G'day Neven, As we are approaching the end of melt, it would help give context to the "If 2010 loses as much sea ice extent as..." figures if you included the final extent for each of the past years. Thanks for the series. I have been following it with interest for the last few months. David

As I suggested ad JihadWatch, it's probably worth trying the ad on Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrobuses - as a quasi-governmental body, the first amendment probably applies. (my opinion is based on peoples comments elsewhere about different ads). Also I think SIOA should now complain anywhere the Islam ads which claim Jesus and Abraham are still running - they are clearly offensive to Christianity and Christians, and they are dishonest, since Islam is demonstrably not the message/way/way of life of Jesus.

What I take Angela Lloyd to mean is that once Rifqa turns 18, she becomes an adult for immigration purposes and needs her own paperwork. If she is then not dependent on her family, she cannot have the status of dependent student, and so she would have no right to remain in the U.S.A.. This applies even if her parents have residency permits or bridging/temporary visas. I've seen something similar happen to a friend visiting the U.K. with his family. Meredith Heagney is responsible for her own bias and error. For the other reports, the Associated Press seems to have introduced the falsehood, saying "Lloyd confirming in court that the girl is an illegal immigrant", which is not what Angela Lloyd said. I can't really blame media that use the AP's wire report as The Huffington Post and Belief Net acknowledge, and I think CBS mostly used the AP report and only added a little.

The Sri Lanka Christians site is pretty out of date. Also the violence against Christians that I read about there is from extremist Bhuddists (an unusual combination, possibly unique to Sri Lanka) not from the Sri Lankan Muslims. The behaviour of the average Sri Lankan muslim is not entirely relevant however, since the Barys have been part of the Noor mosque for years. Moderate muslims are always vulnerable too being radicalised by wahhabist teachers.

I agree with Bouvier - this is Rifqa's defense team working on her application for a SJIV. That is why it is inappropriate for people over on the Dispatch to condemn her for declaring the relationship irreconcilable. I think it is also a sign that her defense team may well be achiving her best interests, namely staying in the U.S. independent of her parents. Unfortunately Brian Williams may suffer some effects from Rifqa's "unruly" plea, but it helped get parts of Rifqa's SJIV status established quickly. Isabellathecrusader, Reader declares her/himself to be Christian. If that is not a lie, she may be one of the liberal or semi-nominal Christians whose greatest hate is active believing Christians (all labelled evil fundamentalist cultists). I met quite a few at university who felt that it was an insult to them (the liberal 'christians') to for christians to evengelist non-christians! They reserved much of their energy for protesting against the activities of other christian groups on campus. That is consistent with Reeader's repeated hate-filled mentions of World House of Prayer and naming of other groups, like the Lorenz's church, as dangerous cults. She's certainly putting vast amounts of energy into wearing down Rifqa's support base.

So you trust a Russian Right-Wing economic 'think tank' (propaganda institute) to get climatology right, rather than professional climatologists whose work and results has been reviewed and compared with other scientists work. Funny, the Global Climate Science Network did similar claims about N.Z. data that were quite baseless. (see http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/11/new_zealand_climate_science_co.php ) Your confirmation bias is showing - trusting this because it says what you want to hear. For some data based discussion of this IEA report, try http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/12/russian_analysis_confirms_20th.php

I just noticed a loophole in the proposed court order. If you have children under 18, get them to send Rifqa a Christmas card, since the motion specified "third party adults". Make sure your child's age is in the card's sender details

Omar Tarazi's letter is a classic of smear and groundless assertion. - Smear: "put up in the home of a male "pastor"" Note the scare quotes. Technically true but with his wife and kids in the same home, but since he's an unrelated male this would get Rifqa whipped in Saudi Arabia. - Smear: the Global Revolution Church "targeted this minor on the internet" - Groundless assertion: "out to make money off this story" - Groundless assertion: the Global Revolution Church is the reason to not to "let her come back" to Ohio. The two most unconscionable parts of Tarazi's legal demand are: - for the court to order Rifqa "to turn over any communications in her possession or control ... to FCCS". This cannot possible add to Rifqa's safety - she's already received and read them. The demand also implies that her attorney's cannot be trusted to appropriately handle mail for a minor. - "that third party adults are not to be allowed to communicate with Fathima Rifqa Bary until an approved list is determined by FCCS after consultation with all parties" so Rifqa is cut of from the world and Mohamed Bary and CAIR get to veto Rifqa's choice of people to communicate with. Tarazi also says "The GAL for Fathima Rifqa Bary, FCCS and the parents of the minor child have a right to know when third parties are communicating to the minor child". The GAL might have this right. The parents rights are abridged while the child is under protection out of fear of them. This is the parents again showing how unfree Rifqa would be if she returned to their home.

Case plans should be confidential - they list personal problems and private information. The most likely source for Fox and this article is Mohammed Bary giving copies to the Noor mosque or CAIR. The last paragraph of the article describes their default response to irreconcilable conflict: If she and her parents can't resolve their disagreements and another home isn't found, the agency will recommend a Planned Permanent Living Arrangement. Such plans are designed for children who can't go home or be adopted and sometimes are used for those 16 or older.

There are standard processes that have to be followed in Child Protection cases including contact and mediation - think how it would be if your 17y.o.child ran from home and you weren't even allowed to talk to her again. Most child protection systems aim to re-unite families, for good reasons. These early parts of the process are O.K. as long as the caseworker doesn't browbeat Rifqa or leave her alone with the parents. Based on the my experiences of the child protection system here in Australia, they wouldn't be leaving them alone initially. After contact and mediation, they then have more data for their decisions. Then it depends on whether they are blinded by their own prejudice, and by lies and deceptive behaviour by Rifqa's parents during the visits and mediation, and it depends on Rifqa - will she hold firm to her understanding that she is not safe at her parents home, or will she be persuaded to 'go home' - it's likely almost everyone around her will be pressing for that. They will almost certainly ignore the whole question of the Noor mosque, its pressure on the parents, and the danger to Rifqa from its members, because that (family associates) is probably outside the scope of the legislation they operate under.

G'day Pamela, Have you given John Stemberger and Judge Dawson the file numbers for these two applications ? I assume one or other of them is able to subpoena the CIS to present to him the full documents, showing Mohamed Bary's imigration status and perjury. MSC 06 060 10894 Cleaveland (Colombus) EAC 02 247 54828 Vermont Service Center

"The Afghan government can take baby steps towards demonstrating that it is not a kleptocracy" You are depending on them not being a kleptocracy which, given the levels of fraud at the elections, is questionable. If Afghani's reject their government, they will turn to their tribes (as they always have). That makes them effectively local klepotocracies, which makes it impossible to have a national army or effective police forces. The southern areas will be anti-american taliban run Pashtun tribal zones protecting al-quaeda again, and invading their neighbouring districts again. All very nasty.

In the 19th century, the British would have bombarded the port as punishment for failing to prevent the attack. Mind you, they suffered from some pretty nasty anti-british riots and rebellions as a result of that sort of attitude. Still, serious demands for compensation from the countries that attacks were based from, 'or we will retaliate against your leadership' has attractions and even fits the arab blood money concept.

Re: "put your faith in God" and don't wear a seatbelt Up to the 1970's many Christians from the Reformed Church tradition (Calvanist) from the Netherlands (my wife's relatives) seriously debated the appropriateness of insurance for similar reason, although the parallel isn't exact - insurance doesn't prevent disaster. The original story was confusingly reported over here in Australia - it sound like all the casualties were women and children, partly because 15 terrorists is the same number as the total of women and children. The headline was certainly biased - US airstrike kills 15 women and children.