242 people are dead and the death toll is expected to rise after an earthquake measuring 6.8 hit north-western China this morning near the border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

An unknown number of people have been injured and after shocks as high as 5.0 continue to hit the region. The quake was felt 1000 kilometres away. This is expected to be one of the largest quakes in terms of loss of life.

The largest quake in China was in 1976 which killed 250 thousand people.

Alberta Separatism

Sun columnist Ron Graham looks at the federal/provincial volley between Ottawa and Alberta.

It’s the opening salvo in the war to save Canada: “Albertans want to be full and equal partners in Canada, but true partnership is only possible when all parties are respected and valued for what they bring to the table. Alberta’s ability to be a partner in Canada is compromised by the current federal government, which does not listen to the people of this province.”

A lot of people think these remarks, read by Lois Hole during last week’s throne speech, represent the first move by Alberta towards separation. I see them as opening remarks in a quest to save Canada.

Afghan Minister

Afghanistan’s Minister for Mines and Industries, Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, and Pakistani foreign ministry official Mohammad Farhad Ahmed were among eight people on board the Pakistani Cessna plane that went missing on Monday.

8 people died in the crash, wreakage has been found in the Arabian sea.

Signposts takes a look at labels and how in using ones such as anti-American, anti-war, un-Australian, are used when someone disagrees with your position to shore up their own position in a debate.
Dan then links to an article by a former World Vision Director on the need to scapegoat others to create a system of us and them, making it easier to distance ourselves from those that disagree with us.
We’ve all seen labelling like that in comments around the blogs lately, which effectively cuts off dialogue.

Mute Troubadour’s silent plea to a friend reading a leadership book….

I wanted to whisper to him, Forget that thing! It will do you no good. Learn to follow Jesus. Let him teach you how to be a shepherd. Forget being “effective” (code word for “successful”); forget being “relevant” (code word for “popular”). Learn what it means to pasture sheep, to guard them with your life, to guide them with love. And to never forget that those whom you lead are not yours to do with as you please.

Another Blogging Article
I mentioned last week that when Google aquired Blogger/Blogspot the mainstream media would take notice. Here is an article in The Guardian.

It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that (with a few honourable exceptions) most of the serious discussion of these issues in the US at the moment is happening in weblogs and not in the ‘official’ mass media.

Mac Blogging
If you have a Mac, here is an article on the iblog platform for creating an Apple friendly web log.

Internet
Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the world wide web talks about whether he is happy the way the net has turned out and other interesting insights in this interview.
link via: MetaFilter

Cut on the Bias is a celebrating a year in the blogosphere today.

Upward Way Press has a great new look.

Mark Byron takes a look at Ibidem’s post on Pope John Paul’s position on Iraq. (blogger archive not working - Byron’s post is 02/23/9:19am)

Could part of the Catholic emphasis on diplomacy come from the nurturing nature that comes from the focus on Mary? If you look at the two key differences between Catholic and evangelical politics is a Catholic emphasis on aiding the poor and their diplomatic streak; both can be explained by the more maternal praxis that devotion to Mary helps to give to Catholicism.

Bryon is coming from a protestant American position. Can Christians of all stripes, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, refrain from discussing war with bravado— and approach this topic with reluctance, weeping, and with prayer and fasting?

Chuck Colsen asks, What should we pray?

Pray that, by God’s mercy, there will be no reason to go to war. This means God will intervene with Saddam Hussein in some way: by conversion, by overthrow, or by death.

Pray that if we need to fight, our military will use moral means to achieve our ends. And pray that Hussein will be restrained from using chemical or biological weapons. Pray for restraint so that bloodshed will be kept to a minimum—the blood of our troops, of Iraqi troops, and, above all, the blood of innocent civilians. Pray for our protection from terrorism at home and around the world.

Connexions has a copy the pastoral letter of the Methodist Church in Britain to be read from all Methodist Pulpits.

With all this in mind we call upon the whole Church to pray for all who are involved in the current international crisis. In our prayers we need to remember the many different ways in which people are affected.

gooddogbaddog and Quantum Tea look at solitary pursuits from two totally different perspectives.