California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says marijuana is not a drug, a British magazine reported Monday. But his spokesman said the governor was joking.
Schwarzenegger told the British edition of GQ magazine that he had not taken drugs, even though the former bodybuilder and Hollywood star has acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970s and was shown smoking a joint in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron."
"That is not a drug. It's a leaf," Schwarzenegger told GQ. "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."
Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, said the governor made the comments in a lighthearted context, noting his interviewer was Piers Morgan, one of the judges on "America's Got Talent." Morgan is a former British newspaper editor.
"The governor was doing an interview with the host of 'America's Got Talent,' the newest version of the gong show," McLear said. "I think it's important to keep that quote in the context of the environment where it was said."
"Of course the governor understands marijuana is a drug. It's like when he goes on Leno or the Daily Show, if you took something like that out of context, it might seem shocking but it was in a silly entertainment context," he ...   more »

Allie Martin
A worship leader and author says many churches in America have lost their focus and main mission. That's why he is calling them to return to what he considers the greatest form of worship -- prayer.
In his new book Worship Awakening, Gary Wright issues a warning to the church in America. Using statistics which show that more than 85 percent of churches have reached their plateau or are declining, Wright says many pastors and church members need to recapture their passion to know Christ. He says that will only come about when churches return to fervent prayer, which he says is the greatest form of worship.
"I don't believe God's going to allow the demise of his church -- I don't believe that," says Wright, who is lead pastor of Lifesong Church in Bessemer, Alabama. "But I do believe that God is working to unite folks to begin a prayer movement to see awakening happen in the church."
In his book, Wright urges the church in America to return to its first love. He contends most churches lack true worship, which is why there is a lack of fruit. "I believe that God will bring revival if ...   more »

A majority of likely voters - 52 percent - would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53 percent believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows.
The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised the prospect of "serious consequences" if the U.S. were to discover Iran was attempting to devolop a nuclear weapon. Last week, the Bush administration also announced new sanctions against Iran.
Democrats (63 percent) are most likely to believe a U.S. military strike against Iran could take place in the relatively near future, but independents (51 percent) and Republicans (44 percent) are less likely to agree. Republicans, however, are much more likely to be supportive of a strike (71 percent), than Democrats (41 percent) or independents (44 percent). Younger likely voters are more likely than those who are older to say ...   more »

If the US and Russia continue a course of mutual belligerency — albeit gloved — the road to Armageddon will be short.
The West must understand that Russia newly flushed with energy wealth is no longer an underdog but a major world player. Russia, in its turn, must quit sending its bombers to tease Western countries. The US should come to terms with the fact it's no longer the only policeman on the block.
People are generally given to shrugging off mentions of a third world war. This is mainly because the next one could be mankind's last. Those who sprinkle their speeches or articles with dire warnings of a massive nuclear conflagration are often written off as scaremongers. Those who lived through the horrors of World War II and later witnessed the battered planet coming together to draft the Geneva Conventions and form the United Nations had hope that we had truly learned our lesson. Never again!
Surely it is inconceivable that world leaders would be prepared to put their nations on a suicidal collision course for any reason. Indeed, even during the most critical periods of the 45-year-long Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United ...   more »

Yesterday on "Fox and Friends," Jim Pinkerton and I debated a Fox news poll concerning children and the availability of contraception. Fifty-seven percent said giving contraceptives to children as young as 11 years old "was a nutty idea"; 26 percent said it was a brilliant idea. The most interesting poll result, however, was that a full 83 percent of those polled said that 11-year-olds were having sex.
This poll question originated from a Maine middle school that is making a "full range of contraception available to students in grades six to eight." It was shocking to those of us who grew up in schools where girls could only wear skirts no shorter than mid-knee. However, the statistics show that it makes public health sense for the school system to make contraception available to these children.
In the state of Maine, the number of middle school children who reported having sexual intercourse dropped from 23 percent in 1997 to 13 percent in 2005. The numbers, if they are accurate, are definitely going in the right direction, but as Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services says, "13 percent is still more than ...   more »

By Ernest Istook
"Doesn't Congress have anything better to do?"
Conservatives are asked this when they pursue legislation to curb abortion or pornography. So what have liberals in Congress put on the agenda instead?
Cross-dressing.
They're fighting about this in Congress, although few media are reporting it.
Self-selected "gender identity" would become the law of the land, supplanting what activists deride as "gender assigned at birth." Employers would be punished if they didn't accept cross-dressing. Even to the point that guys dressed as gals could use the ladies' room. And gals dressed as guys could use the men's room.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was planning a vote for the week of Halloween. How fitting. But now she and other supporters have gotten spooked.
Cross-dressing was funny in movies like "Some Like It Hot," but now it's serious and it's on the agenda in Washington, across the country and even in public schools.
Under its liberal leadership, both houses of Congress have already passed bills to give cross-dressers special protection, and they plan to give them more.
The ultimate goal is not just public acceptance on the streets and on the job, but also in public schools. As the Transgender Law ...   more »

Vox Day interviews Dinesh D'Souza about his new book, "What's So Great About Christianity."
"What's So Great About Christianity" isn't merely a response to the various atheist books, it's also a positive case for Christianity. What do you consider to be the three most important aspects of that case?
The first is a case that I try to make that Christianity is responsible for the core institutions and values that secular people, and even atheists, cherish. If you look at books by leading atheists and you make a list of the values that they care about, things like the right to individual defense, the notion of personal dignity, equality and respect for women, opposition to social hierarchy and slavery, compassion as a social value, the idea of self-government and representative government, and so forth, you'll see that many of these things came into the world because of Christianity. My point is that even if an atheist is an unbeliever, he should at least acknowledge and respect that Christianity has done a great deal to make our civilization what it is, and is even responsible for many of the values that he cares about.
The second theme of the book is ...   more »

Jihadist bulletin boards advocated
arson before California blazes
Firefighters battle Southern California blaze (Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune)
WASHINGTON – While websites frequented by jihadis have been ablaze with claims of responsibility for setting the California wildfires, terror leaders also urged arson attacks as a tactic last summer, according to a new report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
In July, a post was made to numerous jihadist boards and then spread to a number of blogs citing a previously issued fatwa authorizing the setting of forest fires as a weapon of jihad. The post began "this is an invitation to the Muslims of Europe and America, Australia and Russia to burn forests." It went on to state the justification under Islamic Sharia law for this action and to cite its benefits for jihadists.
The post, revealed in G2 Bulletin's report, cites an undated video that shows Abu Mus'ab al Suri, author of "Call to Global Islamic Resistance" and advocate of the doctrine of individual terrorism, discussing the benefits to the jihad of setting forest fires.
Last year, the report points out, Maj. Robert Arthur Baird of the U.S. Marine Corps wrote in the May 2006 issue of Studies in Conflict ...   more »