Disciplinary charges have been lodged against two San Francisco Lutheran congreg
Disciplinary charges have been lodged against two San Francisco Lutheran congregations for the ordaining of homosexual priests. The denomination requires celibacy of its homosexual priests but not of its heterosexual ones, but on the other hand, does not permit homosexual priests, and therefore there is no double standard.
An Israeli businessman who helped a retired Israeli military officer who helped train guards who helped defend Colombian drug cartel leaders has been found dead in a car trunk in Miami. The man, who was recently interviewed by U.S. Secret Service agents, was named Arik Afek, which translates roughly as Jack Ruby.
President Bush has unveiled his plan to cut the federal deficit in half in one year. The plan includes a 20% increase in expenditures for Star Wars, described as urgently needed to protect the United States from Libya and from voodoo lords led by Nicaragua’s first lady, along with cuts in domestic social services. There had been talk of increased social spending due to the “peace dividend” expected from the end of the Cold War, but such talk was criticized by Management and Budget director Richard Darman as a selfish, “How can I get mine?” approach that didn’t suit Americans in this case. Darman said peace had come because of our military buildup and our commitment to the free market, and it would be ironic if, just as the rest of the world is turning toward market and investment‑oriented principles, we were to do the opposite and give money to people to satisfy their needs. Darman concluded, “Think not of a peace dividend but rather of a growth dividend—to make America even more like it is now.”
The budget includes plans for five more Stealth Bombers. Darman justified this by denying that they would be deployed in America’s cities to house the homeless, saying they will be busy in other countries, helping the homeless there to increase their numbers.
Another progressive part of the budget is the Bush plan for trees, allocating money to encourage volunteer tree‑planting on private property. The project is intended to offset the volunteer tree‑cutting on public land, and is seen as a way to strike a careful balance between the human rights of logging companies and the survival of the other species on the planet.
The latest polls indicate that Sandinista Communist Leftist President Daniel Ortega has increased his lead over the democratic opposition as a result of the US Rescue of Panama. The opposition, known as UNO, suffers from the perception that it is close to the Contras and would reverse land reform.
The first lady of Nicaragua has called for a conference on witchcraft in Managua. Rosario Murillo, who wears skin‑tight black clothing and tramp jewelry, is a suspected member of the Voodoo Cartel, a shadowy cabal that counts among its members Manuel Noriega, Moammar Khadafi, Fidel Castro, and Sammy Hagar, and has been cited by the U.S. as the reason for recent increases in the Star Wars budget.
Iran‑Contra figure Rich