Mankind

Our dear beloved sister and friend CATHERINE CONNERS has gone to Heaven at the beginning of 2010. A faithful, relentless, prayer warrior for Israel, the world, and all mankind. The memorial services will be at Moreland Memorial Park, Thursday 28 of January at 1 PM.

The Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences is sponsoring a creative writing competition for county schoolchildren, grades two through 12. Entries of 500 words or less will be accepted through Dec. 6.The competition is divided into three age categories.High school students are asked to write about technology: Is it increasing man's ability to do for mankind or reducing concern for mankind?Middle school students: How do you propose to make your community a better place to live? Be specific about how you would implement your ideas.

The An-Nur mosque, located in a former Dodge/Chrysler dealership showroom on Philadelphia Road, in White Marsh, is austere. There's little about it to draw attention from the street outside. The floor of the mosque's main hall is covered with gray carpet, with strips of duct tape to orient worshipers eastward as they pray. The plain, off-white walls are adorned with nothing more than a few book shelves, a couple of wall clocks and some decorative scripts of Quranic passages. “We try to keep it simple.

Oh my god no, no, no!!! It didn't have to be this way The Walking Dead. Dammit! When I said the last few episodes were moving along slowly, I didn't mean that I wanted you to kill off my favorite character! Scratch that: my best friend. This Sorrowful Life indeed... If you're one of those people that doesn't watch The Walking Dead until like five days later, sorry, that's on you. When you make life decisions like that you're basically sacrificing your right to not have the shocking plot twists spoiled for you. And if you want to avoid those traps, it's your responsibility to stay off of the dang Internet!

Our freedoms and free markets have created the world's broadest middle class, and it is so exceptional because the keys of economic and political liberties belong to the individual. Big government and leftist Ideologies have repeatedly failed, with the tragic loss of tens of millions of lives, because they greedily kept power for themselves and suppressed the freedoms for which people have fought over the ages. That is also why America is mankind's last, best hope. Mike Nieman, Annapolis

The recent news of the cease fire in Syria met with a "ho-hum," skeptical and less-than-enthusiastic reaction ("Shaky cease-fire starts in Syria," April 13). I was stunned. Can't we rejoice for the moment over the historic change in a method based on reason and wise counsel to alleviate a violent situation? We see in Syria's cease-fire the results of a committed dialogue from the U.N. and Arab League. I believe the cease fire of today event holds great hope for mankind. Cassandra S. Naylor, Stevenson

More than a half-century before Freud thought up the science of psychoanalysis, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley plotted out a pretty insightful understanding of some of the mind's inner conflicts in her 1818 novel, "Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus."Now, most viewers remember "Frankenstein," the landmark 1931 film with Boris Karloff, as the prototypical horror/monster movie, followed by many more versions. But a new cable television telling of the story delves more deeply into Shelley's original psycho-study.

HOWARD COUNTY CENTERFOR THE ARTS8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City. "SavedFragments -- Vain Refuge"Rusted bare iron trees, and earth-tone tile floor grids representing maps of Baltimore and Washington D.C., along withdrawings of geese and ducks fill Gallery I of the Howard County Center for the Arts in this season's opening exhibit, featuring a specially commissioned installation by Pennsylvania artist Duane McDiarmid. His thesis involves the environment and what few vestiges of nature remain after the encroachment by mankind.

Christianity and capitalism working hand in hand to shape the face of 19th and 20th century America. That's the story of the Rockefeller family that "American Experience" tells this week as it launches its 13th season with "The Rockefellers," a two-night, four-hour film on the dynasty that Standard Oil built. While the documentary pulls some fairly serious punches (it makes no mention of the anti-Semitism of John D. Rockefeller Sr.), this is a great American saga. The filmmakers are keenly in touch with the larger patterns of American history and the ways in which this prominent family both shaped and reacted to its ebb and flow.

Former ambassador to China and GOP presidential primary contender Jon Huntsman normally takes reasonable positions, but he has waffled on the question of global warming ("Gingrich has double-digit lead in new national poll," Dec. 7). Mr. Huntsman was quoted in The Sun as requesting the scientific community to state its position on whether humans have played a role in climate change more clearly. Mr. Huntsman should be aware that the National Academies of Sciences, the nation's spokesman for the scientific community, has unequivocally stated that global warming is in part man made and poses an serious threat to mankind.