Considering it cost about 24k to adopt, and that a lot of that money goes to the Chinese orphanages and economy, perhaps Americans on antidepressants, disabled and obese americans will go elsewhere to adopt.

Just another reason I hate China...

It seems to me that these latest proposed rules are aimed primarily AT westerners.

China, the most popular foreign country for U.S. adoptions, is considering new rules that could disqualify thousands of would-be parents.

Those new rules would bar people who are single, obese, over 50 years old, or currently taking psychiatric medications from adopting Chinese children, according to several U.S. adoption agencies that have seen the regulations. They would ban disabled people and families with net assets of less than $80,000. And they would set new minimums on length of marriage for couples seeking to adopt. The China Center of Adoption Affairs confirmed that it is considering new adoption criteria while declining to discuss them in detail.

China bans obese, disabled people from adopting

"Membership in Wiccan, Deity, Druid and Pagan sects has been skyrocketing -- up from an unregistered blip in 1990 to more than 350,000 as of 2001."

I followed the article to the results, and also saw a huge surge in those claiming "new age", "Unitarian" and also "secular."

It is my experience that there are also a large number of those with pagan ideologies included in those numbers as well.

I firmly believe that the NEXT census will show these numbers have continued a very sharp increase.

US Census Shows HUGE increase in Paganism

I wrote him to..

To me, this whole thing highlights the huge void in techy knowlege that our lawmakers have.

MARKEY: DON'T ARREST STUDENT, USE HIM TO FIX LOOPHOLES

I used this site extensively during the last campaign season. It is a very cool site. It is more costly to use than it used to be though. :( It used to be totally free.

Meetup

The US Census Bureau, due to issues related to the separation of church and state, does not ask questions related to faith or religion on the decennial census. Accordingly, there are few sources of comprehensive data on church membership and religious affiliation for the United States. Perhaps the leading organization to address this gap is the Glenmary Research Center, which publishes Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States, 2000. The following series of county-level choropleth maps, which reveals the distribution of the larger and more regionally concentrated church bodies, draws on this resource. The maps are in GIF format.

Wonder where all the pagans are? I know there are a ton around here and they don't all identify themselves as Unitarians. Also, where are the Hindus?

Map Gallery of Religion in the United States

"A short blond man boarded the train and locked his eyes on her. She felt a jolt of panic as the uptown R accelerated into a tunnel and the man sat down across from her and started rubbing his crotch. Nguyen, 22, was wearing a blouse and long pants, having just come from a job interview in Soho. He unzipped his fly and grinned.

She looked away but could see the man’s increasingly agitated reflection in the pockmarked train window. To avoid eye contact, she reached in her bag and pulled out her camera-equipped cell phone. She turned it on. Turned it off. Thought about the Mace canister she was carrying as she fumbled the phone to the floor. When she sat up, the man had his penis out of his pants.

Just a few feet away, a Japanese tourist couple chatted, oblivious to the goings-on. Nguyen’s Mace was right there, at her fingertips. She thought one more time about using it—then snapped a picture instead."

Subway victim of Flasher EXPOSES pervert with cell phone cam

Absinthe causes liver damage and is not much more than a synthetic codeine. (I've got a lot of wormwood in my yard if you want some. lol)

I was very glad to see this decision. Hallucinogenic drugs have long been used in religion. (And if you notice, these religions really ARE quite peaceful!)

The real problem with these drugs has been that they have lost their religious context. I am glad to see that hallucinogens might have a place again.

RE: Sect Allowed to Import Its Hallucinogenic Tea

The kilt with formal brogans and jacket are acceptable dress attire ANYWHERE - even in our white house.

Why is this principle so unrefined as to send a student home for wearing a kilt?

Granted, full dress attire is required with a formal kilt with the clan dress tartan, but to NOT allow a kilt, in and of itself is just plain repressive to ALL men, especially those of Scottish decent.

My husband, a piper, wears his dress tartan to all formal events, whether he is playing or not. I love it, its handsome.

Men are repressed in our culture where fashion is concerned, but this principle is just ..........unrefined.

Principle would not let student wear kilt to formal dance

Many economists have long suspected that official government statistics here provided only a shadow of reality.

With China's announcement on Tuesday that its economy was considerably bigger than previously estimated, economists and financial prognosticators are scrambling to rethink their assessment of China's rise and its role on the world stage. China's new figures suggest that it probably has passed France, Italy and Britain to become the world's fourth-largest economy.

Some economists are even accelerating their timetables for when China may eclipse the United States as the world's biggest economy. With the new figures offering a more expansive view of economic activity, some said China could overtake the United States as early as 2035, at least five years earlier than previous projections.

That Blur? It's China, Moving Up in the Pack

This site has all the big monster brains though.

RE: Wired News: Digg has millions in funding