Jared Daugherty has just posted an article to IGE's website discussing the recent arrests of human rights activists in Vietnam. Were the arrests violations of religious how to become an architect reedom? Why does it matter? How should Christians respond? We invite your comments and feedback.

Rabbit writes: In other Chicago news, the Chicago Tribune's headline today was "Shrub poisoned off site backup oo monkeys." My first thought: "Now he's finally stooped too low."

This is what it is. When my mother and her siblings were in their prime working years, they had to deal with discrimination. It wasn't until the 70s when things started changing so that they had a chance to be rightly compensated for the work they did and they had a credible chance to advance in their careers. Now that my mother is retired, her Social Security payments as well as her pension payments, are based on the salary that she earned. However, because of discrimination, her salary wasn't as high as it may have been. I don't believe in reparations for slavery and I think that if the reparation proponents were serious, they would be going for reparations for people like my mother and her siblings. But, as I wrote, what happened is what it was and no one dwells on it. I write about this because of Colbert I. King's opinion article titled "In Virginia, More to 'Get Over' Than Slavery" car auto sales n Saturday's Washington Post. Now chill. This piece isn't about reparations. It is, however, a reminder -- as if one is needed -- that the Emancipation Proclamation did not remove the shackles from the descendants of slaves; that injustice and inequality were an integral part of Virginia during the adult life of Frank Hargrove. Which gets me to the source of his consternation: the legislative proposal for Virginia to issue an apology for slavery. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

by Meagan Dorsch Minnesota’s 2007 legislature wrapped up in late May without having to go into special session. It's "the first time since 1999 that the Legislature finished its work on time in a budget year," DFL (Democratic Farmer-Labor party) Representative David Bly posted on his blog . However, Session Weekly , a nonpartisan publication by the Minnesota House of Representatives, called this session "a cliff-hanger until the end." With one day to go, Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the entire tax bill put together by the DFL-controlled legislature. The omnibus tax bill veto was perhaps the most dramatic in a series of vetoes, including one that killed a proposal to provide property tax relief by increasing income taxes. Vetoes also nipped at budget bills. In addition to finding a budget compromise, lawmakers enacted a renewable energy policy , aimed at combating global warming. Not everyone was happy with laws restricting the use of ATV's throughout the state. Other major bills passed included health insurance for children and $800 million dollars in K-12 school funding member services ver the next two years.

Jared Daugherty has just posted an article to IGE's website discussing the recent arrests of human rights free background check on people ctivists in Vietnam. Were the arrests violations of religious freedom? Why does it matter? How should Christians respond? We invite your comments and feedback.

Like science fiction, which also uses imagery to conjure up a universe , some facts are so bizarre that they can only be completed in verse. Using images from the deepest sea, collected in a recently released book satellite radio antennas he Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss , one poetry instructor inspired her students to write . Wayne

This is what it is. When my mother and her siblings were in their prime working years, they had to deal with discrimination. It wasn't until the 70s when things started changing so that they had a chance to be rightly compensated for the work they did and they had a credible chance to advance in their careers. Now that my mother is retired, what is an intranet er Social Security payments as well as her pension payments, are based on the salary that she earned. However, because of discrimination, her salary wasn't as high as it may have been. I don't believe in reparations for slavery and I think that if the reparation proponents were serious, they would be going for reparations for people like my mother and her siblings. But, as I wrote, what happened is what it was and no one dwells on it. I write about this because of Colbert I. King's opinion article titled "In Virginia, More to 'Get Over' Than Slavery" in Saturday's Washington Post. Now chill. This piece isn't about reparations. It is, however, a reminder -- as if one is needed -- that the Emancipation Proclamation did not remove the shackles from the descendants of slaves; that injustice and inequality were an integral part of Virginia during the adult life of Frank Hargrove. Which gets me to the source of his consternation: the legislative proposal for Virginia to issue an apology for slavery. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

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A story not really covered by UK bloggers was the big hoo-har over Federated Media paying US A-list bloggers to put their names to advertising content. I won't recount the affair as Jeff Jarvis has a comprehensive write-up . But one idea raised by Jarvis stuck in my mind. Referring to a previous campaign conducted by Federated Media which created a student trip ikipedia entry for a client, Jarvis opines: "I’m afraid they are still on the dark side. You just can’t put something with commercial motive into Wikipedia. Admitting it is hardly better; it is still a crime. The Wikipedians and bloggers will attack hard and they will deserve what they get." The important point here is: FM thought that by admitting what they were doing, they were being transparent. They weren't. They were being open about their activities, but ultimately masking their intentions. It's where transparency as a genuine value meets transparency as a corporate platitude. The former is vital for holding real conversations and building real relationships. The latter is the cross-over point where conversations meet marketing. One commenter on Jarvis' blog, Sam Harrelson , explains rather neatly the reason for this: "In our post-modern world, ideas such as “trust,” “objectivity,” “disclosure,” and “reliability” have been turned over and rendered subjective. That doesn’t mean that these terms are meaningless, it means that things like trust are now subjective in the eyes of the beholders.