Woman Tricked Into Taking Abortion Pill by Boyfriend; Distraught Mom Now Suing Pharmacy for Malpractice

Woman Tricked Into Taking Abortion Pill by Boyfriend; Distraught Mom Now Suing Pharmacy for Malpractice

By Katherine Weber

A woman who was tricked into having an abortion by her boyfriend is suing the Florida pharmacy that supplied her partner with an abortion-inducing drug.

Remee Jo Lee, 27, suffered a miscarriage earlier in March 2013, when she was around seven weeks pregnant, after her boyfriend tricked her into taking a miscarriage-inducing drug, saying it was an antibiotic for an infection. The boyfriend, 29-year-old John Welden, had forged the signature of his father, a registered OB/GYN, for a prescription for Cytotec, known generically as misoprostol, a medication used to prevent stomach ulcers that can also cause miscarriages and birth defects if taken while pregnant.
Lee, who formerly worked as a dancer at a gentlemen's club, argues in the lawsuit against Sun Lake Pharmacy in Lutz, north of Tampa, that Welden conspired with an employee at the pharmacy to fill the forged prescription, and to obtain a pill bottle and a medical label with Lee's name on it, even though Lee was not a customer at the pharmacy.
The lawsuit argues that the pharmacy employee, who remains unnamed, was aware that Welden would be putting a different medication into the prepared pill bottle, yet willingly prepared the fraudulent label with Lee's information on it. Welden later added a second label to the bottle that said the medication was "amoxicillin."
Upon receiving the Cytotec prescription, fraudulent label and empty pill bottle, Welden scratched the identity markings off of the stomach ulcer pills and put them into the empty bottle, afterwards applying the fraudulent label to the bottle. He told Lee that his OB/GYN father, who had confirmed Lee's pregnancy, had said she had an infection and needed to take amoxicillin, an antibiotic.
The lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, names Sun Lake Pharmacy, as well as five employees, including three pharmacists and two technicians, for professional malpractice. The lawsuit argues that "a reasonably competent, concerned and safe pharmacist would have recognized the prescription […]was grossly in error."

It specifically states that the pharmacist, who allegedly conspired with Welden, should have recognized the forged signature of his father, and should have contacted the doctor's office for more information as the prescription seemed to be suspicious.
Welden pleaded guilty in September to federal charges of forgery and conspiring with a pharmacy employee. He partook in a plea deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty but will likely result in 13 years, eight months imprisonment when he has his sentencing in December. Part of the plea deal was that Welden would testify that the pharmacy employee conspired with him and knew what he was up to.

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Bruce and Kris Jenner separated! Read the official statement

Bruce and Kris Jenner separated! Read the official statement

 
After months of waiting for official news about the Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom split, news of a different break-up in the Kardashian family is coming first. Kris and Bruce Jenner have separated!

The two have been married for 22 years, but their marital issues have been an ongoing plot point on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The two were open about Bruce’s decision to get a second home—alone—by the beach so he could have time for himself. “We are living separately and we are much happier this way,” the couple said in a statement to E!.

“We are living separately and we are much happier this way,” they said in a joint statement to E! News. “But we will always have much love and respect for each other. Even though we are separated, we will always remain best friends and, as always, our family willremain our number one priority.”

Although the official statement is somewhat surprising, the reality isn’t. Ever since Bruce’s “part-time” move to a Malibu man pad was documented on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, sources speculated the relocation was actually of the full-time variety.

 Bruce has the lion’s share of the Jenner wealth with a net worth of over $100 million dollars. Kris Jenner’s net worth is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million. The couple probably have some kind of prenuptial agreement in place, but the terms are unknown.

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Mark Driscoll Pulls Up to Church Service in Hearse to Ask, 'Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future?'

Mark Driscoll Pulls Up to Church Service in Hearse to Ask, 'Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future?'

By Alex Murashko

To emphasize his point (and promote his new book) that the Church is essentially dying, or at least on the cusp of doing so, Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll arrived to a Sunday evening worship service at Mars Hill Church U-District in a black hearse and suited in formal funeral attire.
Driscoll's book A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future? is planned for release on Nov. 5 and focuses on the need for Christians to be aware of changing times and the importance of sharing the Gospel despite a corrupting culture. Resurgence 2013, a leadership conference, is scheduled to begin on the same date.
"The hearse symbolizes death," communications director Justin Dean told The Christian Post in regards to Driscoll's unique arrival to church and the promotional videotaping done for the book using the vehicle as a prop earlier in the day. "And in the book, Pastor Mark shares that 'the death of Christendom means life just got a lot more difficult for anyone who really wants to be a Christian and follow Jesus.'
"This is particularly important for young people to realize and I believe Pastor Mark is passionate about sharing this message with college students because they are the generation that will be leading the resurgence for years to come."

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  (Photo: Mars Hill Church)

Mars Hill U-District is one of several offshoots of the Seattle-based Mars Hill Church, and is located in the heart of the University District just outside the University of Washington. The vast majority of those who attend at that location are college students or college age. The church hears the same message as do the other congregations each week from Pastor Mark at all of the church's video locations. Each Mars Hill church has a lead pastor who shepherds the local mission for that area.
The Sunday evening service at Mars Hill U-District was a special service with an exclusive message from Pastor Mark to college students, said Dean.

"In a world where the predominant culture is pluralism or one-ism, as Pastor Mark shares in his book, (basically anything goes and everything is good) it's even more important to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and raise up a generation of new young leaders who believe in God's true Word," Dean said.

Dean believes the book is one of the most important books of this generation. "We are entering into an era where truly following Jesus and living out our convictions means we are going to face increasingly difficult situations and persecution," he said. "Our only hope for humanity is the the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I'm praying that the Holy Spirit works through Pastor Mark and this book to start a massive resurgence in Christians, because we need it."
In a promotional piece announcing the leadership conference, Driscoll stated that: "Christians are being ostracized, gay marriage is being legalized, the bandwagon has stopped carrying us and has started running over us. The church is dying and no one is noticing because we're wasting time criticizing rather than evangelizing.
"The days are darker, which means our resolve must be stronger and our convictions clearer. This is not the hour to trade in work boots for flip-flops," Driscoll adds. "You didn't think you were here to kill time listening to Christian music until Jesus returned, did you?"
This year's Resurgence conference will focus on young leaders, Driscoll previously stated in an email to CP.
Multiethnic church expert Mark DeYmaz recently wrote an op-ed for The Christian Post in which he disagrees with Driscoll on his premise, saying that: "In fact, it's not resurgence the church needs today but reformation."
"To be clear, I do not believe the church is dying," DeYmaz writes. "However, I have no doubt that the local church and its message of God's love for all people has been severely weakened by more than 40 years of misunderstanding and misapplication of what is known as the Homogeneous Unit Principle (HUP)."
DeYmaz describes HUP in its original form as a principle that suggests that it's easier for people to become Christians when they do not have to cross barriers of race, class or language. "Yet in 1972, it was co-opted by church leaders in America and ever since promoted as the modus operandi for those who would plant or grow a 'successful' church; i.e., as a strategy for church growth," he writes.

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Academics don't write that badly

Academics don't write that badly

 

Randall Munroe, xkcd ("Impostor")

A certain kind of person likes complaining loudly about the prose of tenured professors, especially in the humanities and social sciences. It's indigestible gobbledygook masking a latent charlatanism! they cry. The 1986 Sokal hoax—in which physicist Alan Sokal submitted a preposterously fake article to the journal Social Text, which was subsequently published—is a favorite "proof" of many things, but especially the stereotype that academics and their disciples venerate whatever crap they can't understand. Ross Douthat, currently a New York Times columnist, wrote an article for the Atlantic in 2005 about his time at Harvard, complaining that he was taught merely to excel at sophistry, nothing more. A slew of novelists—Kingsley Amis, A.S. Byatt, Don DeLillo, Zadie Smith, and Jeffrey Eugenides among them—have loved lampooning academic shop talk in their books. Critics point to the Postmodern Essay Generator, which algorithmically generates nonsense that sounds a bit like lit-theory. (Never mind that anyone with half a brain can call it out within two sentences.) Denis Dutton's "Bad Writing Contest" indicted Judith Butler and Homi Bhabha (favorite targets) for the crime of high puffery when they were still relatively young.

And on and on in a widening gyre. Most recently, there was a Prospect blog post called "Why academics can't write" that took up this strain. The post itself was a lot more nuanced than the title. But the problem is that the title itself is a surefire way to attract the attention of people who love griping about how the academy protects and fosters fakery; how we should throw the entire enterprise overboard; how professors should just write in a common-sense, unpretentious way that anyone can understand. They equate wordiness with untruth.

But this viewpoint is what's nonsense. Sure, some academics are bad writers. But some academics are also bad teachers, just as some football coaches are bad linemen. Saying that most academics write nonsense based on a few egregiously bad examples is not sufficient evidence to prove that the whole profession writes that way. Anyone who claims that should be forced to take more statistics classes.

I can think of just as many academics who are or were graceful, elegant writers, and a few who may even be outright prose masters: Ernst Robert Curtius, Erich Auerbach, Lionel Trilling, Isaiah Berlin, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Bernard Williams, Helen Vendler, Colin Macleod, Marjorie Perloff, Philippa Foot, E.P. Thompson, Quentin Skinner, Richard Hofstadter, Christine Korsgaard, Stephen Jay Gould, Alan Ryan, Martha Nussbaum, Carl Schorske, Jonathan Rose, Louis Menand, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Linda Colley, Andrew Delbanco, Jill Lepore, Hermione Lee, Mary Beard, Steven Pinker, D.A. Miller, and Nicholas Dames—and those are just the people I can think of off the top of my head. All professors, and every single one of them is/was a good writer. Indeed, by this measure, some of our best writers are academics.

Someone will doubtlessly think that these are the exceptions that prove the rule that universities are stuffed with jargon-addled mediocrities. But this is hardly the case. Throughout my entire college education, clarity and even elegance were held up as cardinal virtues for prose writing. And I suspect that was also true for most of the professors I just named. Even if obscurantism was once encouraged, the current trend in higher education pushes away from that. No one wants to land on the latter-day equivalent of Dutton's list.

I think the modern stereotype of the incomprehensible professor dates back mainly to the heyday of Marxist and structuralist thought, whose stylistic excesses sometimes masked (or even resulted in) self-contradiction. But even professors that might get tarred as falling victim to this tendency could sometimes be elegant stylists. Marjorie Garber and Rosalind Krauss are, each in their own ways, excellent writers when at their best. (Skeptics should read Garber's fantastic essay on the NFL in Symptoms of Culture and Krauss's beautiful article "Tracing Nadar.") Roland Barthes, in his later years, wrote in a powerful and moving way:

For me the noise of Time is not sad: I love bells, clocks, watches — and I recall that at first photographic implements were related to techniques of cabinetmaking and the machinery of precision: cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of the wood. (Camera Lucida)

This is no more difficult to read than Proust or Mann or Nabokov, and a good deal less so than Hawthorne or Faulkner. Cardinal literary theorists could have their beautiful moments, too. The Russian formalist Mikhail Bakhtin always comes to my mind:

"Laughter has the remarkable power of making an object come up close, of drawing it into a zone of crude contact where one can finger it familiarly on all sides, turn it upside down, inside out, peer at it from above and below, break open its external shell, look into its center, doubt it, take it apart, dismember it, lay it bare and expose it, examine it freely and experiment with it. Laughter demolishes fear and piety before an object, before a world, making of it an object of familiar contact and thus clearing the ground for an absolutely free investigation of it. Laughter is a vital factor in laying down that prerequisite for fearlessness without which it would be impossible to approach the world realistically."—"Epic and Novel" in The Dialogic Imagination

And I think those who mock the most jargon-laden English professors underestimate their control of the language. The truly incompetent who have no choice but to speak in "-isms" are few in number. Those who cite Homi Bhabha's most tangled sentences probably don't realize that he's a serene, warm personal essayist. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar move smoothly between "speaking theory" and not. When Gubar writes a sentence like, "Aestheticism—far from being an elitist retreat—is an anodyne to anaesthetization, a defibrillator to the comatose," it's far more beautiful, even with the five- and six-syllable words floating around in there, than the exceedingly simple but often baffling style of the philosopher Derek Parfit. Anyone who has read Derrida and Wittgenstein side-by-side will be struck by how multi-clause verbosity can land you in a place very similar to severe asceticism.

Finally, a polysyllabic, technical style doesn't necessarily make one a bad writer or thinker. Those who decry Gayatri Spivak, Jacques Derrida, or Fredric Jameson for their verbal contortions would do well to remember that complicatedness, even when unnecessary, does not necessarily mask lies—nor is simplicity a guarantee of truth. Political advertising consultants have to speak to the masses in monosyllables; so did the totalitarian propagandists of the twentieth century—and they are/were no closer to the truth for it. Sometimes the aesthetic imagination compels a writer to harsh sentences; sometimes the truth demands a little awkwardness. Who are we to say that truth always walks about well-dressed?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Leave a Comment:

Al Qaeda 'Can't Hide,' Kerry Warns as Navy SEALs Raid Terror Targets in Somalia, Libya

Al Qaeda 'Can't Hide,' Kerry Warns as Navy SEALs Raid Terror Targets in Somalia, Libya

By Anugrah Kumar

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday terrorists "can run but they can't hide" after Navy SEALs raided the house of a top leader of the Somali group al Shabaab and separately captured in Libya an al Qaeda leader wanted for bombing U.S. Embassy in 1998 in east Africa.
"We hope this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror," Reuters quoted Kerry as speaking from the Indonesian island of Bali on Sunday, a day after U.S. counterterrorism operations in Somalia and Libya.
"Those members of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations literally can run but they can't hide," Kerry said ahead of an Asia-Pacific summit. "We will continue to try to bring people to justice."
The Pentagon said U.S. forces in Libya's capital Tripoli captured on Saturday Nazih al-Ragye, alias Abu Anas al-Liby, who had been indicted for his role in the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that killed 224 people.
"As the result of a U.S. counterterrorism operation, Abu Anas al-Liby is currently lawfully detained by the U.S. military in a secure location outside of Libya," Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement.
Al-Libya was on the FBI most wanted list with a $5 million reward.

In Somalia, Navy SEALs raided the seaside villa of "a known al Shabaab terrorist" on the Somali port of Barawe. However, the group's leader was neither captured nor killed, an anonymous official, who refused to identify the target, told Reuters.
U.S. forces had to pull out to avoid civilian casualties after one of the militants was killed and the exchange of fire escalated. None of the SEALS was injured or killed.
The troops raided a building believed to be a hideout for al Shabaab, including its top leader Ahmed abdi Godane, whose nom de guerre is Moktar Ali Zubeyr, according to CNN.
The strike was planned following the raid on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya by al Shabaab two weeks ago that killed at least 68 people and injured more than 175 others, according to The New York Times.
Barawe residents said the strike began at about 3 a.m. local time on Saturday. "We were awoken by heavy gunfire last night, we thought an al Shabaab base at the beach was captured," a resident, Sumira Nur, told Reuters. "We also heard sounds of shells, but we do not know where they landed."
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for last month's Westgate terror attack on its Twitter feed, saying: "The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders… For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it's time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land."
Kenyan troops are fighting Islamist terrorist groups in Somalia, where al Shabaab controls most of the southern parts.
Al Shabaab has reportedly been recruiting members of Somali-American families, especially the relatives of those who have died in anti-terrorist operations in Somalia, in the two U.S. states. A federal grand jury in 2010 charged 14 people in the United States with aiding al Shabaab.

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Former Porn Magazine Editor Now Warns Parents to Protect Children From It

Former Porn Magazine Editor Now Warns Parents to Protect Children From It

By Morgan Lee

A former editor of a "soft pornography" magazine, Martin Daubney's views changed on porn partly out of his desire to protect his son.

Caution: The article cited employs graphic language.

A former editor of a "soft pornography" magazine now believes that porn has devastated a generation of teenagers and is urging parents to do as much as they can to shield their children from its effects.
Martin Daubney has said that conversations with 13, 14 and 15-year-olds about their pornography habits and a subsequent research study about its propensity to be addictive are leading him to speak out against it, according to The Daily Mail.
Daubney, who is a presenter in the upcoming documentary "Porn on the Brain," explained his shock when the "well turned-out, polite, giggly and shy" students he interviewed had an "extensive knowledge of porn terms…that superseded that of every adult in the room" including a sex education consultant.
"These kids were balanced, smart and savvy. They were the most academically gifted and sporting in the school. They came from ordinary, hard-working households," said Daubney, who was horrified to learn that most of the pornography they were consuming was accessible via Facebook and their cell phones.
"The adults in attendance were incredulous at the thought that not only did this kind of porn exist, but that a 14-year-old boy may have actually watched it," said Daubney.

Daubney was even more dismayed that much of the hardcore stuff that the students were watching had already altered boys' sexual expectations for girls, leading to disappointment and revulsion when the reality of the girls' bodies did not match that of the porn stars.
"I was profoundly saddened by what I had witnessed," said Daubney. "While teenage boys will always be fascinated by, and curious about, sex, what's now considered 'normal' by under-18s is an entirely distorted view of intercourse and the way relationships should be conducted."
The teens also indicated that they believed that most of their peers were also watching hardcore porn online and that their parents trusted them and were oblivious to their Internet viewing habits - an assertion supported by a recent U.K. survey of the viewing habits of 80 12 to 16 year-olds.
Daubney also studied the long-term effects of pornography addiction and discovered that many had lost relationships, jobs, and money because of porn.
His research also sent him to Valerie Voon, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University, who carried out a study showing that the brain's reaction to serious pornography "showed clear parallels with those with substance addictions."
Daubney said that the most vile thing he learned during his study was a leading anti-pornography campaigner's assertion that pornography's increased violence towards women.
"When you interview young women about their experiences of sex, you see an increased level of violence: rough, violent sex," Professor Gail Dines told him.
"That is directly because of porn, as young boys are getting their sexual cues from men in porn who are acting as if they're sexual psychopaths," she added. "Pornography is sexually traumatizing an entire generation of boys."
Daubney's column and documentary come at a time when a recent film has brought pornography addiction into the spotlight. The main character in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "Don Jon" film, which was released last week, is strongly addicted to pornography and struggles to build relationships with women as a result.
In any interview with NPR, Gordon-Levitt affirmed pornography's influence on society.
"I think that it's worth recognizing that the media that we all choose to consume, that actually does make a difference. That is us participating in a larger cultural conversation," Gordon-Levitt said. "You know, I think we all sometimes like to think of whatever we watch as, 'Ah, it doesn't matter what I watch, it's all just harmless entertainment.'And it's not entirely true. Especially if you watch it repeatedly. I think that the stuff we watch does matter and it does work its way into the way that we see the world."

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Pope Francis to Rewrite Catholic Apostolic Constitution in 'Unprecedented' Move

Pope Francis to Rewrite Catholic Apostolic Constitution in 'Unprecedented' Move

 

By Stoyan Zaimov

Pope Francis and eight hand-picked cardinals are set to rewrite the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus of the Roman Catholic Church in what some are calling an "unprecedented" move as they hold a three-day meeting this week.

 

DATE IMPORTED:May 18, 2013Pope Francis speaks as he leads a Pentecost vigil mass in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican May 18, 2013.

 

 

The seven cardinals representing the Church on different continents, including Africa and Asia, Europe and Australia, North, Central and South America, will be joined by cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governing body of Vatican City State. Together, along with the bishop of Albano, serving as secretary, and Pope Francis, they will stay at the Santa Marta guesthouse and meet behind closed doors of the library inside the Apostolic Palace.
The Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus, issued by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988, brought in a number of reforms relating to the central government of the Roman Catholic Church.
Francis has been hailed as a reform-minded pope during his six-month long reign as Vatican leader, choosing a more humble way of conducting himself than many of his predecessors. The exact changes expected to be put forth by the "papal G8," as the group is being nicknamed, remain to be determined.
Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican Press Office, revealed that the cardinals have already been hard at work, and have sought input from bishops in their particular parts of the world.
" …a Council of Cardinals with the task of assisting me in the governance of the Universal church and drawing up a project for the revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus on the Roman Curia," Fr Lombardi read from the official papal letter which speaks of the task of the Council.

The Vatican warned that reforms will likely take shape over months and even years, and that it is unlikely the first day of the talks will bring about any major documents or decisions. The reform aims to bring about a "much less Roman and more widely representative way of governing of the Universal Church."
Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, promised that the changes will be far-reaching rather than just changing "this and that."
"No, that constitution is over," Maradiaga said in a TV interview. "Now it is something different. We need to write something different."
"In the past the Vatican has just revised existing rules so this is a rupture after a century of increasing centralization," added Gerard O'Connell, an analyst at the Vatican Insider.
"Cardinal Maradiaga is hinting that the Pope is asking the fundamental question: What can be decided in Rome and what at local level? How can the Roman Curia serve bishops instead of being an office of censure and control?"
Maradiaga further revealed that the cardinals have received suggestions about a reform from Catholics around the world, including 80 pages of suggestions coming from Latin America.
"You cannot have millions of Catholics in the world suggesting the same unless the Holy Spirit is inspiring," the cardinal offered.

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Syria-Born Muslim Finds Jesus Christ, Converts From Islam to Christianity After Brain Aneurysm

Karim Shamsi-Basha was still a Muslim when a sudden brain aneurysm left him in a coma for almost a month in 1992. After the Syrian-born Shamsi-Basha made an amazing almost-complete recovery, his neurosurgeon, recognizing the rarity of what had occurred, told him that he had "seen very few people recover as you did. You have to find out why you survived."

Karim Shamsi-Basha grew up in Syria and immigrated to the United States when he was 18 to attend the University of Tennessee.
These would be the words that catalyze an almost 20 year journey that would eventually lead Shamsi-Basha to Jesus Christ.

Shamsi-Basha's new book, Paul and Me, tells of this quest, and recounts how he spent close to two decades of his life discovering Jesus and learning his purpose, which he now testifies is "to share God's love with people and let them know He loves all his children."

Released last month, the book intersperses chapters of Shamsi-Basha's own life and walk with God, with various theologians' thoughts about Paul, one of the Bible's most central figures, whose own conversion experience took place in the ancient Syrian city of Damascus.

Shamsi-Basha grew up in a Muslim family in a Syria he says was tolerant of all faiths. Indeed, his best friend was a Christian, the two were frequently at each other's houses, and had all sorts of discussions and arguments with each other about faith, though no one ever succeeded in converting the other.

While his family practiced Islam culturally, Shamsi-Basha says he was "very serious in [his] teenage years."

"I prayed five times a day. I walked to the mosque before sunrise. I fasted the month of Ramadan," he added.

Tired of the corruption of the first Assad regime, Shamsi-Basha immigrated to the United States at the age of 18 to attend the University of Tennessee. From there he married, had his first son and moved to his current residence of Birmingham, Al. before he was struck by the brain aneurysm.

After his recovery, Shamsi-Basha began reading the Bible, struck by its focus on God's love and grace, and was baptized in 1996 in what he terms was his "near-conversion."

But, Shamsi-Basha said, it took over 10 more years, and the dissolution of his first marriage, the death of his father, homelessness and another failed relationship, for him to ultimately be at a place to fully accept Christ as his Lord and Savior, a process that is his new book's focal point.

"In 2008 I completely surrendered to God," he said. "Now I can't get enough."

Meanwhile, Shamsi-Basha now tells everyone he can that he credits Jesus Christ and the saving grace of God for his conversion. "Salvation is of the Lord," he firmly emphasized to The Christian Post, adding that God takes "credit for my conversion. It was the grace of God that saved me."

Despite the huge turnaround in his life, Shamsi-Basha's family are still Muslim. He has said that he does not talk about religion regularly with his family and that when his father died in 2005, he did not tell him that he had converted to Christianity because he did not want to hurt his father's pride. Despite this, his relationship with his mother and sister remain strong and his mother immigrated to the United States several years ago.

In the wake of the Syrian civil war, Shamsi-Basha has been trying to get his sister out of the country, though she was recently denied a visa to the U.S.

"My sister is in Damascus by herself and it is awful," he said. "I went through my congressman and he wrote a letter to the embassy and they still denied it."

He is currently applying for human parole status for her but whether or not this will prove effective is up in the air.

"As far as my family goes, we're terrified," he said, explaining that many of his father's relatives lived in Homs, one of the Syrian cities that has endured the brunt of the destruction and violence, but he does not know what has happened to most of them.

"Who knows who is dead and who is alive?" he said. "I'm torn into pieces basically."

Syria, either by watching Arab news coverage or daily phone conversations with his sister, consumes Shamsi-Basha emotionally.

"If I'm not crying on the outside I'm crying on the inside at any given time. It's very sad, it's very, very sad," he said.



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Obama Urges Iranian President to Release Pastor Saeed

Obama Urges Iranian President to Release Pastor Saeed

By Anugrah Kumar

In the first communication between the leaders of the United States and Iran since 1979, President Barack Obama on Friday spoke to President Hassan Rouhani by phone and called for the release of American Pastor Saeed Abedini, who is in an Iranian prison because of his Christian faith and has been tortured.

Obama, the first American leader to speak with an Iranian president since the Islamic revolution, noted the nation's concern about three American citizens who have been held within Iran in his 15-minute conversation with the Iranian president.
The three include the missing U.S. citizen Robert Levinson, Pastor Saeed Abedini, and alleged CIA spy Amir Hekmati, according to Fox News. Obama "noted our interest in seeing those Americans reunited with their families," a senior Obama Administration official was quoted as saying.
Rouhani, who spent the last few days at the U.N. General Assembly, was on his way to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport when Obama called him at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday. The conversation was focused mostly on the nuclear issue.
This is the first time that Obama has spoken out about the imprisonment of Saeed. Pastor's wife, Naghmeh, said it was "the most encouraging news I have heard since Saeed was imprisoned one year ago."
"I am very grateful to President Obama for standing up for Saeed and for the other Americans who are held captive in Iran," Naghmeh added. "This development is truly an answer to prayer. I urge President Rouhani, as I have done throughout this week, to release Saeed so he can return to our home and our family in the United States. In recent days, Iran has released 80 prisoners being held because of their beliefs. I pray that we can add Saeed to that list very soon."

"After 35 years of great tensions between Iran and the United States, and very numerous issues that persist in the relationship, a meeting of the presidents for the first time in this period would naturally come along with certain complications of their own," Rouhani said at a press conference.
"We're very encouraged by President Obama raising the illegal imprisonment of American Saeed Abedini with Iranian President Rouhani," said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents Naghmeh and their two children. "President Obama's call to President Rouhani to release Saeed so he can be reunited with his family is a significant step forward in this critical case."
The State Department has repeatedly condemned Iran for holding Pastor Saeed, and more than 100,000 people have written letters to President Rouhani for Saeed's release.
Naghmeh has spoken at the United Nation to seek member states' action on behalf of her husband.
Saeed – who grew up in Iran before converting to Christianity at the age of 20 – traveled with his family back and forth between Iran and the U.S. several times over the past few years to meet his family and for Christian work. During one such trip in 2009, he was detained by Iranian officials and interrogated for his conversion. While he was released with a warning against engaging in underground church activities, he was once again arrested last July while working on a non-sectarian orphanage project.
Saeed was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year for endangering "national security," but the ACLJ believes the punishment has more to do with Saeed's Christian faith.
Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was president from 2005 until last month, became authoritarian and began to curtail civil liberties following mass protests, known as the Green Revolution, over his claimed victory in the 2009 elections that were believed to be rigged. Persecution of Christians and other religious minorities was also part of Ahmadinejad's attempt to tighten control over all aspects of people's lives in the face of domestic insecurity.
It is not clear if Rouhani, a former commander of the Iranian air defenses, has much say in matters of national security, which is the domain of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Christians in Iran are persecuted under the garb of "national security."

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Obama Urged to Press Nigerian President Jonathan on Christian Slaughter

Obama Urged to Press Nigerian President Jonathan on Christian Slaughter

By Stoyan Zaimov

President Barack Obama has been urged by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to speak out on the extreme sectarian violence that has led to Christians being slaughtered in churches in Nigeria, following a meeting with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.

"We respectfully urge you, Mr. President, to strongly address with President Jonathan the importance of the Nigerian government arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators of sectarian violence," USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George wrote to Obama on Monday before the meeting.
"The Nigerian government's overreliance on the use of force to tackle communal and Boko Haram violence and its failure to promote rule of law and human rights will only further destabilize this important ally."
Obama met with Jonathan in New York on Monday, where the two "reaffirmed their commitment to fighting terrorism" and ending the insurgency in northern Nigeria. The two presidents also promised to stay "in close touch" as the countries "continue to work together to promote our shared interests."
Boko Haram, the shadowy Islamic organization in Nigeria, has been waging a war against Christians and the government of Jonathan for years, slaughtering thousands across Christian communities, schools, and churches in the predominantly Muslim Northern region.
Despite this open opposition to Christians and the Nigerian state, the White House has so far failed to label Boko Haram as a terrorist organization – something which groups like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) have strongly spoken out against.

"In my first term, about 3,000 Christians were killed. Last year alone averaged over 100 every month," said Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of CAN.
"Every week I get a text message – a church burnt or a pastor was murdered or Christians were randomly rounded up on a roadside and summarily executed."
USCIRF first recommended that Nigeria be named a "country of particular concern" back in 2009 for what it says is systematic religious freedom violations.
"We continue to make this recommendation. Our primary concern continues to be the Nigerian government's failure, at all levels, to hold perpetrators of Muslim-Christian communal violence accountable, leading to a culture of impunity," George continued.
"While other causes factor into the violence in areas of conflict, religion is a significant catalyst and is often misused by politicians, religious leaders, or others for political gain. Since 1999, more than 14,000 have been killed in Muslim-Christian violence, but USCIRF has confirmed only 200 persons have been found guilty for perpetrating these attacks."
USCIRF noted that the regions of Bauchi, Jos, Kaduna, and Kano have especially suffered from Boko Haram's attacks, and pose an ongoing threat to the country's stability.
"In USCIRF's view, Nigeria has the capacity to address communal, sectarian and Boko Haram violence by enforcing the rule of law and making perpetrators accountable through the judicial system, and not relying solely on a counterterrorism strategy involving the security services," George concluded.
"Such an approach would help Nigeria realize lasting progress, security, stability, and prosperity as a democracy. The United States can play an important role in encouraging and increasing the capacity of the Nigerian judiciary to undertake this kind of response."

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59 Killed in Kenya Mall Attack by Al Qaeda-Linked Islamists

 

59 Killed in Kenya Mall Attack by Al Qaeda-Linked Islamists

By Anugrah Kumar
 

Kenyan security forces and al-Qaeda-linked Islamists were in a standoff Sunday morning after gunmen killed 59 people – including a Canadian diplomat and the Kenyan president's nephew – and injured at least 175 others in an attack at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi.  About 30 hostages were still being held.

"We will punish the masterminds (of the attack) swiftly, and indeed very painfully," Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta told reporters Sunday afternoon.
An Islamist group from Somalia, al Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the assault at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Reuters reported. The attackers were armed with AK-47 rifles and wore ammunition belts, according to witnesses.
The gunmen opened fire at shoppers while a radio station was hosting a children's cooking competition at the mall and the winners were about to receive prizes, the newswire said.
State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said Sunday that authorities believe 10 to 15 gunmen were involved in the mall attack.  
Among the dead are close family members of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the wife of a U.S. diplomat working for the U.S. Agency for International Development was killed, three British citizens, two French citizens and two Canadians, including a 29-year-old diplomat. Some children have also died.

How to Help a Marriage in Trouble

How to Help a Marriage in Trouble

By Joe Beam

What do you do when you know a couple has marriage problems, but you have no formal training in how to help? Our work with thousands of marriages in crisis provides us with insight that you can use.

The most important thing is to care enough to do something. Far too often, people do nothing because they fear they might do the wrong thing. While it is possible to do the wrong thing, doing nothing is DEFINITELY the wrong thing.

If you know a couple in trouble, and you care enough to do something, consider this list of things not to do and things to do.

Do Not Do These Things

First, do not listen to one side of the story and think that you understand the situation. A person can paint a picture so reprehensible that you wonder how he stood it, and soon find yourself understanding and even approving of his desire to leave the marriage. If you deeply relate to the sharer's pain, you may not believe the other spouse's story when finally you hear it. Therefore, when listening to either spouse, ground yourself in this ageless truth, "The first person to speak always seems right until someone comes and asks the right questions." (Proverbs 18:17 ERV) The wise person listens, but suspends judgment until the entire picture comes into view. Listen to both spouses without prejudice toward either.

Second, do not believe everything either spouse says. People give their own perspectives, and, inevitably, perspectives are flawed. Additionally, people in pain tend to exaggerate. Beyond that, they tend to justify their behaviors by focusing on negatives about the other person. Therefore, listen for core issues while ignoring matters extraneous to the current problem or exaggerated to disguise the real issue. For example, a wife may try to distract you from her emotional involvement with another man by focusing you on her husband's online visit to a pornography site months ago.

Third, do not help anyone do wrong. Sometimes people think they somehow help a person with his struggles by doing immoral things in the process. It may be as simple as lying for him. Occasionally it stretches imagination. A few years ago, I worked with a couple in which the wife was having an affair. Her lover enjoyed taking her to New York for weekends, but she lacked excuses for missing those days with her family. A prominent sister in her church helped her commit adultery by taking occasional trips with her to a nearby large city for a weekend of shopping. The unfaithful Christian woman met her lover at the airport and spent the weekend in sin. Her Christian helper did all the shopping for her so that she could take her purchases home on Monday with an acceptable alibi. I never understood how the prominent sister justified her actions in her own mind.

Fourth, do not believe that a couple should divorce because their problems seem hopeless. We see marriages saved and made loving again when no one thought it possible. We witness spouses madly enamored with a lover change their minds and restore their marriages. We watch people who said they could never forgive not only forgive but also reconcile their relationships. We witness dominating, controlling spouses realize their destructive behavior and change into loving, accepting mates. Unfortunately, with all those amazing stories and more, we also hear from many couples that a counselor, church leader, or dear friend told them that their situation was hopeless and they should divorce and move on. By the grace of God, they discovered that we would help them even if everyone else thought they should part. We often hear at the end of our weekend workshop for couples in trouble, "Thank you for giving us hope. And understanding. And tools. But without hope we don't think we could have made it." Therefore, we encourage you never to advise a couple to part unless one of them – or their children – are in danger physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Otherwise, please encourage them to find the help to heal their marriage.

Fifth, do not hesitate to ask for assistance to help a marriage in crisis. Sometimes a person in a helping role feels ownership for salvaging the couple and subtly blocks others who try to help. Suggesting to a spouse or couple that they avoid advice from someone who likely will do more harm than good makes sense. I often suggest that a person not take counsel from people who have their own agendas. For example, if Mom feels anger toward the spouse who caused her daughter pain, Mom probably is not a great source for balanced, unprejudiced advice. On the other hand, suggesting that a couple listen only to you, and not to others who have as much experience and wisdom as you, may be a tragic mistake. In our work, counselors and pastors regularly send couples to us for a weekend and then we send them back for more help from them. Working together provides more opportunities to help couples turn things around than working in competition with each other.

Do These Things

First, when you know a marriage is in trouble, intervene even when not invited. Jesus inserted Himself when people needed him, even when they did not know Him. For example, He approached a funeral procession of a woman He did not know and had the audacity to tell her not to cry. (Luke 7:11-17) That brazenness is out of order in nearly every culture. However, He did it because He knew He would raise her son. He would turn death into life and bring great joy in place of her agony. From our experience with thousands of distressed marriages, I can tell you assuredly that many of them long for someone with the boldness to walk into their lives and help them save their dying marriage. We need more people who will do what Jesus did.

Second, stay with them until the healing takes place. If Jesus had told the woman to stop crying because He would bring life to her son again but did not follow through, He would have caused her more pain than she had before He interrupted her mourning. The point is that if you start something, finish it or you may cause more harm. Far too often, we hear from people that some nice Christians – church leaders or others – came by and met with one or both of them once or twice, but never came again. We understand that in most of those cases, the people who tried to help did what they knew to do, and when that did not work, they did not know anything else to do. They still cared, but did not return because they felt that they had done all they could. Even if you do not know what to do next, being there for the spouse who wants to save the marriage may be her only line of hope. Continuing to let the spouse who wants out of the marriage know that you care and that you want to help may make you the person he turns to if he has a moment of emotional lucidity.

Third, convince them to get the help they need. It is not your duty to repair their marriage. Instead, gently guide the person or couple into looking at the real problems rather than the things they wish to focus on, and then direct them to professionals with the specialized knowledge and training to help them with specific issues. Regularly I hear people say things such as, "I didn't want to come to this workshop. I didn't want to save my marriage. But ______ kept after me until finally I came just to shut him up. A lot of people had a lot of advice but he listened and seemed to have some wisdom about life. So I finally let him talk me into coming, but I wasn't happy about it. Now I gotta go home and thank him for not giving up on me." While it is true that no one wants to be harangued or nagged, it is also true that when someone we trust or love gently pushes us, we tend eventually to do what he or she urges us to do. Sometimes the person gently prodding includes incentives such as offering to pay for the crisis marriage workshop, or to take care of their children while they attend. Other times, they simply remind the person of their love and concern. Occasionally, they twist the proverbial arm. They know they run the risk of angering the spouse who does not wish to save the marriage, but they consider the possibility of helping salvage the marriage to be worth the risk. From our perspective, we thank God in heaven that there are people who love their friends enough to keep gently pushing until they agree to get help. (There is a story in the Bible about this principle as well. Luke 18:1-8)

Fourth, call to accountability by establishing consequences. When skilled interventionists meet with an addict, such as an alcoholic, they present her with consequences if she refuses to get help. Consequences may come from family members, employers, church leaders, and others who either hold influence with the addict or have something she wants or needs. The principle is to motivate the addict to do something to salvage her life by establishing clearly that if she continues her current behavior she will lose things that matter to her. The same principle works in helping marriages. For example, some churches will remove members from their fellowship who divorce without what the church considers Biblical cause. Some parents communicate their love for their grown child, but clearly indicate that if he leaves his wife for another, they will not accept the new wife into their home. Within legal limits, a few Christian employers will terminate employees who leave their spouse for another, or who refuse to seek help before divorcing. If you think any of these sound extreme, remember that the purpose is not to punish but to deter the person from divorcing without first seeking valid assistance in hopes of healing their marriages. It is not mean or cruel to try to rescue. Actually, it is much crueler in the long term not to try to rescue.

Fifth, if your friends salvage their marriage and learn to love again, lead them to help other marriages in trouble. No one is more effective in helping marriages than those who have struggled through marriage problems themselves. After you help a couple get the assistance they need to heal their own relationship, boldly ask them to use their experience in two ways. First, to tell their story whenever appropriate to married couples who are not in trouble. As they tell their story, they will lead some couples who secretly are in trouble to talk about their problems. They will help others order their lives and marriages in ways that will prevent them from having major problems later. Second, to tell their story to married couples who are in trouble, and then to stay in contact with that couple in order to become the wise friend who leads them to the help they need. It is selfish, in my opinion, to find healing and not share that healing with others in ways that helps heal them.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/how-to-help-a-marriage-in-trouble-104041/#7jTCrwem3SfUy3iB.99

It's Time To Start Thinking Like A CEO

It's Time To Start Thinking Like A CEO

In a coaching session the other day, one of my multi- 6-figure clients was talking about all of the ways he has been procrastinating. He hasn’t been writing his weekly ezine. He admitted he felt stressed out and that there weren’t enough hours in each day. Although, he did confess he was spending lots of time on Facebook and watching television.
I shared with him a lot of strategic “time management “ and operational ideas that I’m known for. He was on the other side of the phone eagerly writing down this information.
Something interesting started to happen. As soon as we came up with super action steps for him to take with getting his weekly ezine out, he’d mention another area in his business that he was procrastinating. So, we’d come up with a plan for getting into action for taking care of that. Then he’d bring up another problem procrastination area. Can you see that pattern?
My intuitive brain got a really clear and powerful message. I simply said to him, “it’s time for you to start thinking like a CEO”.
There was silence on the other end of the telephone.
It was as if he got splashed with very cold water. Then my client said to me you are absolutely right. We did some tapping to further shift his mindset and by the end of the call it was if I was speaking to a totally different person. The king of procrastination was gone and instead he had transformed into to the king of confidence – a CEO.
Here’s a few way to tell if you’re thinking and acting like a CEO:
1. You delegate all of the things you really don’t like doing so you can stay in your zone of genius.
2. You take risks and take action. You know that your business won’t grow unless you get out of your comfort zone.
3. When you’re stuck, you hire the best person possible to help you move forward
4. You know your “why”. You understand the big picture and decisions are always made based on that.
5. You’re able to forecast and plan your revenue. If you fall off track, you have the resources to make the necessary changes to bring you back on line.
6. CEO's don't know everything. Then know they don't know everything. They either learn, hire someone to teach them or hire someone to do it
7. CEO's not only manage their time, but they leverage their time
If you answered, “yes” to all 7 of those points, congratulations! You are a CEO and are experiencing lots of business success and the money is pouring in. YAY for you!
If not, let’s roll up our sleeves and start to shift things for you. Let’s meet for a complimentary Discovery Session to figure out what changes you need to make to start to see the results you want.

'Let's Get This Man a House;' More Than 60K Raised in One Day in Campaign to Get House for Homeless Man Who Returned 42K

'Let's Get This Man a House;' More Than 60K Raised in One Day in Campaign to Get House for Homeless Man Who Returned 42K

By Leonardo Blair

After shattering a $50,000 goal in donations to reward homeless Boston man Glen James for returning a lost backpack with more than $42,000 in it, a gofundme.com campaign has extended its goal to $250,000 to get the honest man a house.
"Good morning everyone! Great coverage on the story so far! Thank you all so much. YOU are the reason this is happening. Now, let's get this man a house!!" wrote Ethan Whittington, organizer of the gofundme campaign seeking to get James a house.
Some 2,451 people donated $63,724 in the first 24 hours since the campaign was launched by Whittington on Monday.
Since then, donations have continued to pour in for James from people all across America inspired by his heartwarming honesty.
"Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a ... penny of the money I found. I am extremely religious — God has always very well looked after me," James wrote in a statement noted in an earlier report about his honesty which he said made him feel "very, very good."

"I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone — every pedestrian stranger — who has given me spare change. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" he added.

"This is the right attitude of Americans, even if he is a homeless, who returns the found money! We are proud of his honesty, understanding, openness, character and right principles of life. Wish him all the best and [hope he] lands in a good job soon," wrote Ram Ramachandran.
"Glen James gave all of us an opportunity to see how great the world can be. He inspired all of us by his honesty in the face of extreme adversity. He also gave all of us an opportunity to show how great, we as a community can be. Kudos to all of us for being a part of this fundraising effort - to reward a hero - and to show that sometimes, what goes around comes around," wrote Sha Khan.

The Fastest Way to Succeed is to Double Your Failure Rate

The Fastest Way to Succeed is to Double Your Failure Rate

by Ned Parks

The above quote by Thomas Watson tells a true story. Mistakes mean you are alive, thinking and doing things. Good mistakes are measured when you look inside yourself, say “oops”, laugh and try again.

When I was teaching combat tactics as a helicopter flight instructor in the U. S. Army, I had students flying along looking for the landing zone in the make-believe battlefield. They would get confused, freeze and just keep going, fly right over the make-believe enemy and get “shot down”. The really good students would say “oops”, laugh and try again. The rest flunked. I would tell them all, “If you’re going to be guilty of something, be guilty of commission not omission.” I would tell them, “Try and fail, try and fail. You will learn so much in the process.”
As we work towards a culture of respect, both at work and in our personal lives, we will make mistakes. We will say things that are inappropriate to certain people. We will misunderstand the context or intent of someone else’s words. But it’s what you do after the mistake that separates respect from everything else. This is true whether you are the person who makes the offending remark or the one who receives it.
Several years ago, I was talking to a female colleague when she asked me, “Where are Sue and Robin?” (two other co-workers). I answered, “The girls are down the hall to the left.” Hearing this, my colleague proceeded to shred me in front of several other people for using the term “girls” directed to “grown women”. She followed up with a lengthy email berating me further for my “clearly chauvinistic attitude and demeanor”.
I was dumbfounded as to the problem and she was dumbfounded that I would say such a thing with such ease. The only thing left to assume was that I was an insensitive pig, to put it plainly.
I made the mistake of using the term “girls” when referring to women. She made the mistake of assuming my state of mind and my belief system without checking further.
From my point of reference, the word “girls” was used to identify plural of the female gender, regardless of age. I was raised in a house with two older sisters and my parents referred to them as the “girls” – still do to this day and my sisters are over the age of… well, I won’t make that mistake. But I am 48 and they are my elder and wiser sisters, so you take it from there. Never did my parents treat my sisters or any female with anything other than total respect. They were raised in a time when the word “girls” was not restricted by political correctness. From my context and knowledge base, the term “girls” was based on the difference between single and plural, not generation or maturity.
It turns out my colleague had been called a “girl” by a man that did not treat her well.
We can all see the recipe for disaster in our conversations.
Where does respect come in? With my new awareness, I work at reframing the words I use when referring to girls and women. Respect, on the other hand, is when I do slip after using the term for 35+ years and my colleague remembers my context and does not shred me to pieces.
Respect is an active two-way process – we cannot assume that everyone who uses a certain term is framing it with malice and disrespect. Once aware of the impact of our words, we show respect by making an honest attempt to change the wording and, when on the receiving end, take the time to understand the context.
If we learn from our mistakes, we all move forward in understanding and respect.

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NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN (NAUW) NSUKKA

Nigerian Association of University Women

Nigerian Association of University Women (NAUW) is an NGO that is affiliated toInternational Federation of University Women (IFUW). +IFUW which is one of the oldest International NGOs in the world was founded in 1919 and has more than180,000 women university graduates in seventy-two national federations andassociations throughout the world.

    In 1984, Nigerian Association of University Women (NAUW), UNN Branch built aNursery/Day Care centre to cater for pre-school age children. The centre servesboth normal and handicapped children. Every year, about 120 children graduatefrom NAUW Nursery/Day Care Centre. Members organize workshops for teachers andlecturers, for women and undergraduates in the community on topical issues suchas women and governance, women and education, HIV/AIDS, and teenage pregnancy.  IFUW Day On June 1st NAUW Nsukka Branch celebrates IFUW Day to recognize theunique contributions that IFUW and its national federations and associations (NFAs) make towards improving the lives of women and girls.
     NAUW as an affiliate of IFUW has the same mission of improving the status ofwomen and girls, promoting lifelong education, intellectual grounds of itsmembers, stimulating public opinions on women's issues, encouraging graduatewomen to use their expertise to better their societies. IFUW supports NAUW asregards protection of the rights of girls, welfare of women through advocacy.NAUW encourages networking and cooperation amongst women graduates locally,nationally, internationally irrespective of race, nationality, religion, or political opinions.

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