Many Excuses Are No Excuse At All

There is only one reason and it is stated in the first paragraph of the article. The rest is smoke and mirrors. And yet homosexual behavior continues to be promoted more than ever as "normal and healthy". This disease is more than just a disease - it is an accurate real-life application of the end zone of where rebellion against God leads.

H.I.V. Diagnosis Rates Continue to Rise Among Young Men, African-Americans

By DAVID TULLER

Published: June 27, 2008

Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday.

• Among African-American men of all ages who have sex with men, the annual increase in diagnoses was 1.9 percent.

Experts said yesterday that the new statistics were an ominous -- but not necessarily surprising -- indicator that the epidemic continues to flourish among gay men more than 25 years after it began.

“It’s a grim report,” said Dr. Ronald Stall, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh. “It means roughly speaking that about half of the American AIDS epidemic is occurring among a few percent of the adult population. And the terrible trends we’re seeing among white gay men are even amplified further among minority men.”

Sex between men accounted for more than 97,000 new diagnoses over the six years, almost half of the total number, according to the C.D.C. report.

In contrast, diagnoses attributed to high-risk heterosexual contact and injection-drug use declined annually by, respectively, 4.4 percent and 9.5 percent.

The findings were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the C.D.C.’s widely read public health journal. The data were based on reporting from 33 states and did not include statistics from some with large gay and minority populations, including California, Illinois and Georgia.

The agency noted, however, that the racial disparities presented in the report generally reflected national trends in the epidemiology of AIDS.

The agency reported that some of the rise could stem from higher rates of H.I.V. testing among men who have sex with men but added that “available data suggest that these increases cannot be explained by increases in testing alone.”

The C.D.C. recently launched a new H.I.V. reporting system designed to differentiate between recent and older infections. Data from the new effort should become available later this year, according to the agency, and will help experts more accurately track the impact of H.I.V. prevention programs.

Jennifer Hecht, education director at the Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco, said that lack of access to information was a key factor in the increase in infection rates.

“In a lot of ways this is connected to the administration’s policy of emphasizing abstinence-only education,” she said. “And the high rates we see among black men and other minorities indicate that it’s very much connected to larger issues like poverty and racism.”

Dr. Richard Wolitski, acting director of the C.D.C.’s Division of H.I.V./AIDS Prevention, said that several factors could be fueling the increase in diagnoses, particularly among younger men.

“Because of the new treatments, some men perceive it to be a less severe disease than it once was,” he said. “And this is a new generation that hasn’t been personally affected in the same way that older men have been.”

H.I.V. Diagnosis Rates Continue to Rise Among Young Men, African-Americans - NYTimes.com

Food prices exact a harsh toll on hungry children worldwide

June 2008 - By Andrea Dearborn, World Vision U.S

( Blogger's Note: where evil abounds, grace can and should abound even more - we who know the truth must walk in it no matter if it costs us more. We aren't called to give less in hard times, we are called to give more. This shows the love and abounding grace on the earth of our Father in Heaven and is what separates us from the unbeliever. Perfect love casts out fear so that the spirit of fear doesn't rule us. We know that our Father will reward us for sharing the little we may have because of our own expenses rising.)

As food and fuel costs continue to climb, desperate families are resorting to extreme measures to cope. World Vision profiles five places where the crisis is particularly severe.

Fatima, 11, is engaged to a wealthy older man who gave her parents $6,000 in exchange. They had no other way to afford food.
Photo ©2008 Mary Kate MacIsaac/World Vision

Whether eliciting stunned eyebrow raises or horrified sobs, grocery bills and gas prices are taking their toll. People from Seattle to Miami and Afghanistan to Zambia are frantically trying to find ways to cope. Those already struggling to survive are falling deeper into poverty, and the previously self-sufficient are now begging for help.

Children are often the hardest hit, and impoverished communities are the first to suffer, as these stories illustrate.

Afghanistan: Girls sold for food

In Afghanistan, where more than half of all children under age 5 are chronically malnourished, some parents are forced to take extreme measures — selling their pre-teen daughters as wives for older, affluent men.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat..."
—Matthew 25:35 (NIV)

"We didn't want to sell her," says the mother of 11-year-old Fatima. "We wanted to wait until she was 20. But we were forced to. There was no other way."
Fatima is now engaged to a man who gave her parents $6,000. "We have no money," her mother continues. "These days, the high price of food is affecting us in a bad way … we are borrowing money just to buy food."

Georgia: Abandoned to orphanages

In the nearby nation of Georgia, parents are abandoning their children to orphanages, institutions where some food is guaranteed. "I made the hardest decision of my life," says Marina, a mother of six. "Taking my children to the orphanage was the only solution for us; otherwise, they would die of hunger."

Chile: Living by bread alone

Berta, left, a 41-year-old mother in Chile, spends a quarter of her income just on bread.
Photo ©2008 Renato Hernandez/World Vision

In Chile, the price of bread has tripled since January. As a single mother, Berta spends a quarter of her income on bread alone. She cooks every other day to save on fuel and no longer buys chicken, only bones. "The children get hungry," she says. "Everything is so expensive, and I must give them something to eat."

Senegal: No food until October

In Senegal, after tear gas and riot gear dispersed protests against high food prices, people like Marie Diouf, mother of six, are left waiting. Last year's food production was poor, and the next harvest isn't until October. "There is a long way before the next harvest," says Marie. "This situation sinks us into deep poverty and misery."

Mongolia: Education suffers from hunger

On good days, Garangsuren, an 8-year-old girl in Mongolia, eats one cup of broth with flour for dinner. Other days, she only drinks tea or eats a fried piece of flour. She often goes hungry. As food prices increase, it's becoming harder for Garangsuren to stay in school. Her growling stomach makes concentration difficult, and though education is free, her family cannot afford school supplies.

World Vision: An urgent and long-term response

Watch a video featuring an interview with World Vision's Andrea Dearborn, who traveled to the impoverished nation of Haiti, where the food crisis is a source of misery for millions.

Today, for families whose cooking pots and stomachs are empty, World Vision is saving lives by providing essential provisions of food. With the future in mind, we are also helping farmers grow healthy, nutritious crops, and enabling entrepreneurs to establish and grow businesses.
Immediate food aid and long-term assistance are key tools to fight hunger and the food insecurity that causes chronic or emergency shortages of nutrition around the world.
But higher food prices mean World Vision can't help as many people this year. World Vision is asking the U.S. government to increase its response to the global food crisis to ensure that we are doing all we can to address the needs of the most hungry.
"Here in the U.S., we may feel the pinch on our budgets, too — but we can still put food on our tables. But the poorest families in the world live on $1 a day," says Robert Zachritz, World Vision's director of advocacy and government relations. "They have no safety net. When food prices rise by 50 percent, it is devastating.
"Congress is considering adding $850 million in funding for food in 2008, but it's still pending. In order to save lives, Congress needs to act quickly."

Learn more

>> Read an article about a mother in Haiti whose severely malnourished son was saved through interventions from World Vision.
>> Read more about the global food crisis and how World Vision is responding to it.

Four ways you can help

>> Pray for children and families around the world suffering from hunger and malnutrition, especially parents who are resorting to extreme measures to cope with the crisis. Pray also that aid agencies like World Vision would be equipped with the resources necessary to respond effectively to this global emergency.
>> Contact your members of Congress to support increased funding for food aid to respond to the global food crisis.
>> Donate now to help provide food and care to children suffering from the current food crisis. Your gift will multiple six times in impact to bring life-saving support to those who need it most.
>> Give monthly to help provide food and agricultural assistance to children suffering from hunger. For just $20 per month, you can help save lives.

Food prices exact a harsh toll on hungry children worldwide

Our Young People Need Us

 

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

More and more, we are seeing the devastating effects of our Post-Christian culture upon our young people.  We are now beginning to understand the horror that the Lord knows when people don't have knowledge of the truth.  Our kids have been left out in the mad rush to self-gratification that started with the "Woodstock" generation.  Could this be the "wormwood" that is spoken of in Revelation?  Our kids need us.  They need us to grow up and become adults that they can model themselves after, that they can depend upon to show unselfish and pure qualities.  Our kids need to see that we care about them.

Let's all please stop exasperating our children by making them live in a no-win expectancy.  Let's help them to know the truth that makes free by deciding to know the truth ourselves and to walk in it.  We want them to go through the door that leads to life.  We will have to go through ourselves in order to lead them.

Blessings,

Wendy & Dennis