Upon doing preperation for today’s broadcast (”How Safe is the Indian River Inlet Bridge?) I came across an interesting article on Poynter. According to Poynter, The Minnesota bridge was deemed “structurally deficient.”  Apparently, there are hundreds of bridges across the nation that fit that same high standard for construction.

from Poynter: Hundreds of thousands of bridges nationwide, probably some near you, are also on that list… To get you started looking at the condition of your state’s bridges, try this Web site. It is part of the federal bridge-inventory list. You can find out which bridges in your state are structurally deficient, functionally obsolete or both…. Click here to see how many old bridges you have in your state. It is a national bridge inventory sorted by construction year.

Did you ever see that cinematic Dick Gear masterpiece, The Mothman Prophecies? The Minnesota Bridge collapse video posted online by CNN reminds one of that key scene from the movie.

In thinking about Minnesota, we turn an eye back towards ourselves and our own ailing Indian River Inlet Bridge. Could a similar fate be in store for us? Well, the standing traffic volume is not quite the same on Delmarva as it would be in some of the nation’s larger metropolitan eras… That Minnesota bridge was a main artery in and out of the city of Minneapolis. (I hope Prince is okay.)

According to Mr. Tidal Erosion over at Delmarvanow.com, appox. 14,000 vehicles travel the Indian River Span every day during the off-season, and during the summer it more than doubles. How safe is IR? According to the state.. it’s our “most troubled bridge.”

today’s article from Gannett: The state Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have concluded the bridge must be replaced because tidal action has gouged deep holes in the inlet floor, undermining the bridge’s piers and exposing steel supports to saltwater corrosion.

Should this be something for us to worry about? Well, it would seem a more worthy project than swimming the icey depths of the Indian River Inlet. Study this security video posted online by CNN of the Minnesota bridge collapse… and pray that it doesn’t happen here. Seacrest Out.

Security Camera Footage of the Bridge Collapse.

 

ABC News is reporting that Al Qaeda has posted a propaganda web video online that asks the question “What is the Big Surprise” in Arabic alongside doctored photos of George Bush amidst a burning White House. 

To view the video from ABC news click here.

We often forget, as we go along with our daily lives here on Delmarva, combing the details of the Ocean City Baby story… or the potential collapse of the Indian River Bridge, or that we’ll be paying $0.60 more for tobacco, that there are real threats to our way of life. Threats that, although we are ignoring them, they aren’t ignoring us. Al Qaeda tells it’s online community to “Wait for THE BIG SURPRISE.” Who knows if these are just scare tactics, or whether they really have something planned for our future. Reports come out almost daily that they are and have been planning something. Some threats have been thwarted, but who knows what evil lies in men’s hearts.

I don’t know if sharing the video is good or bad. If you should just go on with your life and ignore it or allow your voice to be heard… Or if we should “wait for THE BIG SURPRISE.”

Don’t be scared.  I’m not going to post the photos of a partial birth abortion.  With all of the focus on the sad situation in Ocean City regarding the 4 deceased babies in Ocean City I wanted to show you what a 21 week old (in the womb) baby looked like.

 

This ‘photo’ is completely real and not altered in any way.  Modern GE technology allows doctors the ability to view the baby in the womb with incredible clarity these days.  This child sleeps and wakes up, moves around, stretches, kicks and jumps.  She already has a personality.  In the eyes of many, she is an ‘it’.  A ‘thing’. ‘Tissue’. 

In the current laws in the US she may be killed legally by a doctor who has sworn to “never do harm to anyone”.  The Hippocratic Oath is an oath traditionally taken by physicians pertaining to the ethical practice of medicine.  I will quote a part of it here:

“I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.

Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.”

I fully understand the social implications which would be faced should abortion become illegal.  Many of our nations problems would become complicated, to say the least. But I say that to continue to devalue human life through the killing of 3,700 babies per day in the US alone has a staggering affect on the human condition.  Why should a father ’stick around’ and be Dad, it’s just some tissue that managed to make it out of the birth canal alive, right?

Christy Freeman referred to her baby as “Gloppity glop” in her discussions with the police.  Her child was older than the one pictured above.  This woman apparently considered her own child, her own flesh and blood, as nothing more than tissue and she proceeded to dispose of it.  It is possible that she has done the same thing three times prior.  It could be that this woman is mentally incapable of clear thought.  Or could it be that American society, on January 22nd, 1973, officially devalued human life to preserve convenience?

Rape or incest. These occurrences account for 1% of the abortions in the United States. 

Health Risk for Mother or Child.  These situations account for another 3% of abortions in the U.S.

Convenience.  96%, or 3,552 babies are killed each day in America as a form of birth control.  

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a US Government agency, in the most recent validated statistics, for every 1000 babies born in the US in 2003, 241 were ‘aborted’.  Also from that study, the highest percentages of reported abortions were for women who were unmarried (82%), white (55%), and aged <25 years (51%).

The good news is; the number of abortions have fairly steadily declined since the worst year for unborn children in the US, 1984.  Discussion of abstinence and the fact that the Church in the US has stepped up and crossed those difficult boundaries about what is appropriate to teach may be having a positive effect on the abortion issue. 

To read the whole report from the CDC, THIS IS THE LINK to that report.