Jeremy Stanbary has found a unique way to celebrate the Year for Priests. Stanbary, founder and executive director of the Minneapolis-based Epiphany Studio Productions, is performing his one-man play called Lolek. The drama is a stirring portrayal of Karol Wojtyla, the man who later became Pope John Paul II. Known as “Lolek” to his closest friends, Wojtyla was ordained to the priesthood on November 1, 1946 and elected Pope on October 16, 1978.

Stanbary says Lolek is one of the most popular plays in his repertoire. “Lolek looks at the young adulthood of Pope John Paul II, his discernment and calling to the priesthood,” said Stanbary. “The play recounts his heroic vocational journey amidst great adversity and ends with a moving depiction of his ordination.”

Set in occupied Poland, Lolek is a riveting drama that provides insight into the experiences and influences that formed one of the most intriguing and beloved figures of all time.

Like the late pope an actor and playwright himself, Stanbary has combined his love of acting with his passion for working with youth and his love of the Catholic Faith. He hopes his performances will entertain, educate and inspire audiences. Stanbary has performed at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany and Sydney, Australia.

Stanbary will be performing Lolek in Chicago from October 1-5. In November, Lolek is being performed for at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin for the Diocese of La Crosse Youth Conference.

“I can’t believe it’s 2009 and we’re back here and we still have to protest for something as simple as getting a fair wage,” Students’ Associations co-president Sophia Blair told the crowd, who braved wintry weather to protest against the government’s decision to shut the Labour Department’s employment equity unit.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said there was growing concern around the Government’s plans to cut the unit.

It would do nothing to close the pay gap between male and female workers doing the same work or being undervalued in female-dominated jobs like the work done by school support staff.

The rally was part of a wider campaign - organised by the Pay Equity Coalition - involving several women’s groups and a number of union groups and the Students’ Associations.

The motif chosen for the campaign is the symbolic $10 note (with the value reduced to $8.80) featuring Kate Sheppard, who won the right for women to vote in 1893.

An announcement Minister of Women’s Affairs Pansy Wong was unable to attend the rally was met with booing and collective shouts of ”shame”.

The gathering, made up of only slightly more women than men, waved flags and held placards, collected signatures, and cheered on the various speakers, which included Labour spokesperson for Women’s Affairs Sue Moroney, Green spokesperson for Women’s Issues Catherine Delahunty and New Zealand Institute of Education member Lewellyn Sumenko-Bucknell.

Some Wellington businesses were offering a 12% discount to women in show of support for the rally and pay equity.

The Department of Labour employment equity unit was set up in 2004 by the Labour government to address the gender pay gap in the public service, with the focus on work in public health and public education.

A protest rally was also held in Auckland.

(By Carl Suurmond who is a Whitireia Journalism student)

The Office of the Naval Inspector General (IG) is conducting the survey, which is available at www.ig.navy.mil/sastudy.htm. The survey was designed for active-duty personnel, is confidential, anonymous, and will be available for participation through Sept. 30.

Naval IG teams are also visiting installations around the fleet through the end of September. As part of the visits, they are facilitating focus group discussions to gain more insight from a fleet perspective, about the occurrences and command support during incidences of sexual assault. Each focus group will be composed of a cross-section of personnel and consist of approximately 20 people from various rank categories.

The Navy’s SAVI Program is managed by Commander, Navy Installations Command’s Fleet and Family Support Program. The Fleet and Family Support Program manages a wide variety of programs, including SAVI. These programs enhance Sailor readiness and family preparedness, directly contributing to mission readiness.

The Navy is the first of the armed service to have a dedicated program for sexual assault awareness, prevention, and intervention. Established in 1994, the program has recently shifted more focus toward prevention and is incorporating new initiatives based on civilian best practices and recent research.

“Sexual assault is a crime and will not be tolerated,” said Paul Finch, SAVI’s program manager. “It is a criminal act, incompatible with the Navy’s core values; it dramatically affects morale and operational readiness. Senior leadership is committed to an effective and responsive SAVI program in order to ensure prevention, quality victim care and response and to holding offenders accountable.”

In working toward this commitment, the Navy is sustaining a robust sexual assault prevention and response policy, identifying and eliminating barriers to reporting, ensuring that care is available and accessible to victims of sexual assault, and providing continuous, relevant, and effective training and education to all service members. All Navy commands have a 24/7 sexual assault response capability focused on victim support. Commanders ensure that female and male sexual assault victims (or survivors) have access to the assistance and resources to meet their needs and to provide a safe and professional work environment.

By Bruce Moody, Fleet and Family Support Program, Commander, Navy Installations Command

Kitchens have been the focal point of many households for centuries. Kitchens are no longer just a place where food is prepared. They have become a place for friends and families to hang out and discuss the day, or to get-together for a cook-off or wine-tasting.

If you are a family that enjoys spending time in the kitchen, you probably want it to have a visual appeal that represents your family. Whether you are going for a cozy ambiance or a strictly functional kitchen, one thing to keep in mind is cabinet space.

Kitchen cabinets serve many purposes. They will free-up counter and working space, they add visual appeal and the look of your kitchen cabinets will set the mood for great entertaining. This is especially true in open floor plans where the kitchen essentially leads right into the living room & dining room.

If you are in the market for a relatively easy way to enhance your kitchen, the following are a few tips and pointers for those of you who want or need to make your kitchen more accessible, user-friendly, and functional.

Make a list of the current problems in your kitchen-inadequate counter or work space, appliances installed too far apart, inadequate cabinet and storage space, insufficient or awkwardly placed lighting, a sink that is too small, or improper ventilation.

Shop around at annual Home Shows for the latest kitchen layouts and designs. There are generally a plethora of magazines and books at any home improvement center that will help you decide exactly what you want.

Consider convenience. If you are going to perform a major overhaul you will need to consider adding storage, more cabinets, and placing appliances close to each other.

Make your visual choices carefully. You have a variety of cabinets to choose from- Maple, birch, oak, cherry, or synthetic cabinets. You may want to enhance your kitchen with window cabinets to display beautiful dishes or attractively contained food, oils, or spices.

After choosing the material of your new cabinets, you will need to consider color or finish choices. You want something that will visually blend with what you have or something that will match new appliances.

Lastly, remember that this is really a family project. You should consult everyone when making your choices. Remember that your kitchen will not be functional as long as you will be renovating. If you do not think that you have the time or know-how, you might want to consider hiring a professional.

The days of woman toiling alone in the kitchen are long gone. Now couples share cooking responsibilities or the male might be the primary cook of the household. Groups of guys have even been known to get together to share their cooking expertise.

A kitchen is a great place, no matter what the occasion, to gather for family meals, quiet mornings, entertaining, or for the holidays. It is the place where family traditions and childhood memories are formed so take your time and consider your choices wisely.

“Two days before Richard Dawkins and dozens of other Darwin apologists gather in Cambridge, England to celebrate the legacy of Evolutionism as part of the 2009 Darwin Festival, an audience in Boston will witness a representative of John Calvin — the heavyweight contender of the Christian faith — take on his worldview opponent head-to-head,” noted Doug Philips, the President of Vision Forum Ministries. “This debate will feature an intense crossfire of ideas as the contrasting worldviews of Calvin and Darwin collide in a great conflict. And the audience will watch as one man’s beliefs triumph.”

“The major media is having a field day extolling Charles Darwin’s ‘virtues’ during this 200th anniversary year of his birth,” Phillips remarked. “And it’s high time that the Father of the Modern Theory of Evolution be given a firm counterpunch by the Father of Modern Liberty, John Calvin, whose 500th birthday is also being celebrated this year.”

“The real ‘God Delusion’ is in Darwin’s camp, not Calvin’s,” observed Phillips. “And those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness must not be given free reign.”

Phillips, who will referee the debate, readily acknowledges that both Calvin and Darwin’s influence have been profound — that both ideologies possess real world-shaping firepower: “No two men of the millennium have done more to shape the thoughts of mankind or to affect the political and social destiny of nations than Calvin and Darwin — the former for great good and the glory of God, and the later for unimaginable evil.”

“The children of Calvin and the Reformers gave us the rise of nation states that embraced republican representative government. The children of Darwin gave us Marxism and totalitarianism,” Phillips explained. “Calvin’s legacy included respect for life, a defense of the biblical family, and the rule of law under God. Darwin’s philosophical progeny introduced the world to the horrors of eugenics and legalized widespread abortion on demand.

“Where Calvin insisted that law was transcendent, being created by God for the good of man and as a reflection of his unchanging righteousness, the followers of Darwin would insist that laws evolve, that the Bible is non-applicable to matters of the state, and the transcendent standards of morality do not even exist.”

Concluded Phillips: “The reforms of Calvin resulted in the blossoming of Christendom. Darwin foreshadowed the darkness of modernity.”

In addition to the Calvin vs. Darwin debate, the Reformation 500 Celebration will feature more than thirty history messages on the impact of the Reformation, Faith & Freedom mini-tours of historic Boston, and a Children’s Parade. The festivities will climax on America’s Independence Day with the world-renowned music and fireworks celebration on the Esplanade by the Charles River with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

After years of preparation, evangelical, orthodox and traditionalist Anglicans from across North America, many of them recently departed from the Episcopal Church, will meet in Texas this week to formally launch the new denomination. ACNA unites eight Anglican groups under a single Archbishop and positions itself as an alternative to the U.S. Episcopal Church within the global Anglican Communion.

With an estimated average Sunday attendance of 100,000 congregants, the launch of ACNA will be the largest denominational enterprise of its kind since the founding of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in the 1970s. Ecumenical speakers including Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California and Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America will offer keynote addresses.

The Anglican Communion is divided over hot button issues like homosexuality and scriptural authority, with U.S. Episcopal church leaders being more theologically and politically liberal than their overseas counterparts. IRD supports a conservative perspective that affirms traditional church teachings.

A wedding idea’s range from private wedding to wedding in air or under water. Some have thought of getting married in space and hope they do. One could get innovative in many areas of wedding like Wedding Dresses, Wedding Invitations, Wedding Cakes, Engagement Rings, Flowers, Wedding Photography, Wedding Catering, Wedding Vows, Speeches & Toasts, Wedding Hairstyles and so on.

But getting that right wedding idea is very challenging. While some are very sure on how they would like to wed, they still require planning. Some rely on friends , family, magazines, professional wedding organizers and now even websites like this unique wedding ideas website.

Websites help you with with choices and possible local vendors, venues and even wedding insurance! They also help you to compare prices and services. Websites also focus on the options available for bridesmaid, best man and other support.

These websites list the possible wedding mistakes you might commit. It is good to read them rather than discover them by yourselves. They also advice in “do it yourselves” schemes. It helps save time, money or even relationships. Who wouldn’t like to get an ‘personal invitation” from the bride or the groom?

It doesn’t mean that wedding planning has become a breeze, you still got to make up your mind. When you see so many choices, it gets bit difficult. When it comes to your wedding, you are the best judge. Happy wedding!

The 90-page report, “This Alien Legacy: The Origins of “Sodomy” Laws in British Colonialism,” details how Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” with up to life imprisonment, was imposed on India by the British as an instrument of social control. Human Rights Watch called on Indian authorities to support reforming the discredited provision. It also called on other governments retaining these archaic laws to move quickly toward their abolition. By criminalizing adult, consensual same-sex acts, Section 377 violates individuals’ fundamental rights to privacy and freedom from non-discrimination.

“Why would a country that prides itself on being the world’s largest democracy keep laws on the books that blatantly violate human rights?” said Dipika Nath, a researcher for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “And why would a nation with a thriving civil society, including a vibrant LGBT human rights movement, hold on to colonial morality codes?”

Indian LGBT rights organizations in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, and Bangalore have organized discussions and events around the report and the High Court case between June 12 and June 25, 2009. The groups organizing the events are: Pratyay Gender Trust and Sappho for Equality in Kolkata; the Shakti Center in Chennai; LABIA in Mumbai; and Alternative Law Forum, Sangama, and LesBiT in Bangalore. The Delhi High Court is expected to deliver its ruling on the case this summer.

The Indian Penal Code was the first comprehensive criminal code Britain drafted for its colonies; it served as a model for similar codes forced on jurisdictions throughout the British Empire. Versions of Section 377 also served as the model for similar laws across Asia and Africa. A majority of the countries that continue to criminalize adult, consensual same-sex relations inherited these laws from their colonizers, though several now claim them as a part of their pre-colonial tradition and national identity.

In the Delhi High Court case aimed at decriminalizing homosexual conduct, the Indian government has claimed that sodomy laws defend traditional cultural values. In stark contrast to these assertions, the Human Rights Watch report shows that homophobic laws, not homosexual conduct, are a Western import. Colonial morals laws categorized entire classes of people, such as hijras (working-class, male-to-female transgender individuals), as “criminal tribes” who could be arrested simply for appearing in public.

“Section 377, like its sibling laws in other formerly colonized countries, is a legacy of British rule,” Nath said. “It is disturbing that post-colonial democratic states like India treat these undemocratic, discriminatory laws as traditions, not impositions.”

Moreover, Section 377 and other British-era sodomy laws make no distinction between consensual and non-consensual sex, or between sex among adults and sexual abuse of children. As a result, these surviving laws leave many rape victims and child victims of abuse without effective legal protection.

A 2001 fact-finding report by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties-Karnataka found that police use Section 377 to blackmail gay and bisexual men, to detain individuals illegally, and to intimidate lesbians and other women in same-sex relationships. The petitioners in the ongoing case in the Delhi High Court have also argued that Section 377 is used to harass and abuse HIV/AIDS workers and particularly to target members of already-marginalized communities, such as hijras.

In 1994, the UN Human Rights Committee - which authoritatively interprets the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) - held that sodomy laws violate the rights to privacy and to non-discrimination.

“From Malaysia to Uganda, governments use these laws to harass civil society, restrict freedom of speech, discredit political enemies, and destroy lives,” Nath said.

Colonies and countries that retain versions of this British sodomy law include:

* In Asia and the Pacific: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, India, Kiribati, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Western Samoa. (Governments that inherited the same British law, but have abolished it since include: Australia, Fiji, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.)

* In Africa: Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Eleven former British colonies in the Caribbean also retain sodomy laws derived from a different British model than the one imposed on India.

Saudi Arabia accepted a recommendation put forward by UN member states in February to take steps to end the system of male guardianship over women, to give full legal identity to Saudi women, and prohibit gender discrimination. The government also clarified that the Shari’a concept of male guardianship over women is not a legal requirement, and that “Islam guarantees a woman’s right to conduct her affairs and enjoy her legal capacity.”

“Saudi women have waited a long time for these changes,” said Nisha Varia, deputy director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. “Now they need concrete action so that these commitments do not remain words on paper in Geneva, but are felt by Saudi women in their daily lives.”

Human Rights Watch said that Saudi Arabia should establish an oversight mechanism to ensure that government agencies no longer request a guardian’s permission for a woman to work, travel, study, marry, or gain access health care or any public service.

The Universal Periodic Review of Saudi Arabia by the Human Rights Council, held in February and June, was the first such comprehensive international public scrutiny of the kingdom’s human rights record.

Saudi Arabia also accepted the recommendation to codify vague tenets of Shari’a criminal law currently open to widely disparate interpretations. Furthermore, the Saudi Human Rights Commission, representing the kingdom in Geneva, accepted the recommendation that only persons over 18 should be tried as adults and that there should be a moratorium on the death penalty for people who committed crimes under the age of 18.

Saudi Arabia is one of only five countries globally that continues to execute individuals convicted for crimes committed as children. Sultan bin Sulaiman bin Muslim al-Muwallad, a Saudi, and’ Isa bin Muhammad’ Umar Muhammad, a Chadian, each 17 years old at the time of their arrest in 2004, were executed in mid-May.

“Saudi Arabia should implement these changes immediately, including a review of any individuals currently awaiting the death penalty,” said Varia. “Human Rights Watch has extensively documented the inconsistent and unfair trials resulting from a lack of codified law.”

The Saudi government noted that it has drafted an ordinance on domestic workers to address their exclusion from labor laws. In a 2008 report, Human Rights Watch showed how weak protections had left many domestic workers vulnerable to unpaid wages, exploitative working conditions, physical abuse, and forced labor.

“The draft ordinance has been discussed and debated for several years now with no concrete result,” said Varia. “The Saudi government needs to move past verbal commitments and ensure that these desperately needed measures are put into effect within the next few months.”

Other commitments included protections against discrimination in the employment of religious minorities, a commitment to issue the kingdom’s first law allowing the establishment of nongovernmental organizations, and an expression of openness to visits by international human rights experts from the United Nations and independent groups.

“The information already in the public domain makes clear that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration, but there are still unanswered questions about precisely what the policies permitted, how they were implemented and who specifically signed off on them,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “This lawsuit is an effort to fill some of the gaps in the narrative.”

Today’s lawsuit marks the launch of the ACLU’s new “Accountability for Torture” initiative, which has four goals: comprehensive disclosure of information relating to the Bush administration’s torture policies; the creation of an accurate and comprehensive historical record; the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate issues of criminal responsibility; and recognition and compensation for torture victims.

The “Accountability for Torture” initiative brings together all the components of the ACLU’s work to end torture and hold government officials accountable for breaking the law. Over the last several years, that work has included FOIA litigation resulting in the disclosure of more than 100,000 pages of government documents, including four Bush administration torture memos disclosed in April; lawsuits on behalf of victims of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program; the John Adams Project, through which the ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers work with under-resourced military lawyers to provide legal counsel for former CIA prisoners who have been charged in the military commissions system; the monitoring of military commissions proceedings at Guantanamo; and legislative efforts to ensure that the abuses of the last eight years are not repeated.

“We can’t sweep the abuses of the last eight years under the rug,” said Alex Abdo, a legal fellow with the ACLU National Security Project. “Restoring the rule of law and the moral authority of the United States requires us to confront the abuses of the Bush administration, recognize the victims of that administration’s torture policies and hold accountable the officials who put unlawful policies in place.”

The records sought in today’s lawsuit include:

* documents between the White House and CIA concerning the use of the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques;”
* a legal memorandum or letter dated July 22, 2002 from Yoo to Alberto R. Gonzales regarding the applicability of the Convention Against Torture; and
* a 2007 opinion by Bradbury analyzing the legality of the interrogation techniques authorized for use in the CIA program under Common Article 3, the Detainee Treatment Act and the War Crimes Act.

The ACLU also launched a new Web page today that includes a video featuring a former military attorney and an Iraq war veteran discussing the need for accountability for torture, a Web feature about the architects of the Bush administration’s torture policies and an improved search engine that allows the public to search the thousands of documents that the ACLU has obtained through its FOIA litigation. The Web page can be found here .

In related FOIA litigation, the government is under deadline to reprocess several key documents relating to the CIA torture program, including Combatant Status Review Tribunal transcripts in which 14 Guantanamo prisoners describe abuse and torture they suffered in CIA custody and a CIA Inspector General report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention program. The Obama administration has not made clear how much information will be released.