A board member for Equality California has come out swinging at the Bible-based Capitol Resource Institute, which works on behalf of family and biblical values in California, especially among its lawmakers. "If you continue your efforts, we will BURY you," said an e-mail from Ben Patrick Johnson, to his "colleagues" at the CRI, according to a statement from the Christian organization. "For a group that purports to expand tolerance and civil rights, Equality California is not practicing what it preaches," CRI said.

"This type of language evokes images of Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the podium of the United Nations when he declared that Communism would bury America," said CRI. "The irony is not lost on us Communists squelch all opposing speech, just as the modern 'intolerance' movement seeks to silence all opposing viewpoints.

"Johnson then threatens 'we have every intention of yours [group] going down, as have others who oppose decency and human rights.' It is shameful that a group that represents itself as promoting tolerance and civil rights would stoop to the very tactics it accuses CRI of using. Not once has CRI personally attacked opponents in such a degrading and vicious manner," said the organization.

"In a video diatribe against CRI posted on his website, Johnson declares that CRI and its supporters are 'hate peddlers' and 'conservative, religious prejudice peddlers.' He further declares that we are 'smirky, self-righteous folks' who have 'launched an aggressive campaign against legislation to protect gay youth in California's and ultimately America's schools.'

This statement reveals not only the vitriolic language this supposed 'tolerance' group uses, but also the true agenda behind such legislation as SB 777. The radical homosexual agenda intends on sweeping the nation. California is merely the first step in the campaign to stifle free speech and stamp out opposition to 'alternative lifestyles,'" CRI said.

As WND has reported, SB 777 is a plan that would require all public schools in California to eliminate anything that could reflect "adversely" on the homosexual lifestyle choice. It could mean the words "mom" and "dad" would be banned. It's a plan the California Assembly approved a year ago, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. An earlier description of SB 777 from CRI noted that it "forcibly thrusts young school children into dealing with sexual issues, requiring that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality be taught in a favorable light."

"Pushing this radical homosexual agenda in California schools will stifle the truth in favor of political correctness and will inevitably conflict with the religious and moral convictions of both students and parents," said CRI Executive Director Karen England. "The full ramifications of this sweeping legislation could affect the entire nation as most textbook companies tailor their material to their number one purchaser: California."

A key point in the article was al-Maliki wrote a letter in January ordering commanders of the "Mahdi Army," who also have ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, be moved from Iraqi front lines where American and coalition troops were active, the MEMRI report said.

The "Mahdi Army" is the group of terrorists and fighters assembled by al-Sadr, who has preached Islam's "Madhi" soon is to return, and American forces invaded Iraq in order to capture and kill him. Al-Sadr has refused to disband the estimated 5,000-8,000 in his group because he claims it is the "Madhi's Army" and he cannot disband it, as other fighting factions in Iraq have been required to do.
The document, translated by MEMRI, said:

"Based on a phone conversation with Sayyid Muqtada Al-Sadr and [after] consulting with [Iraq's National Security Advisor] Dr. Muwafaq Al-Rubai'i, in order to preserve our great achievements and in light of what the present circumstances demand, we ask to temporarily conceal the commanders of the Mahdi Army, who are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, [and to remove them] from the front line [of battle] in order to protect them from being arrested or killed by the American forces. [The names of the commanders] are listed below. It would be best to send them to Iran for the time being, until the crisis passes.

"In addition, [we ask] to send the commanders from the second line [of battle] to the southern regions, since we know that intensive efforts are underway to persuade the Americans to leave the situation [there] as it is. All administrative and security arrangements for the transportation of these commanders have [already] been made.

"We ask you to implement [these orders] and report to us.

"[Signed,] Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minster (sic) [of Iraq]"

Al-Maliki, who visited President George Bush in the White House in 2006, said then those who advocate violence were being addressed.

"I would like to assure the political and religious leaders and civil societies that the Iraqi parties, politicans, religious leaders are rising to their responsibility and are condemning those who are cooperating with al-Qaida and those who are trying to start a civil war," he said.

Al-Sadr has been described as a fiercely anti-U.S. cleric who commands the Madhi Army, blamed with multiple bloody battles against U.S.-led troops in recent months.

Addressing the Second Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yesterday, Chen Deming, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that China has a huge potential to exploit its abundant domestic energy resources.

"China is not only a major energy consumer, but also a giant energy producer," said Chen, who is head of the Chinese delegation. He said the country has abundant coal reserves and bright prospects to develop hydroelectricity, wind power, solar energy and bioenergy. It also has the potential to increase its oil production and its exploration for natural gas, Chen said.

Chen also dismissed claims that the country had been a major factor in the increasing global oil price, although it did need to import a certain amount of oil and natural gas to supplement its energy supplies. The unstable regional situation, fund speculation and natural disasters are the main factors behind the abnormal rise of the oil price, he said.

Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, and her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, had a chance encounter yesterday which symbolised the state of relations between their two countries.Both had signalled their willingness to meet at a summit on Iraq's future in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

This would have been the first formal contact between the two countries at foreign minister level since diplomatic ties were severed almost 28 years ago when an Iranian mob held 66 US diplomats hostage in the Teheran embassy. Instead, Miss Rice and Mr Mottaki found themselves seated near to each other during a lunch break in the Egyptian conference centre.

Given that President George W Bush has branded Iran a pillar of the "Axis of Evil" - retaliating for years of Iranian abuse on the theme of America as the "Great Satan" - this might have been an awkward moment.
But Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, saw the pair exchange some "welcoming remarks". Like the countries they represent, they were unable to avoid one another and also unable or unwilling to bridge the gulf between them. Mr Zebari, who has been playing a mediating role between the two sides, said: "I believe that an in-depth, bilateral meeting between the two here is not a high possibility."

But he laid out the key reason why America and Iran both have an interest in dialogue. Iraq's chaos is developing into a foreign policy catastrophe for Miss Rice and a significant headache for Iran. Teheran is willing to stir the violence by arming Shia militias - but still fears the consequences of anarchy on its western border.

Mr Zebari predicted that Miss Rice and Mr Mottaki would meet in the weeks ahead. "The tension is too high. Everybody has pushed the envelope to the limit. That is why there is an impetus to look at some regional, collective action to stabilise the situation," he said. But Miss Rice did meet Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, in the first encounter between the countries at this level for two years. US officials say the country has begun stemming the flow of fighters crossing the border into Iraq.

Iraq also appealed to its neighbours to cancel its debts "to enable it to start reconstruction", said Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister. Iraq owes Saudi Arabia, the biggest creditor, £8.5 billion but the kingdom has quietly agreed to cancel 80 per cent of this sum.

The media on both continents naturally blame the Bush Administration for the breach; but there is no doubt that ex-Chancellor Schroeder and outgoing President Jacques Chirac exploited and worsened policy differences for their own political gain. Their aim was to separate Europe from America, in order to build up their own power by way of the European Union.

Chirac was scheming to become the first full-term president of the EU. Schroeder kept his office by scapegoating the Bush Administration. The EU Constitution was supposed to carry it all over the top, and the European Union was supposed to sail into everlasting paradise. Breaking away from America was the key.
Both Merkel and Sarkozy are "welfare-state conservatives" rather than ideologically pure socialists.

They can see clearly the suicidal limits of the multiculti Left, particularly its support for uncontrollable millions of anti-Western migrants, fresh dependent voters for the welfare state. They also see the looming fiscal limits of the social welfare state, as the Euro Boomer generation retires while a host of poorer nations are joining the European Union. Those nations cannot get the massive handouts that were routinely channeled to France. The money isn't there. The word "cynical" and "immoral" were used by Sarkozy recently to describe the Boomer Left. Europe's vacation from reality is reaching its natural limits, and public opinion is sobering up fast.

Most important, Europe can no longer deny the Islamist threat. The War on Terror isn't just George W. Bush's private phantasmagoria any more. Nicolas Sarkozy as French Minister of Interior has had to deal with two years of nightly riots by thousands of ethnic Muslim adolescents. The rioters are French citizens and cannot be expelled. They are not devout Muslims, but rather classically alienated young males who are easy prey for jihadist propaganda --- just as alienated young men were natural recruits for absolutist ideologies in previous generations.

Islam, Communism and fascism provide much the same kind of gratification. Islamists view women as either family chattel or whores to be preyed on; there are no free, respectable women in their eyes. So they are imbued with very different values from their middle-class European peers. Smaller versions of the French riots have erupted in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Germans fear a spread of anarchy to their own Muslim population.

The link between terror and nuclear threats is now undeniable. Nobody doubts what Ahmadinejad wants --- since he repeats it in public at every opportunity. London newspapers have reported "dirty nuke" terror plots that were stopped in time. But it is not a comforting bit of news. Even the UK Guardian is beginning to see the writing on the wall.

Europeans are aware of the spread of nuclear technology from Pakistan and North Korea to Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Today Paris is only fifteen minutes away from an Iranian ICBM attack. That threat will not materialize until Iran obtains nukes, but that may be only a matter of time.

Angela Merkel was visibly shocked by Ahmadinejad's open threats of a nuclear Holocaust against Israel last year. She has signaled very clearly that Germany takes the Iranian threat very seriously. While Jacques Chirac still believed that France could buy off Middle East tyrants, Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be more grounded in reality. Europe, in blissful pursuit of the fantasy of eternal peace and prosperity without having to even pay for its own defenses, may return to realism in Paris and Berlin.

Bottom line: We are beginning to see a reconstruction of the Western alliance after a decade of unprecedented propaganda attacks from the European Left. That does not mean that Europe will be subservient to the US as it was in the 1950s and 60s. Europe will try to stay neutral in any nuclear standoff between the US and Iran, even though it also wants to be protected against Iranian blackmail.

Ideally, Europe wishes to control America as its own foreign legion; but Americans would be fools not to demand commensurate contributions from the 450 million people of Europe. Today Europe pays less than half of what we do for defense, but they still expect to be protected by us. That is an exploitive and one-sided arrangement. France and Germany must do much more for the common defense.

Nevertheless, the fact is that Europeans do not trust themselves to exercise a muscular foreign policy in the Middle East. If German fighter jets bombed Iran or Iraq, ancient European fears of a revived Prussianism or Hitlerism would arise automatically, justified or not. The US can simply do things Germany will not be able to do for the foreseeable future.

And nobody trusts the French not to be cynically self-serving. In spite of anti-American rage, therefore, in military affairs Europe reluctantly trusts the US and Britain more than it does itself. It seems that Europe's peace-now-and-forever fantasies will be postponed in the coming decades, as the West engages in a more cohesive struggle for survival against nuclear Islamist threats. There is no alternative.

Europe imports far too much oil from the Gulf to evade the obvious: A vital need for a renewed alliance with the United States against totalitarian aggressors with strategic weapons.

Call it Cold War Two --- if we are lucky and keep our wits. But we must expect continental Europe to play a more active and constructive role for its own defense than it did in the last sixty years

A virulent strain of tuberculosis resistant to most available drugs is surfacing around the globe, raising fears of a pandemic that could devastate efforts to contain TB and prove deadly to people with immune-deficiency diseases such as HIV-AIDS.

Known formally as extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, the strain has been detected in 37 countries. It arises when the bacterium that causes TB mutates because antibiotics used to combat it are carelessly administered by poorly trained doctors or patients don't take their full course of medication. Rather than being killed by the drugs, the microbe builds up resistance to them.

At least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of TB will die of it, according to medical experts. In trying to stop the spread of the disease, which can be transmitted through coughing, spitting or even speaking, health officials have imposed sometimes extreme controls on infected people.

At least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of TB will die of it, according to medical experts. In trying to stop the spread of the disease, which can be transmitted through coughing, spitting or even speaking, health officials have imposed sometimes extreme controls on infected people.

U.S. security officials are deeply concerned at the ease with which young Britons who have trained in Pakistani terror camps can enter America under the visa-waiver programme. Their concerns were heightened this week when five men, most of whom were Britons of Pakistani descent, were jailed for life for terrorism offences.

U.S. officials point out that any members of the two terror cells would have been able to enter the U.S. as holidaymakers using the visa-waiver system. Michael Chertoff, the U.S. homeland security chief, believes it is unacceptable that Britons can enter his country without a visa while Pakistani citizens have to undergo rigorous screening to obtain one.

He is holding talks with British officials aimed at closing the "loophole". Among the options on the table in the talks between Britain and the U.S. was the total scrapping of the waiver programme, the New York Times reported yesterday.

It said another option would be to single out Britons of Pakistani origin, requiring them to make visa applications for the U.S. and to declare details of visits to Pakistan. Each applicant would also have to undergo a face-to-face interview at a U.S. embassy.

British officials have told the U.S. this would lead to a bitter backlash from civil liberties campaigners. It would also cause considerable embarrassment to Tony Blair, particularly as the majority of the British Pakistani community - which is some 800,000-strong - has traditionally voted Labour.

A British Embassy official in Washington said the visa-waiver programme was valuable and London would oppose moves to scrap it. But he insisted Britain would not accept any special restrictions on British citizens of Pakistani heritage.

A State Department spokesman said the U.S. would "do what we can" to stop the visawaiver system being abused, but would not comment on whether it might be scrapped. A British anti-terror investigator said yesterday: "We fully understand and share America's concerns. "The potential threat is obvious and the British passport provides Al Qaeda operatives with the chance of entering into the heartland of their greatest declared enemy with relative ease. It poses a real problem."

In a statement on the constitution's 60th anniversary, Mr Abe spoke of the need for a "new era" to allow Japan to take a larger role in global security. Mr Abe, who came to office last year, has made revising the constitution one of his main priorities. But critics in South Korea and China, which suffered at the hands of Japanese wartime forces, oppose the move.

Many pacifist elements also remain within Japan, and opinion polls show the public has mixed views about Mr Abe's aims. Mr Abe said in a statement that he wanted to work "towards a Japan that instils confidence and pride among its children". His stance is part of efforts to make Japan more assertive on the world stage, with a military able to take part in peacekeeping missions overseas.

The current constitution has already been stretched, allowing the country to have a self-defence force. Under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, this was pushed still further, to allow troops to join peacekeeping missions in Iraq

Critics of the proposed changes say the pacifist constitution has kept Japan out of war since the 1940s, allowing it to avoid the militarism of the early 20th Century and focus on economic growth instead.

Two Christians are meeting two atheists in a televised debate with the subject the existence of God, and Ray Comfort, a best-selling author and expert on Christian evangelism, says he can prove the existence of the Almighty in his allotted 13 minutes, without mentioning the Bible or faith. ABC will broadcast the entire debate on ABC.com on May 9, at 1 p.m. EST.

"Is there actually evidence for God? That's the most important question any of us will ever consider," said Comfort, whose has written books titled "God Doesn't Believe in Atheists," and "Intelligent Design vs. Evolution letters to an atheist." "We are excited that the network has decided to do this, because we have something very relevant to present," said Cameron. "Most people think that belief in God is simply a matter of blind faith, and that His existence can't be proven. We will not only prove that God exists, but as an ex-atheist I'll show that the issue keeping so many people from believing in God Darwinian evolution is completely unscientific. It's a fairy-tale for grownups."

Comfort told WND he's constantly amazed at "how many respectable men of God say you cannot prove God; that it's only a matter of faith." "I've seen atheists backslide when they've heard me provide them proof," he said. "What I will say sits squarely on the basis of Scripture," he advised, without giving away his multi-point strategy, on which Christians should take notes.

"Evolution is unscientific. In reality, it is a blind faith that's preached," said Cameron. "I'm embarrassed to admit that I was once a naïve believer in the theory." "Most people equate atheism with intellectualism," Comfort said, "but it's actually an intellectual embarrassment."

In a windowless room on the roof of a hospital in south London, the air is being slowly sucked away. It's not enough to notice, but it keeps the sealed laboratory at a slightly lower pressure than the air outside. It's a security measure. The contents of this laboratory are highly controversial, and if anything escaped it would be a public relations disaster for the scientists who work here. The lab holds some of the most controversial plants in the UK, which nearby residents would be less than happy to find drifting on the breeze through their back gardens. Open the door, and air rushes in, not out.

The plants are tobacco, but they are not intended to be smoked. Instead, the scientists who work on them believe they could save lives. Each has been genetically engineered to carry a gene that is usually found in common algae. Inside its cells, the foreign DNA forces the tobacco plant to churn out a protein that is useless to it, but that happens to be a potent drug against HIV. The scientists say the drug, and others like it, could save millions of lives across the developing world. THE TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN DUBBED PHARMACEUTICAL FARMING, OR "PHARMING", AND IT IS EMERGING AS THE LATEST BATTLEGROUND IN THE WAR OVER GENETIC MODIFICATION.

To the scientists developing this new generation of GM plants, the benefits are clear. Conventional ways to make modern medicines are expensive, which means pharmaceutical companies generally target those diseases that affect lots of people who can pay. Plants can be grown, harvested, and the useful medicine purified from them at a fraction of the price, so using them as leafy drug factories saves a fortune, and opens the doors to treating people in poorer countries. Advocates say just 250 acres of GM potato crop could churn out enough hepatitis B vaccine to protect the entire population of south-east Asia from the disease for a year.

But there are concerns too. As with GM food crops, there are fears about whether pharmed plants could breed with wild relatives and disturb the natural gene pool. THEY COULD FIND THEIR WAY INTO THE FOOD CHAIN - POTENTIALLY EXPOSING PEOPLE TO UNCONTROLLED DOSES OF POTENT DRUGS. And then there is the yuk factor, because THE EXPERIMENTS OFTEN MINGLE PLANT AND HUMAN GENES. The Daily Mail says there are "serious ethical concerns about such a fundamental interference with the building blocks of life".

"If they put these genes into food crops then it is only a matter of time until there is a mix-up and they get into the food chain." And the US agricultural system does have a patchy record on keeping GM and conventional produce separate. Starlink, a variety of GM corn meant only for animal feed, turned up in taco shells sold as snacks across the US in 2000, and Prodigene, a Texas biotech company, was fined $250,000 in 2002 for contaminating a soybean crop with corn engineered to produce an experimental pig vaccine.

In a statement, the USA Rice Federation, an industry body, said: "If Ventria's pharmaceutical rice were to escape into the commercial rice supply, the financial devastation to the US rice industry would likely be absolute. There is no tolerance, either regulatory or in public perception, for a human gene-based pharmaceutical to end up in the world's food supply."

New Scientist magazine has repeatedly pleaded with scientists not to grow drugs in modified food crops, a move it calls "daft". A 2005 editorial said: "Some ideas, no matter how good they look on paper, should never be tried in practice. One of these is producing drugs or vaccines in genetically engineered food crops. THE RISK OF THESE POTENT CHEMICALS FINDING THEIR WAY INTO THE HUMAN FOOD CHAIN IS JUST TOO HIGH."

Russia's conflict with Estonia over the removal of a monument to the Red Army escalated yesterday after pro-Kremlin activists in Moscow tried to assault the Baltic republic's ambassador.

The EU entered the confrontation, calling on Russia to uphold commitments to protect foreign diplomats. A mob also attacked a car carrying Sweden's representative in Moscow as it left the Estonian Embassy.
Andrus Ansip, the Estonian Prime Minister, appealed to the EU for support, saying that his nation's sovereignty was under heavy attack. President Ilves told Russia to "remain civilised".

Mr Ansip's party won parliamentary elections in March by promising swift removal of the monument, which many Estonians regard as a symbol of 50 years of Soviet occupation. Russia blamed Estonia for tensions that followed the removal on Friday of the statue of the Bronze Soldier from the centre of Tallinn to a military cemetery.

In a development that echoed Moscow's disputes with Ukraine and Belarus, the state-owned Russian Railways suddenly halted oil deliveries to Estonian ports. It claimed that it needed to carry out maintenance work and denied that it was imposing sanctions. Russia ships around 25 million tonnes of fuel oil, gas oil and petrol through Estonian ports.

The EU demanded an end to the blockade and said that it would send a diplomatic mission to Moscow to show solidarity with Estonia. A spokeswoman said: "We share the concerns about the increasing violence around the Estonian Embassy in Moscow".

A report by the Russian desk of Britain's secret intelligence service sees a "growing possibility" President Vladimir Putin is prepared to resurrect the climate of the Cold War. The report by MI6 chief John Scarlett to Downing Street comes at a time when a series of flashpoints are threatening to plunge relations between Russia and the West back into deep freeze - or possibly worse.

The report concludes Putin is willing to use Russia's very substantial oil and gas reserves as leverage. "He demonstrated that when he switched off the gas supplies to the Ukraine last year to win a political battle between Moscow and [Kiev]. Increasingly Europe, and ultimately Britain, will become dependent on Russian gas supplies," the report says.

The nation's largest public policy women's group is asking President Bush to commit to a veto of a "hate crimes" plan that, as WND has reported, opponents fear would target Christians and be used to demolish both freedom of speech and religion in the United States.

"Last week the House Judiciary Committee, egged on by radical homosexual groups, passed what can only be called a Thought Crimes bill," said former White House insider Chuck Colson in his Breakpoint commentary. "It's called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. But this bill is not about hate. It's not even about crime. It's about outlawing peaceful speech - speech that asserts that homosexual behavior is morally wrong."

The call for the veto promise came from leaders at Concerned Women for America, who said they have written to the president with their request, because Congress is poised to approve H.R. 1592 as early as today.
"This bill would grant individuals who engaged in homosexual behavior ("sexual orientation") or those who cross-dress ("gender identity") preferential treatment over other citizens by elevating them to a specially protected class of victim," the organization said.

"The 14th Amendment guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law, regardless of their chosen sexual behaviors. There is no evidence to suggest that homosexuals or cross-dresser do not receive equal protection under the law," the CWFA said. "Victims are, and should be, treated equally in the justice system, regardless of their 'sexual orientation.' This 'hate crimes' bill would overturn this balance, creating second-class victims and a federal justice system that discriminates against grandmothers, children, women and men simply because they are heterosexual," said CWFA President Wendy Wright.

"Some say we need this law to prevent attacks on homosexuals. But we already have laws against assaults on people and property," Colson continued. "Moreover, according to the FBI, crimes against homosexuals in the United States have dropped dramatically in recent years. IN 2005, OUT OF 863,000 CASES OF AGGRAVATED ASSAULT, JUST 177 CASES WERE CRIMES OF BIAS AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS"

He said that's known because during debate over the plan, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., offered an amendment to assure that the law would not be used to limit the religious freedom of any person or group, and majority Democrats on the committee refused it. "It also refused to adopt amendments protecting other groups from hate crimes like members of the military, who are often targets of verbal attacks and spitting. They also shot down amendments that would protect the homeless and senior citizens Nothing doing, the committee said " THE ONLY GROUP THEY WANTED TO PROTECT: HOMOSEXUALS."

"Clearly, the intent of this law is not to prevent crime, but to shut down freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of thought," he said. The concerns also were echoed by Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth. "This is really about getting the heavy hand of the federal government in promoting homosexuality as a 'civil right,'" he said.

POWERFUL supermarkets are on the verge of becoming Britain's "one-stop shop" by selling everything from football tickets to four-bedroom homes, experts have warned. With bigger stores already having as many as 100,000 different product lines, it is only a matter of time before there is nothing "the silent, slightly guilty majority" of shoppers will not be able to get from the major chains, according to the trade magazine the Grocer.

Golf-driving nets, airline tickets, pet insurance and electricity supplies are among the unconventional items available in supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons. Some offer discounts on Open University courses and children's nurseries and are planning to have GP surgeries and community police services on sites.

The Grocer said members of the public might one day be able to equip themselves from cradle to grave simply by going to the supermarket - a worst-case scenario for Britain's struggling smaller traders.
Supermarkets now account for three-quarters of Britain's £76 billion retail market. Sales of non-grocery items sold by supermarkets increased by 61 per cent between 2000 to 2004 to reach £12.8 billion, and it is growing much faster than grocery sales.

A spokesman for the Scottish Consumer Council said: "There is concern about the effect [supermarkets] have on smaller retailers, who cannot compete with the buying power of the supermarkets. This is seen today in the boarded-up shops in many town centres across Scotland."

Among the unusual services offered by supermarkets is a full-size nursery at Sainsbury in Bournemouth, while Tesco Clubcard offers discounts on Open University courses. Tesco also has its own anti-virus software and its website sells a "Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit". Lidl sells airline tickets for Air Berlin through a voucher system, while Asda has a property website and is planning after-hours GP services.

For the majority, there appears to be little doubt that America is at the zenith of its military power, capable of shaking up the world as it sees fit and charged with the mission of bringing the light of democracy to the darkest corners of the globe. Does it make sense, they will undoubtedly ask, to talk of a new Dark Age, when American power extends so far and wide?

Yet for some members of this society, the title might not be so farfetched. For them, the future appears potentially treacherous; they believe that it is not at all clear where we are going as a civilization, or whether we can throw any light on other people, much less on ourselves. These individuals have become quite jittery, or even despondent, about America's terminal decadence. For them, the downward spiral of our culture and the exponential, even cultlike growth of forces that threaten our long-standing secular and humanistic values are causes for increasing alarm. For this segment of the population, then, the title Dark Ages America is not likely to be as anomalous as it might first sound.

My question for the reader is this: in all seriousness, which direction do you believe the United States is going in, at this point in time? IT MIGHT BE INSTRUCTIVE TO CONSIDER THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE FOUR POST-ROMAN EMPIRE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WEST APPLY TO OUR PRESENT SITUATION.

THE TRIUMPH OF RELIGION OVER REASON

Interviewing a number of policy advisers and people who had known or been close to Mr. Bush at one time, journalist Ron Suskind discovered a consensus among them: they felt the president -- along with his evangelical base -- believes he is on a mission from God and that faith trumps empirical evidence.

David Gergen, who has been an adviser to four presidents, pointed out -- "closing down dissent and centralizing power in a few hands." We are moving, or so it seems, toward a one-party system, a kind of presidential dictatorship, one that is fundamentally theocratic in nature.

THE BREAKDOWN OF EDUCATION AND CRITICAL THINKING

Increasingly, the evidence piles up that intellectually speaking, this nation is very obviously "living in the dark." What is one to make of the fact (reported in the New York Times early in 2005) that a number of school districts around the country are now making sobriety tests a regular feature of the school day?

Millions of American adults are ignorant of the most elementary facts, such as the identity of our enemy in World War II? Or that more often than not, our children graduate from university not knowing the difference between an argument and an assertion, are unable to reason clearly, and don't really know what evidence is?

LEGALIZATION OF TORTURE

More than anything else, I suppose, torture evokes the culture of the Dark and Middle Ages. We associate these eras with barbarism, with "cruel and unusual punishment," and use phrases such as "medieval torture chamber" to characterize them. What, then, are the implications of Abu Ghraib, which, along with Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, constitutes only "part of an American gulag," as Al Gore candidly put it? Just to understand the larger picture, for a moment: Not only are we supporting governments that routinely practice torture, but in the wake of 9/11 we began transferring suspected terrorists to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and Morocco to do our dirty work for us, which includes hanging prisoners from the ceiling, subjecting them to electric shocks, forcing objects up their rectums, tearing their fingernails out, and fracturing their spines.

Alberto Gonzales, the man who wrote the legal briefs justifying the use of torture, is now, in Orwellian fashion, head of the Department of Justice? Add to this the substantial evidence that many of these practices are a standard feature of the domestic prison system, and our return to the Dark Ages would seem to be complete.

MARGINALIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE WORLD STAGE

Would you believe it if I were to tell you that the U.S. infant mortality rate is among the highest for developed democracies, and that the World Health Organization rates our health care system as thirty-seventh best in the world, well behind that of Saudi Arabia (which came in as twenty sixth)?

That the American legal system, at one time the world standard, is now regarded by many other nations as outmoded and provincial, or even barbaric, given our use of the death penalty? That we have lost our edge in science to Europe, that our annual trade deficit (half a trillion dollars) reveals a nation that is industrially weak, and that the US economy is being kept afloat by huge foreign loans ($4 billion a day during 2003)? What do you think will happen when America's creditors decide to pull the plug, or when OPEC members begin selling oil in euros instead of dollars?

HISTORY IS NO LONGER ON OUR SIDE.

Rome in the late-empire period is the obvious point of comparison here, and it is important to remember that it did not so much fall as fall away as it became socially and economically nonviable, as its military was finally strained to the breaking point by what has been called "imperial overstretch." Rome simply became irrelevant on the world stage.

As for the United States, all that awaits it on the domestic front is bankruptcy and popular disaffection; internationally speaking, we'll be looking at second- or third-rate status by 2040, if not before. History is no longer on our side; time is passing us by, and the star of other nations is rising as ours is sinking into semidarkness.

So the question remains, What kind of a future does the United States really have? Not a bright one, quite obviously. Why bother to write this book? IF WE HAVE NO WAY OF SAVING OURSELVES, WHAT'S THE POINT?

There are, in short, readers who find reality -- whether "good" or "bad" -- finally more fulfilling than fairy tales, and it is to this audience that Dark Ages America is addressed.