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Bắc thang lên hỏi ông Trời!

Xưa nay người ta thường nói "Bắc thang lên hỏi ông trời" để mô tả một sự việc rất là "không bao giờ xẩy ra được" là dùng thang để leo lên hỏi ông Trời, ấy thế mà vào năm 1895 ở bên Nga, nhà khoa học Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, cảm hứng từ việc xây tháp Eiffel của Pháp, đã nghĩ đến việc xây dựng một cái tháp có thể vươn tới không gian vũ trụ, ở cao độ 35.790 km so với mực nước biển. Đấy chỉ là lập lại cái công việc xây tháp Babel trong Kinh Thánh, nhưng thay vì xây ở đồng bằng Ba-Tư (Babylon - Iraq) thì nay đem xây nó ở chỗ đồi núi cao nhất thế giới.


Từ tháp Babel... Tác phẩm điêu khắc The Confusion of Tongues của Gustave Doré (1865) - Ảnh: wikipedia


đến những kiểu thang không gian khác nhau


Việc xây tháp hay xây cầu treo không gian chưa thấy có ai muốn tiến hành cả, tuy rằng các tòa nhà chọc trời ngày càng được xây nhiều hơn, và theo lý thuyết, với sự ra đời của các vật liệu carbon tổng hợp (carbon composite materials), người ta có thể xây tháp cao đến 50 km (Robert L. Forward's book "Indistinguishable from Magic"), và với các chất nano-carbon, thậm chí việc xây tháp không gian cao đến 100 km là việc khả thi, theo lý thuyết.


Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, khoa học gia người Nga, đã nghĩ đến cách chế tạo thang máy không gian từ năm 1895

Các nhà khoa học tính toán rằng một "cây cột chống trời" làm trụ cho cái tháp, được xây bằng kim cương tinh ròng có độ bền là 50 GPa sẽ nặng 3.5 tỷ newton trên mỗi mét vuông (3.5 billion newtons per square meter), cây cột này lại có sức chống đỡ 50 tỷ newton, ngay cả các loại kim cương tổng hợp thương mại có độ bền 5 GPa cũng có thể dùng làm cột được, dĩ nhiên là rất tốn phí, chẳng ai nghĩ đến trong khi kinh tế toàn cầu đang khủng hoảng trầm trọng. Nghe ra thì việc xây tháp không gian cũng có lý của nó, nhưng có lẽ đó là chuyện khoa học viễn tưởng để dành cho những thế kỷ tới.

Thế nhưng từ cái ý nghĩ xây tháp Babel kiểu mới của Tsiolkovsky, người ta đã nghĩ ra một cách khác thực tế và hữu ích hơn, đó là xây dựng thang máy không gian, nối từ mặt đất lên đến vệ tinh hay trạm không gian nằm trong quỹ đạo địa tĩnh đồng bộ, và dĩ nhiên đây là cái thang máy thật sự nên cần phải có dây cáp, và vấn đề nan giải nhất chính là cái dây cáp có sức chịu đựng và bền bĩ phi thường này.


Một cái thang máy không gian sẽ gồm có một dây cáp neo vào mặt đất, vươn ra ngoài không gian, đầu bên kia nối với một đối trọng, lực quán tính giữ cho dây cáp luôn căng thẳng đứng, chống lại lực hấp dẫn của trái đất kéo xuống ở phần dưới thấp, như vậy sẽ giúp cho thang máy luôn luôn nằm trong quỹ đạo địa tĩnh. Khi đã ra khỏi trung điểm của lực hấp dẫn, thang máy sẽ được gia tốc nhờ lực quay của hành tinh.

Xin mời quý vị và các bạn nghe câu chuyện về cái thang máy không gian dưới đây:

Bài đọc thêm:

Space Pier - Construction

Có thể sự sống hiện hữu trong thái dương hệ Epsilon Eridani

Theo bài viết của Robert S. Boyd, McClatchy Newspapers – Mon Oct 27, 11:01 am ET

Đây là lần đầu tiên các nhà thiên văn học nghĩ rằng họ đã tìm thấy bằng chứng về một thái dương hệ mới quanh một ngôi sao rất gần với quả đất, khả dĩ có thể xem thấy bằng mắt thường.

Họ cho biết là ít nhất là một, có thể là 3 hành tinh hay nhiều hơn, quay quanh quỹ đạo của một ngôi sao tên là Epsilon Eridani, cách trái đất khoảng 10.5 năm ánh sáng - tức khoảng 63 ngàn tỉ dặm. Chỉ có 8 ngôi sao là gần quả đất hơn khoảng cách đó.


Bản đồ vị trí của Epsilon Eridani

Ngôi sao chủ, hơi nhỏ hơn và không nóng bằng mặt trời của chúng ta, nằm trong dãi thiên hà Eridanus - tên của con sông trong huyền thoại Hy-La - gần với chòm sao Orion ( Lạp Hộ ) trên bầu trời phương bắc.

Epsilon Eridani là sao trẻ hơn mặt trời, có tuổi khoảng 850 triệu năm so sánh với thái dương hệ của chúng ta có tuổi khoảng 4.5 tỉ năm.


Trong khi Epsilon Eridani không lớn bằng thái dương hệ, các sao trẻ lại lớn hơn và có nhiều các vòng đai đá và băng đá hơn trong quỹ đạo, với khả năng là các hành tinh nằm giữa chúng - Unknown artist, SSC, CalTech / JPL, NASA - Click vào hình để phóng lớn

"Đây quả là hệ tinh tú rất giống với thái dương hệ của chúng ta và nó trẻ hơn đến 5 lần", một trong những nhà khám phá, Massimo Marengo tại trung tâm vật lý thiên văn Harvard-Smithsonian, Cambridge, Mass. nói. "Nó giống như chiếc máy thời gian cho thái dương hệ của chúng ta".

"Hệ thống này có lẽ rất giống với thái dương hệ vào lúc mà sự sống bắt đầu bắt rễ trên địa cầu." Dana Backman, thuộc viện SETI ở vùng Mountain View, Calif., người đứng đầu trong báo cáo được ấn hành vào ngày 10 tháng Giêng trong The Astrophysical Journal (tờ báo Vật lý thiên văn).

SETI đã chọn Epsilon Eridani làm một trong những đối tượng đầu tiên trong quá trình lâu dài - và cho đến nay vẫn vô vọng - tìm kiếm những dấu hiệu về các nền văn minh khác trong không gian, được bắt đầu kể từ năm 1960.

Những hành tinh mà họ nghi là có sự sống là ở quá xa, không thể phát hiện trực tiếp được, sự hiện hữu của chúng chỉ có thể phỏng đoán bằng các phương pháp đo đạc gián tiếp. Những ngôi sao vừa phát hiện là khá gần, tuy nhiên một số nhà thiên văn học nghĩ rằng họ chỉ có thể quan sát được các hành tinh này trong thập kỷ tới với những viễn vọng kính tối tân hơn.

Một trong những hành tình, là một khối hơi khổng lồ nặng gấp đôi sao Mộc (Jupiter), được Barbara McArthur, nhà thiên văn học tại University of Texas, Austin khám phá vào năm 2000. Sau đó viễn vọng kính không gian Hubble đã xác định sự hiện hữu của nó.

Toán của Backman đã xác định sự hiện diện của ít nhất là hai hành tinh nữa, sau khi các viễn vọng kính cả từ mặt đất và không gian đều phát hiện hai vòng đai thiên thạch-tiểu hành tinh và một vòng băng đá bao quanh Epsilon Eridani.



Vòng đai tiểu hành tinh bên trong cách sao chủ khoảng 280 triệu dặm, giống khoảng cách của vòng đai tiểu hành tinh có quỹ đạo nằm giữa sao Mộc (Jupiter) và sao Hỏa (Mars). Vòng đai thứ hai là tương đương với khoảng cách của sao Thiên Vương (Uranus) trong thái dương hệ của chúng ta.

Cuối cùng, vòng thứ ba là một vòng những vật thể băng đá rất rộng trải dài hàng tỉ dặm phía bên ngoài Epsilon Eridani, tương tự như vòng tiểu hành tinh có tên là Kuiper Belt bên ngoài sao Diêm Vương (Pluto).

Vào năm 2002, Alice Quillen, một nhà thiên văn học tại đại học Rochester, New York, báo cáo rằng một cụm vật chất bất thường hiện hữu ở vòng bên ngoài có lẽ nói lên sự hiện diện của một hành tinh với kích cỡ của sao Thổ (Saturn) nhưng lại có quỹ đạo giống như sao Diêm Vương (Pluto). Phát hiện của Quillen chưa được xác nhận, tuy nhiên Quillen nói rằng: "Tôi vẫn nghĩ là có sự hiện hữu của một hành tinh khác với kích cỡ như vậy".

Theo Marengo, khoảng cách giữa các vòng đai nói trên được tạo thành khi các đám mây bụi và đá gom tụ lại thành các hành tinh, như đã xẩy ra trong thái dương hệ của chúng ta. Ông so sánh với tiến trình hình thành các vòng nổi tiếng của sao Thổ (Saturn), các vòng này cách nhau bằng những khoảng không gian quang đãng với những mặt trăng nhỏ.

"Cách cắt nghĩa dễ nhất về những khoảng cách này là vì có những hành tinh ở đó," Marengo nói, "cũng giống như những vòng của sao Thổ được giữ ổn định bằng các mặt trăng của sao Thổ."

"Tôi nghĩ những vòng này có lẽ cho thấy là hệ thống đã được trở nên quang đãng sau khi các hành tinh đã được tạo thành," Quillen nói. "Thật là phấn khích khi tìm thấy được một hệ thống kế cận đang ở trong giai đoạn phát triển sau cùng này".

Marengo cũng đưa ra khả năng là có thể có thêm những hành tinh giống trái đất hiện hữu trong không gian nằm giữa Epsilon Eridani và vòng bụi phía trong.

"Vòng đai bên trong là quang đãng, giống như thái dương hệ của chúng ta... Có thể có những hành tinh trái đất nằm trong đó, nhưng chúng ta vẫn chưa phát hiện được chúng."

Lê Tự Do

Drivers in Salt Lake City fueling their cars at natural gas stations. George Frey/Bloomberg News

The Pickens Plan
Source: CBS, Yahoo! News

CBS - If you've been watching television lately, chances are you've seen a white-haired Texas oil man promising he can save America from foreign oil by using wind power, solar energy and domestic natural gas. He's T. Boone Pickens, and he's playing the role of pioneer and provocateur, in a massive national campaign warning of an energy crisis as dire as the current financial one.

As 60 Minutes contributor Charlie Rose reports, Pickens says he has a solution - a plan that might sound unrealistic in the current economic climate - but one he hopes will be good for the country and good for Boone Pickens.

Click on photo to enlarge

T. Boone Pickens Explains His Plan
T. Boone gives a four-minute presentation about his plan to save America's energy future. Find out more at http://www.pickensplan.com

Pickens: My Energy Plan Is The "Only Plan"
Tells 60 Minutes Wind Power, Solar Energy And Domestic Natural Gas Are The Only Choices To End Country's Oil Addiction
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/23/60minutes/main4541322.shtml

Watch 60 minutes clip on Yahoo! News
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10370025&ch=4227541&src=news

Read more:
Pickens Plan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickens_Plan

kidsgen.com

GUMPTION! ... NEVER GIVE UP!

Two frogs jumped into a bucket of cream on a dairy farm." May as well give up," croaked one after trying in vain to get out." We're goners!" " Keep on paddling," said the other frog." We'll get out of this mess somehow! " " It's no use," said the first ." Too thick to swim. Too thin to jump. Too slippery to crawl. We're bound to die sometime anyway, so it may as well be tonight ." He sank to the bottom of the bucket and gave up the ghost. His friend just kept on paddling, and paddling. And by morning he was perched on a mass of butter which he had churned all by himself. There he was, with a grin on his face, eating the flies that came swarming from every direction.

Go ahead, McCain and Palin, you will win, and you must win! This country needs you; don't give up to those liars!

Sen. Barack Obama speaks at the second annual Global Summit on AIDS and The Church at Saddleback Church on Dec. 1, 2006, in California. David McNew - Getty Images

WHAT IS NCNC (NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF NEGRO CHURCHMEN)?

Source: http://www.topix.com/forum/news/2008-presidential-election/T42DB9RQFARRBJEG3

The modern American origins of contemporary black liberation theology can be traced to July 31, 1966, when an ad hoc group of 51 black pastors, calling themselves the National Committee of Negro Churchmen (NCNC), bought a full page ad in the New York Times to publish their "Black Power Statement," which proposed a more aggressive approach to combating racism using the Bible for inspiration.

James Cone and Dwight Hopkins are considered the leading theologians of this system of belief, although now there are may scholars who have contributed a great deal to the field. It was Cone who in the spring of 1969 published the seminal work that systemized black liberation theology, Black Theology and Black Power (1969). In the book, Cone asserted that not only was black power not alien to the Gospel, it was, in fact, the Gospel message for all of 20th century America.

And here are the founder's words on "black liberation theology":

"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill all gods who do not belong to the black community. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love." -- James Cone

Dr. James Cone

DR- JAMES CONE AS OBAMA'S PASTOR'S TEACHER
Source: souljonz.wordpress.com

The influence of the black liberation theology of James H. Cone appears in the political philosophy of Barack Obama as well as in the recent controversial statement about national pride made by Michelle Obama.

The spiritual role that Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC) and its just-retired pastor Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright have played in the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama is well-established, as is the Africentric theology that is the cornerstone of the church’s self-proclaimed identity.

One largely unexamined element of that Africentric theology, though, is the pivotal role that black liberation theologian Dr. James H. Cone, Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary (NYC), and his 1969 book Black Theology & Black Power, have played in the life of that faith community. Examining Cone’s theology may enlighten us on Barack’s political philosophy and Michelle’s recently controversial statement about not having been proud of her country until the favorable reception to her husband’s candidacy.
The Trinity UCC website was updated early this year. Before that, Cone’s book was singled out as required reading for Trinity parishioners who wished to more thoroughly understand the church’s theology and mission. That highlighting was removed. Jason Byassee, of The Christian Century Magazine, wrote this about Cone and Trinity in May, 2007:

“There is no denying, however, that a strand of radical black political theology influences Trinity [UCC]. James Cone, the pioneer of black liberation theology, is a much-admired figure at Trinity. Cone told me that when he’s asked where his theology is institutionally embodied, he always mentions Trinity. Cone’s groundbreaking 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power announced: “The time has come for white America to be silent and listen to black people. . . . All white men are responsible for white oppression. . . .

Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man ‘the devil.’. . . Any advice from whites to blacks on how to deal with white oppression is automatically under suspicion as a clever device to further enslavement.” Contending that the structures of a still-racist society need to be dismantled, Cone is impatient with claims that the race situation in America has improved. In a 2004 essay he wrote, “Black suffering is getting worse, not better. . . . White supremacy is so clever and evasive that we can hardly name it. It claims not to exist, even though black people are dying daily from its poison” (in Living Stones in the Household of God).”

On the internet you can hear Professor Cone deliver an October 2006 lecture at Harvard Theological Seminary entitled “Strange Fruit: The Cross and the Lynching Tree.” Cone’s stated goal is to “make sense of the Christian Gospel in the face of the horrific suffering of Black people in the U.S.” To do that he links the cross with the lynching tree — for him, they interpret each other. Today, Cone’s 2006 language lacks the initial shock effect he delivered in 1969 by labeling white society as the Antichrist, and the white church as uniformly racist. But, what he wrote in 1969 seems to remain at the core of his theology:

“There is, then, a desperate need for a black theology, a theology whose sole purpose is to apply the freeing power of the gospel to black people under white oppression.”

So where might we discern the influence of Cone’s black liberation theology in the behaviors of Barack and Michelle Obama?

Barack’s life of social activism, coupled with an emphasis in his speeches on government social action to eradicate unjust suffering, aligns with Cone’s words, albeit in a context that extends beyond the black community to the nation, and then to the world. Cone wrote:
“Therefore, whoever fights for the poor, fights for God; whoever risks his life for the helpless and unwanted, risks his life for God. God is active now in the lives of those men who feel an absolute identification with all who suffer because there is no justice in the land.” (p. 47, Black Theology & Black Power)

Michelle Obama’s recent statement about pride-in-country is thoroughly consistent with both the Africentric theology of Trinity UCC and with the black theology of their spiritual mentor’s (Wright’s) mentor (Cone). Her efforts to explain what she meant by her statement have, so far, been vague. The less she says, the better it will be for her husband’s campaign. The more she elaborates on what she meant, the more damage she could do to his candidacy.

In the wake of her statement, some commentators were quick to respond with wonderment that she wasn’t proud of such geo-political milestone events like the fall of the Berlin wall, the collapse of the USSR, the liberation of Kuwait, as well as, on a personal level, her elite education and the election of her husband to the U.S. Senate.

What they don’t understand is that, while Barack is the softer, social justice side of black liberation theology, Michelle is the harder anti-white-supremacy side: - The fall of the Berlin Wall was a seminal event in the battle between two white racist, oppressive political-economic systems. What’s to be proud of there?

- The fall of the USSR was merely the victory of one racist system that has long exploited poor, non-white, Third World countries with economic colonialism over another system similarly guilty. What’s to be proud of in that victory? Both brought havoc and death upon the surrogate countries when their Cold War battles turned hot.

- The liberation of Kuwait, too, falls into the category of white supremacist politicians exercising U.S. military power over an oil-rich region of the world. What’s to be proud of there?

- And, the idea that her education should be a matter of pride could be heard as having a condescending tone that suggests she should be proud because she, a black woman, earned degrees generally reserved for whites. These responses would be thoroughly consistent with Cone’s theology — the mentor of the Obamas’ spiritual mentor. Cone’s myopic theological worldview looks solely through the prism of his understanding of the experience of Blacks in America as victims of white oppression.

Ironically, while the media has occasionally focused on the religious beliefs of Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, a much more substantive faith element has been at work in Obama’s campaign, and the media mostly hasn’t noticed, or if it has, hasn’t commented.
None of this, if accurate, makes Barack Obama a man necessarily unsuitable for the Presidency of the United States, nor his wife for the role of First Lady. But, it may give us cause to further explore their worldviews, and the perspectives of those who, like Dr. Cone, have influenced the formation of those views.

By Lee Cary

Bill Clinton and Rev. Jeremiah Wright

OBAMA REDRAWS MAP OF RELIGIOUS VOTERS
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

NPR - All Things Considered, October 24, 2008

Religious language trips off Barack Obama's tongue as if he were a native of the Bible Belt.

From the moment he emerged on the national scene, he has spoken to believers in a language few Democrats have mastered: the language of the Bible and of a personal relationship with God.

Sometimes he shares his adult conversion story, describing how he knelt beneath the cross at his Chicago church: "I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me," he says. "I submitted myself to his will, and dedicated myself to discovering his truth and carrying out his works."

Sometimes he speaks of sin and personal responsibility: "When a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels someone has disrespected him," he told a group of religious progressives in 2006, "We've got a moral problem. There's a hole in that young man's heart."

And sometimes he borrows code words, not from hymns, but from Christian rock star Michael W. Smith, such as when he proclaimed at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, "We worship an awesome God in the blue states!"

It is this ease with religion that has helped Obama win over voters of various religious stripes — including Catholics who traditionally have voted Republican.

Pollster Robert P. Jones of Public Religion Research says that Obama's appearance at the 2004 convention was a turning point in the relationship between Democrats and believers. Then, a majority of Americans viewed the Democratic Party as hostile to religion. But Jones' poll this month found a remarkable shift.

"Barack Obama was perceived to be more friendly to religion than John McCain," he says. "And that is, I think, an indication of the real sea change that's under way, and the way in which religion is interacting in public life."

How Obama Courted Believers

Obama hired outreach directors for Catholics, evangelicals, Protestants and smaller religions, and he sent popular religious personalities to forums at colleges and homes.

"The effort that they are undertaking is 10 times larger than what we did at the Kerry campaign," says Mara Vanderslice, who briefly ran John Kerry's religious outreach program in 2004 with little more than gum and shoestring. She now runs the Matthew 25 Network, which places pro-Obama ads aimed at religious believers. She says, like the starship Enterprise, Obama is going where no Democratic presidential candidate has gone before... Christian radio.

"You know, folks who are listening to contemporary Christian music stations are moderate Christians and evangelicals, and they're exactly the voters we want to reach," she says. "So I think it's highly effective and it's exciting to see that Democrats are no longer conceding that ground."

Of course, religion has proved a two-edged sword for Obama — particularly his church of 20 years, his controversial minister, Jeremiah Wright, and Wright's now infamous words, "God damn America."

The firestorm drove some voters into the McCain camp, although pollsters think those people were McCain supporters anyway. Obama denounced Wright, and the issue has faded away, perhaps because McCain made the issue off-limits.

What hurt Obama far more was a televised interview in August. In what some Obama insiders consider a "disaster," Obama answered questions from Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California. Warren, a fourth-generation Southern Baptist minister, asked him litmus test questions — about same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, and "when a baby is entitled to human rights."

Obama's long-winded, lawyerly answer: "Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."

People who attended say there was an audible gasp at his comment — the kind of giant sucking sound of evangelical votes flying to McCain. Obama lost even more of them when McCain selected an anti-abortion superstar, Sarah Palin, as his running mate.

Obama staffers say they never expected to win over conservative evangelicals, who often vote on culture-war issues. But Obama's campaign saw two other Republican strongholds ripe for the picking. One is younger evangelicals, who consider abortion an important issue — although not in the top five.

But the big prize — the classic swing vote — is Catholics. And as with Protestants, Obama knows their language and their passions.

Catholics As Key Bloc

"Obama actually has a significant Catholic experience in his background," observes Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and scholar at Georgetown University. Reese says Obama attended Catholic school for three years when he lived in Indonesia. When Obama was a community organizer in Chicago, he worked out of Holy Rosary Parish, and his program was funded by the Catholic Bishops Campaign for Human Development.

"The way the Republicans talk about his community organizing experience, you'd think he was going down into the inner city and leading rioters," Reese says, laughing. "Where, in fact, he was organizing at Catholic parishes in Chicago, trying to get jobs for Catholic parishioners."

From that work, Obama developed his appreciation for what's called the Social Gospel – that is, Jesus' commands to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, fight injustice. Obama summed it up this way in a recent speech: "My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won't be fulfilling God's will unless I go out and do the Lord's work."

Doug Kmiec is an anti-abortion Catholic who served in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. He says when he heard Obama's early speeches, he realized that Obama's views on health care and wages, on immigration, war and family, echoed the pope's teachings.

"On almost every topic that Catholics are asked to form their conscience about, Sen. Obama was hitting if not a home run, then a triple into those dead corners of the ballpark," he said.

Abortion was the only issue that troubled Kmiec. But he decided that Obama's plan to reduce abortions was better than the Republicans' failed attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade. It turns out, Kmiec has plenty of company.

John Green at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says many Catholics are balancing moral issues like abortion with moral issues like poverty. And that's created a new dynamic. Green says for the past decade, the alliance between traditional Catholics and evangelicals revolved around two culture-war issues: abortion and same-sex marriage.

"Those groups never completely agreed on all the other issues, but they could agree on those social issues," he says. "And as we move into this year's election, we see that alliance perhaps breaking apart, and one reason is because traditionalist Catholics have a broader agenda."

Catholic Voters Torn

On a recent afternoon at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Catholic voters were split over whether or not they would support Obama. This was a marked change from four years ago when parishioners at the same church were much more adamant about voting Republican in the Bush-Kerry election.

One parishioner, lawyer Andy Kolesar, said he still planned to vote based on the candidates' views on a single social issue. "Abortion will dictate my vote this time, and it has every instance in the past," he said.

But several Catholic voters such as Jennifer Goff were torn.

"I don't think it comes down to one issue," she said. "The economy is a moral issue. People are losing their homes, and they don't have accessible health care, and those are all issues that I have been thinking about."

That there's a dilemma at all for religious conservatives suggests how dramatically Obama has redrawn the religious map.

Listen now:

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER ON RACE, RELIGION AND POLITICS

OBAMA REDRAWS MAP OF RELIGIOUS VOTERS

Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright - Photo: TimesOnline

MEET THE (WHITE) MAN WHO INSPIRED WRIGHT'S CONTROVERSIAL SERMON
March 21, 2008 02:00 PM
Sam Stein

The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/21/meet-the-white-man-who-_n_92793.html

Meet the man who inspired Reverend Jeremiah Wright's now famous tirade about America's foreign policy inciting the terrorist attacks of September 11.

His name is Ambassador Edward Peck. And he is a retired, white, career U.S. diplomat who served 32-years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter -- hardly the black-rage image with which Wright has been stigmatized.

In fact, when Wright took the pulpit to give his post-9/11 address -- which has since become boiled down to a five second sound bite about "America's chickens coming home to roost" -- he prefaced his remarks as a "faith footnote," an indication that he was deviating from his sermon.

"I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday," Wright declared. "He was on Fox News. This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, a white man, an ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Muhammad was in fact true: America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Wright then went on to list more than a few U.S. foreign policy endeavors that, by the tone of his voice and manner of his expression, he viewed as more or less deplorable. This included, as has been demonstrated in the endless loop of clips from his sermon, bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki and nuking "far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye."

"Violence begets violence," Wright said, "hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism."

And then he concluded by putting the comments on Peck's shoulders: "A white ambassador said that yall, not a black militant, not a reverend who preaches about racism, an ambassador whose eyes are wide open and is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice... the ambassador said that the people we have wounded don't have the military capability we have, but they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them... let me stop my faith footnote right there."

Watch the video (the relevant material starts around the 3:00 mark):



So it seems that while Wright did believe American held some responsibility for 9/11, his views, which have been described as radically outside the political mainstream, were actually influenced by a career foreign policy official.

Who is Peck? The ambassador, who has offered controversial criticism of Israeli policy in the West Bank but also warned against the Iraq War, was lecturing on a cruise ship and was unavailable for comment. But officials at Peck's former organization, the Council for the National Interest, a non-profit group that advocates reducing Israel's influence on U.S. Middle East policy, offered descriptions of the man.

"Peck is very outspoken," said Eugene Bird, who now heads CNI. "He is also very good at making phrases that have a resonance with the American people. When he came off of that Fox News, a few days later he said they would never invite me back again."

And what, exactly, did Peck say in that Fox News interview that inspired Wright's words?

Here are some quotes from an appearance the Ambassador made on the network on October 11, 2001, which may or may not have been the segment Wright was referring to. On the show, Peck said he thought it was illogical to tie Saddam Hussein to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and that while the then-Iraqi leader had "some very sound and logical reasons not to like [the United States]," he and Osama bin Laden had no other ties.

From there, Peck went on to ascribe motives for what prompted the 9/11 attacks. "Stopping the economic embargo and bombings of Iraq," he said, "things to which Osama bin Laden has alluded as the kinds of things he doesn't like. He doesn't think it's appropriate for the United States to be doing, from his perspective, all the terrible things that he sees us as having been doing, the same way Saddam Hussein feels. So from that perspective, they have a commonality of interests. But they also have a deeply divergent view of the role of Islam in government, which would be a problem."