A U.S. militia group will launch a month-long sweep for illegal immigrants along the border with Mexico this weekend, stepping up a campaign that has raised fears of violence.

Volunteers plan to gather at seven sites between San Diego, California, and Brownsville, Texas, throughout October to scour the deserts for illegal immigrants and report them to the U.S. Border Patrol so they can be arrested.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps began their controversial patrols in Arizona in April and spin-off groups later held similar operations in California.

Now, for the first time, the Minutemen are taking their protest to all four U.S. states along the porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with Mexico beginning on Saturday.

I, for one, am glad to see the MinuteMen returning to the border. It's high time someone started doing something pro-active to stop illegal immigration and secure our borders.

The United Nations health agency warned against "scaremongering" over an expected global flu pandemic, a day after one of its officials said it could claim 150 million lives.

Dick Thompson, spokesman for the World Health Organization's (WHO) anti-flu operations, said it is nearly impossible to predict the death toll of a global crisis that experts fear could be fueled by Asia's bird flu outbreak.

People should be wary of any figure they hear, because all are based on "guesswork," he said.

…

Seasonal epidemics of flu in different regions of the world kill an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people a year, according to the WHO.

But global pandemics, caused by new variants of the virus, claimed millions of lives in the last century.

Such outbreaks occur roughly every 40 years, and the last was in 1968, when the estimated toll was up to four million, Thompson said.

…

Although human-to-human transmission has been limited, experts fear that H5N1 could combine with common human flu viruses that spread easily.

Predicting exactly how to fight such a mutant strain is a tall order, Thompson said.

"We won't know until this virus emerges," he said.

When the next flu pandemic hits, will 5 million people die or will up to 150 million people die?

Like he said, we won't know until this virus emerges.

Disclaimer: As a Mind & Media book reviewer, I received a complimentary copy of this e-book from Storm King Press, and have received no further compensation for writing this review.

Are you a budding writer who is looking for the perfect "how-to" handbook for your craft? Well, look no more, "How To Write" is the handbook for you.

In the beginning, I was quite hesitant to review this book, because I had visions of sitting in front of the computer for hours on end, and I do enough of that for the job. But I was delightfully suprised when I realized, after 20 minutes of reading, I was almost halfway through the e-book. Within in an hour I was finished, and I was delightfully surprised.

The Meyer's do a wonderful job highlighting each phase of a writing project. From organizing and the first draft to the finished product, they do a masterful job, complete with their examples, guiding the reader through the journey of writing.

This book is filled with very helpful guidelines and examples which will benefit the established writer as well as the newbie.

As a blogger, I found it very interesting and have decided I need to refer back to it, from time to time, to help better my own writing skills.

As a homeschooling parent, I can think of no better "how-to" guide to help our children learn to write more effectively and efficiently.

I highly recommend "How To Write", and since the publishers have made this best-selling handbook available to everyone (in e-book form) at the very affordable price of $1.99, how can you beat that?

It seems Mark Noonan, from Blogs For Bush posted an entry yesterday titled, Do the Democrats Want a Civil War?. It seems he struck a nerve among certain circles:

Well, boys and girls, it is time for me to hang my head in shame…I've upset the people over at Daily Kos with my piece Do the Democrats Want a Civil War?. I know, I know… we try so hard not to upset the leftwing fanatics…after all, they are a very edgy group of people who can't take much more pressure…but, sometimes, you just have to write the truth…and the truth does hurt

And Mike Malloy (I know, you are asking "Who?") from Air America recommended that his listeners physically assault Mark:

MALLOY: …but when they do make these sweeping uh… umm… statements about Democrats better watch out, I think they should be responded to, the way Hunter responded to Peggy Noonan's little boy here… uh just beat the crap out of them. If you can do it with the pen, fine. If you need to do it with the sword, that's ok, too… uhhh… you know it's said that the pen is mightier than the sword. alright, alright, that's fine.

What a nice group of people, these liberals. You would think, as violent as they are becoming, that they would be the ones supporting the War on Terror.

I honestly don't know what to think of liberals anyway. There was a time when you knew what liberals were all about. Oh sure, you can still recognize them, no matter what gutter platform they stand on, but lately we have to wait until they open their mouths to find out what they are really against. Yes, against.

It seems they are always speaking out against something or someone. They're against tax cuts, they're against President Bush, they're against Tom Delay, they're against this, they're against that, and now they're against Mark Noonan.

What exactly do they support? Seriously. If liberals were not allowed to mention the President, conservatives, or members of the opposing party, I doubt they could form complete sentences, let alone make statements supporting anything.

Kudos to Mark! He must have hit the nail on the head, else it would not be possible for them to be so vocal.

As Coretta Scott King struggles to recover from a debilitating stroke, her sons are feuding over control of the center she created to carry on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy, people familiar with the strife say.

Nearly two years after Dexter Scott King announced that he would step down as head of the King Center, it has become evident in recent weeks that the move to shift authority to his older brother Martin Luther King III has unraveled.

Martin King officially took control of the center Aug. 22 after its board of directors voted to oust Dexter King, who has managed the center from his home in California. After the vote, Martin King announced to the staff that he had taken charge and immediately ordered the locks to the center changed, said people who are familiar with the dispute but asked not to be identified.

…

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, the only non-family member on the center's board, expressed surprise over the depth of the dispute between the brothers. "I was aware there was a disagreement, but I was not aware it was to this extent," Young said. "Martin is the CEO and has been going to the center just about every day for the past six months and doing the work.

"There's some question about Dexter. There's a tension and they are not cooperating with each other. They don't seem to be communicating with each other."

What a wonderful legacy to be leaving their father. It seems to me they would rather bicker between themselves than honor the dream of their father, and the life-work of their mother. Good job, guys.