One of the more unusual web sites I have come across is In the News, which lists and comments about obscure newspaper articles from small towns-to-large cities that you won't find discussed on CNN or in USA Today.
The web site appears to be fundamentalist Christian. Is that a turn-off? Then get tolerant. (Why is it only Christians are accused of being intolerant? It seems to me nowadays the most intolerant individuals are the socialists who run this country--remember Waco?) Further, if you can't stand to look at these kinds of web sites you are missing a lot of interesting goings-on. For instance--
Bill Clinton, that paragon of amorality, is now trying to (more acurrately, been trying to) get our attention away from his perfidies with Monica (and, of course, his traitorous behavior regarding his selling out this country to China and others), by trying to get whatever legislative bodies that will do his bidding to pass a National Sunday Law. You haven't heard about this? Well, the New York Times ran an article on March 5, 1998 about the House Judiciary Commitee's HJ78, the "Religious Freedom Amendment," which removes the First Amendment Separation of Church and State from the Bill of Rights; allows prayer in schools; allows religious symbols on government property, and gives tax dollars to religious private schools (for more discussion of this see The Winds: World Internet News Distributary Source). Also discussed in the Times article is the denunciation of this by the organization known as Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
You might say, 'So what else is new? Clinton's been trashing the Constitution for years!' (Then again, you may not have known this, or you may violently disagree. Which means I'll have to back up my words in the January issue with an article entitled, "How Bill Clinton has Trashed the US Constitution." Nor is this to say anything hateful about Slick Willie. If it's true, it can't be hateful, so I can't be accused of a hate crime.)
Then there is the RI House Bill 98H8949 called "Work Permits on Sundays" from the House labor Committee (for the text of this go to 98H8949 of April 21, 1998, which specifies that anyone working on Sundays must have a work permit to do so by January 1, 1999. Which is to say, Big Brother doesn't really want us working on Sundays.
Why not? Because Sunday is recognized by most Americans as the day we get all dressed up to go to church with our families and gossip about our neighbors afterward, have Sunday dinner at home or in a restaurant before we watch our NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB games, or take (if we can afford the gas) a Sunday drive--
I'm not being fascitous here! Think about it! Don't most folks go to church and gossip about their neighbors afterwards? If you actually go to worship God, ignore this tirade.
Well, because we do tend to spend Sundays with the family, Mr. Bill wants to make sure we keep on spending Sundays with our families! It'll keep us out of trouble, after all.
Two things here: what if you follow the (Biblical) Saturday Sabbath? (Which I do, by the way--no, I'm not a Jew or a Seventh-Day Adventist) And what if there's a conspiracy to outlaw church-going on any other day but Sunday, or to illegalize any faiths that do not follow a Sunday Sabbath, or worse, take their tax-exempt 501-c(3) status away? Ridiculous! That only happens to Koresh-like cults, and anyway, Clinton isn't religious enough to give two hoots about it. Besides, we need prayer in public schools anyway, don't we?
Okay. Which prayers? And, which religion? Further, don't you think it's weird that a man who loves Israel would want to trash the traditional Jewish Sabbath? (Isn't it funny how this and recent administrations like to pass conflicting laws, precisely (?) so no one can properly abide by all of them, making every single one of us criminals--if we get caught, that is).
Can we presume the President will tell us which prayers, or which religion? Christianity, you say? Well, I heard Hillary was a practicing New Ager or Buddhist or something (and I also heard the visiting Dalai Lama was going to be sleeping in the White House. Just kidding.)
Or will the World Council of Churches tell him which religion? You know, that UN group? I wonder which one they'll pick.
By the way, the bill to establish the Office of Religious Persecution Monitoring (ORPM) was passed by the House of Representatives but defeated in the Senate because Israel and China (!) didn't like it, and will soon be reworded to suit them. Seems Israel and China, both of which persecute Christians to one degree or another, want the bill to favor them.
Stay tuned. And I really hope I didn't turn you off too much. :-)
Deborah Lagarde
Editor, OmegaZine!