for an :eek: smilie face, blackeyespeas? as I use alot?

Oklahoma Howdy to DreamWeaver,

I'm sorry that I missed this post. There is a greatly improved version of this forum software that may come out of Beta soon. I really don't know about the smiley collection on the new software, but it is supposed to be loaded with new features and be much faster. I know that ADMIN won't install anything until the bugs are worked out. I understand that upgrading the forum software is a very difficult and time-consuming task. YABB SE will be completely new and will be known as Simple Machines Forum. It's at Beta 6, and I'm reading some really good things about it.

I think we'll need to buy ADMIN a big urn of coffee when all of the bugs are worked out. I'm thinking it will be worth the wait. You can click the YABB SE link at the bottom of each page and read all about it.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Arizona heya to ya blackeyedpeas

I'll chip in for the coffee

Oklahoma Howdy to Allinall,

Brother, we held an emergency meeting, voted, and we decided to enter you in a knitting competition.  

We're trying to get your confidence built up for football.  

Love In Christ,
Tom

Hee hee hee
I have a few balls of yarn he can start with.

I have 12 to 15 'favorite authors'.  Since I've read virtually everything they've writtten - and since I love to read - I'm I pretty much have to get hardcover.

(I like them better anyway - bigger printing for older eyes.)

Hardback books also, last longer then paperback book.

Front Page Story
Oil-for-Food scandal:
The French Connection

In the hidden-behind-the-Iraqi-prison-abuse-story oil-for-food scandal, the plot, as they say, thickens.

First came the shock that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s son, Kojo was connected to the ill-fated program. According to the New York Post On-Line edition, family members of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali are officers of a Panamanian-registered company in which Benon Sevan, a UN assistant Secretary General, appointed to administer the oil-for-food program, had a connection.

The Post said it got its information about the Boutros-Ghali connection from Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a British businessman and advisor to the Iraqi governing council.

The oil-for-food program could totally annihilate the credibility of the world’s largest bureaucracy, the United Nations.

Iraq sold $47 billion worth of oil in this program, giving Saddam Hussein a $4.7 billion personal profit.

Kicked off eight years ago as a UN plan to feed hungry Iraqis with Iraq’s legendary oil revenues, it ended last year in a stunning quagmire of alleged bribes, kickbacks and billions lost to "The Butcher of Baghdad".

Vouchers given to Sevan and other politicians, businessmen and political parties on the list enabled them to serve as middlemen and flip the contract to another oil company making between 10 cents and 60 cents profit on each barrel of oil.

The oil-for-food tap has never been turned off. The Post says there are "several hundred million" from the program sitting in three banks in Jordan. Someone is drawing the money from these accounts, but "no one knows whom."

Just weeks ago, Boutros-Ghali was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada. Only nine foreigners have been so honoured, and even as the former UN Secretary General was receiving the award, some Canadian officials were calling it "strange" because the Rwandan genocide happened under his watch as UN Secretary General.

It was under Boutros-Ghali’s direction that the UN 420-page Our Global Neighbourhood, which produced the blueprint for global governance, was published.

When Boutros-Ghali left the UN, he went on to head the Francophonie, the organization of French-speaking nations.

It gets worse.

Canadians are also said to have made oil deals with Saddam, and ties with the Canadian Company involved go all the way up to Prime Minister Paul Martin’s office.

A man called Benon Sevan may be the UN kingpin in the oil-for-food program.

In the Canadian connection, it’s a man called Paul Desmaris. Desmaris is the largest shareholder and director of TotalFinaElf, the largest corporation in France, which held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.

Martin replaced Prime Minister Jean Chretien last December. Chretien’s daughter, France is married to Andre Desmaris, son of Paul Desmaris.

Martin maintains powerful UN connections through Annan’s special UN advisor Maurice Strong. In fact, Strong, who also happens to be the architect of the Kyoto Protocol, hired Martin in the 1960s to work for Paul Desmaris Sr.

According to respected Financial Post columnist Diane Francis, "In 1974, Desmaris made Martin president of Canada Steamship Lines and then in 1981, he made him spectacularly rich by selling the company to him and a partner for $180 million. Martin’s shipping company is estimated to be worth about $424 million, making him the 63rd richest person in Canada."

Shortly after his arrival in the Prime Minister’s office, Martin gave the company to his three sons.

Canadian columnists have lamented that Canada Steamship Lines has been the recipient of hundreds of thousands from the Liberal government in Ottawa.

In order to escape Canadian taxes, ships operated by Canada Steamship lines fly flags of convenience rather than the Canadian flag.

At the United Nations, it’s not only a global world; it’s the proverbial small one.

KOFI THE KING
U.N. push for power is bad news for Iraq & America
by Amir Taheri
New York Post
May 16, 2004
WITH just seven weeks to the scheduled transfer of power to the Iraqis, the United States seems to be preparing to throw the baby out with the bathwater in exchange for a resolution from the U.N. Security Council.

Convinced that the Bush administration is looking for an exit strategy with the help of the United Nations, France and Russia have already started raising the stakes on the new Iraq resolution sought by the Americans. In a series of recent statements and leaks, the two veto-holding powers have made it clear that they will not settle for anything less than a humiliating abdication by the United States of its responsibilities in Iraq.

To begin with, they want Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. point-man in Baghdad, to name the new Iraqi government.

The Algerian diplomat has already made it clear that he is looking for "fresh faces," which means excluding all those who have worked with the U.S.-led Coalition since liberation.

In other words: Not only will the liberators have no say in who governs Iraq in the transition, but those Iraqis who have worked hard to make liberation a success will also be punished for their efforts.

Brahimi and his French and Russian backers also insist that the United States should have no control over the newly created Iraqi armed forces, police and civil defense corps.

This would create two military presences in Iraq: one led by the Americans, the other by Mr. Brahimi. It is not clear what each of those two would do. Would the Americans be cantoned in remote bases, spending time in a Desert of the Tatars exercise in waiting for suicide bombers to strike?

At the same time, however, the Brahimi plan envisages that all bills will continue to be sent to the Americans, who have allocated over $80 billion to the Iraqi project. In other words: The U.N. rules, the Americans pay.

Oh, to be sure, Mr. Brahimi will consult the U.S. and U.K. allies on occasion. But the two coalition partners will have no more of a say in what happens than will Russia, France and China, who opposed the liberation of Iraq in the first place.

The veto-wielding trio still refuse to acknowledge that there was liberation. Instead, the Franco-Russian "concepts" circulating for a new resolution speak of "ending the occupation." This means that Iraq was free under Saddam Hussein but became occupied territory when the Coalition forces arrived.

Paris and Moscow believe that the Bush administration is desperate enough to accept almost anything.

This is why they insist that the future U.N. interim czar should have the power to revoke any of the numerous edicts approved by the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraq Governing Council - e.g., Brahimi could cancel the edict that banned the Ba'ath Party. He also intends to cancel the statement of principles that commits Iraq to building a Western-style democratic system rather than a modified version of Arab despotism.

"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" shouted Shakespeare's forlorn hero.

"A resolution, a resolution, the whole of Iraq for a resolution!" shouts the Bush administration now.

What on earth might justify the handover of Iraq to the United Nations? Not a single Iraqi wants this, although most Iraqis would welcome some role for the U.N. as long as it is not in the driving seat.

Stalin once asked "How many divisions does the Pope have?"

A similar question could be asked about the United Nations.

Are the French, the Russians and the Chinese prepared to commit any troops to Iraq? If so, what will their mission be? To drive out the Americans and their allies?

Those who believed that toppling Saddam was wrong from the start have no interest in investing blood and money to ensure that Bush's theory of regime change produces positive results.

The United Nations does not believe in a democratic Iraq. It has no money to bring in. Nor does it have any troops to contribute. Worse still, it thinks that only by rubbing the Americans' nose in the dirt can it restore its own shattered credibility.

Wherever the U.N. has been in the driver's seat, it has either restored the status quo ante (Sierra Leone), or frozen the status quo (Cambodia). What Iraq needs is something new - let's call it a new life in freedom.

From 1990 to 2003, the U.N. was officially at war against Saddam Hussein; it passed 18 mandatory resolutions on Iraq. But it did nothing to implement any of those resolutions, except through the Oil-for-Food scam in which $4 billion disappeared in corrupt deals that involved senior U.N. officials.

So what is the rationale for putting the U.N. in charge in Iraq, even for a single day?

The liberation of Iraq led to a contract between two sides only: the U.S.-led Coalition of the liberators on the one hand, the people of Iraq on the other. There is no reason to seek a triangle. Two is company, but three is a crowd, even in the most pleasurable instances of a ménage a trois.

The Coalition seized the power that Saddam had confiscated from the people of Iraq. That power must be returned to its rightful owners - the people of Iraq - not to the U.N. or any other outside element.

Now, here is how the U.N. can be useful, although Iraq could still do well without any U.N. presence at all.

The interim government should be chosen by the Iraqis through consultations orchestrated by the Coalition. Even now, it is not too late to organize a conference for this purpose, as the Bonn meeting did for Afghanistan before its liberation.

If such a conference proves difficult to organize in time, a reshuffled version of the Governing Council, in which all the Iraqi political parties, except the Ba'ath, are represented, could form the basis of the transitional government. America should show that it is loyal to its friends and allies, that it does not abandon them for domestic electoral calculations.

The new Iraqi interim government would immediately conclude a series of agreements with the Coalition spelling out the terms under which U.S. and allied forces remain in Iraq during the transition. That would be an arrangement between the Iraqis as hosts and the liberators as guests, with no third party intervention.

The Iraqi interim government could then invite the United Nations to help with organizing general elections next year. The Security Council could then pass a resolution to set up an Iraq election mission.

Even then, Brahimi might not be the best candidate. After all, he was a senior member of an Algerian government that specialized in electoral fraud for three decades. (A Swiss or Norwegian diplomat might be a better choice. One could also enlist Jimmy Carter who, for want of something better to do, likes to travel the world observing elections.)

Regime change in Iraq and putting it on the path of democratization represent the main planks of the Bush administration's global policy. Building a new Iraq is also of vital importance in winning the War on Terror.

It is thus a mystery why anyone should want to risk all that has been achieved so far by handing power over to Kofi Annan and his French and Russian puppet-masters. It even risks domestic disaster for the Bush administration, for it greatly increases the chances for truly broad-based Iraqi unrest before the November U.S. elections.

The people of Iraq want to rule themselves, and that requires free and fair elections. Who could best help them achieve that - the United States, Britain and their other democratic allies, or the United Nations, a majority of whose member-states do not believe in free elections and people's rule?

VIENTIANE, LAOS --- Approximately 35 Christian families in the village of Nam Thuam, Nambak District, Luang Prabang Province, Laos, have been ordered to renounce their Christian faith by district government officials.

Background
Laos, a country slightly larger than Utah, is one of the few remaining official Communist states.

The world’s third-largest illicit opium producer, Laos is a country with primitive infrastructure; it has no railroads, a rudimentary road system, and limited telecommunications. Electricity is available in only a few urban areas. Subsistence agriculture accounts for half of GDP.

It is also a country where Christians face severe persecution.

Christians Ordered to Renounce Faith
In March, 2004, Nambak District officials ordered Christians in the village of Nam Thuam to reject their faith or face consequences. Upon refusing, district officials sent government agents to Nam Thuam to live in the homes of Christians until they forsake their faith.

Some 35 agents are currently in Nam Thuam--one agent per Christian household--living with Christian families. The Christian households must pay for all expenses of each agent until they renounce their faith.

“There are government agents living with Christian families right now,” said Bounpheng, 38, a Christian leader from Luang Prabang Province.

“Christians are getting tired…” Bounpheng told Christian Freedom International, “The Christians have to pay for all the expenses of the agent living with them like food, clothing, drinks, whatever they want. The agents say ‘We will stay with you until you renounce your faith.’ No one has renounced their faith; the government agents still stay with the Christians. The agents will not allow the Christians to worship together. The Christians are getting tired. You cannot pray or read the Bible in front of other people, just secretly.”

According to Bounpheng and other Laotian Christians, the agents will stay in the homes of Christians until they renounce their faith or move away from the village. “They don’t want any Christians in the village,” said Bounpheng.

There are approximately 35 Christian families in a village of approximately 300 families. There is no church in Nam Thuam, just house churches.

Renounce Faith or Face Arrest
In the village of Thong Sa Vang, Phinh District, Savannakhet Province, all Christians have been asked to renounce their faith or face arrest.

Christian Freedom International interviewed Bounnhane, 68, a Christian leader from Thong Sa Vang who fled to Vientiane because he refused to give up his Christian faith.

“If I return to Thong Sa Vang I will be killed or arrested I cannot go back. I will not renounce my faith,” said Bounnhane. My family said “don’t come back, you will be killed.”

Bibles have been confiscated in Thong Sa Vang. “Police take everything from Christians. The Bible is called an illegal document,” said Bounnhane.

Trumped Up Charges
Bounnhane has been arrested two times for his faith on trumped up charges and served several years in prison.

Bounnhane was accused of working with Western workers to overthrow the government and attending “secret meetings.” In reality he attended Sunday worship services with Westerners in attendance. Bounnhane said, “When I was arrested the authorities asked me, ‘Were there any police at your meetings?’ No. ‘It was an illegal secret meeting then.’”

Outside Pressure Works
In Savannakhet Province some 20 churches are routinely forced to close their doors and are confiscated by the government.

“Whenever the U.S. government or outside pressure comes the churches are reopened, but as soon as the pressure stops the churches are forced to close again,” said Bounnhane.

In 1998 Nan District government asked villagers in Pha Tong Lom to stop being Christians. “All of us Christians were asked to attend a seminar in a Buddhist temple, said Bounpheng. “We were told that the government is for development, not your religion.

Bounpheng said, “We were told, ‘your religion has passed away like the old government. Your old government didn’t do anything. Do you want to go back to that?’”

According Bounpheng, “After a week-long seminar they gave everyone in the village a paper to sign to renounce our faith, but no one would sign. Then they forced each person to sign by pointing a loaded gun at us.”

Bounpheng said, “Even though we sign the paper, we continue to worship and still believe in Jesus. We renounce from being a Christian but we still believe in Jesus.”

This angered authorities so they confiscated Bibles, shut down churches, and arrested Bounpheng. However, outside demands made a major difference. According to Bounpheng, “In 2002 we are free to worship again. The prime minister announced this because he got a lot of pressure from other countries, like the United States. Since 2002 there is still some persecution in my village, but not like before.”

Christians Sentenced to Forced Labor
Christians in Laos are routinely arrested and placed in forced labor camps to work in rice fields. Sometimes all Christians in a village are arrested at the same time and are forced to work in the rice fields for four to five months without pay.

“They have so many ways to accuse you if you are a Christian. They will plant a gun in your house and say you are trying to overthrow the government. They are very clever,” said. Bounnhane, “I have to always protect myself to make sure nothing is planted in my house.”

Christians Suffer Disproportionately
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) has an estimated population of only 5.2 million. Approximately 65 percent of the population follows Theravada Buddhism. Followers of animism, the second largest religion, are estimated at 30 percent of the population.

Christians constitute barely 2 percent of the population, but Christianity is growing rapidly throughout the country and the government is concerned.

Christian Freedom International Demands
Christian Freedom International is demanding that the Vientiane government order Nambak District officials to leave the homes of Christian families in the village of Nam Thuam.

Christian Freedom International urges the U.S. government and others to speak up for Christians in Laos and to urge the Vientiane government to put an end to the forced renunciations of Christians, confiscations of churches and Christian homes, and Christian literature including Bibles.

Christian Freedom International urges the immediate release of all prisoners of religious conscience, including Bounchanh and Nhot, Oudonxy Province, who have been in prison for more than 15 years for their Christian activities.

Let us pray for these people.
The Beast is starting to rear its ugly head.

Part 2

Always eager to fulfill prophecy, a Baha’i statement reads: “The time has come when those who preach the dogmas of materialism, whether of the east or the west, whether of capitalism or socialism, must give account of the moral stewardship they have presumed to exercise. Where is the “new world” promised by these ideologies? Where is the international peace to whose ideals they proclaim their devotion?” Of course the new world of peace will come when our Lord Jesus Christ returns to establish His kingdom on earth.

I Thessalonians 1:10 “..and wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

God warns us not to be deceived by those who will try to pave the way for the Antichrists false peace and deception.

II Thessalonians 2:3, 6-7 "Let no one in any way deceive you for it (the Day of the Lord) will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. And you know what restrains him now, so that in this time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way."

The Bible teaches us that in the end times a global religion will be established. It is referred to as Mystery Babylon, the mother of all harlots, and it will ride in on the Beast that is Antichrist. We can see the beginnings of this global faith today in our increasingly ecumenical religious leaders, such organizations as the United Religions Initiative, the Parliament of World Religions, and in the United Nations.

The Baha’i faith sees the United Nations as the vessel by which the unifying of the world’s religions into one faith will come to fruition. Their plan for the future of our world and the role of the United Nations and a regionalized world, are an eerily complete and detailed picture of Bible prophesy. Baha’i writings state “the oneness of humanity implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced…It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world – a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language.” They also promote a redistribution of wealth and a communist system of government that would be able to bring about this leveling of the playing field. This brings to mind the Antichrist’s future financial system whereby no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the Beast.

While the Baha’i praise the United Nations as the only hope for the “world peace promised by all the major religions”, they are not satisfied with its progress and are a loud voice on the international stage for stepping up the pace of our “spiritual evolution”.

In a statement to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002, the Baha’i Community wrote, “despite significant achievements, the United Nations has yet to grasp fully both the constructive role that religion can play in creating a peaceful and prosperous global order, and the destructive impact that religious fanaticism can have on the stability and progress of the world.” They go on to say “while the United Nations’ human rights machinery has been used to condemn religious intolerance and persecution, UN development policies and programs have hardly begun to address religious bigotry as a major obstacle to peace and well-being.” The Baha’is won’t be satisfied until Bible believing Christians join them in believing that all paths lead to God, and all claims to truth are silenced. In response to what they call religious fanaticism, they suggest that religious leaders need to “work untiringly to exorcise religious bigotry and superstition from within their faith traditions and renounce claims to religious exclusivity and finality”. And who decides what is superstition and what is truth? The Baha’i and the world community of course. “Abdul’-Baha’i’, the Baha’i “incarnation of God”, in “The Promulgation of Universal Peace”, defined superstition as “beliefs and opinions that are found contrary to the standards of science; for the antithesis of knowledge is ignorance, and the child of ignorance is superstition”.

Baha’i writings also stress that force and coercion in matters of religion and belief are violations of the Divine command. This sounds reasonable. No one should be forced to accept a religion. However, Baha’i writings also consider proselytizing to be coercion. They believe humans should be able to investigate reality for themselves, and to present your truth to another is to violate that spiritual right. Not to mention, they believe all religions are equally valid and just different expressions of the same God, so there is no reason share your faith with others.

The Baha’i make no distinction between the government and private citizens when condemning intolerant religious speech and expression. They support building on the “Convention Against Discrimination in Education” to include sanctions for those who, in the name of religion, would use education and media to oppress freedom of conscience and to promote division. Whether public or private, they say, there should be no tolerance for educational institutions and initiatives, or media policies and programs that promote intolerant attitudes and behaviors. This would apply to private religious schools and quite possibly churches. In a statement to the United Nations on the spiritual dimension of Sustainable Development, the Baha’i International Community wrote “Ultimately, the creation of a peaceful and just global civilization, in which the diverse peoples of the world live in harmony with one another and with the natural world, will require a significant reorientation of individual and collective goals and a profound transformation in attitudes and behaviors.”

So, just how do they plan to bring about this transformation? In a statement to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Baha’i community presented several possible next steps for transforming the United Nations. As a first priority, they proposed holding a convention on freedom of religion and belief to be drafted and ratified as expeditiously as possible by all of the governments of the world. They suggested the foundation within the United Nations system of a permanent religious forum, patterned on the UN’s recently founded Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The creation of this body would be responsible for beginning the integration of religion into the UN’s work of establishing a peaceful world order.

Of course, to participate in this forum, religious leaders would need to meet certain criteria. Their proposal states “only those religious leaders who make it clear to their followers that prejudice, bigotry and violence have no place in the life of a religious person should be invited to participate in the work of this body.” You can be sure that any religious leader who actually believes that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him”, would be disqualified from participation. A belief in the Bible as absolute truth puts you in the category of intolerant and would make you guilty of prejudice.

The statement closes by saying that “until the religions of the world renounce fanaticism and work wholeheartedly to eliminate it from within their own ranks, peace and prosperity will prove chimerical. It is they who must raise their voices to end the hatred, exclusivity, oppression of conscience, violations of human rights, denial of equality, opposition to science, and glorification of materialism, violence and terrorism, which are perpetrated in the name of religious truth.” How very tolerant! Oppress someone’s conscience, have the nerve to believe the Bible is the only absolute truth, or claim there is only one path to God, and you will be eliminated. Once again the Baha’i have written their script for the world’s future directly from the prophecies of the Bible, and have given us a perfect example of the Spirit of Antichrist that marks all false prophets and false religions.

The Baha'i Influence at the United Nations

Part 1

The Baha’i faith now numbers some five million souls and the Encyclopedia Britannica lists Baha’i as the second-most widely spread independent religion in the world, after Christianity. With Haifa, Israel as the site of its international headquarters, its strong presence in the United Nations, and within other international groups, Baha’i is in a position to play a prominent role in the fulfillment of end times prophecy. In fact they state in their literature that their goal is to do just that. They eagerly await the man who will usher in global peace (otherwise known as Anti-Christ), and hold as one of their central missions the establishment of a united global commonwealth that will control all things political, financial, and spiritual. At times, while reading from Baha’i writings, one begins to feel like you’ve picked up a Bible and began reading directly from the book of Revelation.

The ultimate deception of the end times will involve the worldwide worship of the Antichrist. But the Antichrist will not rise to power alone. His success will result from a worldwide spiritual deception perpetrated by his sidekick, the False Prophet. The Antichrist will not appear until after the falling away (2 Thess. 2:3), but the spirit of Antichrist is already at work perverting the gospel and corrupting the church. The False Prophet will look religious, sound religious and use religious terms, but his message will be straight from Satan (Rev. 13:11). The final phase of apostasy before the Antichrist arrives on the scene will introduce a religious system to be led by the False Prophet. It will be an ecumenical, interfaith religion much like the Baha’i faith.

There are nearly 130 agencies and organizations operating within the U.N. system, each overseeing programs that require vast sums of money and massive bureaucracies to operate. These U.N. programs are all strategic parts of a plan to achieve global governance and eliminate national sovereignty from the planet. Most of these programs are never covered in the world’s media and are able to operate outside of the awareness of the public they hope to govern. This giant bureaucracy is so far outside the realm of accountability that most people have no idea how it is operating or what agenda it is moving forward. Most Christians would be shocked to know how deeply involved the United Nations is in the spiritual agenda of the interfaith movement. Just as they are striving for a world government, they are also working with religious leaders and organizations to create the one world religion found in Bible prophecy - the religion that is to be an integral part of the Antichrist’s rise to power.

The Baha'i community has, as a duly accredited non-governmental organization, long worked closely with the United Nations, supporting many of its goals and programs, and taking a leadership role in several international gatherings. Its involvement in the United Nations dates back to 1945 when it was founded. In 1947, the Baha’i communities of the United States and Canada were recognized by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and the next year, the Baha’i International Community itself was recognized by the UN DPI as an international non-governmental organization. In May 1970, they were granted consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), allowing for a greater degree of interaction with the Council and its subsidiary bodies. Since then they have also been granted consultative status with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and relationships with the many UN bodies have deepened and expanded over the years. Today for example, the Baha’i organization has a working relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), is associated with the United Nations Environment Programme, and is involved in joint activities with UNIFEM and UNICEF as well as many other religious, environmental and social programs within the UN, to include peace-building, human rights, women’s affairs, education, health, and sustainable development.

When you examine the beliefs and writings of the Baha’i community, it is not hard to understand the United Nations’ support and confidence in this organization. Their end goal is the same. Just as the United Nations believes that a new world order is just around the corner, the Baha’i believe the human race is nearing the next stage in their spiritual evolution - a phase that brings us one rung higher on the evolutionary ladder toward world peace and utopia. In their belief statement they write that “the current world confusion and calamitous condition in human affairs is a natural phase in an organic process leading ultimately and irresistibly to the unification of the human race in a single social order whose boundaries are those of the planet.” They use their voice at the United Nations to convince global leaders of the need for a spiritual element in the development of the new world order. In the Baha’i document “A Vision of World Peace”, written by the Universal House of Justice, they state that “no serious attempt to set human affairs aright, to achieve world peace, can ignore religion.” The Baha’i “incarnation of God”, Abdul’-Baha’i, said, “religion is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world.” They refer to the organized religions of today as “stuff of history” and claim that these religions of exclusivity, intolerance, and perversions of truth are the root of all evil and the cause for all of the world’s social, political, and economic ills.

“A Vision of World Peace” goes on to say that “those who have held blindly and selfishly to their particular orthodoxies, who have imposed on their votaries erroneous and conflicting interpretations of the pronouncements of the Prophets of God, bear heavy responsibility for the confusion and artificial barriers erected between faith and reason, science and religion”. They blame the resurgence of “fanatical religious fervor” occurring across the globe for what they call a “dying convulsion that is undermining the spiritual values which are conducive to the unity of mankind”.

In 2 Peter 3:3-5, the Bible warns the following: “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.”

To be contunied

That depends on who the author is, if I buy hardback or paperback books.

ROFL
Thats great........
Be afraid of the Teenage ninja muntant Squirrel.

Fixing an ailment


In Ireland there is a mental institution that every year picks two of it's most reformed patients and questions them. If they get the questions right they are free to leave. This year the two lucky patients were Patty and Mike. They were called down to the office and left there by the orderly. They were told to wait as the doctor got their files. The doctor came out and motioned for Patty to come in for her questioning.

When Patty came into the office, she was instructed to sit in the seat across from the doctor. "Patty, you know the tradition of this institution so I imagine you know why you are here. You will be asked two questions, and if you get them right, you will be free to go. Do you understand all that you have been told?" said the doctor with a rather sly grin. Patty nodded, and the doctor began to question her.

The first question was this: "Patty, if I was to poke out one of your eyes, what would happen?" "I would be half blind of course," Patty answered without much thought. "What would happen if I poked out the other eye?" "I would be completely blind," said Patty knowing that she had just gotten her freedom. The doctor then sent her outside while he drew up the paperwork and accessed Mike's files.

When Patty got into the waiting room however, she told Mike what the questions would be and what the correct answers were. The doctor calls in Mike and he followed the same procedure that he had with Patty. "Mike, the first question is what would happen if I cut off your ear?" "I would be blind in one eye," he said remembering what he had been told.

This received a perplexed look from the doctor but he just simply asks the other question so that he could figure out what the man was thinking. "Mike, what would happen if I cut off your other ear?" "I would be completely blind," he answered with a smile as if he knew he had passed.

But then the doctor asked him what his reasoning was, and he said flatly, "Me hat would fall down over me eyes."

Solving a problem

A guy goes to a psychiatrist. "Doc, I keep having these alternating recurring dreams. First I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam; then I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam. It's driving me crazy. What's wrong with me?" The doctor replies: "It's very simple. You're two tents."

Upset is unhealthy


The mother of a problem child was advised by a psychiatrist, "You are far too upset and worried about your son. I suggest you take tranquilizers regularly."

On her next visit the psychiatrist asked, "Have the tranquilizers calmed you down?"

"Yes," the boy's mother answered.

"And how is your son now?" the psychiatrist asked.

"Who cares?" the mother replied.

Letter to a shrink

Dear Shrink,

It haunted me for days, weeks, months, years. I couldn’t sleep at night. The sleep I got was full of nightmares and visions.

I fought bout after bout, fight after fight, with plagues of depression and insomnia; paranoia! Just the thought vexed me night after night, day after day.

I served stints in mental institutions, was even suicidal. Not even the normal 1-2 punch of Prozac and Zoloft would help.

Who would think that such a terrible and utterly disgusting act of cruelty and injustice could exist? Exist here in the United States of America, the land of the free the home of the Braves?

I could see a terrible wrong like this happening in third world anarchies, but here? The only place in the world where you can buy a six piece chicken McNugget and redeem 250 UPC symbols for a blue, red, and white basketball all on the same day!

I can still hear their merciless, nerve wrecking, voices; taunting him. They kept shrieking over and over that horrid little phrase, "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids."

Why couldn’t they just give the innocent, little, white rabbit some cereal? Why? Does the fact that he is a rabbit automatically deprive him of the democratic and patriotic notion, the freedom, of eating cereal?

I can vaguely recollect the times when he was this close to getting some of that, that CEREAL.

There was the time when he dressed as a human and went to that secret meeting but was given away by the exposure of his fluffy white tail (I am still wondering how they accepted the ears).

Then there was the time he went to space and ancient times and even the jungle, but to no avail. You cannot even imagine the rabbits pain.

There are times when you don’t get what you want but you survive; now think of the rabbit. Over 50 YEARS of chasing his only hearts desire, the reason he lives, and NEVER getting it.

Can you even begin to understand his pain, his utter grief? He is such a funny little rabbit, not silly, as those demonic little children accuse him of being.

Despite all his efforts he never got any cereal; not even when the flavor berry-blue was added to the ever-so-popular flavors of orange. Cherry. Grape. Lemon. Lime. WHY?

Those heartless little children had so much cereal and they wouldn’t share. Even one little spoonful would have satisfied my little white friend’s craving for those delicious six flavors. But no!

"Trix aren’t for rabbits. Trix are for kids. Oh! The unbearable agonizing pain it has cost me. That one simple phrase "silly rabbit, Trix are for kids."

For the fourteen antagonizing years of my short but cruel life I have watched helplessly as those evil little children refused to share. I’ve seen the pain in his eyes grow from when he was a black and white toon to the five-color symbol of melancholy, infinite sadness he is now.

No More! In a matter of moments I will be taken up into the ship following the glorious Hale-Bopp and with the help of some friends I. WILL. FEED. THE. RABBIT! Feed him to his hearts desire so he can finally enjoy the pleasure of the orange, cherry, grape, lemon, lime, and new wildberry blue.

I can’t wait to see the look on their moronic little faces as I feed the rabbit! He will be happy as I, when I give Trix to the rabbit and kill the kids! Who’s with me?

Sianara,

You Know Who

P.S. If you happen to find 496 Trix cereal tops and over 2,546 Betty Cocker points. You will know that I haven’t failed. Oh yeah, trade them in for a 7’ by 4’ by 2’ life size replica of the Trix Rabbit.

A mental hospital

After hearing that one of the patients in a mental hospital had saved another from a suicide attempt by pulling him out of a bathtub, the hospital director reviewed the rescuer's file and called him into his office.

"Mr. Haroldson, your records and your heroic behavior indicate that you're ready to go home. I'm only sorry that the man you saved later killed himself with a rope around the neck."

"Oh, he didn't kill himself," Mr. Haroldson replied. "I hung him up to dry."