Dispel the Illusion

Two prominent prostate cancer experts have been threatened for opposing approval of a controversial new drug and are being protected by bodyguards as they attend the nation's largest cancer conference here. The experts, Dr. Howard Scher, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Dr. Maha Hussain, of the University of Michigan, have received e-mail and other threats, said spokeswomen for Sloan-Kettering and for the cancer conference.

An elderly bishop in China's underground Catholic church has been detained again by police, nine months after his release from their custody, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Thursday. Bishop Jia Zhiguo, 73, was taken away Tuesday by security agents in the northern city of Zhengding, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement.

A popular, nationally syndicated radio host says television watching itself, regardless of what is being viewed, changes the consumer negatively in three different ways that "encapsulate the essence of liberalism." Syndicated columnist and film critic Michael Medved ... told the crowd that television viewing makes people more "pessimistic and fearful," more "impatient," as well as more "superficial and emotional."

Sixty-eight percent of Americans say the media have damaged moral values in America, according to a report released Wednesday by the Culture and Media Institute (CMI). The report also concludes that the more a person watches television, the less likely he or she is to believe that the media are influencing the nation's morals.

More murders and robberies in 2006 sent U.S. violent crimes higher for the second straight year, the FBI said on Monday, with the increase blamed on gangs, youth violence, gun crimes and fewer police on beats. The FBI reported that the number of violent crimes nationwide went up by 1.3 percent last year, following a 2.3 percent increase in 2005. That had been the first rise in four years and the biggest percentage gain in 15 years.

More than 7 million Britons are 'problem drinkers', according to shocking new figures released today. New analysis from the Department of Health said the cost to the health economy was £1.3 billion. The figures, which have not been published before, also said there were 1.1m "dependent drinkers" who cost the health economy £403 million.

Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, showed the original letter from Sister Lucia containing the third secret of Fatima, which the Vatican revealed in 2000, for the first time on television ... In 2000 Pope John Paul II decided to reveal the secret, which did not refer to any worldwide catastrophe, but rather to the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981.

The sun has set on Bilderberg 2007. After a sumptuous lunch on this warm and sunny June 3, most Bilderbergers will return to their countries of choice freshly armed with precise instructions from the Steering Committee on how to proceed in covertly expanding the powers of One World Government. Amongst this year’s luminaries in attendance were Henry Kissinger; Henry Kravis of KKR; Marie Josee Kravis of Hudson Institute; Vernon Jordan; Etienne Davignon, Bilderberger President; Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, daughter of one of the founders, Prince Bernhard and the Queen and King of Spain.

Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll finds Americans very concerned about the current state of moral values in the United States. Only about one in six Americans describe the state of moral values in the country in positive terms, and perceptions that moral values are "poor" in the country are at their highest point ever, edging close to the 50% mark.

In the 10 days since Jordan Manners was killed by a gunshot in a hallway of Toronto's C.W. Jefferys high school, the mention of his father has been scant. No name. No photo. Not even a reference during the Toronto teenager's funeral ... That perspective has begged the delicate question, especially among family-values proponents: Amid this violence and sadness, where are the fathers?

George Hislop loved gay sex. He loved watching it, doing it and encouraging others to do it. Hislop’s parties back in the 1970s tended to end in sex. And his partner, Ronnie Shearer, wasn’t invited. “They were definitely just George’s orgies,” says bathhouse entrepreneur Peter Bochove.

An abortionist and his Granite City, Ill., clinic have paid an undisclosed settlement to a family that runs a pro-life ministry to avoid a civil trial for damages from his attempt to run down the father as well as an assault by a clinic "escort" on a child.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to target Europe with missiles, including potentially nuclear weapons, in a dramatic escalation of his Cold War-style showdown with the United States. Mr. Putin, in an interview at his country residence outside Moscow, said he considers U.S. plans to build an eastern European anti-missile site to shoot down Iranian missiles a provocation aimed at Russia.

Palestinian children as young as 5 are being indoctrinated into a life of jihad, according to a report on a Hamas television station. The program ... shows boys participating in a kindergarten graduation ceremony at the Islamic Association in Gaza dressed in military garb and touting "death for the sake of Allah."

Apparently attitudes really are changing, and it's worth asking why. Well, for one reason, by far the most decisive, popular, respected and effective Catholic pope in the last four decades of the 20th century, John Paul II, was also the most traditionalist and conservative. He did not tell people: "If you remain Catholic, we'll happily change the rules to make it less onerous for you," the compromise then being widely touted as the sure-fire formula to keep young people securely in church.

If you do not worship God, you end up worshipping power, whether it is Kim Jong Il, Leon Trotsky or the military might of George W. Bush. In which case, God help you.