The Odd Truth, March 8, 2003
The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.
When The Going Gets Tough ...
PUNTA GORDA, Florida — A short, dumpy man has been going around town faking choking episodes, apparently to get attention from women.
He flails his arms, coughs and sputters. After a woman rushes over to help, he showers her with gratitude, hugs and kisses.
The sheriff's office has gotten about a half-dozen calls about the Choking Man, as the Charlotte Sun Herald dubbed him. So far he has not committed any crime, though a woman on Monday went to the hospital with an anxiety attack after an encounter.
It dawned on people that he was faking it after the newspaper ran a story earlier this week about a woman in a restaurant rescuing an anonymous choking man. The paper started getting calls from women saying they, too, had had encounters with a man who matched the description.
Mary Welcher said she noticed the man outside a hospital in January, flailing his arms, gasping and turning red.
"I ran around and grabbed him around the waist. A piece of apple came out. He'd been eating an apple before he started choking," Welcher said. "He was crying, sweating, hugging us and saying, `Thank you, you saved my life!"'
She and other women who have "saved" him described him as being in his mid-30s with a bald spot and a mustache.
"There's been no crime. Our hands are kind of tied here," sheriff's spokesman Bob Carpenter said Friday.
Heavy Metal Fans Jailed In Morocco
RABAT, Morocco — A Moroccan court has convicted 14 heavy metal music fans of moral depravity and offending Islam, raising an outcry Friday in newspapers fearful of an erosion of civil liberties.
The court in Casablanca, 60 miles south of Rabat, convicted the 14 on Thursday night and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from one month to one year.
Prosecutors had presented the 14 defendants, who range in age from 22 to 35, as "adorers of Satan." They all hung out at Casablanca's "Egyptian" cafe and all loved heavy metal music.
The defendants were arrested Feb. 14 after police seized objects like black T-shirts, a plaster serpent and a latex brain at their homes.
The 14 were charged with moral depravity, inciting debauchery and offending Islam. The objects, which also included fake skulls, were presented in court as incriminating evidence.
The Moroccan press denounced the trial as "absurd" and tending to "destroy liberty."
"Freedom is in danger," well-known writer Rida Lamrini wrote in the newspaper L'Economiste. "The privation of liberty of these young people and their futures, and the distress of their parents are ours."
"Inquisitors are tracking you," wrote the weekly "Tel Quel." "The system has gone crazy."
Californian Pothead Seeks Asylum In Canada
VANCOUVER — A medical marijuana crusader from California is seeking asylum in Canada.
Steve Kubby told the Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver that he will be persecuted for pot use if he returns to his home in Placer County.
Kubby admits it's unusual for someone to seek refugee status from the United States.
But he says American police, prosecutors and judges can't be trusted and conspired to violate a state's law that allows for the medical use of marijuana.
Kubby smokes large quantities of pot to control symptoms of a rare adrenal cancer.
He claims that without toking every hour, he could die from a heart attack triggered by overproduction of adrenaline.
Health Canada granted Kubby permission last fall to grow and smoke marijuana.
Immigration officials are dismissing Kubby's claim of persecution in the U.S. as preposterous.
World's Largest Cheeto Finds Home In Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa — A radio disc-jockey has lured the world's largest Cheeto from Hawaii to rural Iowa to become a tourist attraction.
Bryce Wilson, a disc jockey at KLGA-FM, is bringing the giant lump of orange snack food to Algona, a town of just 5,700 residents whose current claim to fame is the annual display of a wooden nativity scene carved by German prisoners of war during World War II.
Wilson, 24, said Thursday the super-sized Cheeto is comparable in size to a small lemon. It was discovered when Navy Petty Officer Mike Evans, stationed at Pearl Harbor, bought a bag of Cheetos for his 3-year-old son.
"It only weighs about six-tenths of an ounce," Wilson said, "but its girth is really big. It must be 4 to 5 inches long and 5 to 6 inches in diameter."
Wilson first learned about the big Cheeto on a Web site. Evans was trying to auction the Cheeto to the highest bidder on e-Bay.
Wilson began soliciting contributions from listeners to buy it and collected about $180 before talking to Evans by phone.
Evans took pity on the town and shipped the Cheeto for free.
Lynn Markley, a spokeswoman for Cheetos maker Frito-Lay, said the giant Cheeto was the most talked about item this week, noting newspaper columnist Dave Barry has also written about it.
Woman Slips In Dog Feces, Twists Ankle, Sues
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A woman who slipped on dog feces and hurt her ankle while she was shopping at a Petsmart store deserves a jury trial, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
The Boone Circuit Court granted Petsmart a summary judgment in September 2001, and dismissed Vickie Jenkins' claim that store owners were negligent in her fall.
Jenkins had testified in the original case that she shopped at the store at least once a week for about six years, and never encountered animal feces or urine on the floor.
She told the court that on April 23, 1999, she was shopping at the store, and was not looking where she was going when she stepped in the feces and slipped.
Petsmart argued that because Jenkins acknowledged the feces was out in the open and she could not say how fresh it was, they should not be responsible for her fall.
In a 3-0 decision, the appellate court ruled there are enough questions that a jury should decide the outcome of the case.
Hamster Torturer Convicted
SOMERVILLE - Prosecutors agree to probation for a man caught torturing a hamster he had just bought from a pet store last year.
Richard Mattia will serve three years probation and must undergo substance abuse and psychiatric counseling. He was sentenced yesterday after reaching a plea bargain with Somerset County authorities.
Mattia initially was charged with animal cruelty. But drug possession charges were added after police found 18 packets of heroin on him when he was arrested.
He was charged last October after a Watchung pet store employee saw him squeezing the hamster. Authorities say he also clipped the hamster's teeth so it wouldn't bite him.
Mattia also faces animal cruelty charges in Mountainside, where he's accused of torturing two dwarf hamsters. One of the animals died, but the other has recovered.
Man Unsuitable For Criminal Activity
CANONSBURG, Pa. — Police arrested a man who left his cell phone behind after an alleged gas station robbery.
Terrance Triplett, 22, of Mount Oliver, was charged with robbing a Sunoco station Tuesday. He was jailed on robbery, theft, conspiracy and other charges.
Authorities said Triplett was with another man — whose name was not released — when the other man pointed a gun at the clerk, who handed over money from the cash register and his wallet.
Police said they found a cell phone, left behind as the robbers ran away, and they traced it to Triplett.
'Underwear Bandit' Could Face Life In Prison
SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Southern California man who became known as the underwear bandit could be sentenced to life in prison under California's "three strikes" law following his latest conviction.
Orange County Superior Court jurors today found Bruce Allen Lyons guilty of commercial burglary and possessing stolen property.
He was convicted of breaking into an Aliso Viejo chiropractor's office on October fourth. A prosecutor says Lyons burglarized the office in an attempt to obtain the phone number of a woman who didn't want to date him.
He had been sentenced to 15 years in 1988 for a series of robberies throughout Southern California in which women and teenage girls were ordered to remove and hand over their underwear at gunpoint.
Lyons is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28th.
Living Will Or Dying Wish?
LONDON — Frances Polack is a former nurse who says she doesn't want to die twice.
That's why she paid about $60 to a local tattoo artist to inscribe the words "Do Not Resuscitate" across her chest — along with a heart in a circle with a slash across it.
Polack says when she was nursing she saw many cases of patients who were brought back to life when, in her view, they shouldn't have been.
The white-haired widow adds she doesn't necessarily want to start a fashion, but she hopes she will start a debate.
Dairy Queen Dracula
RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond Circuit Court jury awarded $800,000 to a woman who said she was bitten on the breast by an employee of a Dairy Queen restaurant.
Brenda K. Chappelear testified that she went into the restaurant in Ashland about 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2001, and asked to use the phone book.
When Ayman Ahmed Hasaballa and another employee at the counter asked her whether she had plans for the evening, she retreated to a booth to get away from them, she said. Hasaballa slid into the booth beside her and pulled her sweater down, scratching her chest, and bit her on the breast.
"I am like Dracula," Chappelear said he told her.
She left the restaurant and immediately called police. Policemen said they saw a scratch and bite mark and Chappelear was obviously distraught. Her attorneys presented evidence that she went into a severe depression as a result of the attack.
She incurred $25,000 in medical bills and lost $5,000 in income as a result of the attack, the lawyers said.
Hasaballa said he talked with Chappelear but denied touching her. He was acquitted of a criminal charge of assaulting her.
The jury found that W.A. Enterprises Inc., owner of the Dairy Queen franchise, was also liable because Hasaballa had not been fired after he allegedly assaulted a female employee in the restaurant's refrigerator six months earlier.
Hasaballa was acquitted of criminal assault in that case as well.
The jury on Tuesday awarded $600,000 in compensatory damages, and $100,000 each in punitive damages against Hasaballa and the company.
Party Foul, Dude
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Police found more than 75 marijuana plants inside a house after a woman who lived there mistakenly called 911 instead of 411.
Police said the woman dialed 911 shortly after 11:20 a.m. Tuesday. When she hung up, a police dispatcher called the number right back, and someone hung up again, police Sgt. Dan Rose said.
Two officers went to the house and found 76 plants valued at $76,000 growing in a room with sophisticated lighting. Officers also found three handguns and other weapons inside the house.
"We know something is going on, but we don't know what," Rose said.
A man, who was not immediately identified, gave police a prescription for medical marijuana. However, the quantity of plants made police suspicious, so they began investigating the authenticity of the prescription, Rose said. The man was arrested for investigation of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale.
Another man who tried to run from police was arrested for investigation of parole violations and was sent back to state prison Wednesday.
The woman who misdialed was not arrested.
When Hobbyists Attack!
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - A Missouri man was thrilled that he collected 149 of the 1995-96 Jaromir Jagr hockey trading cards by Topps.
After all, he says, Topps advertised it made fewer than 150 of them. That would mean he had them all.
But eventually, he wound up with 157 Jagr cards.
Now he's suing Topps.
Patrick Englert is seeking punitive damages and about $222,000 dollars. That's the amount he figures the cards would be worth if there were in fact 149 of them.
Topps doesn't dispute that it said it would make fewer than 150 of the cards. In opening statements yesterday, lawyers for the company offered no explanation for why there were more.
Pretty Penny
BLOOMINGTON, Illinois — A 50-cent piece is a lot more than spare change to Frank Zapushek. He had a hunch there was something odd about the coin he bought at auction in January. Zapushek paid $800 for a half-dollar that experts say could be worth more than $100,000. It seems the reverse side of the 1878 coin was minted with a design that was supposed have been discontinued two years before. It's the only known mistake of its kind. He's displaying the coin at shows in Illinois. He'll put it up for auction this spring — and hopes to make a 12,000 percent profit.
They Really Wanted To Be Millionaires
LONDON — A British army major, his wife and a friend are on trial in London for allegedly cheating the British version of the global hit TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
Prosecutors say the major's friend, who was a member of the show's audience, coughed repeatedly during the taping to help his contestant friend win the game show's top prize.
Prosecutors say studio microphones had picked up the alleged coughing which the audience member used to signal the contestant about correct answers.
The contestant's wife was also allegedly involved in the plot.
The major won the nearly $1.6 million dollar prize. But the episode never aired and his check was withheld because of cheating allegations.
The major and his wife had appeared on the show previously. She won. But he had never made it past a qualifying round.
Female Statue Not Feminine Enough
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Some state lawmakers and veterans say a statue honoring West Virginia's female veterans is not feminine enough.
The statue depicts a muscular woman wearing a casual uniform of pants and a T-shirt.
"It would have been nice if we could have had a statue that looked more like a woman," said Sen. Anita Caldwell, vice chairwoman of the Senate Military Committee.
Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, the committee's chairman, said the statue should depict a woman in a skirt.
"It was hard to tell from looking at it that it represented a woman," said Hunter.
"Mental toughness and courage does not need a rough exterior to get those qualities across," said Dottie Alderman of South Charleston, a Marine veteran of the Korean War.
The sculptor, Joseph Mullins, said depicting a woman in a skirt would have excluded many women veterans who did not wear such clothing.
He said the statue is not a "runway model and not a Playboy bunny."
"It will look like a nice, big, strong girl who's been through military training," he said.
Hunter said it probably is too late to make major changes. "I sort of felt for the sculptor," he said. "It's hard to please everybody."
The state has earmarked more than $100,000 for the project.
Saddam's Faux-Arabic Accent?
NEW YORK — A published report says a man employed by CBS News to speak the words of Saddam Hussein during his interview with Dan Rather last week adopted a fake Arabic accent.
The Los Angeles Times says CBS News hired Steve Winfield, an actor with no such accent in real life. Winfield is advertised on the Web as a specialist in foreign accents.
CBS says Winfield spoke Hussein's words after they had been translated by three independent Arabic translators.
A network spokeswoman says Winfield recorded the audio — quote — "in a voice compatible with the piece."
The spokeswoman says the translation was fully accurate and "in complete compliance with CBS News standards."
The Rather interview was seen by more than 17 million viewers on CBS' 60 Minutes Two a week ago.
Land Of The Free?
GUILDERLAND, New York - About 100 people descended upon a mall in suburban Albany, New York, today to protest the arrest of a man who wore a peace T-shirt while he shopped.
The group marched through Crossgates Mall at noontime. At one point, there was a confrontation between one of the marchers and a man carrying a sign that read "nine-eleven."
No arrests were reported.
Stephen Downs was arrested Monday on a trespassing charge after wearing a T-shirt saying "Peace on Earth" and "Give Peace a Chance" in the mall. He and his adult son had T-shirts with anti-war messages made at a mall store.
Mall security guards told the men to remove their shirts or leave the mall. The son took his T-shirt off, but Downs refused. Police arrested Downs after mall security said he was causing a disturbance.
Downs has pleaded innocent to trespassing.
Sticky Case Of The Stolen Sandwich
DES MOINES, Iowa - Who took the peanut butter sandwich?
It may be too sticky a case for police in Des Moines. So they've turned it over to the federal Transportation Security Administration.
Christine Woods says her sandwich was taken from a break room at the Des Moines airport.
The only ones who have access to the room are 16 federal security workers. They have to punch a code into a keypad to get in.
Police Lieutenant David Huberty says the theft of a sandwich is still a theft. But he says if he were to send a detective to interview 16 people about it — it would be an "inappropriate use of resources."
The woman whose sandwich is gone says she's afraid a wallet or purse could disappear next time.
Naked Jogger Strikes Again!
BINGHAMTON, New York - The naked jogger of Binghamton, New York, has struck again.
He made his latest appearance in a downtown parking garage around lunch time yesterday — as temperatures in Binghamton rose to nearly freezing.
And, as in each of his previous runs, he eluded police who rushed to the scene.
An employee says the streaker has been seen running around the six-level parking garage at least 20 times since last August. The last time was in late November.
Police say they can't figure out how he's able to get dressed and emerge from the garage undetected.
Man Convicted Of Killing His Cat
VIRGINIA BEACH - A Virginia Beach man accused of killing his cat has been convicted of animal abuse.
The case is one of the first to result in a felony conviction under a new state law that went into effect last July.
Jason Terrell Portock, 32, is scheduled to be sentenced April 28th.
Prosecutors say Portock threw his male Persian cat against the wall and kicked it on November 17th because it had growled at him and scratched him.
Proscutors say he then took the cat to a veterinary clinic and asked that it be put to sleep. The staff refused but could not save the animal.
Prosecutors said the vet would have testified that the cat had five broken ribs, a broken breastbone, broken teeth and a bloody eye and paw.
Computer Shot Repeatedly
LAFAYETTE, Colo. - How many times have you wanted to shoot your computer? Well, George Doughty was plenty P.O.'d and blasted his PC. Doughty says his laptop crashed once too often. So, he allegedly shot it four times as customers watched in his Sportsman's Bar and Restaurant in Lafayette, Colorado. The dead computer is now hanging as a trophy on the wall of the tavern. Police Lieutenant Rick Bashor admits the incident is kind of funny. But he says firing a gun in the bar endangered customers. Doughty has a court appearance today. But Doughty says at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Nude Worshippers Anger Officials, Again
BANGALORE, India - Every year, tens of thousands of women gather at a Hindu temple in southern India and worship in the nude, despite efforts to stop them.
For 17 years, authorities and social reformers have tried to prevent the devotees from disrobing as they bathe in the Bhadra River and roll around the temple of the Hindu goddess Renukamba. And on Wednesday, officials said they have once again banned nudity during the temple fair from March 9-11 in the village of Chandragutti in Karnataka state.
Many of the devotees are young women who are performing an initiation rite to enter prostitution, while others are fulfilling vows they have made to the goddess.
Tushar Girinath, the deputy commissioner for the Shimoga district, said devotees can perform all the rituals, but they must remain clothed.
He has also ordered all liquor shops within a three-mile radius of the temple closed during the fair to keep people from becoming unruly.
In 1986, worshippers became angry at attempts to stop them. They stripped the police, journalists and the social activists and forced them to parade naked.
Marijauna Group Adopts A Highway
ROSEVILLE, Mich. - A marijuana legalization group is helping keep Michigan's roads clean.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has joined Michigan's Adopt-A-Highway program, sponsoring cleanup efforts on a two-mile stretch of Gratiot Highway in this northern Detroit suburb.
Signs went up last month on the median of Gratiot announcing that the pro-marijuana group's Macomb County chapter is picking up litter along the road.
Donna Paridee, a New Baltimore homemaker and mother of three, said her chapter's cleanup campaign seeks to improve the image of marijuana legalization advocates.
"We are your neighbors," she told The Detroit News for a story Wednesday. "We have jobs and families like everyone else."
The Michigan Department of Transportation, which runs the Adopt-A-Highway program, does not make judgments on what a participating group stands for, spokeswoman Brenda Peek said.
"We don't get involved in that. The main thing is that they're working to help beautify Michigan," she said.
Allen Johnson, president of the Crime Prevention Association of Michigan, which opposes the legalization of marijuana, said he sees at least one benefit to the anti-litter campaign on Gratiot.
"We can be sure all the marijuana butts will be cleaned up on that road," he said.
Termites Storm The Alamo
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - General Santa Anna is long dead but the Alamo is under siege again.
The enemy this time is armies of termites which have taken a liking to wood beams and wood that surrounds windows and doors.
Fortunately, most of the landmark in downtown San Antonio, Texas is stone.
After a particularly bad summer last year, a state-of-the-art termite extermination system has been installed.
Hundreds of monitoring systems have been placed underground around the old mission. Tubes filled with pieces of wood are to be monitored monthly to check for termite activity. Once termites are detected, the tubes will be filled with poisoned bait for the insects to carry back to their colony.
The same termite control system is being used at the Statue of Liberty, the White House and the state Capitol.
Man Picks Up Jailed Wife In Stolen Car
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - Next time Charles Allen might want to take a bus. Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, charge that Allen drove a stolen truck to pick up his wife from jail. According to officers, Allen parked the purloined pickup in a handicapped-only spot directly across the street from police headquarters. Officers were tipped by a man who said he spotted a friend's missing pickup. Officers waited to see who would show up. Now, Allen is charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and drug possession.
Marines Wary Of Apricots
LIVING SUPPORT AREA SEVEN, Kuwait - Better not say the "A" word around some Marines getting ready for war with Iraq. Superstitions are almost as common as M-16's among the soldiers and Marines in the Kuwaiti desert. One of the no-no's is apricots. For some reason the fruit is considered bad luck among the tank crews. They toss away the dried fruit and won't even sip a drink containing apricot juice. But that's not good enough for some Abrams tank crews. The Wall Street Journal reports they won't even utter the "A" word — and simply call it the Forbidden Fruit.
Farmer Finds Rare Meteorite
FAIRFAX, Mo. - Farmer Gary Wennihan may have made a meteoric rise to wealth.
Wennihan, 60, was tossing aside rocks in his soybean field to prevent damage to his combine when he picked up a strange-looking rock in the fall of 2000.
It turned out to be a rare meteorite scientists say could be worth as much as $1 million.
Ben Rogers, a Northwest Missouri State University student who attends Wennihan's church, offered to take it to his geology professor.
After polishing away the layers of rust, Rogers and assistant geology professor Richard Felton found a shiny metallic surface.
"It was beautiful, almost like chrome, it was so shiny," Rogers said.
Felton's colleague, Renee Rohs, took the rock to a University of Kansas professor who taught her about meteors. Half of it was sent to the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico for more analysis.
A leading meteorite expert at UCLA concluded that nothing similar had ever been found.
Rohs said other meteorites have brought $500 a gram. After small samples were donated to three universities, there still were 1,800 grams - or 4 pounds - left of Wennihan's rock.
"I'm holding onto it until I get a good offer, and it may never come," Wennihan said last week. "I'm certainly not holding my breath. And in the meantime, I'm just having fun with it.
639-Year Long Concert Begins
HALBERSTADT, Germany - First there was silence – one-and-a-half years of it.
But that was just a brief lead-in for Friday's playing of the opening notes in what's planned as the world's longest concert, a 639-year piece being performed in a former church in east Germany.
With 72 years already mapped out, the concert inspired by the American avant-garde composer John Cage challenges the creativity of future generations to keep the music playing.
"This is a project that conveys optimism," said Michael Betzle, a businessman who helps run the private foundation behind the concert. "When you start something like that, you're counting on people's creativity 200, 300 years down the road."
The three notes being played Friday - G sharp, B, and G sharp - are the debut for an organ built for Cage's music, with keys being held down by weights and with organ pipes to be added over the years for new notes.
The project, driven by a group of German music experts and an organ builder, is centered around a Cage piece called "Organ2/ASLSP" - or "Organ squared/As slow as possible."
As the idea took shape in 2000, backers counted back to the 1361 inauguration of a famous organ in the Halberstadt cathedral - 639 years earlier.
They then stretched Cage's piece from a 20-minute piano concert to last just as long.
The concert actually began Sept. 5, 2001, the day Cage - who died in 1992 - would have turned 88.
It's a concept that Cage surely would have appreciated. Born in Los Angeles in 1912 and a student of avant-garde composer Arnold Schoenberg, he once wrote a piece consisting of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.
Clinton Summoned For Jury Duty
NEW YORK - Bill Clinton served eight years in the White House.
Now he could be serving on a jury on a federal case in New York.
Although Clinton's name was never revealed at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan yesterday, his answers, read aloud in the courtroom, provided the giveaway.
Under previous jobs held, the respondent answered "President of the United States." He also said he could be fair and impartial, despite what he described as an "unusual experience" with the Office of Independent Counsel.
Clinton's attorney David Kendall tells the New York Times the former president is willing to serve on a jury, if chosen.
The trial involves a man charged with attempted murder in an alleged gang shooting. He could face life in prison, if convicted.
Jesus Christ Sought For Tax Reform Campaign
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Susan Pace Hamill, a tax attorney and a Christian, couldn't believe what she was reading about Alabama's tax structure.
Could a Bible Belt state where so many people claim to follow Jesus really be taxing personal incomes as low as $4,600 annually for a family of four - lower than any other state - while letting wealthy timber owners pay less than $1 per acre in property taxes?
To Hamill, the whole system was immoral. She said government and the rich were profiting from the poor, something the Bible prohibits, and it was time to put Christ into the equation.
Combining her work experience with her faith, the one-time Internal Revenue Service lawyer wrote a paper spelling out the moral duty of Christians to work for a fairer tax system in Alabama.
But a century dominated for decades by land barons and racial segregationists has left the tax law difficult to change. Even some Christian groups have greeted Hamill's thesis with little enthusiasm.
Titled "An Argument for Tax Reform Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics," Hamill's paper contends Christians in overwhelmingly Protestant Alabama have a moral duty to support a rewrite of the state's tax codes, long viewed by critics as regressive and unfair to the needy.
Old Testament laws required fairness to the poor, and Jesus talked about caring for "the least of these." So believers are required to make sure the state doesn't disproportionately burden its poorest residents, Hamill argues.
"Alabama's tax structure fails to come close to meeting the moral demands that God has revealed for us in the Bible," wrote Hamill.