According to the Chicago Tribune the "fact" that 55% in U.S. have favorable view of Muslim-Americans is supposed to be good.  Come again? Doesn't this mean that between 4 and 5 of every person a Muslim meets on the street in the US has the preconceived notion that they've bad?

And who do we have to thank for this?  It couldn't be mainstream Amerkin media could it, pandering to the sensational by telling the most sexy story and completely neglecting to tell the REAL story about Islam -  what the Quran actually says, that it was Islam that preserved the only vestige of civilization in the West during the middle ages, that it spawned a bright and rich culture, and that scholars of Islam are among the most enlightened and tolerant people on earth.

People are scared.  They turn on or log on to the news and see bombs: suicide bombings, bus bombins, train bombings.

Maybe if the press stopped publishing the bomb news the insane would stop hyjacking our lives and holding our entire civilization hostage.

What do you supposed would happen if the press started giving equal coverage to human rights and religious tolerance?

It's good to see Pennsylvania upholding its tradition of religious tolerance.  The city was founded in the spirit of religious freedom and this story shows they are still "on the job."

In what appears to be the first decision related to a law granting Pennsylvanians broad religious freedoms, a pleas court judge found that the Philadelphia Fire Department violated the rights of a Muslim employee when it suspended him from duty for refusing to shave his beard.

Thanks largely to Tom Cruise, the official website of the Scientology religion is getting up to 375,000 visitors a day. >>

Tom Cruise has come under attack recently for two things:

Being honest about his views on psychiatry being a pseudoscience and harmful, and

Being honest about his dedication to his religion, Scientology.

The world would be a far far better place without psychiatry.  Period. 

Learn what they are really up to at the web site of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, or visit the exhibit they have in their international headquarters.  It's a museum of psychiatry, aptly called "Psychiatry Kills."

There are a few journalists with the integrity to back Tom Cruise up.  And I want to acknowledge them here: 

 Ruben Navarrette Jr. of the San Diego Union came out with a really good piece on Tom Cruise which I found in the Pasadena Star Tribune.  He states: 

 "Cruise kicked off a debate over a subject that a lot of people don't feel comfortable discussing: whether Americans are too quick to turn to prescription drugs and whether their doctors are too quick to prescribe them. Cruise zeroed in on "drugging children' with Ritalin, which is supposed to treat hyperactivity or attention- deficit disorder.

"That's a hugely important discussion and it shouldn't matter who gets the ball rolling. Even if the push comes from a gasp celebrity, and one who has links to gasp Scientology."

As a gasp Scientologist of exactly 35 years (as of two weeks ago) I salute you for your integrity in writing this article.

Another journalist I tip my cyber-hat to is Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times, who said:

"So that's what Tom Cruise really looks like.

"He is a passionate, stubborn, true believer, who can lecture Matt Lauer about the perils of Ritalin, psychiatry and talk-show-host glibness."

"Morning talk show hosts are facile and heavily scripted, and too often they recite streams of perceived wisdom as if they were undeniable facts. Mr. Lauer showed grace but not much intellectual skill as he was out-debated by a Hollywood actor who described psychiatry as a pseudoscience and said vitamins and exercise could cure postpartum depression.

"But Mr. Lauer was also lucky. Mr. Cruise provided exactly what talk show hosts are supposed to elicit from celebrity guests and so rarely do: sincerity."

Good for you, Alessandra!