Victory for Freedom in the Supreme Court

Posted inOpinion

Victory for Freedom in the Supreme Court

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Justice is done One of your neighbors has a grudge against you and secretly informs on you to the police. The next thing you know you're being held in a prison in a strange country. You don't know what you're charged with or what the evidence against you is, and you can't go to court to find out. You end up staying in that prison for years without any trial.
 
That's the position that many of the approximately 270 prisoners incarcerated at "Camp X-Ray" in the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, find themselves in. Thanks to a landmark decision last Friday by the US Supreme Court, that unconscionable situation will change.
The court ruled, 5-4, that the ancient principle of habeas corpus - the right of an accused person to know the evidence the government has against him - applies to Guantanamo prisoners. Under last week's ruling, Guantanamo prisoners will be able to go into federal district courts to demand that the government show why they should remain incarcerated.

Posted inOpinion

Don’t Ignore Pet Abuse Story

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Dr Holly O'Brien was right on in her letter regarding animal abuse in our area. She brought up the worthwhile idea of the Source doing an article on animal cruelty laws and what the public can do if they witness animal abuse. I was disappointed that you did not jump on her suggestion, choosing instead to print only a summary of the general concept of the law. You did the public a disservice by ignoring her advice, which called for also pointing out what the public can DO when such shameful behavior is viewed.
Please do take her valuable recommendation about doing an in-depth article on animal cruelty and its prevention. This is a subject that can never be brought up too many times; people who abuse animals rarely stop there. One of my dogs, Piper, was subjected to an electrified food dish for three years, before he came to be my forever friend. His owner was married with children. What example does this set for them?

Posted inOpinion

Golf Courses Need To Go

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Some of the largest nitrate polluters are the golf courses. The courses are massive green grass lawns being grown in a semi-arid environment. What makes plants green? Nitrogen. Therefore, in order to have green golf courses on the edge of the desert one needs massive amounts of polluting nitrogen. Plant nutrient uptake can be significantly altered by the ph of the solution it is being delivered in, meaning the grass might not even be able to use much of the fertilizer being applied. Much of this nitrogen (among many other chemicals in synthetic commercial golf course fertilizer) stays in the ground unused by the grass. Even when used by the grass these chemicals go back into the soil when the plant dies.

Posted inOpinion

Bonus Coverage: Hanks crosses Pope, Source takes to the air and more

Joseph Oguiza

They don’t care how big tom hanks is. Vatican to Hanks: Get Lost
The Vatican has told Tom Hanks it doesn't want him in church. It's not his religion they have a problem with - it's the movie he's making.
The producers of Hanks' new movie, Angels and Demons, had asked permission to shoot inside two of Rome's historic churches, Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. Fuhgeddaboudit, said the diocese of Rome.
Angels and Demons is a prequel to the 2006 movie The Da Vinci Code, based on the blockbuster novel of the same name by Dan Brown, which espoused the controversial (at least to orthodox Christians) theory that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and had children.
Monsignor Marco Fibbi, a diocesan spokesman, told Reuters that the diocese had denied the filmmakers access to the churches because of the movie's subject matter. "It's a film that treats religious issues in a way that contrasts with common religious sentiment," Fibbi said. "Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough."

Posted inOpinion

Advice Goddess Grates

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Letter of the Week 
We're not exactly sure who brought us this week's letter of the
week, as she flies under the righteous handle of Mora Lee Sound. But
anyone who calls out the Advice Goddesses' panties has our respect. Go
Mora Lee!

Amy, the Advice Goddess,
My commentary is in reference to your wellspring Source of advice to Nun for Me in last week's paper:
Is this really what our world has arrived at? Has God been replaced by a goddess whose "good advice" is to ditch the woman with high morality and a sense of self-worth in favor of floozies who will drop their pants at the first fluctuation of a hormone?
As for Biblical criticisms, please open your Bible more often than you open your "after-one-night-stand" birth control pills, and you might see that the Old (Mosaic) Law Covenant in which disobedient children were "stoned" was replaced by an entirely New Covenant dominated by Christian principles. (Romans 7:6) Yes, "principles" - another word you may want to look up in the dictionary, the other dusty book presently buried by the thong undies of your avid advice-takers.

Posted inCulture

La Sirenita: Lori LaBissoniere’s expressive painting

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Dog days in the studioBend, with its urban center situated just minutes from beautiful landscapes, is attracting a growing community of artists. One painter, Lori LaBissoniere is developing an expressionist style that contrasts with the mainstream aesthetic found in many polished art galleries. LaBissoniere and I talked on a Friday afternoon, one of the first (and only) really hot days this spring. Sitting in her cozy studio downtown, and having been inside teaching all day, LaBissoniere was feeling restless.
"We should have done this interview outside on a day like today," she told me. As a young artist, LaBissoniere is artistically adventurous, drawing on multiple sources of inspiration and trying new styles in her work.
When I asked her about her artistic influences, LaBissoniere mentioned Jaimie Lynn, a snowboarder and contemporary graphic artist. "I find inspiration from street art, and art that I happen upon by chance - not only from famous artists," she says.

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