After the Chinese women's gymnastics team won its first-ever Olympic gold medal on Wednesday, its diminutive gymnasts celebrated on the arena floor, hopping and hugging and mugging for the cameras. (  see cheating -  )

The team final had come down to the United States and China and was close until the final two rotations, when the Chinese team pulled away in front of an excited and packed crowd. In those rounds, the Americans made several notable mistakes, including two falls by the team leader Alicia Sacramone that paved the way for China.

One day after its men's team won gold, China scored 188.900 for the victory. The United States claimed silver by scoring 186.525, well ahead of the 181.525 recorded by Romania, which followed its gold at the 2004 Athens Games with a bronze medal here.

While the Chinese team celebrated, Martha Karolyi, the U.S. national team coordinator, continued to question the ages of some of China's gymnasts. Concerns over eligibility on the six-member team surfaced before the Olympics and have continued all week.

"One of the girls has a missing tooth," Karolyi said, suggesting that the gymnast was so young that she lost a baby tooth and had yet to have a permanent one emerge.

(What a shock a  communism nation cheats.)

 Playgirl, the female's equivalent of Playboy magazine, will be closing down its print operations at the start of next year. Nicole Caldwell, the magazine's editor-in-chief, confirmed the rumors with MediaBistro.  ( Playgirl Magazine is Shutting Down  )

According to Caldwell,"Playgirl is going all-Web. The last print issue will be the Jan/Feb 2009 magazine, which comes out Nov. 18."

( I have mixed fealings on this. On the one hand I am very happy to see Playgirl  won't be going into anyone's snail mail box anymore  but on the other hand I wish it's website was also shutting down. Playgirl and Playboy, along with Penthouse and others like them have done great harm to our culture. Of course the reason people are able to make money selling these magazines  is because of the demand  for this sick stuff. So the true problem is with our   culture.)

A lot of people have asked me what I think about when I remember back to that hot, humid August night in 1973 when Tom Phillips, then the president of the Raytheon Company, witnessed to me in his home. I left his house that night shaken by the words he had read from C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity about pride. It felt as if Lewis were writing about me, former Marine captain, Special Counsel to the President of the United States, now in the midst of the Watergate scandal. I had an overwhelming sense that I was unclean.

After talking to Tom, I found that when I got to the automobile to drive away, I couldn’t. I was crying too hard—and I was not one to ever cry. I spent an hour calling out to God. I did not even know the right words. I simply knew that I wanted Him. And I knew for certain that the God who created the universe heard my cry.

(The above is part of  a column Chuck Colson wrote. We should all thank God for the work His Spirit did in Chuck Colson's life. God has used Chuck and his great mind to write books,  do radio commentaries and above all  starting a prison ministry which has not only impacted inmates but also their families.in prisons around the world. If you like read Colson's whole column  (Thirty-Five Years in the Light)  and rejoice in the Lord that God found a way in-to his soul.)

Now that John Edwards has admitted to his affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter, the big test looms again before the American public: Do we care? Do we think it matters? Do we believe that there should be any code of conduct or moral standard for those in public office, even if it is the highest one in the land?

Justifications for political improprieties abound. There are historical ones: "Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, etc. had moral failures, so what's the big deal?" There are also personal ones: "We shouldn't judge. No one is perfect. Who are we to point fingers?"

Don't misunderstand me. I believe in personal redemption. I myself have experienced it, as I wrote about in the chapter "A sin that became a blessing" in my autobiography, "Against All Odds," in which I discuss an adulterous one-night stand in the early '60s that resulted in my wonderful daughter Dina. That is why I hope, as he says, John Edwards truly has asked God and his wife for forgiveness, and I pray for their restoration and the long road that results from it.

But then again, John Edwards continues to minimize his culpability by playing linguistic and moral dodge ball. He lied to his closest colleagues and the public for nearly two years about the affair. And even in his confession last week, he doesn't call it a "lie," a "sin," an "affair" or "adultery." Rather, he repeatedly calls it merely a "mistake" or a "serious error in judgment." Is that all it is?

(The above is part of a column written  by Chuck Norris. Norris is right the question is do we the American people care about Edwards sin? Norris is also right Edwards act was a sin not a mistake no matter what Mr. Edwards calls it . Read the whole column Chuck Norris has written An Affair to Remember.)

 There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.”

     FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks.

(Every soul on the right and even those not on the right needs to read and hear this information because if the left gets power the information network we go to could be changed. Then where will we go to NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC. In other words the only ones which will have freedom are the ones already run by the left and those on the left yell about how they are so pro freedom. Read more of the above story right here.)

 President Bush consulted Tuesday with fellow leaders in Eastern and Western Europe about the crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia while aides scrambled to evaluate a Russian promise to stop attacking its neighbor. The White House also rejected a Russian call for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to step down. (  Bush warns Russia; Medvedev orders halt to action)

Earlier, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to its military action in Georgia, saying the campaign had brought security in its South Ossetia region that is close to Moscow.

Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence."
(  Random House pulls novel on Islam, fears violence |)
"The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday.

The novel traces the life of A'isha from her engagement to Mohammed, when she was six, until the prophet's death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely.

"I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed ... I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder," said Jones.

(I can understand Random House  having a fear of violence but if you give in to the bad guys you encourage them. Also once again this shows that Islam is not a peaceful faith and where are the moderate followers of Islam.)

Seven years ago, while bidding to host the Games, China promised that journalists would enjoy “complete freedom to report” — including unfettered access to the Internet. That’s now been tossed out the window, thanks to a recent “negotiation” with the International Olympic Committee. For example, reporters won’t be able to access Amnesty International or websites about Tibet.
Maybe China declared that if the IOC didn’t like the censorship, it could pack up and take the games somewhere else . . . figuring it was too late for the Committee to do anything but relent. But for the sake of freedom in this world, the Committee should have called the bluff.

(The above statement was part of a commentary Paul Jacobs  
did today. While I love watching the games if they be in China or some place else we must never forget how the  people of China are suffering thanks to their evil government. The IOC made a bibg mistake in giving the games to China which they will have to live with. So lets enjoy the games and hope free nations like the good old USA does well but lets not forget what the people of China are going through. If you like read all of  Paul Jacob's commentary  Welcome to Beijingor Listen to audio file .)

Seven years ago, while bidding to host the Games, China promised that journalists would enjoy “complete freedom to report” — including unfettered access to the Internet. That’s now been tossed out the window, thanks to a recent “negotiation” with the International Olympic Committee. For example, reporters won’t be able to access Amnesty International or websites about Tibet.

Maybe China declared that if the IOC didn’t like the censorship, it could pack up and take the games somewhere else . . . figuring it was too late for the Committee to do anything but relent. But for the sake of freedom in this world, the Committee should have called the bluff.

(The above statement was part of a commentary Paul Jacobs  
did today. While I love watching the games if they be in China or some place else we must never forget how the  people of China are suffering thanks to their evil government. The IOC made a bibg mistake in giving the games to China which they will have to live with. So lets enjoy the games and hope free nations like the good old USA does well but lets not forget what the people of China are going through. If you like read all of  Paul Jacob's commentary  Welcome to Beijing  or listen to it  audio file.)

  

A friend-of-the-court brief was filed Wednesday in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and several other groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Hindu American Foundation.

A knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing, killing one and injuring the other on the first day of the Olympics on Saturday, team officials and state media said.

The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just five miles from the main Olympics site. (  Relative of US Olympic coach killed in Beijing)

(This is sad. Pray for  the love ones and all who knew the one killed, and for the one injured. Pray also this is the one and only attack which takes place in China. Could things like this be the result of  a country which has rejected God? That is something to ponder.)