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America incarcerates five times as many people per capita as Canada and 7 times as many as most European democracies. In the early 70s, there were about 200,000 people locked up in the U.S. In 2004 the prison population of 1.8 million represented a growth of over 800% in the past 30 years. Nearly 7 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.

>THE DIVINE COMMANDS to commit genocide found in the Old Testament are some of the most difficult and disturbing parts of scripture. Consider God's decree against the Amalekites: "Totally destroy everything ... Do not spare them; put to death ... children and infants" (1 Samuel 15:2-3). Such passages have been used repeatedly to justify bloodshed in the name of God, beginning with the Crusades and continuing right up through U.S. history, where texts were used in sermons to justify the slaughter of American Indians.... I'd like to propose that there is a better way-a way found in learning to read our Bibles as the apostle Paul read his. >Paul has removed the references to violence against Gentiles, and recontextualized these passages to instead declare God's mercy in Christ for Gentiles. This constitutes a major redefinition of how salvation is conceived: Instead of salvation meaning God "delivering" the ancient Israelites from the hands of their enemies through military victory (as described in Psalm 18, above), Paul now understands salvation to mean the restoration of all people in Christ, including those same "enemy" Gentiles.

In China, 42 high-speed rail lines have opened or are set to open by 2012; the U.S. hopes to build its first high-speed line by 2014. The Chinese bullet train, which has the world's fastest average speed, travels 664 miles from Guangzhouon the coast to Wuhan, deep in the interior. In a little more than three hours. Travelling the same distance from Boston to southern Virginia, the train takes less time than Amtrak's fastest train, the Acela, takes to go from Boston to New York. By comparison, the United States hopes to build its first high-speed rail line by 2014 - linking only the 84 miles between Tampa and Orlando, Fla.

Growing, young, innovative society has economic advantages over contracting societies of Europe & Japan

Peterson (Secretary of Commerce under Richard Nixon) argues that It's time for corporate leaders to step up with a Marshall Plan-type movement that takes an active role in the public interest.

Pho is a fairly conservative primary care doctor in New Hampshire, but believes that defeat of the current Senate/House legislation will eventually lead to more draconian restrictions on doctors and patients, since the cost of medical care will otherwise become untenable in the U.S.