Conservative Wordsmith writes: Hope abides for the six Utah miners missing in the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah since Monday, August 6. At a news conference this afternoon, Monday, August 13, Bob Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy, said: '"I'm very disappointed to be telling you on the eighth day that we have not found six alive miners. There are many reasons why one would believe that they still may be alive.'" "The mine's roof is still in place, there is plenty of space for air and there is potable water in the mine, Murray said." Preparations are being made for the drilling of a third, and possibly fourth, hole.

Thanks to CNN.com for the above story and quotes. You can read the entire article, and watch the latest videos on the rescue effort, including a new video that was filmed inside the mine, by clicking

"Mine boss: Still hope for finding miners alive". I pray for a miracle in this extremely difficult situation, and for the families of the six missing Utah miners. They are a group of good, hardworking men. It is impossible for most of us to even imagine what it must be like to work long hours in an underground mine. It is obvious to me that men who do this for a living, as well as their families, must have an incredible amount of courage and faith. I truly hope that they are soon found, and that all six of them are alive.

My Related Posts

Pray For Utah Miners - True American Heroes
Rescuers Still Searching For Utah Miners
Will Miners' Families Get Rescue Capsule?

*The original date of this revised post was August 13, 2007. The original title was “Hope Yet Abides For Six Utah Miners.”

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.

Conservative Wordsmith writes: On August 12, I published a post called "Pray For Utah Miners - True American Heroes", regarding the missing Utah miners in the Crandall Canyon Mine located near Huntington, Utah. They have been missing since Monday, August 6.  Since that publication, they have lowered another camera into the mine. "Poor lighting allowed the camera to only see about 15 feet into a void at the bottom of the drill hole, far less than the 100 feet it's capable of seeing, said Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration." This is what the camera did pick up: "Rescuers saw a tool bag, a chain and other items that are normally seen underground in a mine, he said." But no sign was seen of the six miners.

"He said officials would try again with an improved lighting system, which should allow the camera to see 100 feet. It wasn't clear when the attempt would be made."

"The drill rig was to be relocated to a new position late Sunday where it will send the drill down 1,414 feet. The previous holes were more than 1,800 feet. Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., co-owner of the mine, said the new hole will target an area that the miners would have gone if air in their original location was bad."

"Rescuers have also been slowly moving horizontally through the mine to try to reach the men."

"Stickler would not estimate how long it would take to reach the miners on the horizontal route.”

Thanks to Cnn.com for the above story and quotes. Click here to read the entire article, view photographs and read profiles of the missing miners, and view photographs of the rescue attempt. I want you to see the faces of these missing miners: Kerry Allred, Don Erikson, (no photo available), Alonso Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips, and Manuel Sanchez. Look at them, and read their profiles, as I did. Remember them in your prayers tonight. Think about their families, and pray for them also. Pray also for the safety of the heroic rescuers as they slowly make their way through the mine to try to find six missing American heroes.

My Related Posts

Pray For Utah Miners - True American Heroes
Abiding Hope For Utah Miners
Will Miners' Families Get Rescue Capsule?

*The original date of this revised post was August 13, 2007. The original title was “Utah Miners - Rescuers And Camera Looking For A Sign.”

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.

Conservative Wordsmith writes: These are the names of the six miners who have been trapped since Monday in Utah’s Crandall Canyon Mine. “Sanchez has been trapped since early Monday, along with five other miners. The mining company has not released the miners' names, but family and friends have confirmed to CNN the identities of Sanchez, Kerry Allred, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips, Alonso Hernandez and Erickson.” They did not respond to tapped signals, even though they have been trained to respond to them by clanging loudly on anything made out of metal: “Rescue workers pounded on the drill steel several times. Miners are trained to respond to these series of taps as loud as they can on anything metallic, but there was no reply.”

Conservative Wordsmith writes: Early in the morning, on Thursday, August 9, 2007, at approximately 12:58 AM, there was a 4.5 earthquake in the Los Angeles, California area, where I live. I had just finished answering comments to some of my posts, and shutting down my computer. Suddenly, about ten minutes later, while getting ready for bed, the entire bathroom floor was shaking beneath my feet. I was standing by the sink when it happened, and grabbed onto the edge for support. That’s how badly the room was shaking, folks. I thought for a moment that the toilet (am I allowed to say that word, or is it politically incorrect?) was going to be ripped out of the wall. The glass shower doors were rattling, and a quick thought flashed in my mind that they were going to shatter any minute. The entire room was literally shaking. I could hear a low rumbling sound like thunder. If thunder had a face, the above description is what it would look like. This lasted for at least 10 seconds, maybe longer. In fact, all of the rooms were shaking, and it seemed as though the windows might break at any minute.

Conservative Wordsmith writes: How do you know if you're a liberal or a conservative? There are many ways to tell, but here is one surefire method. When you see President George W. Bush's face displaying on your television screen, do you feel compelled to turn the station, or just turn the television off altogether? Do you tell all of your friends and relatives that just looking at him causes you to feel physically ill? Do you also feel incredible anger every time you hear him speak? Suffice it to say that if your answer is "yes" to all of the above questions, then you may be assured that you are definitely a liberal. You also might want to visit a psychiatrist and find out if there is a medication for this new psychiatric disorder called Bushaphobia.

If there is no medication available, then maybe a good conversation with a psychologist will help. He might point out to you that it is unnatural to have these feelings about our president, and that they are totally without logic. You may be living with a paranoid delusion that Bush is a terrorist, and honestly believe that this is logical and real. 

Maybe you should consider seeing a behavioral therapist who will teach you how to gradually expose yourself to Bush's face and voice. Eventually, you might be able to conquer your fears. Seeing his face and listening to his voice will gradually become easier, and cause less discomfort.

Perhaps you have always considered yourself to be a reasonable person. Now you know that this was an illusion. Many just like you are suffering from the same problem at this very moment. You might want to rethink your entire life, and why it is that you even want to be a liberal, since liberalism makes you so unhappy.

I suggest that you listen to Dennis Prager's Happiness Hour every Friday. Click dennisprager.townhall.com/
for more information about the Dennis Prager Show.

My Related Posts

Open Letter To Mr. President
Danger! Beware Of Liberals!
The Temptation of Liberalism

*The original date and time of this revised post was July 30, 2007 at 12:47 AM.

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.

Conservative Wordsmith writes: Who are they? Why are they so interested in bashing President Bush, the Iraq war, and conservatives? Where do their ideas take root? Are they motivated from the way they were raised? Perhaps they all have liberal ex-hippie parents, but somehow I don't think this is the case. To these kids, tolerance strictly means tolerance only to those that think just like they do, but complete intolerance to those that differ. Are they learning hatred in the college classroom, disguised as open-mindedness?

How can hatred be disguised as open-mindedness? It isn't hard to do - all the professor needs to do is point a finger at Israel and explain to the students that Jews are inhumane to Palestinians. The liberal professor never mentions anything about Hamas being evil. In fact, maybe this group of terrorists is even praised as if they are ordinary citizens, just trying to find freedom in a bigoted land run by Jewish people who don't care about them. The truth is cleverly manipulated with the intent of convincing students that tolerance means tolerance to Palestinians, then Hamas, then al Qaeda; but it means intolerance to Israel and Jews. Naive students (and there are many) believe their all-knowing professor, because liberal students that attend liberal colleges, are also educated to trust and worship their highly trained liberal professors. Does this sound like a college classroom in America, or more like an al Qaeda training camp?

Look at what Benjamin Franklin had to say:

Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

Read or listen to President Bush's July 21, 2007 weekly radio address. Here is a brief excerpt:
 

I wrote this letter as a comment on another blog yesterday. I want to share it with a wider audience, as I feel that it is important for college students, especially liberal college students, to understand that tolerance is not necessarily being taught in the classroom today, and that they should not put all of their trust in their professors. They need to think for themselves no matter what the professor says. A true teacher always encourages this, and professors that are in the habit of practicing self-glorification are not good teachers, and should be content with writing books instead. Students need to be taught to rely on themselves, trust their own research, and learn how to analyze and probe complex ideas. Students need to be taught to develop their own unique viewpoints on various issues. This will only happen under the tutelage of an outstanding teacher, one who will not assault young minds with personal agendas. Here is my open letter:

My response to liberalcollegekid:

The problem with the liberal interpretation of the word "tolerance" is that liberals seem to associate tolerance too often with those who should not be tolerated. Tolerance does not mean embracing evil thinkers, or their philosophies.

Trusting someone based on their academic achievements is never a good idea. There are many intellectual scholars, take Christopher Hitchens, author of the bestseller God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, for example. Should I trust the atheistic secular humanist philosophy expressed in his book just because he is an intelligent scholar? The obvious answer is "no".

I hope that you are not actually as naive as you seem to be when I read your comment. I would like to see you graduate from college with a truly open mind. In my experience, I have learned that many people that identify themselves as being liberals are some of the most closed-minded people I have ever met. They want to bombard you with their leftist liberal words and ideologies, but when you try to debate their position, they simply will not listen at all.

If you truly want to have an open mind, and be a compassionate, tolerant human being, then how about displaying some interest in the ideas of conservatism? You seem to feel that a university's proper place is to teach students that they should consider all aspects of an idea. If you honestly believe this, then begin by trying to understand the conservative viewpoint. You only defend liberalism because it is what you are familiar with. As an intelligent liberal college student, don't you think that it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the opposing ideas of conservatism? Then, and only then, will you be able to demonstrate to yourself, and to others, that you are indeed a tolerant person.

Click http://garyfouse.blogspot.com to read the original blog post, "What is Wrong on our University Campuses?" by Gary Fouse. Here you will be able to view the liberal college student's comment to his post, Gary's comment to that post, and my comment, which is now being published as this open letter.

I also suggest reading this article by George Will.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/
GeorgeWill/2007/07/15/farewell,_antioch

My Related Posts

Open Letter to Liberal College Kid Addendum
Who Are These Liberal College Kids???

*The original date of this revised post was
July 19, 2007. 

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.

I published a new post earlier this afternoon called "Open Letter To Mr. President," about a letter I wrote, and sent, this past Saturday to President George W. Bush. In only a matter of minutes, I received a comment by a lady named Ellen. Her comment, and my reply, are posted in the Comments section. She basically wrote that she would like to see historians refer to President Bush as the most "dangerous and destructive" president in U.S. history. So I ask you, is this true? Is he an extremely violent, evil, and horrible human being, one to be afraid of every day and every night? Should I always look carefully over my shoulder in case he is following me? Should I live in fear that another terrorist attack might be caused by him?

On the other hand, should I believe that Saddam Hussein was a good and decent man, who meant no harm to anyone, and only wanted peace in Iraq, Israel, America, and the rest of the world? Should I think that Osama Bin Laden is a saint? Many of his followers do - they literally believe that he is a holy man. Is he? Should Clint Eastwood consider the possibility of making a western in which terrorists are depicted as being the good guys, while President Bush and his cabinet members are the bad guys? Is it me, or is something wrong with the type of typical liberal thinking that always wants everyone to believe that evil is not really evil, and that goodness is truly evil?

I can't take anyone seriously who honestly equates President Bush with the devil, and there are many that do just this. This is the type of political climate that Guru Michael Moore helped to create, and intelligent, educated people buy into it and believe it wholeheartedly. Liberals view patriotism as something to be broken and destroyed. Will you let them succeed?

My Related Posts

Why Do Liberals Love Pessimism?
Open Letter To Mr. President
Who Are These Liberal College Kids???
Bush Is Great: He Is Not Evil
Saddam Was Not Evil???

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.

Lydia Playfoot, a 16 year old student attending school in Horsham, West Sussex, England, lost a British High Court case involving a silver ring called a "purity ring." The ring represented her vow of chastity to remain a virgin until marriage. She was banned from wearing the ring by her classroom teachers. She then sued, and lost, the case. This is her statement:

"I am very disappointed by the decision this morning by the High Court not to allow me to wear my purity ring to school as an expression of my Christian faith not to have sex outside marriage,” Playfoot said in a statement Monday".

“I believe that the judge’s decision will mean that slowly, over time, people such as school governors, employers, political organizations and others will be allowed to stop Christians from publicly expressing and practicing their faith.”

Lawyers representing her school denied her contention that this was religious discrimination. Instead, they insisted that it was simply a case of discrimination against jewelry; the school has a rule that jewelry is forbidden.

"Last year, the Law Lords rejected Shabina Begum’s appeal for permission to wear a Muslim gown at her school in Luton. That case echoed a debate in France over the banning of Muslim headscarves in state schools".

"They said allowances were made for Muslim and Sikh pupils only for items integral to their religious beliefs and that, for the same reason, crucifixes were also allowed. But it argued that the purity ring was not an integral part of the Christian faith".

Why do the priorities of this case sound so twisted to me? What is more important - virginity before marriage or wearing jewelry? Are the judges saying that teenage promiscuity is irrelevant in comparison to wearing jewelry? Does it really matter whether the religious item is a traditionally acceptable symbol of that religion in order for it to be worn in the classroom?

Thanks to MSNBC for this story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19806312/

My Related Post:

The Temptation of Liberalism

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.