The process to beatify Pope John Paul II has officially begun with an edict inviting witnesses to testify about his saintliness and asking anyone with his manuscripts, letters or other documents to give them to the Vatican.

The edict was published over the weekend, two weeks after Benedict XVI announced he was lifting a five-year waiting period for the start of the process toward beatification, the last formal step before possible canonization of the late pontiff.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who is vicar of Rome, said the edict, which officially launches the exhaustive investigation needed for beatification, would be posted on the doors of the headquarters of the diocese of Rome and that of Krakow, Poland, for two months.

[Source: FOXNews]

Allowing airline passengers to use personal cell phones during flights could help potential hijackers coordinate an attack or trigger a bomb smuggled on board, U.S. security officials have told regulators.

The U.S. Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation late on Thursday outlined the potential dangers associated with allowing cell phone use during plane flights, as the Federal Communications Commission has proposed if safety issues can be resolved.

The Federal Aviation Administration would also have to approve any rule change.

Surely they realize that terrorists will not play by the rules and if they wanted to use cell phones to coordinate an attack of some kind, they can already do it? Since when did do bad guys play by the rules?

Have you ever given thought to joining a coaltion of blogs who represent the cream of the crop?

Well, now is your chance! Go read the rules, and then contact the Watcher.

Go. Now. It's kinda like musical chairs, but without the music.

[Photo Source: Gary Dean Photography]

Nearly six decades have passed since work began on the Crazy Horse Memorial, a granite mountain being carved into a colossal sculpture of the Sioux warrior, arm outstretched toward his ancestral homeland, astride a stallion more than two football fields long.

When it's finished – and no one is predicting when that will be – the sculpture will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. It will be taller than the Washington Monument, and so large that the four presidential heads on Mount Rushmore, 17 miles away, would fit inside the nine-story-high warrior's head.

But with $17 million spent so far, raised largely from visitors and others familiar with the project, only a portion of the monument is finished. Now, for the first time, a national fundraising drive is being quietly started in hopes of accelerating the pace.

The monument was suggested in 1939 by Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear, who asked Boston-born sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to do the work. Ziolkowski, an acclaimed sculptor from Boston, had worked briefly at Mount Rushmore but didn't get along with chief sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

After considering the project for years, Ziolkowski began sculpting the mountain on June 3, 1948. He doggedly pursued it for the rest of his life, rejecting federal money and other government help.

"Korczak always believed that if it were done by government, it would never be finished the way it should be," explained development director Fred Tully.

Ziolkowski died in 1982, but his widow, Ruth, and seven of their 10 children have continued the labor of love.

I saw the Crazy Horse Memorial when I visited Mount Rushmore a few years back, and I must say, it was quite impressive even at the stage of development it was at, at the time. Head over to the Crazy Horse Memorial site and check it out.