HOT OFF THE SHOW! - The Face of Homelessness at Christmas

I interviewed John Anderson of the Bay Area Rescue Mission in the San Francisco Bay Area about bringing hope to the homeless...




Homeless Families



Understanding poverty and homelessness in America



Down and Out in Europe



HOMELESS CHILDREN

In Russia


In Romania


In Asia


In Zimbabwe


In Honduras (sniffing glue - to cope?)


In Pakistan



Bringing Hope - Bay Area Rescue Mission





Hear the show (See 12/18/06)

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Nazi Gingerbread Men - for Hanukkah

Just when you think you’ve heard it all—FOX News reports: “An artist who was forced to remove his Nazi gingerbread men from the window of a hardware store has set up the display in an empty storefront in another town. “The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men” depicts a small gathering at a Nazi rally. Keith McGuckin set up the display in this northeastern Ohio city Thursday night, a day before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins at sundown…

This would be the same as having a display of abortionists doing their thing on Christmas Eve. How sick is this?

Last year McGuckin used the same store window to display a “caroler-bashing” snowman.

While we may be disgusted at such news, where are the PC police? Where are the anti- discrimination folks? Shamefully silent on this eve of Hanukkah. Read the rest here.

Tune in to the show today to hear what Hanukkah is all about on our WOMANTalk edition of the show.


Hear the show (See 12/15/06)

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HOT OFF THE SHOW! More on This Year's War on Christmas

Whether it's Seattle's Airport taking down all their 'Holiday trees' so they can avoid the controversy of putting put up a Menorah, or Target Stores continuing to disallow the Salvation Army from ringing their bells and collecting coins to help the needy this year, the war on Christmas is still being waged. While some stores have relented of their Christmas censorship from last year, the Grinch spirit has convinced Best Buy, Crate & Barrel and other retailers to ban ‘Christmas’ this year, as well as schools and cities, such as Chicago which said ‘no’ to movie clips of the new movie, "The Nativity Story." Who’s responsible for this war?

Here's some links:

2006 Anti-Christmas Retailers
James Dobson on Larry King re Separation of Church and State
The Assault on Christmas
Help Save Christmas
Anti-Christmas In Britain
Communities fail to keep Christ in Christmas
‘New Atheists’ against Christmas
I support the war on Christmas

This was the subject of our show on Monday. You can still hear it online:


Hear the show (See 12/11/06)

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Ahmadinejad's Letter / My Show

To our listeners: I know I said we were slated to do a show on Ahmadinejad's propaganda letter to us 'Noble Americans" on Wednesday, but we had studio equipment failure. So we'll cover it next week as the rest of this week is all scheduled. However, you can read my article on the subject here.

And here's a preview in links:

Ahmadinejad Vows to Destroy America

USA Today interview with Iranian president re America

Script “Death to Israel”

Script “Death to America”

Video – Ahmadinejad - Death to Israel & America

Ahmadinejad ‘soft and fuzzy’ in Brian Williams interview

Ahmadinejad meets with American religious leaders

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HOT OFF THE SHOW! Should we increase the Minimum Wage? Facts & Stats

We talked about increasing the Minimum Wage on the show yesterday, and you might be surprised to hear my perspective on the issue, as I was to see that 50% of our Changing Worldviews readers in our poll this week said they would...favor an increase.

Sen. Ted Kennedy said in an audio clip we played on the show that this is a moral issue...and a civil rights issue.

Sen. Edward Kennedy said that increasing the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 would be his top priority as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Incoming Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, says an increase in the minimum wage would be taken up during the first 100 hours of the next Congress.

President Bush said last week that he would consider some Democratic priorities such as a minimum wage increase.

But critics say it kills jobs because employers end up hiring fewer entry-level workers to make up for the higher wage expenses. Some claim that every ten percent increase in the minimum wage results in a loss of 100,000 jobs.

Some Facts:
A full time minimum wage worker makes only $10,712 per year, which is well below the poverty line.

Minimum wage jobs rarely include health insurance coverage, but some companies do give coverage such as Trader Joe's which give part-time employees health coverage.

And history shows that with each increase in the minimum wage, low income workers suffer the most because of job loss. Highest on the list are teenagers 15-19 years of age, males ages 15-24, blacks and high school drop-outs.

The first a minimum wage set in the United States was in 1933 at $.25-per-hour.
The current federal minimum wage is now $5.15 an hour.

During his presidency, Bill Clinton gave states the power to set their minimum wages above the federal level, and as of April 2006, 18 states had done so.

On November 7, 2006, voters in six states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio) approved statewide increases in the state minimum wage. The amounts of these increases ranged from $1 to $1.70 an hour.

What's your position on this issue?

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WOMANTalk's 12 Days of Christmas

It's not to late to sign up for WOMANTalk's 12 Days of Christmas - Recipes, Holiday Tips and Anti-Christmas watch.

See more here.

Counter the Grinch spirit

Our new Christmas bumper sticker is here!

Click on it to see bigger and to purchase

Just $3.99
Delivered in 2 days
Counter anti-Christmas bias

HOT OFF THE SHOW! The Draft - Who's for it, who's against it?

Rep. Charlie Rangel, soon to be Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, wants to re-institute the Draft – is this political suicide?

His view...

"I truly believe that those who make the decision and those who support the United States going into war would feel more readily the pain that's involved, the sacrifice that's involved, if they thought that the fighting force would include the affluent and those who historically have avoided this great responsibility."

"Those who love this country have a patriotic obligation to defend this country. For those who say the poor fight better, I say give the rich a chance."

Under his bill:
~the draft would apply to men and women ages 18 to 26
~exemptions would be granted to allow people to graduate from high school
~but college students would have to serve
~anyone who didn't qualify for military service would be asked to perform community service

Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he sees no need for a draft, that the military is managing to attract enough skilled recruits without one.

"We're not going to re-implement a draft. There is no need for it at all. The disadvantages of using compulsion to bring into the armed forces the men and women needed are notable."

Since 1980, the Selective Service has required men 18 to 26 to register in case troops were needed in an emergency.

Interesting that reinstating the draft is always advanced by liberals. They pro-test the war, in front of recruiting offices, vote against ROTC and Jr. ROTC on school campuses, etc...yet they are for the draft! Scratching your head?

A Newsweek Poll in 2004 found 7 percent of respondents favored reinstating the draft; 28 percent thought it should be considered; and 62 percent didn't even want to consider the idea.


Hear the show (See 12/4/06)

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The Christmas Grinch of Chicago

Christkindlmarket


The ‘winner’ of our first ‘Swirled Views Grinch’ of the year was presented on last Tuesday’s show -- Chicago’s Mayor Daley for banning the playing of clips of the New Line Cinema’s new film “The Nativity” at Chicago’s annual Christkindlmarket. First the city said it would be offensive, then they changed their motive to it being too commercial. Huh? Just look at the other ‘commercial’ sponsors.

Freedom Folks Video went to Christkindlmarket to find out what was really going on. You can view the video here.

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HOT OFF THE SHOW!! Avoid Holiday Stress for Real

There's lots of resources to help avoid the common, but unneccessary holiday stresses, and they all basically say the same thing, such as these articles on the web which you can find the links to on our Follow the Facts page here.

Seven gifts to give yourself
Planning Eases Holiday Stress
Several Tips to keep Holiday stress from Overwhelming
Don’t let family dynamics bend you out of shape this season
Advice for Reducing Holiday Stress

My guest today on our WOMANTalk edition of the show, Cynthia Bohnker, marriage and family therapist and author of "Overcoming Holiday Stress," had some very good additional suggestions, such as how to handle the negative effects of dysfunctional or abusive family members.

If we put into practice what Cynthia recommends holiday stress could be reduced to simply not enough sleep or fatigue from the extra activities, period.

A timely lifestyle topic, you can hear online here...


Hear the show (See 12/1/06)

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