3. The choice of location shows flawed judgment on the part of its imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. He undoubtedly knows that now, and I expect his project to be relocated. The imam would be prudent to chose another location, because the far right wing has seized on the issue as an occasion for fanning hatred against Muslims. It has also narrowly reframed the project as a mosque, rather than a community center with a prayer room, which is what it would be. To oppose it on the grounds that it is Muslim is religious prejudice and nothing else. The Muslims who attacked the World Trade Center are not the Muslims who are building the center.

4. One buried motive for the attacks on Park51 is exploitation of the insane belief of 20% of Americans that President Obama is a Muslim. Zealots like Glenn Beck, with his almost daily insinuations about the Muslim grandfather Obama never knew and the father he met only once, are encouraging this mistaken belief.

5. The Bill of Rights has a parallel with pregnancy. You can't be a little pregnant, and you can't be a little free. Nor can you serve yourself from it cafeteria style.

6. Somewhere on the Right is an anonymous genius at creating memes. Sarah Palin floats a suspicious number of them: Death Panels, Ground Zero Mosque, 9/11 Mosque, Terror Babies. Her tweets are mine fields of coded words; for her, "patriot" is defined as, "those who agree with me." When she says "Americans," it is not inclusive. These two must have been carefully composed in advance to be tweeted within 60 seconds of each other:

By using the evocative word "shackles" she associates Dr. Laura's use of the N-word with the suffering of slaves. By implying Dr. Laura was silenced by "Constitutional obstructionists," she employs the methodology of the Big Lie, defined in Mein Kampf as an untruth so colossal that "no one would believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." She uses the trigger word "reload" to evoke her support of Second Amendment activists while attacking "activists" for evoking the First.

7. Many Americans and a great many politicians have either never taken a civics class or disagree with what they should have learned there. The major opinion sources in America that seem to devote the most attention to the Bill of Rights are Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, all distorting it as an everyday practice. Bill O'Reilly, to his credit, doesn't indulge in this.

8. A meme is infecting our society that Muslims are terrorists and hate America; they are the enemy. It is a cliche to say, "the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful," but is true. When Muslim nations are bombed by America, can those nations be expected to applaud? In Iran after 9/11 there were candlelight marches in sympathy with the United States.

9. I find hope in the words of two American strippers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Cassandra, who works at New York Dolls, just around the corner from the proposed community center, said she worried that calls to prayer might wake up the neighbors. The WSJ writes: "But when she was told that the organizers aren't planning loudspeakers, she said she didn't have a problem with the project: 'I don't know what the big deal is. It's freedom of religion, you know?'"

Chris works in the Pussycat Lounge, even closer to the site. When the airplanes struck the World Trade Center, Chris became a Red Cross volunteer working with survivors. The WSJ writes she "sat on a barstool in a tiny, shiny red dress and defended Park51. 'They're not building a mosque in the World Trade Center. It's all good. You have your synagogues and your churches. And you have a mosque.'" Chris lost eight of her friends on Sept. 11, 2001, firefighters from the Brooklyn firehouse she lived next to at the time, but "the people who did it are not going to the mosque."

Cassandra and Chris reflect American values more instinctively and correctly on this issue, let it be said, than Sarah Palin, Howard Dean, Newt Gingrich, Harry Reid and Rudy Giuliani, who should know better.

10. I wonder how many Americans realize the community center is not intended for Ground Zero. What will be constructed there includes a 55,000 square foot retail mall. This mall will be deep enough to connect with subway lines -- deep enough, that is, to theoretically be embedded in the ashes of some of the 9/11 victims.

What might have been more appropriate? On September 12, 2001, I wrote a little op-ed column:

A Green Field

If there is to be a memorial, let it not be of stone and steel. Fly no flag above it, for it is not the possession of a nation but a sorrow shared with the world.

Let it be a green field, with trees and flowers. Let there be paths that wind through the shade. Put out park benches where old people can sun in the springtime, and a pond where children can skate in the winter.

Beneath this field will lie entombed forever some of the victims of September 11. It is not where they thought to end their lives. Like the sailors of the battleship Arizona, they rest where they fell.

Let this field stretch from one end of the destruction to the other. Let this open space among the towers mark the emptiness in our hearts. But do not make it a sad place. Give it no name. Let people think of it as the green field. Every living thing that is planted here will show faith in the future.

Let students from all lands take a sunny corner of the field and plant a crop there. Perhaps corn, our native grain. Let the harvest be shared all over the world, with friends and enemies, because that is the teaching of our religions. Let the harvest show that life prevails over death, and let the sharing show that we love our neighbors.

Do not build again on this place. No building can stand here. No building, no statue, no column, no arch, no symbol, no name, no date, no statement. Just the comfort of the earth, to remind us that we share it.

Credits: Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Journal

Betty White Scores Emmy For Hosting 'SNL'

The Betty White phenomenon keeps getting bigger.

White won an Emmy Award for best guest actress in a comedy series for her turn as "Saturday Night Live" host. The honor came Saturday at the creative arts ceremony that is precursor to the main Aug. 29 Emmy show.

The trophy is the fifth prime-time Emmy received by the 88-year-old White, according to the TV academy. Her previous honors came for classic sitcoms including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls."

So far this year, besides the "SNL" gig, White made a splash with the new TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland," scored with a clever Super Bowl commercial and played a mad librarian on ABC's sitcom "The Middle."

She did not attend Saturday's ceremony, which included presenters Jane Lynch of "Glee," Elizabeth Mitchell of "Lost" and Christina Hendricks of "Mad Men."

Neil Patrick Harris was a presenter and winner, taking the trophy for best guest actor in a comedy series for his appearance on "Glee." The guest acting trophies for drama series went to John Lithgow for "Dexter" and Ann-Margret for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which has won Emmy acting honors for six consecutive years.

Harris, who stars in "How I Met Your Mother," shared in another award. The Tony Awards show, which he hosted to critical acclaim, was recognized as best special class program.

The top network winner was HBO with 17 trophies, followed by ABC with 15 and Fox with nine. CBS, NBC and PBS each claimed seven. "The Pacific," HBO's World War II miniseries, captured a leading seven creative arts awards.

Four trophies went to "Disney Prep & Landing," an animated Christmas special. Other big winners, with three trophies each, were freshman sitcom "Modern Family," "Saturday Night Live" and "The 25th Anniversary Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Concert."

Randy Newman won a trophy for original music and lyrics for "When I'm Gone," written for the departed series "Monk."

John Leverence, senior vice president of awards, received the Syd Cassyd Founders Award for his service to the TV academy.

The creative arts ceremony will air Friday on the E! channel. Next Sunday's 62nd annual prime-time Emmy ceremony, with Jimmy Fallon as host, will air live on NBC.

Other winners at the creative arts Emmys, which honor technical and other achievements, included:

Host, reality or reality-competition series: Jeff Probst, "Survivor," CBS.

Voice-over performance: Anne Hathaway, "The Simpsons: Once Upon a Time in Springfield," Fox.

Reality program: "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," ABC.

Commercial: "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like: Old Spice Body Wash."

Animated Program: "Disney Prep & Landing," ABC.

Nonfiction series: "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," PBS.

Writing for a variety, music or comedy series: "The Colbert Report: 5076 (in Iraq)," Comedy Central.

Music composition for a series (original dramatic score): "24: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.," Fox.

Music composition for a miniseries, movie or special: "Temple Grandin," HBO.

Choreography: "So You Think You Can Dance," Fox.

Casting for a drama series: "Mad Men," AMC.

Casting for a miniseries, movie or a special: "The Pacific," HBO.

Casting for a comedy series: "Modern Family," ABC.

Costumes for a miniseries, movie or a special: "Return to Cranford (Masterpiece), Part 2," PBS.

Costumes for a variety-music program or a musical (more than one award possible): "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Episode 09-1266)," ABC; "So You Think You Can Dance (Top 12 perform)," Fox; "Titan Maximum: Went to Party, Got Crabs," Cartoon Network.

Costumes for a series: "The Tudors: Episode No. 408," Showtime.

Credits: NPR

Just start it!

One of the biggest themes of The Simple Dollar is goals. I find goal-setting – figuring out a specific goal, writing it down, coming up with a specific plan to get there, and following that plan – to be incredibly empowering. Diving head-first into such planning has quite literally changed my life, as it made The Simple Dollar and my subsequent writing opportunities possible. It made paying off all of our credit card debts, car loans, and student loans possible, leaving us with just a mortgage. Goal-setting gave me a framework for writing two books in the past three years, and it’s giving me a framework for learning how to play the piano and countless other personal objectives.

If you roll back the clock five years, I was buried in debt. I had vague dreams of being a writer. The Simple Dollar hadn’t even popped into my mind yet.

What took me from there to here? I attribute it to goals, of course, but there’s something much more specific than that at the core here.

The start.

The Simple Dollar was born because I sat down one evening and decided to stop dreaming about it and start doing it. I threw together a rough site design on Blogspot and wrote my first article within a couple of hours.

I started paying off debts because I sat down one evening and decided I needed to get my financial life under control. I studied all of my debts, came up with a plan for tackling them, and started cleaning out my closets within the first few hours.

When I look around my life, there are so many other things I would love to accomplish. I have several big household projects that are just sitting on the back burner. I’ve got ideas for two future books and at least two blogs I’d love to start. I’d like to run a 5K next fall.

Big goals, big dreams. None of them will happen until I sit down and make the decision to get started with them. I can dream all I want, but until I get started, nothing will happen.

Which brings us back to you.

Almost all of us have a dream or two floating out there. A big home project we’d like to pull off. A career change. A lifestyle change. A diet change. A change in our social circle. A new skill we’d like to learn.

It is so easy to dream about these things. But it’s not the dreaming that changes a life – it’s the doing and the accomplishing.

Today is the day to get started on one of those big goals.

Here’s my challenge to you. Tonight, go home and spend two hours on the big thing you’re dreaming most about in your life. Sit down, figure out a plan for how to get from where you’re at to where you want to be. Write out that whole plan. Then take the first big step towards getting there, whatever that might be.

You’ll feel so good about things that you’ll barely be able to wait until your next opportunity to take a whack at it. Soon, you’ll find yourself moving towards a goal that you thought was out of reach – and growing as a person at the same time.

That’s a big win, no matter how you slice it.

Credits: Trent Hamm, Christian Science Monitor

'Turducken,' 'Vuvuzela,' And More New Dictionary Words

Facebook History

Credits: this isn't happiness

Your place in God's family

It was obvious. Summer vacation was at its peak. On the road, carloads of families and friends were coming and going – bikes piled in racks on the backs of cars, canoes strapped to the tops, boats pulled by trailers – enjoying a week, maybe two, with their loved ones.

My own family and some dear friends were returning from a week in a rented cottage in the mountains. There we enjoyed walks, real treks, swimming, picnicking, fishing, games around the fire in the cool evenings, mornings reading on a porch with a serene view.

On the highway, though, observing this stream of families just enjoying being families, I found myself returning again and again to an offhand but withering remark someone made during our week together about a family we knew. It seemed unjust and cruel.

It’s my practice to pray when I’m disturbed about something, and so when this kept coming to my thought, I turned to God to confirm in prayer the spiritual facts. Someone had recently shared with me a spiritual fact about the concept of family in an e-mail message. She wrote, “Family is evidence of God’s love for all of Her children – not a collection of disparate personalities, not a source of discord or frustration. Family, as a reflection of God’s love, is harmonious, a source of strength and peace.” Though this lifted my thought somewhat from the slur on that dear family, still the cruel remark returned and seemed more impressed on my thought than even these comforting statements about the spiritual concept of family.

Family is an adored idea in the hearts of many, evoking warmth, love, affection, and support. But like all things human, families are subject to failures, faults, even deep sadness. I realized that to get the loft needed, I had to go higher. And what helped me was an unexpected realization.

For months I’d been thinking about God’s sons and daughters as His spiritual, complete idea – the reflection, the very image of God, as described in the first chapter of Genesis. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, amplified that description in her work “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” where she wrote, among many other descriptions, that “man is the image of Love” (p. 475). And I was contrasting this concept of spiritual man with the mortal personality we are accustomed to thinking of as us – a mixture of good, even bright personal attributes, and an assortment of shortcomings, faults, and frailties.

The spiritual individuality, our actual identity, was expressed masterfully by Christ Jesus. One small episode has meant much to me in highlighting the difference between the material personality he shunned and the spiritual identity that he lived. In Matthew’s Gospel a man approached Jesus with this understandable greeting: “Good Master.” Jesus answered him, but corrected the greeting with the question “Why callest thou me good?” and added, “there is none good but one, that is, God” (Matt. 19:16, 17).

Had Jesus accepted that the good he expressed was personal, he would have subtly claimed a mortal personage, a mixture of good and bad. His faithfulness to his true nature, the Christly idea, saved him from the mortal trappings of personality, hinging on mortality, which includes sinning, being sick, and dying. Turning a mortal identity down in an apparently harmless context literally saved his life. His resurrection was the result of understanding his spiritual selfhood at all times.

Then it dawned on me in the middle of the night. If we are each God’s spiritual idea, actually unburdened by mortal personality and free to express our likeness to God, then family, God’s loving idea, is also free from having a personality. In spiritual reality, in all of God’s universe of ideas, there are no bad families, unloving families, dysfunctional, broken, or cruel families. There is just God’s family, which Mrs. Eddy described when discussing how “[a] human sense of Deity yields to the divine sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea, – as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love" (Science and Health, pp. 576-577). We all fit in this family; we are all at home in Love.

The “Our Father” from the Lord’s Prayer is the head of every household. And that opening address in this healing prayer is spiritually interpreted as “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious” (Science and Health, p. 16).

With this realization, my thought was at rest, and I could see this as a waymark for my prayers – not just for a particular family, but as the basis for upholding the peace and goodness of family as God’s idea.

Credits: Rebecca Odegaard, Christian Science Monitor

Ground Zero Mosque: Digging a Hole in the Soul of America

I must admit that I was not fond of the idea of a Islamic community center and mosque being built near the site where the World Trade Center once stood. But this artircle opened my eyes and I am now second thinking myself.

It was a day we will never forget. It was a day that changed the course of this nation forever. It was a day that permanently bruised our hearts, with the potential of healing almost seeming impossible. Yet, with love, faith and compassion, we showed the world and showed ourselves through the promotion of one of our nation's greatest values -- tolerance -- we can overcome fear and hate.

Today, ten years later, I peer through the front windows of my apartment and still see a large gaping hole that once was the home to the World Trade Center. I pass by the firehouse on my block and say hello to the firemen who lost almost all of their guys on that day. This is my neighborhood, my backyard. And in my backyard, I have no tolerance for a new fear-mongering, hateful rhetoric that has sprung up over the proposed $100 million Islamic cultural center that they plan on building blocks away from Ground Zero.

It is not insensitive to put a cultural center of any sort, that has a place of worship, anywhere in our city. This is what makes our country and our city great. As a nation that was founded by men and women who were being persecuted for their particular faith, we should know that the best path to finding freedom is finding freedom for others. We were formed as a pluralistic society and this means we welcome all religions. Islam did not attack the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, sick and twisted men did, who not only hijacked four airplanes but also hijacked a religion. Let us not stereotype the over one billion Muslims around the world because of the evil acts of a few. A decision like this one, to support or not support the construction of this center, defines who we are as a nation. It's at the essence of our values, our freedom of expression, freedom of religion and religious tolerance.

As the Chairman of The Foundation Of Ethnic Understanding, my partner Rabbi Marc Schneier (also the Vice President, World Jewish Congress; Chairman, World Jewish Congress United States) and I have worked tirelessly to promote dialogue among different ethnic groups all over the world, particularly Jews and Muslims. We have witnessed the power of the fostering of this dialogue. We know that we must fight Antisemitism and Islamaphobia together and at the same time. We welcome and support this cultural center, as it will continue constructive conversations around a moderate approach to co-existence between all people, regardless of religious preference. In fact, we strongly feel that this center will bridge the divide that many of our nation's citizens have with the Islamic faith.

There are moments that define our nation. There are moments that test the strength of our character. There are moments that test the essence of our freedoms. Let this be that moment and let us pass this test with grace and dignity. As I will not stand for any sort of Islamaphobia in my backyard.

Credits: Russell Simmons, CNN

2010 Could Be Hottest Year Yet

Duh! Thanks for that news flash!

Federal climate scientists say that 2010 is shaping up to be the hottest year yet seen, with average global temperatures for the first six months of the year beating the previous record, set in 1998, by 1.19 degrees Fahrenheit. The National Climatic Data Center's scientists added that this year's warm weather did not appear to be a one-off. "Each of the 10 warmest average global temperatures recorded since 1880 have occurred in the last fifteen years," the center reported. The center also notes that Arctic sea-ice shrank to record lows in June, covering an area almost 11 percent lower than the usual June average, marking the 19th consecutive year of summer ice declines. At the other end of the Earth, Antarctic sea ice was up a little more than 8 percent, in the largest June expansion on record.

Credits: Slate Magazine via MSNBC

Fat-Bottomed Girls Are More Forgetful

I wonder if this applies to men as well. If so, I think that I may have found the root of all my forgetfulness.

Researchers have long known that fat people can suffer cognitive impairments, but a new study suggests that the location of the flab can make a difference, too. Women who carry their weight on their hips experience markedly more deterioration of memory and cognitive function than those who carry their fat higher on their body, researchers found. The exact reason isn't yet known, but scientists speculate that hormones released by hip fat could cause inflammation and lead to reduced cognitive ability. The findings suggest that obesity could play a role in the decline of mental ability as people age and that certain body types could be more vulnerable to the effect than others. "The fat may contribute to the formation of plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease or a restricted blood flow to the brain," said the study's lead author. "The added weight definitely had a detrimental effect."

Credits: Slate Magazine via CNN

18th Century "Ghost Ship" Found at Ground Zero

On Tuesday, workers excavating the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan stumbled upon an astonishing find: the hull of an 18th century ship. Archaeologists were summoned, and upon further investigation, the hull turned out to be more than 30 feet long, making it the biggest archeological find in Manhattan since 1982. The wooden frame was "so perfectly contoured that [it was] clearly part of a ship," an archaeologist told the Times, noting that the whole ship may be two to three times bigger than the portion found. Experts suspect that the ship was used as landfill material and say that it probably hasn't been disturbed since the 18th century. Because construction couldn't be stopped and the timber began to deteriorate as soon as it hit open air, archaeologists had to race against time and the weather to take the ship's measurements. "I kept thinking of how closely it came to being destroyed," an expert told the Guardian.

Credits: New York Times

Julia R. Ewan neighbors question church leaders over proposed move

This is a piece of local news that caught my eye this morning. Are the members of this neighborhood association completely oblivious to what their comments are doing to the image of their neighborhood? While the argument could be made that physical image of their neighborhood while be impacted, one thing is for certain. The perceptual image of their neighborhood may never be the same.

"An overflow crowd of 200 people squeezed into the former Julia R. Ewan Elementary School cafeteria Tuesday night in an emotional meeting where neighbors expressed concerns to Vineyard Community Church officials about the church's plans to buy and move into the building.

Several made it clear Vineyard was not welcome in the neighborhood, off Richmond Road between the Idle Hour Country Club and Henry Clay Boulevard. Some residents have signs in their yards opposing Vineyard's proposed move.

Some at the meeting said they were concerned about increased traffic throughout the neighborhood, parking, noise, and outreach programs the church might have. Others worried the church and its ministry to the poor would lower property values.

Valerie Askren, president of the Fairway Neighborhood Association, said the forum was intended to let residents communicate their concerns with the church.

A Lexington Board of Adjustment hearing on a conditional use permit for the church is scheduled for July 30.

The Rev. Kevin Clark is pastor of the church, which now meets at 817 Winchester Road. He said the church has a contract on the building for $1.5 million, pending approval of the conditional use permit.

Community Trust Bank has approved a loan for the church, Clark said.

In addressing the audience, Clark started off with an apology, saying Vineyard "had no idea we would cause this much ruckus in this neighborhood."

One of the missions of the church is serving the poor, which Clark said, "We are honored to do." But he said there were misconceptions of how that is carried out.

The church does not plan to open a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen or clothes closet. Vineyard partners with groups such as God's Pantry, Lexington Rescue Mission and the Catholic Action Center at their sites to feed, clothe and house the poor. He said there was no reason for his church "to reinvent the wheel."

Several people expressed concern about the traffic that a Christmas toy giveaway has attracted to Vineyard's church on Winchester Road. Executive pastor Jimmy Fields said it drew about 3,000 adults over several days in December.

One resident asked whether the church would agree to a deed restriction to not have the giveaway at its new location. Clark said no, but added that the Catholic Action Center, which runs the toy giveaway, is discussing keeping the project at the Winchester Road location even if Vineyard moves.

To meet city requirements, the church needs 100 parking spaces, which Clark said it can provide. The school had 86 spaces. The church has found ways to add an additional 50 spaces.

The 500 worshippers at Vineyard are distributed among three services, one on Saturday evening and two on Sunday morning. The church will have teams in the parking lot and on nearby streets to prevent blocked driveways. An emergency telephone number will be published in the Fairway Neighborhood newsletter for residents to call if someone has parked "inconsiderately."

One woman told Clark he was not being candid in saying how the church would handle additional cars if the church grew. It has grown from 12 members eight years ago to its current size of 500.

Another resident asked: if neighbors raised the money, how much would the church take to back out of its deal to buy the school from the current owner? The owner, Bill Meade, bought the school at auction in May 2009.

Meade, who was sitting on the front row, promptly stood up and said, "How much money have you got?"

A couple of people said Fairway was an inappropriate neighborhood for the church that says unabashedly it serves primarily the poor and the meek. "There are not many of those in this neighborhood," one speaker told Clark."

Credits: Beverly Fortune, Lexington Herald Leader