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Just shows that you don't have to be a Christian to read the writing on the wall!
Grammyluv
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New survivalists prepare for future energy crisis

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080524/D90S5MLG0.html (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080524/D90S5MLG0.html)


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A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.

These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.

Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations - afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves and their loved ones. They envision a future in which the nation's cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water.

"There's going to be things that happen when people can't get things that they need for themselves and their families," said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.

Lynn-Marie asked to be identified by her first name to protect her homestead in rural western Idaho. Many of these survivalists declined to speak to The Associated Press for similar reasons.

These survivalists believe in "peak oil," the idea that world oil production is set to hit a high point and then decline. Scientists who support idea say the amount of oil produced in the world each year has already or will soon begin a downward slide, even amid increased demand. But many scientists say such a scenario will be avoided as other sources of energy come in to fill the void.

On the PeakOil.com Web site, where upward of 800 people gathered on recent evenings, believers engage in a debate about what kind of world awaits.

Some members argue there will be no financial crash, but a slow slide into harder times. Some believe the federal government will respond to the loss of energy security with a clampdown on personal freedoms. Others simply don't trust that the government can maintain basic services in the face of an energy crisis.

The powers that be, they've determined, will be largely powerless to stop what is to come.

Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system. They've begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they've learned to slaughter them.

The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.

By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.

"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."

So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.

"I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that's a possibility," said the former executive recruiter.

Laskowski is taking steps similar to environmentalists: conserving fuel, consuming less, studying global warming, and relying on local produce and craftsmen. Laskowski is powering his home with solar panels and is raising fish, geese, ducks and sheep. He has planted apple and pear trees and is growing lettuce, spinach and corn.

Whenever possible, he uses his bicycle to get into town.

"I remember the oil crisis in '73; I remember waiting in line for gas," Laskowski said. "If there is a disruption in the oil supply it will be very quickly elevated into a disaster."

Breault said she hopes to someday band together with her neighbors to form a self-sufficient community. Women will always be having babies, she notes, and she imagines her skills as a midwife will always be in demand.

For now, she is readying for the more immediate work ahead: There's a root cellar to dig, fruit trees and vegetable plots to plant. She has put a bicycle on layaway, and soon she'll be able to bike to visit her grandkids even if there is no oil at the pump.

Whatever the shape of things yet to come, she said, she's done what she can to prepare.

(http://afp.google.com/media/ALeqM5hAj5ckGagFid9MdTPcFeWy5yHhLg?size=s)

Medvedev says Russia-China force to be reckoned with
May 24, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, winding up his first foreign trip, said Saturday the world could not ignore the joint voice of his country and China, and rejected criticism of the alliance.

Medvedev said it was symbolic that he picked China as his first destination outside the former Soviet Union. The two countries have been increasingly assertive as their economies grow on the back of rising exports.

"Russian-Chinese cooperation has today emerged as a key factor in international security, without which it is impossible for the international community to take major decisions," Medvedev said at Peking University.

"Maybe not everybody likes the strategic cooperation between our two countries, but we understand that this cooperation is in the interest of our people and we will boost it whether or not it pleases some people," he said, without naming critics.

A day earlier, Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao in a joint statement denounced US plans to build a global missile defence shield.

Russia has been outraged by US plans to build the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe. Russia and China have also been uneasy about US-Japanese cooperation on a missile shield.

But Medvedev has stayed away from openly assailing the West in the style of his mentor and predecessor Vladimir Putin, who remains highly influential in the prime minister's post.

China and Russia are veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, where they have coordinated positions on controversial issues such as Kosovan independence, which they both oppose, as well as the Iranian nuclear issue.

The two have also established the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with four Central Asian nations in a set-up similar to the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which has been expanding into Eastern Europe.

"Our activity is not directed against any other country but serves to maintain an international balance," Medvedev said of cooperation with China.

Unlike most Western nations, Russia has not voiced concerns about China's human rights record or its clampdown on protests that broke out in Tibet in March against Chinese rule.

Medvedev told the Chinese students that he was looking forward to the Beijing Olympics, whose worldwide torch relay was marred by protests over Tibet.

"I am convinced that the organisation of the Olympic Games will be at a high level," he said.

"When I watch the Olympic Games, of course I will support Russian athletes but also the Chinese athletes and I hope that together we will win all of the medals."

But analysts note that a spate of disputes still mar ties between Russia and China, which had armed conflicts in the Soviet era.

Negotiations have been bogged down on plans for a Russian oil pipeline to supply China's rapidly growing economy.

They are also competing for Central Asia's oil and gas, which was exclusively Moscow's preserve in Soviet times.

Hu accepted Medvedev's invitation to visit Russia next year, Chinese state media reported.

I can identify with the survivalists, grammyluv!!!

We lived in NY for 50 years, then came 9-11. My husband had 2 more years until he could retire. I took early retirement and as soon as he could, we left NY along with thousands of other people. I still have friends up there who were thinking of leaving but now are feeling 'safe' again. 'They won't hit us again' they say.

When we moved we got a 13 acre 'hobby farm' in Virginia. There my husband and son could hunt, fish, raise livestock, plant our own food, etc. We had a stream on the property - it was perfect for these uncertain times.

Unfortunately I, for the first time in my life, got sick and it ended up to be cancer (but I'm well now - Glory to God!). Most doctors wouldn't take our insurance and the bills piled up fast. Soon we had to sell and move to a state where our insurance was accepted - so now we're in Florida. We'd go back to a farm in a minute if God enables us though. It empowered you to take care of yourself if there were food shortages and it was out of the way - far from any cities in case of any attack. It just felt alot safer. But we know we're in God's hands and as these times grow darker we pray we'll be in His Will and know He'll lead us to the place we need to be, to glorify Him and reflect His light in the darkness!

Amen! Whether we are in the middle of New York City or in the remote portions of the nation or even on the front lines of a war torn nation, we are in His hands. All will be done according to His will. He promises us that He will guide us and protect us.

This is some very interesting preaching from Bill Cloud, at a Prophecy Conference in Tampa this past February. It's about food and famine has to do with the end times:

"Acts 3:19 - 'Repent, (to turn, to return actually) therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
And that he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached to you:
Whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.'

So I want to point out very quickly; All things are going to be restored and when you restore something what do you do? You put it back the way it used to be. So in other words, he says that there's going to be a time of repentance, there's going to be a time of refreshing. This ultimately takes us to a time where all things are being put back the way they originally were and how long has He been speaking this message? Since the world began.

Now in the beginning, was the man going up to commune with the Father or was the Father coming down to earth to be with the man? So then, what does this infer about the end? You see, ladies and gentlemen, scripture doesn't teach that you and I will spend eternity in heaven above, in spite of all the songs we've written about it, but heaven's coming down here. The New Jerusalem is coming down here. And the point in this is, once again, all things must be restored to their original condition.

From the beginning, we were designed to eat living foods. All things are going to be restored to what they used to be, including food, all things come full circle. In the beginning, what thing confronted man in which he failed? Food. Everything started going downhill when we decided that fruit was good for food when the Father said it wasn't. Because it was good AND evil - the tree of the knowlege of good and evil. Don't those things seem to oppose one another? They're not homogenous. In other words, it seems like it's a mixed type of situation. And I submit to you that mixed or mingled goes against the very nature of our Creator. Here's why I say that. 'I AM Holy, you be Holy. I AM set apart, you be set apart. I Am unique, there is no one like me, and so as far as people go, you be set apart.'

Does He not tell us do not mingle the Holy with the profane? Do not mix these things. Here's the way the Messiah put it when He spoke to Laodicea. He said, 'I would that you would be hot or cold, (in other words I would that you were totally righteous or totally wicked), but because you mix these together you are lukewarm, I will spew you from my mouth.'

And so what I'm getting at is that things that are a mixture, or mingled, these things that are opposed or are mixed together goes against the nature of our Creator and so I am of the opinion, I want to stress this, I am of the opinion that the tree of the knowlege of good and evil there in the midst of the garden was planted by somebody else.

In the parable of the wheat and the tare you'll recall that a man had a field, which was the world, and he was to sow good seed, which was the Word of God in that field. BUT while the man slept his enemy came into his field and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat. How is it possible for his enemy to sow a different seed in his world? Because the man was sleeping and this permitted his enemy to come into the midst of his field and sow that other seed. Now, some people would say, 'Well, Bill, sounds like you're giving the adversary creative powers'. No, I'm just saying that he, like you and I, can take things that God has made, and twist it and contort it, and turn it into something else. And I believe that's exactly what happened in the beginning, and here's why I believe that: Because the very same thing is happening today.

In 1996 at the urging of the Clinton administration, you started putting on your dinner table foods that look like food, taste like food, smell like food but they are not the foods that God created. They are by and large Genetically Modified Organisms. You've heard of GMO's? If you don't know what GMO's are, let me tell you very quickly - about 60 or 70 years ago, chemists began to develop pesticides and insecticides to treat our plants as they're growing in the fields to ward off the insects and things like that. Of course, you know, for thousands of years, even since the time of Adam, men have been growing things from the ground without the use of insecticides and pesticides. But because we're so smart, we thought 'we're gonna improve things'. But as time went on it became necessary to improve these things, because these insecticides and these pesticides not only were killing insects, but began to kill the plant that they were trying to protect in the first place.

So about 30 years ago, chemists and biologists began to develop what is called Genetically Modified Organisms. In other words they wanted to develop plants - corn, wheat - they wanted to develop plants that would be resistent to pesticides. Think about what I just said. Yes, they were going to be resistent to insects and blights but they also had to be resistent to their our own pesticides. And so to do this they had to tamper with the DNA of that particular plant. DNA is kind of the security system of that particular seed. And so to alter this seed they had to go in to the DNA and cut out part of that DNA strand of corn, for instance, cut that out and take it away and then they had to take the DNA strand of a foreign matter, in the case of corn, like spermicide, or in tomatoes - e-coli bacteria, or potatoes - spider genes, with rice - human blood cells, things of this nature that was a mix, and this is what we serve on our tables today.

Cont'd.

What does the scripture say about mingling or mixing the seed? Don't do it! What are we doing? The very thing He said don't do.

The things that we're putting on our table - corn, wheat, etc. - it's almost impossible to avoid these GMO's. You and I are eating something that looks good for food, but there's something unnatural inside of it. Think about over the last 20 years, increase in obesity, diabetes, alzheimers, cancer, - all kinds of disorders. And  it's being proven that alot of this is due directly to our consumption of GMO's.

What this means to you is this, you and I, instead of growing robust, and being very healthy and thriving, are being more and more susceptible to diseases, and it's directly related to what we're eating. Things look good for food, and yet we're getting sicker.

Also sustainable agriculture is being affected by these GMO's. As these GMO's become more common place, pure seed becomes more rare. As this seed continues to pollinate and migrate, rare is the case that you come accross pure heirloom seed. With their introduction of what is called 'suicide seed', that after a certain amount of generations the seed just dies, basically they have insured that famine is an absolute. Because as years go by, less and less of that seed that's pure is going to be able to be found. So as this GMO seed dies off it means they've almost insured that we're facing famine in the very near future.

Famine is lurking on the horizon, which is a result of mingling or mixing the seed. So in the beginning was the issue of food - what Adam should eat and what he shouldn't eat, and guess what? It's becoming an issue today. In I Corinthians 15, Paul tells us that for everything natural there's a spiritual counterpart. He was talking about the first Adam and juxtaposes that against the 2nd Adam, that is Jesus. First comes the natural things - then they teach us of spiritual things. So if physical food was an issue in the beginning, and becoming an issue as far as our health goes and as far as the potential for famine goes, then I submit to you that it's also a spiritual issue. In other words, the body (of Christ) at large, would you say it's thriving and healthy and growing stronger with every day - or is it sick, susceptible to every kind of 'bacteria' and all kind of things getting mixed in to the Word? I believe it's the latter.

Instead of the body of Messiah growing, thriving, doing what it was placed here to do, it's become mixed. Much of the body today is preaching mixtures, not wanting to 'offend' anyone, so as not to lose their gigantic followings. It's favoring the social trends of the day. But our Father is long-suffering, not willing that anyone should perish. He is merciful, He is love, He is compassionate, BUT He don't give a rip if you get offended at His Word. His Word is an offense.

When Israel came to the mountain and He came down on top of the mountain to speak to them in an audible voice and said 'I AM the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, you're to have no other gods before me...', here's what Israel said, 'Hey Moses, we got a really good idea, why don't you go talk to God, you come back and tell us what He said and we'll do it, because who can hear the voice of God and live'. And Moses reports what they said back to God and God agreed with them. They're right - if I continue to speak to them they're going to die. Why? Because people can't handle the truth because of our flesh. Because the flesh does not want to hear what God has to say. Because if God's Word continues to go forth, we have to die to our flesh.

And so, when the true Word of God goes forth it offends people, and it get's into someone's finances which causes them to make decisions. Are we gonna tell them the whole truth or are we gonna preach a different way so as not to offend them?  

You know, one of the features of these GMO's is that it has an addictive quality - just as our flesh is drawn to sin. We might add some organic food, but what we're eating mostly is some good and some evil. Most people in this culture when they hear what God is really saying compared to what they want God to say, do you know what - they're addicted to what they want to hear.

The very thing that is going on in the natural, is going on spiritually. In other words, the body at large is consuming what they think is food. People are looking for a place that is saying what they want to hear. So rather than being sustained, we're facing a famine. Not a famine for bread or thirst for water, says Amos in chapter 8, but a famine for the hearing of the Word of God.

You see there is a famine coming ladies and gentlemen, but I'm not just talking about a physical famine although I believe that's coming. But we have to understand this, God uses famine. Consider Joseph. It was during a famine that he and his brotherswere reunited or restored.
It was during a time of famine that Elijah goes up to Mt. Carmel and summons all of Israel to him. Now I want you to think about this, do you think it's possible, that if they had plenty of food, if there hadn't been 3 1/2 years of drought and the subsequent famine, do you think all of Israel would have answered Elijah's summons? I doubt it. But there had been famine, they answered his summons, and what is his message? How long are you going to be going back and forth between 2 opinions. If the LORD is God then serve the LORD, you've gotta do it His way. If Baal is God, by all means go and serve Baal. But make up your mind who you're gonna serve. No longer are you going to be able to mix them back and forth. Choose!

In other words, it was in the midst of a famine that this message went forth. And because God answered Elijah's prayer with fire, the people said, 'The LORD, He is God', and there was restoration.

Remember the Prodigal in Luke 15, when he was feeding the swine and desiring the food he was feeding them, when did he come to his senses? In the midst of a famine. And then what did he say, 'I'm gonna rise up and return to my Father'.

God uses famine. He uses the lack of physical bread to bring us to our senses. And here's why. Because in Deuteronomy 8:3 God says through Moses say this to the children of Israel. He humbled you and He caused you to 'hunger' - the word there in Hebrew is re'av which is the word 'famine'. So He caused you to experience famine and then He gave you bread that your fathers did not know, nor did you know, so that you would know - Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

In other words, He allowed them to experience hunger, He sent them bread from heaven to teach them that the hunger that they were feeling and being satisfied with that bread from heaven, was to teach them that that's not what you need the most. What you need more than anything is every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So is the body at large living, acknowledging, embracing, EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD? If we don't, that tells me from Deut. 8:3 that He will allow hunger/famine, to teach us that it's not physical bread we need the most. Every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God is pure, it's unadulterated, it's not mingled or mixed with anything else.

But all things are going to be returned to their original state. How many trees were in the midst of the garden in the beginning? The Tree of Life and the tree of the knowlege of good and evil. But go look in Revelation 21, look at how many trees are in the midst of the city. One - the Tree of Life. So my question is if all things have to be restored back to the way they were originally, why isn't the tree of the knowlege of good and evil there at the end? Maybe it's because God didn't plant that tree. Perhaps in the beginning somebody was genetically modifying the seed. What was the adversary doing at the beginning? He said, 'Did God indeed say...' He was contradicting what God said. He said, 'God knows you'll understand good and evil...' What was he doing? He was taking the seed, the Word of God, and altering it, modifying it. You know what - he's still doing the same thing today.

But God has always had a remnant. In Revelation 12:17, the woman is being persued by the dragon, but God has prepared a place for her. So when he can't get to the woman the devil turns to the remant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Just like today, there is a remant of pure seed out there. If there comes a famine in the future, how valuable will that pure seed be? Extremely valuable. It will be set apart above all the other seed that's out there.

Amos 8 doesn't say the Word of God is going to disappear, but the HEARING for the Word of God - there's a distinction. People are running to and fro trying to get a Word. But you get the Word from God's Holy Bible, not from the oh so many self-proclaimed prophets that are around today. A true prophet according to scripture is someone who will come and say 'Repent' (return to God). What did Jesus say - 'Repent'; what did John say, 'Repent'; what did Elijah say, 'Repent'; what did all the prophets say 'Repent' - go back, you're going the wrong way - I'm not worried about your self esteem - I'm worried about your soul. A prophet is one who calls Gods people to return to His Word, Jesus Christ!

The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. Able to divide assunder soul and spirit, bone and marrow. But the Word of God is an offense because human flesh does not want to hear the Word of God. Because we have to die to our flesh when God speaks.

Cont'd.

In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares there's wheat growing out in the field, there's tares growing in the midst of the field. And the parable tells us that the reapers are first going to gather the tares, bundle them and burn them in the fire. Then the wheat is going to be gathered into His barn. Before the wheat is gathered into the barn it has to be threshed. Threshing means the hard, calloused shell, the unfruitful part called the chaff has to be broken off - it has to die. Then there has to be a sifting of the chaff and the wheat. So when the chaff is broken off of the kernel of wheat it's lighter than the wheat and so they would toss it into the air with a winnowing fork and the wind (the Holy Spirit) would carry the chaff away. And so all that would remain on that threshing floor would be pure wheat. And when you pick it up in your hand it looks like seed.

What I'm saying is now more than ever there has to be that remnant of pure seed that stands up in the midst of all that's going on. Because it will be unpopular to stand for the Word of God. If you think they don't like us now - wait. Because it's my opinion that right now there is a Pharoah arising who knew not Joseph.

We've allowed this mixed message to be preached in this country. It's time to stand up for the Word of God because it is LIFE!"


NOTE:
In the 2nd part I'd written too much and had to edit it. I hope this still is easy to follow.

More 'Signs of the Times' from Christian White House Correspondent, Bill Koenig:

Inside the Whitehouse

An unbelievable nine days of news since Olmert's White House visit - Mississippi River flood could be worse than the historic flood of the summer of 1993, which coincided with the Oslo peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians...US on pace for record number of tornadoes and earthquake swarms, plus record heat, oil prices, and corn and wheat prices...Olmert traveled to US with an unusually small group...Olert convinced US would take action on Iran...Olmerts days appear numbered...Are Morgan Stanley and Golden Sachs manipulating oil futures markets and costing Americans billions?...Corn's "perfect storm": record rains, commodity price manipulation, and ethanol being used for fuel...European Central bank pulled the rug out from under the US...Is a wek dollar leading to the merging of the dollar, the Euro and the Japanese yen - forming a one world currency? Bank of America now has 10.9 percent of total insured US bank deposits...

News Briefs  -  Putin's man in control of Russian oil trading...worst economic conditions since the Great Depression - and US is to blame, according to Russian President...Terrorist attack on US power grid could disrupt over $100 billion a day...Iran cannot be deterred by diplomacy...Unemployment figures signal corporate nervousness over economy...

Connecting the Dots  -  Global leaders strategizing to raise oil prices even further...

Exective Summary

Higher gas prices, food shortages and international oil politics dominated the headlines during the past week. Many companies are planning to freeze hiring and curtail new investment to ride out what they see as a time of economic troubles.

Meantime, Vladimir Putin in using his old buddies to secure Russia's windfall in the oil market and perhaps insulate the economy there from International recession. Russia's new President Dmitri Medvedev blames America's lack of ability to lead a global economy as one of the reasons for global recession.

Cont'd.

Cont'd.

Inside the White House

by Bill Koenig

Another disruptive period

As usual when the Bush Administration is in active talks about dividing the land of Israel, the US experienced disruptive periods. The following are the headlines that followed Ehud Olmert's White House visit on Wednesday, June 4.

Wednesday, June 4

Massive storms hit Washington, D.C. area, gusts up to 75 mph, 500,000 without power

Thurday June 5 thru Friday morning June 13:

37 tornadoes hit the US heartland

Friday morning, June 6:

- Dark day on Wall Street: the Dow's 395 point drubbing is it's biggest one day point loss in 15 months

- Oil jumps to $138 a barrel

- Oil prices skyrocket to new record

- Oil surges to biggest single-day advance in history

- Storms bring new round of destruction to the Midwest US

- Gold surges most in six months on jobs data, dollars slump

- Olmert returns home to continue Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

Saturday, June 7, and Monday, June 8:

- Russia blames US for global financial crisis

- Rice to travel to Paris, Israel, West Bank

- Record heatwave in Washington, DC and northeast US

- Earthquake swarm picks up again in Nevada

- A weekend of heavy rain and tornadoes pummeled the Midwest

Monday, June 9:

- Heavy rain, floods, pound Midwest, with more on tap

- Scott McClellan to testify before House on CIA leak case

Tuesday, June 10:

- Floriday tomato industry in "complete collapse" due to salmonella panic

Wednesday, June 11:

- Mississippi River floods could be worst in 10 years

- US defends airstrikes that angered Pakistan

Thursday, June 12:

- Midwest expecting up to 4 more inches of rain: towns submerged, crops drowned, rivers still rising, dams threatened

- Cedar Rapids, Iowa, evacuating due to floods

- Flooding hits historic, 500 year levels in Iowa

Major records being set:

The US is on pace for major record numbers of tornadoes and earthquake swarms, has experienced record heat, oil prices and wheat and corn prices - now and at the time of Bush's early January departure to Israel.

Tornado record

The US has recorded 1,200 tornadoes so far this year - getting close to 2004's record of 1,817

Brothers In Arms (Barak Ravid, Ha'aretz)

Excerpts from the article:

Unlike Olmert's previous trips abroad, this time there was an end-of-season atmosphere aboard the 767. Only 40 seats were occupied. The Prime Minister's entourage was smaller than usual, the Shin Bet security group was smaller than usual (mainly because Olmert was staying in Blair House and not in a Hotel), and some media outlets did not even send correspondents along.

Olmert addresses soaked members of the White House Press Corps

 In every state trip abroad, the prime minister takes time to brief the political correspondents. This week, the briefing turned into an especially surreal show. The warm weather, which was accompanied by heavy rainstorms, caught the correspondents as they made their way to a meeting with Olmert at Blair House. Soaked, they sat down wrapped in towels in front of him. Olmert sarcastically offered his aplogies on behalf of the State of Israel.

Cont'd.

Cont'd.

Olmert convinced White House will take action against Iran

Olmert, his advisers and other senior Israeli figures are convinced that Bush will take action. It is unclear whether this will come in the form of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities or pressure on Tehran. It is unclear whether the prime minister himself is in favor of an attack by the US, considering that Iran would likely respond by striking Israel.

Instead of and attack, Olmert is willing to make do with steps beginning with an aggressive naval seige, which he discussed with House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, and ending with freezing Iranian funds around the world.

Olmert is leaving Washington with a sense that he managed to influence the American president on Iran. Bush believes that his legacy will not be determined by tomorrow's headlines but by the history books in another 50 years. Olmert's message to Bush was that he continues to be the only person who can stop Iran. But who knows who will fill his shoes?

Koenig's perspective:

Benjamin Netanyahu has made the Iran issue his lead concern and mentions it virtually every time he meets with Bush, VP Dick Cheney, or Secretary of State Rice - or makes major speeches to large Jewish organizations.

Former Israeli Defense Minister and current Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz was in Washington a few weeks ago for briefings on Iran. He made major news this week by saying that an Israeli strke on Iran may be "unavoidable" if Iran doesn't abandon it's nuclear program.

Meanwhile, in an excerpt from an interview to be published in Germany's Der Spiegel, UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed El Baradei condemned threats of war with Iran to stop its nuclear program, like those made by Mofaz.

"With unilateral military actions, countries are undermining international agreements," he said.

History shows international agreements with Iran are not fulfilled.

Why doesn't the UN express outrage when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad talks about eliminating Israel every week or two? The UN allowed Ahmadinijad to address the UN General Assembly. Now that is grounds for outrage.

Cont'd.

Cont'd.

Barak to Kadima: Hold Primary Elections Soon or We'll Force Elections
(Ha'aretz)

Israeli Defense Minister and Labor Pary Chairman Ehud Barak said Thursday that he would call for the dissolution of Knesset and preparations for general elections, unless Kadima follows through and expedites its party primaries.

"We prefer governmental stability and if we can build a government that appeals to us in this Knesset, we will consider establishing it together," said Barak. "If not, we will go to elections."

Barak said that labor was still waiting for Kadima to decide weather it will conduct early primaries, and was prepared to call for dissolution of Knesset by June 25.

Koenig's perspective: In other words, Barak doesn't stand a chance of being elected Israel's next prime minister, and next to no chance of being in a Netanyahu government.

Ehud Barak has a history of making "big and bold statements" that get alot of press coverage, but he usually doesn't follow through with his threats politically or militarily. He is grandstanding.

A Kadima primary would enable Kadima to get behind a new party leader, maintain its partnership with the left-leaning Labor Party, and avoid an early election that opinion polls show Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party would win.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Mofaz have the best chance of leading the Kadima party; and as I shared last week, Mofaz cut a deal with the Shas Party for child education to get their coalition backing, so he may be moved into the lead.

Ha'aretz has reported the Likud has called for a preliminary vote on June 18 to dissolve parliament. A Knesset spokeswoman said a firm date for the vote - one of three needed before the proposal is approved - would be set only on Monday. But even if the legislation passes its first vote this month, final approval could stretch past the Knesset's summer recess, which begins on Aug. 3 through Octoer 26.

So will Netanhayu be squeezed out of a chance to be the Israeli prime minister once again as he was by Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon in 2000?

Are Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs manipulating oil futures?

As I shared last week, Professor Michael Greenberger testified last Tuesday before the Senate Commerce Committee on the topic of energy market manipulation. He stated that the investment banks, namely Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), control the price of oil and gas through the ICE futures market. He said that Morgan Stanley currently owns 27 percent of the natural gas futures.

Friday, Morgan Stanley predicted crude oil prices would hit $150 by the Fourth of July. Oil's meteoric surge, which pushed prices more that 8 percent higher in a single day, added to a huge increase Thursday to cap oil's biggest two day gain in the history of New York's Mercantile exchange.

Traders also used the remarks by Transportation Minister Mofaz, that an Israeli strike on Iran may be "unavoidable" if Tehran doesn't abandon its nuclear program, to "ignite the oil future's frenzy."

Cont'd.

An oracle of oil predicts $200-a-barrel crude (New York Times)

Arjun N. Murti, 39, remembers the pain of the oil shocks in the 1970's. But he is bracing for something far worse now: he foresees a "super-spike"- a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Murti has become the talk of the oil market by issuing one sensational forecast after another. A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas at $4 a gallon is coming just in time for those long summer drives.

Mr. Murti coined what has become his signature phrase: super spike.

The following March, he drew attention by predicting prices would soar to $105, sending shock waves through the market. Angry investors questioned whether Goldman's own oil traders benefitted from the prediction. At Goldman's annual meeting, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., then the bank's chief executive and now Treasury Secretary, found himself defending Mr. Murti.

"Our traders were surprised as everyone else was," Mr. Paulson reportedly said. "Our research department is totally independent. Our trading departments have no say about this."

Koenigs perspective: Ironically, the Associated Press reported that ex-Goldman Sach's Chairman, and now US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said last Thursday that speculators were not the force behind this years rise in oil prices.

"I don't believe financial investors are responsible to any significant degree for this price movement," Paulson told CNN. "Financial investors are on both sides of the market...They don't set trends, they follow trends."

US lawmakers have accused speculators and pension funds of artificially raising energy prices. Under pressure from Congress the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the watchdog, met with Wall St. banks, commodities exchanges and industry groups to discuss price movements.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, said last Thursday that last week's price jump was "unjustified and abnormal."


Oil speculators caught short by backing falls in price of crude (Financial Times - London)

Speculators lost money in last weeks oil price jump as they were forced to cover previous bets on falling prices, data from the New York Mercantile Exhchange show.

Traders said many speculators had been betting on falling oil prices ahead of last weeks jump of $16.24 in less than 36 hours to a record $139.12 a barrel by Friday. Caught in a wrong bet, they had to buy back their positions.

NYMEX, the commodities exhchange, revealed that the number of outstanding contracts - or open interest - in key futures declined on Friday.This was a sign that speculators were buying back previous money losing positions - or short coverin - rather than adding fresh bets on rising prices.

Giovanni Serio, an oil analyst at Goldman Sach's in London, said the speed of the rebound on oil prices last week suggested the price move was "due to a large short covering."

Koenigs perspective: Many oil traders thought that oil futures were about to sell off in the possible $120 per barrel range. Instead they went in the other direction when Morgan Stanley stated demand was outpacing supply, the Mofaz made his Iran comment, and the dollar weakened due to European Central Bank decisions.

Those betting the crude oil price would go down quickly began buying futures based on higher crude prices to hedge and offset their massive losses.

Meanwhile, the American public is paying higher prices at the pump.

The fact Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have so much clout is alarming. Wall Street's greed and casino gambling continues to extract money from the American public. And the less than perfect alternative is more of the federal government intervention and regulations and more cost to the US taxpayer. The federal government has shown over and over that it is outmatched by Wall Street and high-priced lobbyists.

Corn prices' - "perfect storm" - record rains, ethynol use for fuel, commodity price manipulation

American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought.

US corn futures soared more than 4% to a fresh record high for the fifth consecutive trading session on Wednesday as flooding expanded in the US Midwest, harming the 2008 corn crop.

Corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade have surged 80% over the last year, with nearly 17 percent of that tacked on just this month.

"There is definately concern. There is way too much water, and, even if it is drier next week, it won't matter now. It's too late to plant corn, and even bean yields are being affected," Vic Lespinasse, and analyst for GrainAnalyst.com, said.

The US Department of Agriculture this week slashed 5 bushels per acre from its estimate for US corn yeilds because of excessive rainfall and flooding in key corn states, including top producers Illinois and Iowa.

US wheat markets leaped to keep up with corn, and now the maturing winter wheat crop is being threatened by rains.

Koenig's perspective: The historic floods of 1993 occured during the big push by the Clinton Administration for an Israel-Palestinian peace deal, which eventually led to the Oslo 1 agreements being signed on September 13, 1993, on the south lawn of the White House in front of 3,000 people.

That summer the US Midwest suffered from heavy flooding after weeks of rain that eventually caused the Mississippi River, a major North American river and grain shipping artery to flood - washing out surrounding corn and soybean fields.

 

Cont'd.

Koenig's perspective on financial markets

I am not a financial advisor, but I do feel the need to show the cracks in our financial system periodically for your review, prayer, advisement and conservative planning.

The bottom line is the US has been living beyond its means financially, personally, corporately and federally -- and we are experiencing the consequences of our fiscal policies and actions, including a weak dollar.

We are also experiencing the financial consequeces of not having a national energy plan, which would have allowed new refineries to be built and allowed drilling for oil off the US coasts and on federal land.

We are also relying on corn-produced ethanol for fuel for our cars, which has led to sky rocketing food costs and 35 to 45 cents more per gallon of gas along with other unpleasant consequeces.

I think the following is an accurate assessment of of the worst-case scenario if the world experiences a depression.

This is from Ken Gerbino, an investment manager from Beverly Hills, Ca.

 The world will not go into a depression like the 1930's, which was a depression of productivity. The depression of the future will be one of purchasing power of the lower and middle class wage earners who will see their standard of living reduced because of the paper money system.

Best investments:

Swiss francs

Gold

Precious metal mining stocks

Natural resource companies

One-year government bonds

Koenig's perspective: There are world economies that are booming. China has $1.3 trillion in foreign reserves. Saudi Arabia has a $1 trillion sovereign fund and is taking in billions of dollars for their oil weekly. The United Arab Emerates has a sovereign fund in the $750 billion range, and other Middle East oil producing countries are creating enormous sovereign funds. Russia has over $500 billion in foreign reserves.

These are nations that will continue to grow, while continuing to buy US real estate assets and stocks at "fire sale" prices, and to invest in US banks. Plus India's economy is growing rapidly.

RBS stock market alert: Fund managers react (Telegraph, UK)

RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert

Fund managers have reacted strongly to the forecast by the Royal Bank of Scotland of a looming stock market crash and warns investors not to act in haste and panic.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next 3 months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

"A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared," said Bob Janjuah, the banks credit strategist.

There is soon to be a very nasty period of time ahead of us but no amount of preparation in things of this world will be of much help.

Amen. Pastor Roger!!

I think we must be prepared to be a light in the coming darkness. To get closer to our LORD and His Word and be ready at any moment to give an account of the hope that's in us! Most people we come in contact with are still insisting things are going to get alot better - especially with a new administration they say. They do have their heads in the sand as far as real world events and the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ! When and if this comes, they are going to need some light!

Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way

America remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life -- even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise. The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching. In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.

"The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion. "There's a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences," he said.

Earlier data from the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in February, highlighted how often Americans switch religious affiliation. The newly released material looks at religious belief and practice as well as the impact of religion on society, including how faith shapes political views. The report argues that while relatively few people -- 14 percent -- cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking, religion still plays a powerful indirect role.

The study confirmed some well-known political dynamics, including stark divisions over abortion and same-sex "marriage," with the more religiously committed taking conservative views on the issues. But it also showed support across religious lines for greater governmental aid for the poor, even if it means more debt and stricter environmental laws and regulations.

By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death, and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God. But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews. Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with eight percent "absolutely certain" of it.

"Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion," said Peter Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. "What do people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not necessarily going to hell.'" Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said that more research is planned to answer those kinds of questions, but that earlier, smaller surveys found similar results.

Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent). By similar margins, people in those faith groups believe in multiple interpretations of their own traditions' teachings. Yet 44 percent of the religiously affiliated also said their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices.

"What most people are saying is, 'Hey, we don't have a hammer-lock on God or salvation, and God's bigger than us and we should respect that and respect other people,'" said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "Some people are like butterflies that go from flower to flower, going from religion to religion -- and frankly they don't get that deep into any of them," he said.

Beliefs about eternal life vary greatly, even within a religious tradition. Some Christians hold strongly to Jesus' words as described in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Others emphasize the wideness of God's grace. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the "one church of Christ ... subsists in the Catholic Church" alone and that Protestant churches, while defective, can be "instruments of salvation."

Roger Oldham, a vice president with the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, bristled at using the word "tolerance" in the analysis. "If by tolerance we mean we're willing to engage or embrace a multitude of ways to salvation, that's no longer evangelical belief," he said. "The word 'evangelical' has been stretched so broadly, it's almost an elastic term."

Others welcomed the findings. "It shows increased religious security. People are comfortable with other traditions even if they're different," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance. "It indicates a level of humility about religion that would be of great benefit to everyone."

More than most groups, Catholics break with their church, and not just on issues like abortion and homosexuality. Only six in ten Catholics described God as "a person with whom people can have a relationship" -- which the church teaches -- while three in ten described God as an "impersonal force."

"The statistics show, more than anything else, that many who describe themselves as Catholics do not know or understand the teachings of their church," said Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput. "Being Catholic means believing what the Catholic church teaches. It is a communion of faith, not simply of ancestry and family tradition. It also means that the church ought to work harder at evangelizing its own members."

Between this article and the ones on gays infiltrating churches, I'm about ready to look for something sharp to poke myself in the eye with and I only just got here today!  Good grief!

Don't do that, sister. It might hurt.

May things like this encourage to speak the truth and do so more readily.

Brothers and Sisters,

The biggest problems of so-called religion these days is either ignorance of the HOLY BIBLE or determination to reject the clear teachings of the HOLY BIBLE.

The answers and guidance that men seek HASN'T CHANGED AND WON'T CHANGE - the HOLY BIBLE AND GOD! The HOLY BIBLE is still the measurement of ALL TRUTH! Bluntly, if a teaching contradicts the HOLY BIBLE - that teaching is FALSE! We are to search the Scriptures for ourselves to determine the TRUTH!

We've had a complete HOLY BIBLE now for about 2,000 years, so we are without excuse. GOD'S Message of Salvation hasn't changed, and it's simple enough for small children to understand. In fact, CHRIST is most impressed with simple childlike FAITH. The only problems involve what men try to add to or subtract from GOD'S Plan of Salvation. Men have changed, but GOD hasn't. I must add that men have changed for the WORSE!


1:  Romans 3:10 NASB  as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

2:  Romans 3:23  NASB  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

3:  Romans 5:12  NASB  Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--

4:  Romans 6:23  NASB  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

5:  Romans 1:18  NASB  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

6:  Romans 3:20  NASB  because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

7:  Romans 3:27  NASB  Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

8:  Romans 5:8-9  NASB  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

9:  Romans 2:4  NASB  Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

10:  Romans 3:22  NASB  even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

11:  Romans 3:28  NASB  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

12:  Romans 10:9  NASB  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

13:  Romans 4:21  NASB  and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

14:  Romans 4:24 NASB  but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

15:  Romans 5:1  NASB  Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

16:  Romans 10:10  NASB  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

17:  Romans 10:13  NASB  for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

AMEN brother AMEN!!

You tell em' Brother Tom!  Amen!

YouTube privacy fears - what you watched, when and your IP Address   

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0329430120080704 (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0329430120080704)


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A U.S. judge's order to Google Inc to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc sparked an outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of a legal showdown over video piracy.

Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, requested the information as part of its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular online video service and its deep-pocketed parent, Google.

Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses.

Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeply private information" and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental habits were revealed.

Representatives of both companies said they were looking to work out how to comply with the court order to share video data while ensuring personally identifiable information is secure.

Viacom responded in a statement that it needs the data to demonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of its case against YouTube. But it sought to diffuse privacy fears, saying it had no interest in identifying individual users.

"Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user," Viacom said.

"Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain ... will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner."

Google senior litigation counsel Catherine Lacavera said her company was looking to resolve the issue quickly in a way that balanced Viacom and other plaintiffs' need for evidence in the case while "carving out some space for user privacy."

Lacavera said her company was pleased the court's decision had put limits on evidence discovery, including refusing to allow Viacom access to YouTube's search technology or to users' private videos on the site.

But the Google attorney called on Viacom to allow YouTube to anonymize user data -- in other words, redact rows of data containing usernames or unique computer Internet addresses.

In closed-door hearings ahead of the ruling, Google attorneys had argued against turning over such data without eliminating personally identifiable information.

"We are disappointed the court granted Viacom's overreaching demand for viewing history," she said. "We will ask Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court's order."

UK Report Of The Future Predicts Brain Implants, Revolution

http://www.canadianchristianity.com/nationalupdates/080703ministry.html (http://www.canadianchristianity.com/nationalupdates/080703ministry.html)


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A British defense think tank predicts possible “key risks and shocks” for the future in a recently released report. The report predicts microchip brain implants, flash-bombs, Marxist middle-class revolutionaries, extreme globalization and more, all likely within 30 years.

The “source document for the development of UK Defense Policy” was created by the Development, Concepts and Doctrines Centre (DCDC), and will be used to “shape the UK’s future defense requirements” until 2036, according to the report.

The report lumps predictions into four categories: things that will happen (according to the report, more than 95 percent likely, or “near certainty”), things that are likely/probable (more than 60 percent likely), things that may/possibly happen (more than 10 percent likely) and things that are unlikely/improbable (less than 10 percent likely).

Water scarcity will be a major issue, U.S. economic crisis is likely, a pandemic may happen, and the global financial system may fail; these are just a few of the predictions of the report. Several predictions are more futuristic.

“Many commentators anchor themselves in the familiar present and, exploiting the latest fashion and a series of telling anecdotes, merely tell people what is already happening,” Admiral C. J. Parry said. “Much of what we have to say, with regard to both continuities and discontinuities, does not have a conclusion or ending, happy or otherwise, because, self evidently, the future has not happened yet.”

Much of the report sounds like science fiction, but according to the DCDC, science fiction that very possibly may become reality.

A “hot topic” in the report is the “scramble for space.” The report claims that space programs will continue to increase, with many smaller nations entering the fray.

The larger nations including Russia, the U.S. and China are the few that will send manned crafts deeper into space to search for resources. This “will raise jurisdictional, ownership and competitive rights issues.”

Artificial intelligence is referred to several times in the report, and is “likely to be employed to manage knowledge and support decision making across government and commercial sectors.”

Genetic modification, “nanobots” and stem-cell therapies are predicted to create an “increase in human life span” and an improvement in quality of life, though they could also lead to a range of threats including bio-warfare and human rights violations.

Electromagnetic pulse weapons will probably be created before 2035. These weapons might be able to wipe out all electronic devices in a given area without casualties.

Perhaps one of the strangest predictions in the report consists of microchips that could be connected to brains, allowing for “synthetic sensory perception beamed directly to the user’s senses.” This technology could be used to download any amount of information, and could be used for communication, allowing for a sort of computer-aided telepathy.

The dramatic increase in technology gives rise to several “doomsday scenarios,” though the likelihood of any given scenario is not commented on in the report. Genetic modification, disease and artificial intelligence are some of the possible causes of doomsday scenarios other than nuclear weapons. Doomsday scenarios are just a footnote to the many threats outlined in the report.

The increase of Islamic revolutionary groups, along with the rise of other militant groups from the disenfranchised younger generation, are two potentialities referred to several times in the report as high-level threats. The possibility of middle-class Marxist revolutions caused by growing gaps between the middle class and the super rich also could create a threat, as well as the increase of rigid belief systems as a backlash to the moral relativism prevalent in the world.

Population explosion in less developed countries and dramatic urbanization will “exacerbate” social tensions, creating threatening circumstances, especially in poorer regions around the world including Africa and Asia.

All of these threats are in addition to the common prediction that the atmosphere will continue to increase in temperature causing a cacophony of catastrophic problems from melting ice caps to destroyed ecosystems for fish.

With all these strange and possibly dire threats and predictions the report curiously concludes, “The world would be better or, at least, no worse in the future than it is today.”

I just wasn't sure where to put this one....?



Thousands Worldwide Prepare for the Apocalypse, Expected in 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5301284&page=1 (http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5301284&page=1)


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Note From Kade - While there is no biblical evidence to support anything happening in 2012 - people's expectations for something to happen in the year 2012 is something that should be watched.  The subject of 2012 is a great opportunity to explore and share with people about what the Bible says about the future. Only time will tell if 2012 plays a significant role in God's plan for the last days.

Two years ago, Patrick Geryl, then 51, quit his job as a laboratory worker for a French oil company. He'd saved up just enough money to last him until December 2012. After that, he thought, he wouldn't need it anyway.

Instead, Geryl, a soft-spoken man who had studied chemistry in his younger years, started preparing for the apocalypse. He founded a "survival group" for likeminded men and women, aimed at living through the catastrophe he knew was coming.

He started gathering materials necessary to survive — water purifiers, wheelbarrows (with spare tires), dust masks and vegetable seeds. His list of survival goods runs 11 pages long.

"You have to understand, there will be nothing, nothing left," Geryl told ABC News from his home in Antwerp, Belgium. "We will have to start an entire civilization from scratch."

That's because Geryl believes the world as we know it will end in 2012. He points to the ancient Mayan cyclical calendars, the longest of which last renewed itself approximately 5,125 years ago and is set to end again, supposedly with catastrophic consequences, in 2012. He speaks of the ancient Egyptians, who, he claims, saw 2012 as a year of great change too. And he points to science: NASA predicts a sharp increase in the number of sunspots and sun flares for 2012, he said, sure to cause electrical failures and satellite disruptions.

All this adds up, Geryl said, to unprecedented catastrophe. First, a polar reversal will cause the north to become the south and the sun to rise in the west. Shattering earthquakes, massive tidal waves and simultaneous volcanic eruptions will follow. Nuclear reactors will melt, buildings will crumble, and a cloud of volcanic dust will block out the sun for 40 years. Only the prepared will survive, Geryl said, and not even all of them.

These may sound like the ravings of a madman, or perhaps the head of a small apocalyptic sect. But Geryl is not the only one who believes in the apocalypse. Thousands of people worldwide seem to be preparing, in one way or another, for the end of days in 2012. Survival groups exist in Europe, Canada and the United States. A simple Google search for "2012" and "the end of the world" brings up nearly 300,000 hits. And the video-sharing Web site YouTube hosts more than 65,000 clips informing and warning viewers about their fate in 2012.

"It's bigger than Y2K," said Mark van Stone, a specialist of Mayan hieroglyphic writings and author of a forthcoming book on 2012. "The year is like a pop song or a popular movie. You type in 2012, and you get hundreds of thousands of hits."

Dennis McClung, 28, a project manager for Home Depot from Phoenix, Ariz., runs one of the Web sites dedicated to 2012, an online survival supply store, which sells gas masks, knife kits, bullet-proof vests and more.

"I'm not a firm believer in one specific prophecy," said McClung, who runs his site with his wife, Danielle. "But I think we ought to be prepared for anything."

Even with December 2012 still 4½ years away, McClung said business is booming. His Web site, which features an "official 2012 countdown" clock and exhorts customers to "be smart, be ready," averages several thousand visitors a week. McClung's best-sellers, he said, are emergency medical supplies and water purifiers.

"I get a lot of hits from India. I get a lot of hits from the Netherlands," McClung said. "But my No. 1 customer is the U.S."

One of those customers is Thomas Lehmann, a 25-year-old factory worker from Cape Girardeau, Mo. Lehmann said he started researching 2012 when he was 12 years old, and still spends about two hours a day reading about the topic both online and in books. He said he is saving money for survival gear.

"Whatever happens, I'm just trying to be prepared for it," Lehmann said. "I'm just learning to be independent of the system. I mean electricity, vehicles, alternate sources of energy. I'm learning to live without gas, basically be self-reliant."

"If this stuff does happen," Lehmann said, adding, "I have a way to eat. I can hunt, I can fish and I can purify water. I think it's people in the big cities that need to be worried. People that can't provide for themselves."

But for all the hype, there is little evidence the ancient Maya ever intended for the end of their calendar to be read as a portent for disaster.

"These prophecies of doom really don't have any basis in what we know about the Maya," said Stephen Houston, a professor of anthropology at Brown University and a specialist of Maya hieroglyphic writing. "The Maya descriptions barely talk about this event."

Instead, Houston said, the Maya saw their "long count" — the longest of their cyclical calendars — coming to an end in 2012 but also beginning anew on that date, without disastrous consequences.

"Really, it's a conversion of people's anxieties about our times, and finding some remote mythological precedent or prediction of it," Houston said about the origins of the current 2012 myths. "People like to believe that ancient wisdom is somehow predicting this time of upheaval."

John Hall, a professor of sociology at the University of California Davis who is writing a book on the history of apocalyptic ideas, agreed. He said movements predicting the end of the world often reflect a much larger nervousness about the state of our society.

"Terrorism, 9/11, ecological disasters, floods and earthquakes," Hall said. "[There is] a sense that modern civilization has had its run. Those kinds of anxieties are much more widely shared than simply among people who believe in the exact date."

To Lehmann, though, those very events are warnings of what's to come.

"We had Hurricane Katrina, the recent cyclone in Myanmar," Lehmann said. "We've got major flooding in Iowa. We're always going to have natural disasters. But they are picking up quite frequently now."

Lehmann said he eventually hoped to move away from Cape Girardeau, built on the banks of the Mississippi River, to the higher plains of southwest Missouri to keep safe from the floods sure to follow the earthquakes of 2012.

Geryl and his Belgian and Dutch followers have similar intentions, though their plan will take them much farther from home. They are looking to buy a plot of land high up in African mountains, where they'll be able to withstand the monstrous tidal waves and wait out the cloud of volcanic dust that they said would block out the sun.

Geryl said the group has recently zeroed in on a location, but won't reveal his find for fear of tipping off rival survival groups in the United States and Canada. On that land, Geryl's group, whose core membership consists of 16 people but whose wait list supposedly lists hundreds, will build concrete dwellings or outfit caves for survival.

After the cloud clears, Geryl said, they will attempt to create a new, better civilization.

"A guiding principle will be to keep the world population as small as possible so as not to get into the same problems we face now," Geryl said, adding that the group is currently looking for sponsors and hopes to move to Africa in 2011. "There is too little oil, too little grain in the world now. Those are the kinds of problems we want to avoid."

One of the group's members, Jan, a 57-year-old carpenter from Amsterdam whose name has been changed because he doesn't want to be identified in the press, recently drove five hours to attend one of Geryl's meetings in Antwerp.

"I thought, if there's a chance that we can start a new civilization, I want to contribute," Jan told ABC News. "Because whether I make it or not, and there's only a small chance I will, this is important."

Jan, who has never been married and has no children, said he has lost friends over 2012.

"All the people I've ever told about this have declared me crazy," he said. "It makes people feel uncomfortable. Now I just keep it to myself."

Geryl said he found comfort in sharing his knowledge with others. Since "discovering" what the future holds, he has written three books on 2012 and maintains a Web site on the subject.

When asked what would happen if December 2012 were to come and go without the earthquakes and tsunamis of his predictions, Geryl fell silent.

"I don't really contemplate that possibility," he said. "My predictions are so spectacular, they can't possibly be wrong."

Hello GrammyLuv,

I was just thinking back to all of the Y2K hysteria compared to what actually happened. There was massive crow-eating, so I wonder if the crow population has recovered.

I was just laughing and thinking about the number of times that things like this have been predicted. The best ones were self-proclaimed prophets who built whole false religions around their failed prophecies. What I find to be amazing is that they survived more than one failed prophecy, and some of them are still with us today. One would think that exposure multiple times as a false prophet would ruin the con game, but it didn't. It's really quite sad when you consider how serious some people get about things like this.

There will be a quite REAL 7 Year Tribulation Period and SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. There will even come a time when evil men DO go underground in an attempt to escape. Needless to say, it won't work and will be a waste of time. GOD will spare who HE pleases for HIS own purposes. Mankind will never be able to out-smart GOD THE CREATOR, but vanity will make many try. The end results are already written in the HOLY BIBLE with 100% PERFECTION! THE HOLY BIBLE IS ONE SOURCE FOR THE TRUTH, and that's all we need. Christians can avoid tons of BALONEY by just reading their BIBLES!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Exactly.  What part of "no one knows the hour, but the Father" do they not get??

Hello GrammyLuv,

Sadly, the false prophets I'm thinking about don't care. It appears they are seeking their own glory instead of GOD'S GLORY. It's also a great con game that's almost impossible to prosecute, so it's almost the perfect CRIME that pays fortunes. They also predict many things for their victims, and it ends up being a very cruel crime. If and when the victims wise up, there's nothing they can do about it. It's very sad that many of the victims are elderly, ill, or have many other serious problems to deal with. The FALSE PROPHET simply makes their situations worse, but they always offer an excuse. The most popular one is:  Your faith isn't strong enough, or you're not right with GOD. The REAL problem is the FALSE PROPHET has no faith at all - AND has no connection to GOD at all. The ONLY FAITH of the FALSE PROPHETS is in spending the money of their victims.

From Gary Kah's 'Hope for the World' Newsletter:


ACLU Threatening Christians with Jail

Editor's Note: The following excerpts are from an urgent appeal sent out recently by the Alliance Defense Fund.

"How does the ACLU ramp up its legal assault on Christianity after suffering a series of losses in court? "Threaten to lock up the opposition," warns Alan Sears, president and general counsel of the Scottsdale Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)...
"By God's grace, we've begun to turn the tide," explains Sears. "With our allies, we're winning nearly three of every four cases, including 33 victories at the US Supreme Court. But as our opponents losses start mounting, so does their frustration. That's why today, the ACLU - America's number one censor of religious speech - and its allies are increasingly demanding jail for those who stand in their way." That intolerance was on stunning display recently in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana.

After the ACLU learned that officials in Tangipahoa Parish offered invocations at public events, it filed suit. Then, when Tangipahoa school officials allowed a private individual to pray before a school event, the ACLU issued a startling threat. "Their refusal to comply...should and must result in their removal from society."

ADF and its allies defended the right of the board members to pray. The ACLU won an initial victory when a judge - the former President of the ACLU of Louisiana - ruled that the practice violated the Constitution. A divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld that decision.

The ACLU strongly denies any anti-Christian agenda. But as Sears points out, "here it was demanding jail for officials in Louisiana for allowing a Christian invocation. At the same time, it was suing on behalf of a Wiccan witch in Virginia who wants to offer pagan prayers at county council meetings!"...

"The Handcuffs Are Going to Come"

Sears also points to Oconee County, South Carolina - one of many current targets for the ACLU in America's Southeast - where the county council had a tradition of beginning offician meetings with prayer. For that "violation" of the so-called "separation of church and state," it received the following warning from the ACLU;

"Your sectarian invocations...are blatant violations of federal law...As you may know, the Town of Great Falls was required to pay well over $50,000 in legal fees that were incurred because of their stubbornness in persisting to use similar invocations."

At a meeting to discuss the issue, one of the ACLU's South Carolina board members delivered a specific threat;

"Prayers should not be allowed. Especially prayers to Jesus...If they continue to break the law, I want to say, the handcuffs are going to come" (Underlined words in original) Unfortunately, the county council gave in to the ACLU's demands and abolished their long-standing tradition.

The ACLU has stretched and twisted the law to meet their agenda more than long enough. They have niot only blatantly disallowed freedom of speech and freedom of religion for Christians but they have been ardent supporters of terrorists to the point of aiding and abetting. The handcuffs do need to come out but for the ACLU not Christians. I would also vigorously support sending them to another country of their choice without any hesitation.

Seriously.  How can they keep getting away with this kind of stuff? Why hasn't someone stepped in to stop this bullying?  Okay, I'm naive but can't even the President or the Supreme Court do something?  This is nothing short of terrorism.

Beware your children: They might be 'Climate Cops'
Company recruits kids to keep records, bust parents for 'energy crimes'

A new website campaign designed by a British power company recruits children through games, badges and cartoons to enlist as "Climate Cops," actively keeping records on their parents and neighbors for violations of "energy crimes" against the planet.

The "Climate Cops" website encourages children to investigate family and friends and "then build your 'Climate Crime Case File' and report back to your family to make sure they don't commit those crimes again (or else)!" The site also warns children that they "may need to keep a watchful eye" to prevent future violations.

A link on the site for teachers to download free materials for building lesson plans indicates the website is targeting children from ages 7-11.

The so-called crimes children are to watch for are listed on a poster (visible at right) and range from leaving the tap running and failing to use energy-saving light bulbs to running the dryer on a sunny day and putting hot food in the refrigerator.

The website also encourages children to download a series of "Climate Crime Cards" (such as the one pictured below) in which enlisted "Climate Cops" can keep an ongoing record of their family's violation of energy "crimes."

Recruiting children to spy on and keep records of their parents' infractions reminds some of Adolf Hitler's Nazi youth program, only with an environmentalist bent. The author of the blog EU Referendum wrote: "In a system which has echoes of Hitler's Deutsches Jungvolk movement … perhaps successful graduates can work up to becoming block wardens, then street and district 'climate crime Fuehrers,' building a network of spies and informers."

Hitler's youth program, which began in the 1920s and ended in 1945, enlisted children to be trained in the ideals of the Nazi party. Eventually folded into the German Sturmabteilung, also known as the SA or the "brownshirts," the Hitler Youth were given authority over different regions to report and keep records on neighbors, especially Jewish neighbors, as part of Nazi Germany's fear- and propaganda-based social control efforts.

A blogger at Watts Up With That? wrote, "I find this method of indoctrinating school children to normal everyday living being harmful to the earth with the 'climate crime' connotation as distasteful and wrong headed."

"I have no problems with energy conservation, in fact I encourage it," the blogger wrote, "But combining such advice with a 'climate cop' idea is the wrong way to get the message across. Can you imagine what sort of reaction the neighbors will have? … Will the result of this now be hiding your electric dryer behind false walls so the kids and neighbors don't see it?"

The "Climate Cops" website was created by the British power company npower, which has received recognition for investing in community causes through partnerships with youth sports programs, cancer victim support charities and an environmental group called The National Trust.

The website targets children with flashy graphics and cartoon characters. The site's opening video shows cartoon depictions of hurricanes and floods, stating, "Climate change is threatening our world. The more energy we waste the worse it gets. It's time to fight back."

Children who visit the site can then play games, including one game in which "Climate Cops" chase down a gas-guzzling SUV that discharges incandescent light bulbs to slow them and another in which children zap as many energy wasters as they can find before a poor polar bear's iceberg melts.

Those who complete the site's three games receive code numbers that unlock a codeword, enabling visitors to "join the elite cadets and train to become a Climate Cop." The codeword then unlocks a download, where successful "cadets" can print out a "Climate Cop ID".


Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

One thing we need to remember.......

John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

Is U.S. Bioterror Attack Just A Matter of Time?

July 28, 2008

The overriding question is whether the U.S. is “ready” for a bioterror attack. The answer could well rely on the “other” question of what bio-agent and what’s the source? In 1991, 40,000 Russian scientists dispersed throughout the World, with knowledge of what the U.S.S.R. was doing in chemical and biological weapons. The question is to whom did they sell their knowledge? Some believe former Soviet scientists sold technology to countries like Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Lurking is the spectre of al-Qaeda, a group that the Pentagon says continues to pursue biological weapons.

Another scenario is an outbreak of a pandemic. How would the U.S. deal with an infectious disease outbreak? The picture, despite reassurances, is not pretty. Until now, the U.S. has experienced two major biological attacks.

In 1984, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers attempted to take over the town of the Dalles, Oregon by contaminating salad bars in the town. In 2001, there was the as yet unsolved mystery of the anthrax letters that killed five people.

But the question of bioterrorism extends to potential threats against our food supply and our clean water resources. It also extends to the threat of outbreaks of diseases in our animals populations. Here, the concern are diseases that attack animals but that can jump to humans. These are referred to as zoonotic diseases.

Is U.S. Bioterror Attack Just A Matter of Time? (http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/07/28/is-us-bioterror-attack-just-a-matter-of-time/)

Seven detained after mall brawl
Police say fight was gang-related
Samuel Spies, Staff WriterComment on this story
RALEIGH - Shoppers strolled peacefully through Triangle Town Center on Sunday after a Saturday night brawl involving hundreds closed the mall early.

It took police officers from three agencies an hour to evacuate the mall and fully restore order after the fight in which seven teens were detained, a 15-year-old was stabbed and a police officer injured.

Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said the brawl was a gang-related incident and that some of those involved have known gang associations. He declined to say whether those arrested are gang members.

According to Sughrue and arrest warrants, those arrested are:

* Tyrell Eugene Brantley, 18, 1609 E. Lenoir St., charged with inciting a riot and disorderly conduct, $5,000 bond;

* Darryl Anthony Bobbitt, 18, 1411 E. Lenoir St., charged with inciting a riot, second-degree trespassing and resisting an officer, $5,000 bond;

* Christopher James Gamble, 17, 4031 Northstone Drive, Apt. 102, charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and inciting a riot, $35,000 bond;

* Laquavis O'Neal Jordan, 16, 1701 E. Lenoir St., charged with inciting a riot; released on $5,000 bond;

* Ricky Ladd Williams, 16, 3321-101 Quail Ridge Road, charged with inciting a riot; engaging in an affray; held on $10,000 bond;

* Javonnie Nicholson, 16, 512 Bradkin Court, charged with inciting a riot, misdemeanor assault on a law enforcement officer, second-degree trespassing, $7,000 bond.

Nicholson is the lone female charged in the fracas. Police also are filing a juvenile petition against an unnamed 15-year-old who was also detained.

In a news release, police said some of the people involved are known to be associated with gangs and that the fight started as a gang-related incident. They didn't, however, name which gangs may have been involved. A bond sheet for Williams says he has a recent conviction for conspiracy to commit armed robbery "with gang conditions."

Sughrue said more arrests are possible if police are able to identify others who were involved.

Four off-duty Raleigh officers were working security at the mall on Saturday when the fight started around 8 p.m. in the upper-level, above the food court. As many as 200 to 300 people were associated with the fracas, police said.

Police described a chaotic scene as more officers rushed to the mall to assist with evacuation of shoppers frightened by the uproar.

The fight spilled outside as police worked to disperse the crowd.

Security closed the mall at 8:40 p.m -- 20 minutes early. Raleigh, Wake County and Highway Patrol officers secured the scene about 9 p.m., according to a police news release.

Gamble was charged with the stabbing of a 15-year-old male in the buttocks with a 5-inch "butterfly" knife during an altercation outside the mall.

The victim was taken to WakeMed Raleigh Campus, and his wounds are not life-threatening, police said.

A Raleigh police officer received a significant laceration on his knee and had to be taken to Duke Health Raleigh Hospital. Sughrue said the officer's injury occurred while he was chasing a suspect, not as the result of an assault. He's expected to recover.

Jack Love, general manager at Triangle Town Center, said the mall is constantly reviewing its security.

He declined to answer specific questions about the fight or discuss mall security practices. "We are a public place, and incidents happen from time to time," Love said.

Heather Tant, who works at a shoe kiosk near the mall's lower food court, said she was working Saturday night when police started arriving.

"A bunch of cops were pouring in here," Tant said. "They were yelling 'get out of the mall.' "

Tant didn't see the fight but was scared, she said. She hurriedly put her cash drawer in the safe and went out to the parking lot.

Occasionally there are fights at Triangle Town Center, said Tant, 18, a Wake Technical Community College student. Groups of young people sometimes get into shouting matches that are broken up by mall security, she said. She was a little skeptical that gangs were roving the mall.

"Just because they dress alike doesn't really mean anything," she said.

Police use two terms to talk about crimes and gangs.

Raleigh police use "gang related" to describe an incident "... to further the purposes of the gang. Examples would include establishing a gang's territory, gaining influence by suppressing another gang, or seeking revenge against another gang."

The other term is "gang involved." Typically people in those incidents are gang members or have significant ties to gang members, but the crimes themselves are not committed on behalf of gangs.

Sughrue, the police spokesman, said the examples above are just illustrations and that he was not at liberty to say what led police to classify the mall fight as "gang related."

Christians, Muslims Seek 'Common Ground' at Historic Conference

Top Christian and Muslim leaders have convened at Yale University for a historic conference that is expected to promote understanding and peace between Christianity and Islam on an unprecedented level.

Sun, Jul. 27, 2008 Posted: 10:28 AM EDT

Top Christian and Muslim leaders have convened at Yale University for a historic conference that is expected to promote understanding and peace between Christianity and Islam on an unprecedented level.

The conference, “Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed: Implications for Muslims and Christians,” will officially be held July 28-31 but leaders from both faiths have initiated dialogue on peace during closed-session workshops since Thursday.

The gathering is a direct response to a letter signed by 138 Muslim leaders last fall that called for peace between Muslims and Christians for the sake of world peace.

The letter, entitled “A Common Word Between Us and You,” urged followers of the two faiths to find “common ground” in the love of God and engage in more sincere discussions on peace rather than simply just “polite ecumenical dialogue” between certain religious leaders.

Yale scholars responded with a statement that pledged more open dialogue to "reshape" the two communities to “genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another." Some 500 Christian leaders – including prominent Christians including Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, theologian John Stott, National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson – endorsed the Yale statement.

But several withdrew their names from the letter following criticism by respected theologians.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, disagreed with key points raised in the letter because he felt they compromised the Christian faith. Among them, he said that amid calls for love in a common God, the letter "failed to clearly define the Christian understanding of God as the trinity."

Participants at the "Common Word" conference will explore ways to "rectify distorted perspectives Muslims and Christians have of each other and repair relations between the Middle East and the West," according to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture.

Notable leaders at the event include Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan; former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi of Sudan; Geoff Tunnicliffe, CEO and international director of World Evangelical Alliance; Leith Anderson, president of NAE; and Antonios Kireopoulos of the National Council of Churches. A handful of Jewish leaders will also attend the conference.

On Tuesday, Senator John Kerry is scheduled to give a keynote address.

"Christians and Muslims have gone through periods of good relations and bad relations over the centuries," said Kireopoulos, senior program director for NCC's Faith and Order and Interfaith Relations.

"Recent history has reinforced ill will between the two communities, so this interfaith initiative can make progress toward mutual understanding."

The "Common Word" conference at Yale is one of a series of interfaith workshops and events. The other conferences will take place in October (Cambridge University), November (the Vatican), March 2009 (Georgetown University), and October 2009 (Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute, Jordan).

Christians, Muslims Seek 'Common Ground' at Historic Conference (http://www.christianpost.com/article/print/20080727/christians-muslims-seek-common-ground-at-historic-conference.htm)

'N. Korea May Develop Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon System'
7-23-2008

By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

A top U.S. scientist warned American lawmakers of a possible catastrophic national security scenario: a possible development of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapons by rogue states, including North Korea, and a potential detonation of such a device on American soil.

William Graham, chairman of the U.S. government-sponsored ``Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States," told U.S. lawmakers that the Stalinist state has the required technologies to develop such weapons.

In a testimony to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee this month, the scientist said EMP weapons are ``one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."

Graham told lawmakers that the detonation of such devices over the middle of the continental United States ``has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures that support the fabric of U.S. society and the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power."

He warned: ``Several potential adversaries have the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse, and others appear to be pursuing efforts to obtain that capability."

What's worse, he noted, is that ``a determined adversary can achieve EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication."

``For example, an adversary would not have to have long-range ballistic missiles to conduct an EMP attack against the United States. Such an attack could be launched from a freighter off the U.S. coast using a short- or medium-range missile to loft a nuclear warhead to high altitude."

He said even small nuclear weapons can create massive EMP effects, giving out an intensely fluctuating magnetic field, over wide geographic areas. ``United Nations investigators recently found that the design for an advanced nuclear weapon, miniaturized to fit on ballistic missiles currently in the inventory of Iran, North Korea and other potentially hostile states, was in the possession of Swiss criminals affiliated with the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network."

And because the United States relies heavily on electricity and electronics, the scientist told U.S. lawmakers, ``the impact would be far worse than on a country less advanced technologically," adding that the weapon could cripple the U.S. financial system as well as the system of distribution for food and water and medical care.

'N. Korea May Develop Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon System' (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/116_28088.html)

Hi DreamWeaver,

This bothers me so much. Now, I admit I'm not aware of any real deterrents to these rogue states, and if there is anything in the pipeline I'd love to know, but we still are the strongest country in the world. Shouldn't we be really twisting arms, and exerting alot of pressure on these countries? Couldn't we do the same to them?

This EMP thing sounds so overwhelmingly 'catastrophic', as you wrote. There must be something in our diplomatic arsenal that will convince these people to 'back down' or we'll have to start getting tough! We're getting threats from every direction and I never see or hear any solutions coming from our government. I feel like we're sitting ducks, just waiting for this ultimate disaster to happen. And if it does, then doesn't that render us helpless as far as retaliation?

It's starting to sound like a 'Cuban Missile Crisis' again, but this time there's no one stepping up to bat!

The U.S. has known about EMP effects since the middle of the Cold War. EMP protection has been employed by the Military and most government facilities for quite some time. Any EMP attack would have very little if any effect on us in that aspect and retaliation would not be a problem for us due to that. The problem with an EMP attack on the U.S. would be in the infrastructure (power grid) and in civilian electronics. EMP protection is not put on these items due to the great increase in costs.

The problem is that these countries have become emboldened due to the lack of strong action by our country. Not only lack of strong action but actually pandering to them, giving them what they want. It is the very reason that Viet Nam ended in the manner it did. It is also the reason that we are having the problems that we are still today.


Exactly. Many claim that the Cold War was over. I don't think so. It was just calmed down to a point that it was no longer news worthy. It has now escalated back up again. As the Cold War has been all along the least little thing can escalate it into a full blown war.

Pastor Roger, thank you for that explanation.

 I don't mean to belabor the point, but it sounds like the people will become powerless, because we have no safeguards, but the government will not. Is this the scenario? And is that when Marshall Law will set in? Is this what the Iranian president (didn't think I could spell his name right) means when he says they're going to bomb us back into the 1800's?

It could very possibly be.


That is his exact meaning. Madman would have been close enough of a spelling. We all would have known who you meant.  ;) ;D

Think about all the problem there will be in tribulation sister. This could be apart of God's plan.



By the way, the easy way to remember Ahmadinejad name is just call him "ImaNutjob". Everyone pretty much knows this is his American name..... ;D ;D ;D

 ;D   ;D   That name has meaning and fits him perfectly. Globally, including Iran, that should be his name and we would all know who was being talked about. I just want to know if he's related to Baghdad Bob - the guy reporting huge losses for American troops while Baghdad was falling in the background. Why can't we have stand-up comedians as funny as those two guys?   ;D

I like it!! ImaNutjob - the English translation is so much more descriptive!

And what's even better...I can spell it!

Thank you, DreamWeaver

Your welcome sister. ;D ;D

I started this thread as kind of a "catch all" when I couldn't figure out where to put a current event or couldn't remember where I saw something of like-topic, which is the case tonight. 
I can't remember where I saw the article about us lifting a ban on immigrants/visititors with HIV.  It may not have even been on this site as I do like to travel around.  When I read that article I was reminded of when I worked in the pharmacy of Seattle's TB clinic and that most of the cases we saw were immigrants and also because of this how TB was making a come back BIG time.
And so my next thought was why would we lift a ban on folks with HIV, another contagious and deadly disease.
Well anyway, I say all that as an into to the following article I guess.


New HIV cases in US underestimated by 40 percent
1 hour, 55 minutes ago
 
ATLANTA - The number of Americans infected by the AIDS virus each year is much higher than the government has been estimating, U.S. health officials reported, acknowledging that their numbers have understated the level of the epidemic.
 
The country had roughly 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006 — about a 40 percent increase from the 40,000 annual estimate used for the past dozen years. The new figure is due to a better blood test and new statistical methods, and not a worsening of the epidemic, officials said.

But it likely will refocus U.S. attention from the effect of AIDS overseas to what the disease is doing to this country, said public health researchers and officials.

"This is the biggest news for public health and HIV/AIDS that we've had in a while," said Julie Scofield, executive director of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.

Experts in the field, advocates and a former surgeon general called for more aggressive testing and other prevention efforts, noting that spending on preventing HIV has been flat for seven years.

The revised estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the methodology behind it were to be presented Sunday, the opening day of the international AIDS conference in Mexico City.

Since AIDS surfaced in 1981, health officials have struggled to estimate how many people are infected each year. It can take a decade or more for an infection to cause symptoms and illness.

One expert likened the new estimate to adding a good speedometer to a car. Scientists had a good general idea of where the epidemic was going; this provides a better understanding of how fast it's moving right now.

"This puts a key part of the dashboard in place," said the expert, David Holtgrave of Johns Hopkins University.

Judging by the new calculations, officials believe annual HIV infections have been hovering around 55,000 for several years.

"This is the most reliable estimate we've had since the beginning of the epidemic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC's director. She said other countries may adopt the agency's methodology.

According to current estimates, around 1.1 million Americans are living with the AIDS virus. Officials plan to update that number with the new calculations but don't think it will change dramatically, a CDC spokeswoman said.

The new infection estimate is based on a blood test that for the first time can tell how recently an HIV infection occurred.

Past tests could detect only the presence of HIV, so determining which year an infection took place was guesswork — guesswork upon which the old 40,000 estimate was based.

The new estimate relies on blood tests from 22 states where health officials have been using a new HIV testing method that can distinguish infections that occurred within the past five months from those that were older.

The improved science will allow more real-time monitoring of HIV infections. Now, CDC officials say, the estimate will likely be updated every year.

Yearly estimates allow better recognition of trends in the U.S. epidemic. For example, the new report found that infections are falling among heterosexuals and injection drug users.

Some experts celebrated that finding, saying it's a tribute to prevention efforts, including nearly 200 syringe exchange programs now operating in 36 states despite a federal ban on funding for such projects.

But they also lamented the CDC's finding that infections continue to increase in gay and bisexual men, who accounted for more than half of HIV infections in 2006. Also, more than a third of those with HIV are younger than 30.

Some advocates say that suggests a need for more prevention efforts, particularly targeting younger gay and bisexual men.

For years, AIDS was considered a terrifying death sentence, and since 1981, more than half a million Americans have died. But medicines that became available in the 1990s turned it into a manageable chronic condition for many Americans, and attention shifted to Africa and other parts of the world.

Last week, President Bush signed a $48 billion global AIDS bill to continue a program that he called "the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history."

But some advocates complain that CDC's annual spending on HIV prevention in the United States has been held to roughly $700 million since 2001, while costs have risen. (That's about 3 percent of what the federal government spends on AIDS; much of the rest is on medicines, health care and research.)

The new estimate is "evidence of a failure by government and society to do what it takes to control the epidemic," said Julie Davids, executive director of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project.

Whether more funding comes or not, the revised estimate clearly is a "wake-up call to scale things up," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, who oversees CDC's prevention efforts for HIV/AIDS.

Some said more attention needs to focus on prevention among blacks, who account for nearly half of annual HIV infections, according to the new CDC report.

A recent report by the Black AIDS Institute concluded that if black Americans were their own nation, they would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with HIV.

"We have been inadequately funding this epidemic all along. We need to step it up," said former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who is now an administrator at Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine.

The new estimate has been anticipated for a long time. The CDC began working on the new methods nearly seven years ago.

Late last year, advocates said they had heard the figure was about 55,000 and pressed the CDC to release it. Agency officials declined, saying they were submitting their research for medical journal review.

"These are extremely complicated statistical methods," and CDC officials wanted the work to be thoroughly reviewed by outside experts, Gerberding said. The CDC's findings are being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Until 1992, the number of diagnosed AIDS cases was used to predict how many people were newly infected each year. That method produced an estimate of 40,000 to 80,000. More recently, the CDC focused on infections among men who have sex with men, who account for about half of new HIV diagnoses.

Brothers and Sisters,

The HOLY BIBLE already provides instructions that PREVENT HIV and AIDS 100% of the time. GOD Created us with a NATURAL ORDER and gave us instructions in MORALS. Violating GOD'S NATURAL ORDER and ignoring HIS instructions for MORALS are always a perfect recipe for disaster, suffering of all kinds, or physical death. It really is just this simple!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ventura County hot spot puzzles experts

A two-acre patch of land north of Fillmore has heated up to 800 degrees, and firefighters and geologists are unsure why.
By Joanna Lin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 5, 2008

Video: The Earth is Heating Up in... (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hotground5-2008aug05-ktla,0,7695491.worldnowvideo)

A patch of land in Ventura County's section of Los Padres National Forest where the ground recently heated up to 812 degrees continues to puzzle firefighters and geologists after weeks of monitoring.

"It's a thermal anomaly," said Ron Oatman, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Firefighters responded to reports of a blaze there a month and a half ago, when observers noticed smoke rising from the parched scrub. But when they arrived, they found no flames.

Firefighters and geologists who have surveyed the area in the Sespe Oil Field are uncertain what's causing the heat, but they do have a theory.

Allen King, a retired geologist with the U.S. Forest Service who went to the site Friday, said the smoking ground is "a normal occurrence" that does not appear to be the result of human activity.

The hot spot is in an area considered to be an active landslide that has shifted for more than 60 years. Several hundred feet below its cracked surface lie pockets of gas, tar and oil.

King said he suspects cracks along the landslide's slope allow oxygen to enter into the earth and hydrocarbon material to "seep out" of the fine-grain shale. The combination can create underground combustion, he said.

King said the depth at which hydrocarbon material can be found "varies tremendously" and that he does not know at what depth the combustion in the oil field is occurring. The 812-degree temperature was measured Friday about a foot below the surface, he said. No other temperature checks have been made since, according to Oatman.

During Friday's visit to the hot spot, smoke rose through five cracks in the ground. From a distance, it looked like "a small, smoldering camp fire," Oatman said. The smoke comes and goes, he said, and fire officials expect it will last until the next heavy rainfall, when water and mud plug the fissures.

The steep, rugged terrain is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and leased by Seneca Resources Corp. The area is gated off from public access and is free of equipment and buildings.

The hot spot is not considered to be a threat to public safety, Oatman said, and the Fire Department is monitoring the area daily.

The 3,000-acre Sespe Oil Field was discovered in 1887 and has since produced about 50 million barrels of oil, said David Christy, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management. The field contains more than 300 oil wells, 210 of which are active. In January 2007, about 200 to 300 gallons of oil spilled into a nearby creek after a pipe containing a mixture of groundwater and oil burst.

Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, said he had not heard of hot spots in the oil field but was concerned about their potential effect on the nearby Sespe Condor Sanctuary and the forest's fire-prone nature.

"It's just a disaster waiting to happen . . . regardless of what the cause is," he said.

Ventura County hot spot puzzles experts  (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hotground5-2008aug05,0,4689903.story?track=rss)

Thanks for the article Brother Bob!

I've never heard of hot spots like this before, so I find it fascinating. We've had some sink holes fairly near us, and those are also strange. However, the sink holes don't involve heat as far as I know. We had a small one within a block of us and a huge one about 50 miles away about a year ago. POWER beyond man's ability to measure is locked up in GOD'S Creation. I feel certain that GOD holds everything in check, especially considering that any number of things could make natural mankind extinct.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Major changes began to occur about 25-29 million years ago. The oceanic plate that had been subducting beneath the western edge of North America became completely overridden, starting in the south, and the North American and Pacific plates came into direct contact for the first time. Tangential motion and expansion replaced convergent motion as the North American plate began interacting with the Pacific plate. The arrival of the spreading zone associated with the East Pacific Rise produced a substantial amount of stretching and thinning of the crust in eastern California and throughout the Great Basin. Along the coast, the San Andreas Fault system was formed. The region to the west of the fault zone on the Pacific plate began sliding northwestward relative to the area to the east on the North American plate. A block of the continent that includes Santa Barbara was apparently rotated clockwise more than 90o to form the anomalous east-west trending Transverse Ranges. In far northern California and the Pacific Northwest, north of the Mendocino triple junction, convergent motion has continued right up to present times.

Volcanic activity, possibly related to extension and thinning of the crust, became widespread in the Sierra Nevada and Mojave regions around 20 million years ago. Around 10-15 million years ago a series of deep marine basins formed along the coast between Orange County and the San Francisco region. These basins apparently resembled current features in the Gulf of California which is being split open by the spreading zone associated with the East Pacific Rise. Possibly, some were also associated with stretching produced by the rotation of the Transverse Range block. The rocks formed in these basins (the shales of the Monterey Formation) are composed mainly of material derived from marine organisms, rather than terrestrial sediments.

About 5 million years ago mountain-building activity rapidly accelerated, and finally most of the modern mountain ranges were uplifted, including the Sierra Nevada and the large fault-block ranges to the east, the Coast Ranges, the Transverse Ranges, and the Peninsular Ranges. Subduction continued in the north forming the major volcanoes of the Cascades. Only in the last few million years (0.1% of all geologic history) did the California landscape began to resemble what we see today. In many areas the uplift has continued to the present. Other, more recent events which have further shaped the modern landforms have included: waves of Pleistocene glaciation in the Sierra Nevada and, to a minor extent, in the San Bernardino Mountains; recent volcanic eruptions in the Mojave and Great Basin regions; and the widespread volcanic activity that created the southern Cascade volcanoes (Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen) and the lava flows of the Modoc Plateau region.

This is all from my Geology book, though I do disagree with their time scale since the world is only 6,000 thousand years old. What I think we are seeing here, is the beginnings of a new volcano. But this is only my theory. A subduction zone was formed all along the west coast, from Baja California to British Columbia.

Fear mark of the beast? State OKs special license
West Virginia drivers receive exemption from requirement to digitally store photo


It's not "666," but it's close enough to the New Testament's "mark of the beast," says a small religious group in West Virginia who has won an exemption from the state's requirement that driver's license photos be stored in a digital database.

Phil Hudok, a high school physics teacher in Randolph County, Pastor Butch Paugh and 12 others raised the issue in 2006 during meetings with Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo as the state prepared to bring its driver's license policy in line with the federal Real ID Act, passed a year earlier. Under Real ID, states would be required to share information about licensed drivers, including photos, with agencies in other states.

"We see us getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast," Hudok told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

According to Revelation 16:1-2, those who are found with the mark are the objects of God's wrath:

    Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."

    So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

In 1999, WND reported Hudok's fight with the school board over his refusal to wear a photo ID with a bar code that had to remain visible at all times.

Hudok said that his religious beliefs prevented him from wearing the ID because it had a bar code displayed next to his photo. He said that he believed the card was the "mark of the beast" as referred to in the Book of Revelation in the Bible

Although he was given an exemption based on his religious beliefs, he was fired because he would not enforce the rule against students who refused to wear the computer-coded ID.

"I can't do that. How can I possibly ask someone to do something that I can't do myself? They've already given me permission to cut off the bar code, which I did. But they're saying that I have to enforce the students to wear their cards which have bar codes," Hudok at the time.

The school implemented the policy based on federal guidelines for reducing campus violence.

In August 2000, WND reported, the West Virginia State Supreme Court ordered Hudok reinstated with back pay and benefits.

Now, eight years later, without having to go to court, Hudok has succeeded in winning an exemption for those like himself who believe the growing computerization of personal information – in this case, photographs – have spiritual meaning and consequences.

Under the agreement worked out with the DMV, members of Paugh's group will be allowed to have their DMV pictures taken at the Capitol DMV office where a hard copy will be kept on file. The digital version, however, will be deleted from the computer system.

"What these people objected to was the digital image," Cicchirillo said. "All the other information stays there."

Perhaps a sign that Hudok's fellow believers compose a minority in the state, Cicchirillo said he had received few objections to the state's digital-photo requirement.

"Right now, I have three or four people who have requested it for religious reasons," he told the Gazette. "I think what they told me was it had to do with the mark of the beast.

"The only reason we're trying it is these people's religious beliefs and they don't want their pictures stored," he said of the "pilot program."

For Hudok, the digital photographs are "getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast" associated with the arrival of the Antichrist.

"They haven't defined what the limits will be on the Real ID," he said.

According to Hudok, the digital images can be used to establish "unique facial" characteristics that identify people better than their fingerprints.

"My children won't even have yearbook pictures taken," he said, saying that companies taking the images also forward them to the national Amber Alert for storage in the missing children program's database.

'Syria and Hizbullah gaining strength'
Aug. 12, 2008
JPost.com Staff
THE JERUSALEM POST

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday that "it is not a coincidence that the IDF is holding intensive drills in the Golan Heights," adding that UNSC Resolution 1701 was not accomplishing what it set out to do.

"Hizbullah has gained significant strength in the last couple of years," said Barak during an IDF Armored Corps drill in the North. "We are closely following a possible violation [of the resolution] caused by the transfer of advanced weapons systems from Syria to Hizbullah. The necessary preparations have been made, and regarding all the rest - I always prefer not to talk, rather to take action when the time comes."

Barak expressed optimism with regards to the IDF's capabilities. "The army is regaining its strength, and coming back to the right morals, carrying out the right exercises and it is our obligation as the government to ensure that the proper means are available to carry out such drills in a correct and intensive manner."

Referring to a proposed budget cut to the Defense Ministry, Barak said: "We live in a country where security and defense consist not just of tanks and planes, but also of fostering excellence and caring for the population through education and social welfare."

Nonetheless, Barak emphasized that "security and defense take precedence over quality of life and in a country such as ours, we do not have the luxury of cutting the defense budget."

The defense minister also addressed the Gaza ceasefire and the strengthening of the group.

"So far, the ceasefire has proved promising," he said. "There have been ten instances where rockets were launched in the past 6 weeks, compared to the hundreds of attacks that occurred in the past. Every week that passes with the ceasefire in place enables us to gain strength and to maximize the possibility or the probability of bringing about the right conditions for the release of [captured IDF soldier] Gilad Schalit.

Barak added that "in the meantime, the government must care for the social and economic infrastructure as well as the preparation of the home front in the Gaza periphery and the surrounding areas.

Concerning the Georgia-Russia conflict, Barak warned against leaving friends during testing times.

"We view Russia as a very important country both on a regional and global scale," he said. "[At the same time,] we see Georgia as a country with which we have friendly relations, and Israel, particularly due to its experience, must ensure that it does not rush to leave its friends at a testing time."

"This is what we have expected from our friends and it is what our friends expect from us," he continued.

Barak's remarks came amid Russian protests over Israeli weapons sales to Georgia.

The defense minister was accompanied on the drill by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Ground Forces Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi and other senior IDF officers.

"I am pleased with what I see and think that we are heading in the right direction," said Ashkenazi, adding that "the training and the drills serve to restore the army's readiness to act when necessary. Furthermore, we are talking about a process. There is still work to be done, there are no shortcuts, it is very hard work. I think that people understand this, I think that officers understand this. We are all working hard and use every day to strengthen our capabilities and readiness to execute our tasks."

'Syria and Hizbullah gaining strength' (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446177941&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Mahmoud Abbas Purveys Anti-Jewish Incitement
22 Av 5768, August 23, '08   
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

(IsraelNN.com) Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler, a Liberal party representative, has stated that the Palestinian Authority, including its Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, is guilty of purveying hatred of Jews. He also lamented that the official PA incitement is being ignored by Western governments and media outlets.

MP Cotler said that Hamas, with their charter's "genocidal objective, anti-Semitic ideology and terrorist instrumentality," is not alone in its incitement in the PA public sphere. "I'm talking about the Palestinian Authority," said the Mount-Royal MP at a press conference this week. He added that the "culture of incitement" harms not only Israel, the PA Arabs themselves.

Cotler recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Israel, where he also met with PA officials and told them that "hate breeds hate. If you have a culture of incitement and hate, you're going to create a culture of hate that is pervasive in the Palestinian society itself."

Cotler cited several examples of anti-Jewish incitement in the PA. Among the most egregious offenses, he noted, were those promoted by official PA government outlets and officials, as well as by Arab academics.

"People don't realize that Abbas signed a law, on the very day there was a suicide terrorist attack in December 2005 against Israel, providing monthly stipends for the families of suicide bombers. In January 2007, Abbas addressed a large crowd that was estimated as being over 100,000, in which he said 'the sons of Israel are mentioned in the Koran as those who are corrupting humanity on Earth.'"

According to the Canadian MP, "Abbas has never recognized Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state." The official PA media, meanwhile promotes anti-Israeli libels and "breeds hatred and contempt for Jews."

The PA leader's anti-Israel statements and the hatred promoted by his official outlets, Cotler charged, has been judiciously ignored by the West and those involved in promoting Middle East peace. Yet, that incitement, Cotler concluded, is "the greatest threat to a just and lasting peace."

MP Cotler also noted in passing that other parts of the Arab world have bred a similar hatred. The recent ransom agreement between Israel and the Hizbullah, in which the Lebanese terror organization released the bodies of two IDF soldiers it had kidnapped in 2006 in exchange for several terrorists held in Israeli jails, was greeted in Lebanon joyously. In Cotler's view, "Knowing that Israel was in mourning was, tragically, a national day of celebration in Lebanon."

MP Cotler, a former Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General, is currently official Opposition Critic for Human Rights, a member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Human Rights, and a member of the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

He is also a well-known advocate for the rights of Jews expelled from Arab and Muslim countries in the years following Israel's establishment.

Earlier this month, Cotler said that he was working on a draft legal indictment of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which he'd like to present to the United Nations on September 22 of this year.  He would like to see Canada, the United States, the U.K., Australia, France and Israel, among others, work together to bring Ahmadinejad to an international court for Iran's domestic human rights abuses, support of international terrorism, and incitement to genocide against Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas Purveys Anti-Jewish Incitement (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127280)

Mr. Cotler knows Truth when he sees it - his eyes and ears are open! That's nice to hear someone who's not politically correct but tells TRUTH!

And God said to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you."

From Bill Koenig:

Has a shift in the nuclear balance between the U.S. and Russia helped embolden the bear?

- Under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which went into force in 1994, both the U.S. and the USSR made radical cuts in their strategic nuclear arsenals -- that is in weapons of intercontinental range.

- The 2002 Moscow Treaty pushed the numbers down even further, until each sides strategic nuclear umbrella was pocket-size.

- As far back as 1991, the U.S. began to retire all of its nuclear warheads for short-range ballistic missiles, artillery, and antisubmarine warfare. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, not one of these weapons exists today. The same authoritative publication estimates that the number of tactical warheads in the U.S. arsenal has dwindled from thousands to approximately 500.

- Russia has also reduced the size of its tactical nuclear arsenal, but starting from much higher levels and at a slower pace, leaving it with an estimated 5,000 such devices -- 10 times the number of tactical weapons held by the U.S.
 
- Such a disparity would be one thing if we were conteding with a stable, post-communtist regime moving in the direction of democracy and integration with the West. That was the Russia we anticipated when we began our nuclear build-down. But it is not the Russia we are facing today.

Not only has Russia retained a sizable nuclear arsenal, its military and political leaders regularly engage in aggressive bluster about expanding deployment and possible use , and sometimes they go beyond bluster.

- Six months ago, Russia began sending cruise missile capable Bear H bombers on sallies along the coast of Alaska.

- As recently as July, the newspaper Izvestia floated the idea that Moscow would station nuclear weapons in Cuba if the U.S. went ahead with the deployment of anti-ballistic missile radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland. Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, chief of Russia's strategic missile command, has openly spoken about aiming nuclear-tipped missiles at those two countries.

- Vladimir Putin has warned Ukraine if it were to join NATO, "Russia will have to point its warheads at Ukranian territory."

- As the Cold War, nuclear weapons are central to the Russian geopolitical calculus. "The weak are not loved and not heard, they are insulted; and when we have parity, they will talk to us in a different way."


These words are not from the dark-days of communist yore. Rather, they were uttered last year by Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, and they perfectly capture the mentality we and Russia's neighbors are up against.   

America's demonization next step in New World Order?
oldthinkernews

After the recent Georgian incursion into South Ossetia, discussion has been rampant regarding America's influence and dominance on the world scene. Some are proclaiming that Russia has laid to rest aspirations for a so called New World Order. From one angle this may appear to be the case, but there is a bigger picture needs to be examined.

The United States is going to - and to a degree already is - be held up as an example of why "global mechanisms" and a "world structure" need to be in place to prevent such actions as the invasion of Iraq and U.S. support of Georgian forces in the invasion of South Ossetia. We've been presented with a problem, now globalist think tanks and organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations will provide us with a solution. National sovereignty has no place in this era, so we're told. We must "share power".

Former President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has stated that he sees the U.S. led Iraq war as an example of the need for a "new world order" to manage the globe.

"Look at the US in Iraq, everybody was opposed, even their allies, but they did not listen and what happened? They do not know how to get out of it now. Now we understand that... we are all linked to the US and if it falls apart it would be a real collapse. We have to help them to get out of there. That means that cooperation is needed, a new world order is necessary and global mechanisms to manage it."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has made similar statements recently in response to the Georgia-Russia conflict. As the AFP reports,

"Turkish President Abdullah Gul predicted "a new world order" of joint international action, in an interview published in the U.K. on Saturday. He added that the conflict in Georgia shows the U.S. can no longer shape global politics on its own, and that it should start sharing power with other nations."

The 2008 election gives us an idea of the current trends underway and provides a window into the establishment's long term game-plan. Both Barack Obama and John McCain have openly indicated that globalist policy will be pursued if either of them are elected president.

John McCain discussed his proposed "League of Democracies" at the Hoover institution in May of 2007. McCain stated in part,

"This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations. It would complement them. But it would be the one organization where the world's democracies could come together to discuss problems and solutions on the basis of shared principles and a common vision of the future. If I am elected president, I will call a summit of the world's democracies in my first year to seek the views of my democratic counterparts and begin exploring the practical steps necessary to realize this vision."

Barack Obama made his globalist stance known during his highly publicized speech in Berlin on July 24th. He said,

"Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more -- not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."

"In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone."

The more sophisticated branch of globalist elites who see the route to power through slower, deliberate and incremental steps are now making their move. America's demonization, and in turn its use as an example of the necessity of global governance, may very well be the next stage of the establishment's plan for world government.

oldthinkernews is owned and operated by Daniel Taylor who is an ardent supporter of Alex Jones and many other such conspiracy theorists.

The statement quoted in the above article by McCain is taken by itself does sound quite incriminating and seems to be in support of a one world government. When looked at in the context of the entire speech it shows to be a very different idea. The idea that McCain was trying to relay is a group of democratic nations that would be an alternative to the oppressive, power hungry United Nations. The 'League of Democracies' would be "the core of an international order of peace based on freedom". It would leave all nations to be completely sovereign which is unlike the UN that wants all nations to be under their complete control.

"Such a new body, he says, could help relieve suffering in Darfur, fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, develop better environmental policies, and provide "unimpeded market access" to countries sharing "the values of economic and political freedom."  And, McCain adds, an organization of democracies could pressure tyrants "with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval" and could "impose sanctions on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions" while helping struggling democracies succeed."

The idea is to be a league of nations that defies the UN and those other nations such as Russia and islamic nations that wish to dominate the entire world.

His full speech follows:

"Since the dawn of our republic, Americans have believed our nation was created for a purpose. We were, as Alexander Hamilton said, a people of great destinies.' In the Revolution, the Civil War, in World Wars One and Two, and in the many struggles of the Cold War, our forebears met and overcame threats to our nation's survival and to our way of life. They believed they had a duty to serve a cause greater than their self-interest. They kept faith with the eternal principles of our Declaration of Independence against the evils of despotism, fascism, and totalitarianism. And they changed the world. Democracy was born and then spread across the globe, from North America to Europe to Asia and Latin America, to Africa and the Middle East. Today we stand, grateful, on this foundation of freedom.

"Now it is our generation's turn to build. It is our generation's turn to restore and replenish the faith in our nation and our principles. We have suffered terrible attacks at the hands of a new enemy that relentlessly seeks our destruction. New dangers have arisen, great powers are emerging and seek to shift the international balance of power, and we are in the midst of two wars whose outcome will shape our future. Here at home there is discord and doubt, and our famous optimism as a people has begun to flicker. It must not. Ever since Jamestown, we have displayed courage in the face of adversity. We are a hardy, spirited and steadfast people, a nation of pioneers and inveterate problem solvers. Today, America remains the most attractive of nations, where people the world over wish to visit, study, live, start businesses, invest and look for inspiration in our values and our freedoms. That is why I believe we are about to enter our greatest and proudest years as a nation.

"Our great president, Harry Truman once said of America, God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose.' In his time, that great purpose was to erect structures of peace and prosperity that could provide safe passage through the Cold War. Today, we face new dangers and new opportunities and we must have a new common mission: To build an enduring global peace, and to build it upon the foundations of freedom, opportunity, prosperity and hope.

"There is so much promise in today's world. We live in an era of unprecedented human progress. An increasingly global commerce is spreading a better and freer life to millions. Our scientists and physicians are eradicating diseases that once ravaged populations. More people live under democracy than at any time in human history. More than ever before, a father and mother can pass on to their children a happier, healthier, longer, and freer life than they themselves knew. Yet as we seize and expand these opportunities, we must recognize the dangers posed by the forces of terrorism and tyranny that look backward into a world of darkness and violence. With our democratic friends and allies around the world, we need to build a new global order of peace, a peace that can last not just for a decade but for a century, where the dangers and threats we face diminish, and where human progress reaches new heights. "

cont'd

"Almost two centuries ago James Madison declared that the great struggle of the Epoch' was between liberty and despotism.' Many thought that this struggle ended with the Cold War, but it didn't. It took on new guises, such as the modern terrorist network, an enemy of progress that has turned our technological advances to its own use, and in rulers trying to rebuild 19th-century autocracies in a 21st century world. Today the talk is of the war on terror, a war in which we must succeed. But the war on terror cannot be the only organizing principle of American foreign policy. International terrorists capable of inflicting mass destruction are a new phenomenon. But what they seek and what they stand for are as old as time. They comprise part of worldwide political, economic, and philosophical struggle between the future and the past, between progress and reaction, and between liberty and despotism. Upon the outcome of that struggle depends our security, our prosperity, and our democratic way of life.

"Democracy and freedom continue to flourish around the world, but there have been some discouraging trends. In China, despite miraculous economic growth and a higher standard of living for many millions of Chinese, hopes for an accompanying political reform have diminished. The ruling party seems determined to dominate political life, and as in the past, the talk is of order, not democracy, the supremacy of the party not of the people. China astonishes the world with its economic and technological modernization, but then spends billions trying to control that great icon of the modern era, the internet. China recognizes its vital interest in economic integration with the democratic world. But it has also joined Russia in hindering international efforts to put pressure on dictators in Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burma, and other pariah states. China expresses its desire for a stable peace in East Asia, but it contin ues to increase its military might, fostering distrust and concerns in the region about Beijing's ambitions. We must insist that China use its newfound power responsibly at home and abroad.

"A decade ago, the great Russian people had thrown off communist tyranny and seemed determined to build democracy and a free market and to join the West. Today, Russia looks more and more like some 19th-century autocracy, marked by diminishing political freedoms, shadowy intrigue, and mysterious assassinations. Beyond its borders Moscow has tried to expand its influence over its neighbors in Eastern, Central and even Western Europe. While the more democratic Russia of the 1990s sought to deepen its ties with Europe and America, today a more authoritarian Moscow manipulates Europe's dependence on Russian oil and gas to compel silence and obedience, and to try to drive a wedge between Europe and the United States. The Russian government is even more brutal toward the young democracies on its periphery, threatening them with trade embargoes and worse if they move too close to the West. It supports separatist mov ements in Georgia and Moldova and openly intervened in Ukraine's presidential elections. And it is supplying weapons to Iran, Syria, and indirectly to Hezbollah.

"But if some in Russia yearn to turn the clock back two decades, the zealots of Islamic radicalism would turn it back centuries. The mullahs of Iran and the leaders of Al Qaeda and Hezbollah want to cleanse the Muslim world of modernity and the ideals of the Enlightenment, and return it to an imagined past of theological purity. They state their goal plainly: a universal Islamic theocracy, a new Caliphate across all the lands once dominated by Islam, including the lands held in Europe centuries ago. Meanwhile, Mideast autocracies fuel this radicalism by denying their people political expression, economic opportunity or hope for a better future.

"These governments differ from one another in a thousand ways, and our policies toward them must reflect those differences. Our national interests require that we pursue economic and strategic cooperation with China and Russia, that we support Egypt and Saudi Arabia's role as peacemakers in the Middle East, and that we work with Pakistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But our national interests also require that we continually press for progress.

"We have seen how autocratic governments often work against our interests. Iran is able to aggressively pursue nuclear weapons and hegemony in the Persian Gulf, in part, because it has been shielded by the world's powerful autocracies. North Korea defies the international community with its nuclear weapons and missile programs and an obscene human rights record. Last month, North Korea unsurprisingly missed the first deadline in the most recent nuclear agreement and it remains to be seen if China will use its enormous influence to demand better behavior.

"The path to an enduring peace lies in a clear-eyed pursuit of our national interest that does not accede to autocratic trends. We must expand the power and reach of democracy, freedom, and human rights using our many strengths as a free people. But that means making some substantial changes in how we do business. Change must begin at home.

"Back in 1947, just a year into the Cold War, the Truman administration launched a massive overhaul of the nation's foreign policy, defense, and intelligence agencies to meet new challenges. Today, we must do the same to meet the challenges of the 21st century. I will have much more to say about this in the future but our needs are clear in the organization, skills, and capabilities needed to prevail in the conflict with violent extremists: an intelligence community that is able to collect and analyze information on and conduct operations against our enemies; a public diplomacy effort that makes our case to the world effectively; a diplomatic corps that understands stability' does not mean supporting dictatorships; foreign aid programs that foster good governance; generals that understand and learn from past wars and apply those lessons to the future; defense procurement that is transparent, accountable and e ffective; and civilian defense leadership that is held accountable for results and provides the resources necessary to achieve results. We must never again launch a military operation with too few troops to complete the mission and build a secure, stable, and democratic peace. When we fight a war, we must fight to win.

"We cannot build an enduring peace based on freedom by ourselves. Nor do we want to. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed our duty to pay decent respect to the opinions of mankind.' When I think back to the 1980s, the decade of triumph in the Cold War, I think about our great alliances. Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl, Mitterrand, Nakasone they were all strong leaders who jealously guarded the interests of their peoples. But they linked arms against communist tyranny.

"Today we need to revive that vital democratic solidarity. We need to renew the terms of our partnership and strike a new grand bargain for the future. We Americans must be willing to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies. Like all other nations, we reserve the sovereign right to defend our vital national security when and how we deem necessary. But our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom, knowledge and resources necessary to succeed. When we believe international action is necessary, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, we must work to persuade our democratic friends and allies that we are right. But in return, we must be willing to be persuaded by them. To be a good leader, America must be a good ally."

cont'd

"Our partners must be good allies, too. They must have the will and the ability to act in the common defense of freedom, democracy, and economic prosperity. They must spend the money necessary to build effective militaries that can train and fight alongside ours. They must help us deliver aid to those in need and encourage good governance in fragile states. They must face the threats of our world squarely and not evade their global responsibilities. And they must put an end to the mindless anti-Americanism that today mars international discourse. No alliance can work unless all its members share a basic faith in one another and accept an equal share of the responsibility to build a peace based on freedom.

"If we strike this new bargain and renew our transatlantic solidarity, I believe we must then take the next step and expand the circle of our democratic community. As we speak, American soldiers are serving in Afghanistan alongside British, Canadian, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Polish, and Lithuanian soldiers from the NATO alliance. They are also serving alongside forces from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea --all democratic allies or close partners of the United States. But they are not all part of a common structure. They don't work together systematically or meet regularly to develop diplomatic and economic strategies to meet their common problems. The 21st century world no longer divides neatly into geographic regions. Organizations and partnerships must be as international as the challenges we confront.

"The NATO alliance has begun to deal with this gap by promoting global partnerships between current members of the alliance and the other great democracies in Asia and elsewhere. We should go further and start bringing democratic peoples and nations from around the world into one common organization, a worldwide League of Democracies. This would not be like the universal-membership and failed League of Nations' of Woodrow Wilson but much more like what Theodore Roosevelt envisioned: like-minded nations working together in the cause of peace. The new League of Democracies would form the core of an international order of peace based on freedom. It could act where the UN fails to act, to relieve human suffering in places like Darfur. It could join to fight the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and fashion better policies to confront the crisis of our environment. It could provide unimpeded market access to t hose who share the values of economic and political freedom, an advantage no state-based system could attain. It could bring concerted pressure to bear on tyrants in Burma or Zimbabwe, with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval. It could unite to impose sanctions on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions. It could provide support to struggling democracies in Ukraine and Serbia and help countries like Thailand back on the path to democracy.

"This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations. It would complement them. But it would be the one organization where the world's democracies could come together to discuss problems and solutions on the basis of shared principles and a common vision of the future. If I am elected president, I will call a summit of the world's democracies in my first year to seek the views of my democratic counterparts and begin exploring the practical steps necessary to realize this vision.

"Americans should lead this effort, as we did sixty years ago in founding NATO. But if we are to lead responsibly, our friends and allies must see us as responsible nation, concerned not only about our own well-being but about the health of the world's economy and the future of our planet.

"Throughout the Cold War, America's support for a global economic system based on free trade and free flows of capital went hand-in-hand with our support of political freedom and democracy. To build a new era of peace based on freedom, we have to work even harder through our economic and trade policies to encourage open societies and create a climate of opportunity and hope. Our economic strategies in the Middle East must complement our political strategies by supporting modernizers who want to improve the lives of their people against those radicals and autocrats who would impoverish them. In Latin America and Africa, we need to support those who favor open economies and democratic government against populist demagogues who are dragging their nations back to the failed socialist policies of the past. In Asia we need to show that growing democratic economies can do more for the average man and woman and less for corrupt senior officials than growing economies in a one-party state.

"Americans are the most generous and caring people in the world. No one has sacrificed more in lives and treasure to save the world from tyranny. No nation spends more in combined public and private philanthropic efforts to combat disease and poverty around the world. And no one works harder to ensure the continued health and vitality of the global economy.

"Still, there is more we can do. To be successful international leaders, we need to be good international citizens. This means upholding and strengthening international laws and norms, including the laws of war. We must champion the Geneva Conventions, and we must fulfill the letter and the spirit of our international obligations. It is profoundly in our interest to do so, since our failure to abide by these rules puts our own soldiers at risk. Our moral standing in the world requires that we respect what are, after all, American principles of justice. Our values will always triumph in any war of ideas, and we can't let failings like prisoner abuse tarnish our image. If we are model citizens of the world, more people around the world will look to us as a model.

"When our nation was founded over two hundred years ago, we were the world's only democratic republic. Today, there are more than 100 electoral democracies spread all across the globe. We must reaffirm our faith in the principles that our founders declared to be universal, that all people are created equal and possess inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We fought a Revolution, a Civil War, two world wars, and a cold war to vindicate these principles and ensure that freedom could be enjoyed, as Abraham Lincoln promised, by all people of all colors everywhere.' We were right to struggle for democracy then, and we are right to do so now.

"This is not idealism, my friends. It is the truest kind of realism. Today as in the past, our interests are inextricably linked to the global progress of our ideals. The vision of a new era of enduring peace based on freedom is not a Republican vision. It is not a Democratic vision. It is an American vision. The American people have known instinctively for two centuries that we are safer when the world is more democratic. Whatever our differences, we all share the same goal: a world of peace and freedom, of prosperity and opportunity, of hope. We have a duty to ourselves to be true to those beliefs, to use our great power wisely on behalf of freedom. As Ronald Reagan proclaimed in his speech to the British Parliament in 1982, Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.'"

Africa's 'king of kings'  Gaddafi
29 August 2008

A meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The rulers, wearing gold crowns, sequined capes and colourful robes met in the Libyan town of Benghazi in what was billed as a first of its kind.

Col Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity.

Africa's political leaders are lukewarm about his vision of merging their powers to create a single government.

"We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa," Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries, who come from countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The BBC's Rana Jawad in the Mediterranean town of Benghazi says Libya's leader wants them to create a grass-roots movement to press Africa's political leaders to sign up to his vision.

Sheikh Abdilmajid from Tanzania told the BBC that the traditional rulers could play an important role.

"The people believe in the chiefs and kings more than they believe in their governments," he said.

Africa's 'king of kings'  Gaddafi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7588033.stm)

Gaddafi is such a DOOFUS!!

If he doesn't repent and confess to Christ as Savior and Lord, he's going to be in for a shock one day. In fact, I believe that there's going to be alot of people in for a shock one day.


There is only one KING of KINGS!! That is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!

African States Want to Condemn Israel While Ignoring Darfur
Friday, August 29, 2008
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

African nations preparing for a major United Nations racism conference next year want Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians on the agenda, but not the conflict in Darfur, Sudan.
 
The focus on Israel will reaffirm the concerns of critics who are urging Western governments to boycott the conference.
 
A leading African legal scholar said Thursday that Darfur should not only feature at the conference planned for April 20-24 in Geneva, but should top the agenda if the event is not to be “a joke.”
 
The Geneva gathering aims to review actions taken as a result of the landmark World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
 
The WCAR and a parallel forum of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were mired in controversy over attempts to brand Israel as a racist state and demands for reparations for slavery, and saw both the United States and Israel withdraw in protest.
 
Canada and Israel have already indicated that they will stay away from the 2009 event, which critics have dubbed “Durban II,” and some European countries, Britain and France among them, are considering their options.
 
The U.S. government has not yet announced a final decision, but has refused to participate in or fund a preparatory process, which includes regional conferences like one by Nigeria this week.
 
Attended by government officials and NGO observers from more than 20 African nations, the three-day meeting in Abuja ended with the adoption of a declaration. Along with similar texts from other regional meetings, it will be used to draw up the “outcome document” for the 2009 conference.
 
The African declaration, almost 6,000 words long, makes reference to only one specific country situation anywhere in the world, reiterating “concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupations.”
 
The crisis in Darfur does not get a mention. The U.N. says up to 300,000 lives have been lost in the western Sudanese region since fighting erupted between government-backed Arab Janjaweed militias and ethnic African rebel groups in 2003.
 
“Why is a non-African situation mentioned in a declaration about Africa, one that references neither Sudan’s racist killings, nor any other country in Africa?” asked Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based NGO, U.N. Watch.
 
“Portraying Israel’s conflict as racial is more than political mischief,” Neuer said in a statement. “It’s an attempt to dehumanize Israelis and their supporters as uniquely evil.”
 
“The obvious result of mentioning only the Palestinians as victims of racism is to demonize the Jewish state,” said Anne Bayefsky, senior editor of Eye on the U.N., a project of the Hudson Institute.
 
“The Abuja Declaration indicates that continued participation by democratic nations in the Durban II process sends precisely the wrong signals to rights-abusing states and their victims,” she said.
 
Reuters quoted a U.N. official, Ibrahim Wani, as saying that Israel’s interests were not “badly damaged,” since “it is only one paragraph that mentions the Palestinians.”
 
‘Race is the defining issue’
 
Prof. Makau Mutua, Dean of  the Buffalo Law School and director of the Human Rights Center at the State University of New York, said Thursday that that “unless the meeting [in Geneva] is a joke, it has to place Darfur at the top of its agenda.”
 
“There is no other more pressing race issue in Africa than Darfur,” said Mutua, a Kenyan. “What could be more horrendous than genocide?”
 
Asked whether he was surprised that Darfur was ignored in the text adopted in Abuja, Mutua said African nations “have shown absolutely no spine” in confronting the issue.
 
“This problem has historical dimensions where black Africans have borne the brunt of Arab expansionism and slavery,” he said.
 
The now-defunct Organization of African Unity “failed to address this historical problem, and sadly, the [successor African Union] has followed suit.”
 
The A.U. has opposed an International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request for Bashir to be indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity, condemning what it called “the misuse of indictments against African leaders.”
 
“How can Africans expect outsiders to tackle the issue of Darfur if they themselves are too cowardly to address it?” Mutua asked.
 
During the meeting in Abuja, a U.N. Watch representative delivered a speech in which atrocities in Darfur were addressed.
 
“Sudan immediately interrupted with an objection – supported by Algeria and Morocco – and Chairman Martin Uhomoibhi of Nigeria ruled that country situations could not be mentioned,” Neuer reported.
 
Some have disputed that the Darfur conflict is a racial one, pointing to the fact that while Arabic speaking, many Janjaweed militiamen are black. Juan Cole, left-wing Middle East professor at the University of Michigan, has written that the Arab versus African argument is promoted by “rightwing Zionists” who want to racialize the conflict for political reasons.
 
But the Janjaweed itself has promoted the Arab vs. African angle. An Amnesty International report published in 2004 cited a song sung by militia-supporting women that said, “the power of [Sudanese president Omar] al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God.”
 
(Some experts argue that, however the race issue may appear to Western eyes, what is relevant is how the protagonists view each other; to outsiders, Rwandan Tutsis and Hutus may look alike but few dispute that attempted genocide occurred there during the 1990s.)
 
Mutua said there was no doubt that “race in the context of the struggle for resources and power is the defining issue in the genocide” in Darfur.
 
“The more than 300,000 killed and three million Darfurians who have been displaced are black,” he said. “There is no other rational explanation for the pogroms against them except their race.”
 
'Islamophobia,' free speech and counter-terrorism
 
Other concerns arising from the declaration adopted in Abuja include references – six times in the text – to “incitement to religious hatred” and the need for countries to take legal and other steps against it.
 
The document “calls upon States to avoid inflexibly clinging to free speech in defiance of the sensitivities existing in a society and with absolute disregard for religious feelings.”
 
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a bloc of Muslim states, is leading a campaign at the U.N. to have what it calls the defamation of Islam outlawed, and “Islamophobia” is expected to feature prominently at the Geneva conference.
 
Neuer said the language in the Abuja text “goes far beyond the recognized norms for balancing prohibitions of racial hatred with respect for free speech, which is the lifeblood of democracy.”
 
“If the right to express one’s beliefs … is to be restricted by the ‘feelings’ and ‘sensitivities’ of others, this will mark the end of free speech as we know it.”
 
Elsewhere, the Abuja declaration “draws attention to the impact of counter-terrorism measures on the rise of racism … including the practice of racial, ethnic, national and religious profiling.”
 
Bayefsky of Eye on the U.N. said this was an attempt to stifle efforts to combat terrorism.
 
“The United Nations, which still cannot manage to define terrorism, has instead focused on placing roadblocks in the way of counter terrorism measures,” she said. “Charging counter terrorism activities with racism is a favorite.”

CNSNews.com African States Want to Condemn Israel While Ignoring Darfur (http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=34830)

Anglicans still divided over homosexuality
August 30 2008

Senior churchmen yesterday rejected proposals designed to avoid a schism in the Anglican Communion, insisting they would continue to develop their own global movement for conservative evangelicals and offer it as an alternative solution to the current crisis over homosexuality.

Six primates, who between them claim to represent half of the world's Anglicans, issued a communique saying they were "saddened" by the Lambeth conference, the 10-yearly gathering held last month in Canterbury, for failing to offer a "more effective way forward".

The communique follows their meeting, in London last week, to establish a council, an advisory board and a secretariat for the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca).

All but one of the signatories, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone, boycotted Lambeth, partly because of invitations extended to prominent liberal bishops.

The primates said their "immediate difficulty" was that the voice of Lambeth 2008 was "seriously weakened" because it repeated what had already been said in previous summits aimed at healing deep divisions over the ordination of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions.

In a swipe at the Archbishop of Canterbury, who earlier this month expressed his optimism and hope about the future of the Anglican Communion, they said: "The hope that we may somehow return to the state of affairs before 2003 is an illusion."

The Archbishop of Sydney and newly-appointed Gafcon secretary, the Right Rev Peter Jensen, said: "At Lambeth there was talk of building bridges but as far as I know there has been no approach made.

"The communique is on the right track. It is not a schism, they have no intention of leaving, it is the reverse. To provide a way for people to stay. They are trying to get the Americans to have a mechanism to stay within the Anglican Communion."

Anglicans still divided over homosexuality (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/30/anglicanism.religion)

Brazil spending $160M on nuclear propelled sub

By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 29, 8:22 PM ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil will spend US$160 million by the end of next year on the development of a nuclear-propelled submarine to protect the oil reserves found recently off its coast, the defense minister said Friday.

The vessel — which officials hope to be complete by 2020 — would be the first nuclear-propelled submarine in Latin America. Brazil does not have nuclear weapons.

The submarine is the highlight of the Brazil's new defense plan — to be made public on Sept. 7.

Brazil is believed to be preparing to spend US$3.5 billion by the end of 2010 to upgrade its weapon systems, according to reports in the local media.

Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, speaking Friday in Rio de Janeiro, said the new defense plan includes provisions for a massive technology transfer from France — essential if Brazil hopes to have a nuclear submarine.

In February, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would transfer technology to Brazil for construction of the diesel-powered Scorpene attack submarine. It will serve as a model for a nuclear sub, Brazilian officials have said.

Brazil's strategic affairs minister said this week that Brazil is planning a "significant increase" in defense spending.

Roberto Mangabeira Unger told reporters Brazil wants to create a rapid deployment force and build a state-of-the-art weapons industry — one that would become an active exporter of arms.

Unger did not detail how big of a jump there would be in the defense budget, which now stands at 1.5 percent of gross domestic product. Brazil's GDP was about US$1.5 trillion last year.

But he said Brazil's military must become more agile to protect the country's long coastline and vast, porous borders in the Amazon, along with its oil reserves.

Brazil has discussed building a nuclear submarine for decades, and began a formal program in 1979. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last year announced US$540 million in new funding for the program and for existing uranium enrichment efforts.

The nation has five conventionally powered submarines.

Brazil spending $160M on nuclear propelled sub  (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080830/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_nuclear_sub;_ylt=AtnXj1ozuR4M3RxGFUtBGXW3IxIF)

Thought this was really interesting from David Reagan:

Signs of the End Times and the Exponential Curve

"Well, the Bible says we are to watch for signs that are going to point to the soon return of Jesus and there are many. One of the signs we're going to talk to you about... is the signs of technology - the sign of the exponential curve. Economically, if say a business is growing so fast, and you're charting it's growth, and the lines on your chart begin to go straight up, that's an exponential curve. For example in 1986 America On Line had 55 employees and 50,000 customers, and in 1995 (9 years later), it had 3,228 employees and 4 1/2 million customers - that's how fast they grew - that's an exponential curve.

The Biblical concept of the exponential curve can be found in the Word of God, both in the OT and the NT. For example in Daniel 12:4 we find this verse:

"But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time, many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase." (NASV)

Jesus referred to this in Matthew 24:

"Many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Christ," and will mislead many.
And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for these things must take place, but that is not yet the end.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will ber famines and earthquakes.
But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

When a woman nears the time of birth, He's talking about the birth pangs that increase in two ways, in frequency and intensity. So there'll be more wars and more intense wars; more hurricanes and more intense hurricanes, as we approach the time of the LORD'S return.

The point that I wanna make here is that all aspects of life wil be on the exponential curve in the end times. And, my thesis is, that the 20th century was the century of the exponential curve, and it is a sure sign that we are on the threshhold of the tribulation, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is returning soon!

Now I'll give you some examples. The first one is the most obvious, and that has to do with world population.

- I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but the population of the world at the time of Jesus Christ was 200 million. You'll find this is a figure all agree on if you study it. If I were to chart that for you and I started at the time of Christ and started with a line, the line would be almost flat....until you got almost to 1900 and then suddenly the line goes straight up in a classic exponential curve. For example, did you know that from the time of Christ until the 16th century, it took 1,650 years for the worlds population to double to 400 million. It did not reach a billion until 1850 - and 100 years later, we ended the 20th century with 6 billion people! That is a classic exponential curve, and that is incredible growth in one century's time.

-The key to this is modern day medicine. And what we don't understand is how 'modern' modern day medicine is. It's primarily in your and my lifetime that we've experienced the miracles that make it possible for people to live alot longer. For example take US life expectancy, in 1900 the life expectancy of an American was 47 years. By the end of the century the life expectancy had increased 30 years to age 77. If I had been born in the 19th century I would have already been dead several times. At age 12 I had appendicitis, in the 19th century if you had appendicitis you're dead. Even in the early 20th century, Harry Truman's father had appendicitis - 3 days later he died. Did you know that if you're 35 years old, you've lived longer than the vast majority of all the people that have ever lived on planet earth. 1897 was the first aspirin - think about that for a second - mankind lived 5,000 years without aspirin. How could that be? That's like saying they lived 5,000 years without duct tape - I don't know how ya do that, ya know?
Also, did you know that 2/3 of all the people who have ever lived to the age of 65 are alive at this very moment.

- Military power - throughout most of recorded history man has used bows and arrows and swords and spears and catapults to fight. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, warfare was still very primitive. WWI turned into a stagnant war, where no one had the power to break it open, and more people died of trench diseases than died of wounds in WWI. Bi-planes would fly over trenches and drop hand grenades into ditches. Lines would only move a few hundred yards. But yet, 80 years later, military power had increased exponentially. We had inter-continental bombers, we had nuclear weapons, we had laser guided missiles, biological and chemical weapons. Today, one nuclear submarine has more fire power than all the bombs that were dropped in WWII. All of which help us to better understand these words of Jesus:

"Men will faint from fear over the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken." (Luke 21:26)

Cont'd....

David Reagan Cont'd...

-Let's consider transportation. At the beginning of the 20th century, the major means of transportation was still what it had been for 5,000 years. People mainly got around by walking and riding a horse. The only thing new that had come up was steam power which had been applied to trains and to ships, but the average person couldn't afford to travel in that manner very often, it was simply too expensive.
Yet 80 years later, we had automobiles, airplanes, rocket ships, bullet trains. In 1866, Mark Twain went to the Holy Land. His very famous trip that resulted in his first book called "Innocents Abroad". From the time he left San Francisco to the time he arrived in the Holy Land, it took him 3 months travel to get there. Today we get on an airliner, and we fly non-stop from Atlanta to Tel Aviv in 13 hours and everybody gets off the plane fussing about how long it took to get there! It's amazing what has happened in the field of transportation.

- Consider communications - at the beginning of the 20th century the telegraph had speeded up communication considerably, but the fundamental way of communicating in that day and age was by newspaper and by word of mouth. And look what has happened 80 years later we are communicating in ways we never imagined. We communicate by telephone, by short wave radio, by radio, by television, by fax machine, by pagers and satellites make that communication instantaneous and worldwide. I never cease to be amazed when I go to the city of Jerusalem and bring someone over to a little hole-in-the wall shop and the person I take buys something, hands a credit card to the clerk, the clerk swipes the card, it sends a signal up to a satellite, the satellite sends a signal accross the ocean, there in the US to a bank, the bank verifies his card, the signal goes back up, back over, and all that is done in an instant! And we just take it for granted.

- Perhaps the greatest revolution of all has been the internet. In 4 years, from 1995 -1998, 150 million people became internet users. Today, there are 1.3 billion users worldwide! That is certainly an example of the exponential curve.

- Computer technology - In 1970, I was VP of Austin College. In 1970 we paid $100,000 for an IBM computer. That computer filled an entire room, we had to have special air conditiong to keep it from melting down. It operated with punch cards, and it had an amazing 64K memory. Ten years later, in 1980, our ministry bought a desktop computer, for $4,500. The first time I plugged it in and turned it on, the first thing that came on the screen was, to my amazement, 64K memory! In 10 years time it had gone from $100,000 and an entire room, to $4,500 and sitting on my desk.
Ten years later, 1990, I go to Radio Shack and I buy myself a little palm held address book. It cost me $90. I turned the thing on and the very first thing that came on the screen - 64K memory! That is the exponential curve folks!
Today you can purchase a computer with 1 gig of memory and a 250 gig hard drive, operating at 667 megahurtz, for $349, it's amazing what has happened in the world or technology!

- Well, let's look at knowledge - knowledge is increasing exponentially, and brother if you're trying to keep up in any field you know that's true. But knowledge is increasing so rapidly that there's very little wisdom that you run accross these days. Because wisdom comes from reflection on knowledge, and you have to run so fast to keep up with the knowledge that you don't have time to sit and reflect on it - so you just don't see that much wisdom. Let me show you how fast it is increasing:
- From the time of Christ to 1500, knowldge doubled
- From 1500 to 1750 it doubled again
- From 1750 to 1900 it doubled again
- From 1900 to 1950 it doubled again
- Today, this moment, it is doubling every 2 years! That means that a set of encyclopedias are out of date before they can even be published. That's how fast knowledge is increasing!

Cont'd...........

Cont'd....


"I ran accross a remarkable article a few years ago, by a scientist named Dr. Gabor Levy. And he talked about this, listen to what he said, "There are some 100,000 scholarly journals into which 100's of thousands of researchers pour their findings. There are 100's of textbooks published yearly, there are uncounted meetings and lectures. Suburban commuters know the frustration of running after a train as it is pulling out of the station - no matter how fast you run, the ever accelerating train lengthens the distance. It is this sinking feeling that I experience when reviewing scientific literature, regardless of how diligently I read, I master a poor percentage of the existing knowledge each year. I knew more about what was knowable at age 25 than I did at 40 years of age. By now, I feel utterly uneducated. As my speeding literary train fades into the distance, I'm not alone. I see others on the platform just shrugging in desperation. There is an alarming increase in things we know nothing about."

Did you know that one Sunday edition of the NY Times contains more information than a normal person in the 19th century was subjected to in an entire lifetime? That's what we're dealing with today when we think about the explosion of knowledge.

- Violence and Lawlessness - Deaths in all the wars from Jesus Christ to the 20th century is estimated to be a total of 40 million people who died in warfare. Now in the 20th century 110 million people died in wars! Since WWII wars have been constant in the world. At any given moment 40 wars have been raging somewhere in the world through the last part of the 20th century. Now, the new boy on the street, Terrorism - resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of lives all over the world.

- What about society? - In society we have seen an exponential decline in our quality of life as society has disintegrated before our very eyes. And it is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. The major prophecy is here in 2Timothy 3, although Jesus said society will go full circle and become as evil and immoral as it was in the days of Noah. But Paul lays it out:

"In the last days, perilous times will come..."

It's going to be a time where society will literally wallow in despair, and we are there, that's where we are today. When I was born abortionists were sent to prison; homosexuals were considered unnatural; pornography was considered despicable; marriage was sacred; living together was taboo; homemaking was honored; home care was provided by mothers in their homes; child abuse was almost unheard of; cursing was just not acceptable - today the most horrible language you could possibly imagine is in movies from beginning to end and it's amazing how many Christians just sit there and listen to it and don't even think anything about it, or get up and leave or whatever, and don't pay any attention to how the movies are rated!
But anyway, houses and autos were never locked - we never locked anything; if you don't lock things in Dallas today it won't be there when you get back -
but we never locked anything - we never worried about that; drugs were something you bought at a pharmacy...

These are all so negative, but here is a positive. I said to you, my thesis is that everything in the end times will be on the exponential curve - well that includes evangelism, Praise God, it has also been on the exponential curve.
In 1800, there were only 71 translations of the Bible available in different languages, and that was in whole or in part. Some of them were just the NT only, others the whole Bible.
By 1930, there were 900! Today, there are 2100 different translations of the Bible in different languages and there are 1900 in progress at this moment and they're coming off faster than ever before because of computer technology!
Last year approximately 72 million Bibles were distributed worldwide.

In preaching - in 1996, Billy Graham preached in Puerto Rico. That message was broadcast in 185 countries in the world, in 116 different languages and 1 1/2 billion people heard the message. More people heard that one sermon than at the time of Peter in Petecost in that day. Because of modern technology.

World Missions - 70% of all missions work has been done since 1900. Worldwide, Christianity is growing at 3 times the rate of the population growth!

In Africa, in 1900, there were 10 million Christians. Today theres a minimum of 380 million Christians in Africa.

In China, they estimate that there's a minimum of 25,000 people a day accepting the Lord in China! If there was freedom to preach in China, the Gospel would spread through that country like wildfire! But the fact that 25,000 a day come to the Lord, when you can be jailed for preaching in China is fantastic!!

In the Moslem world, more Moslems have accepted Jesus Christ in the last 20 years than in the previous 1,000 years! That is something - particularly when you consider accepting Christ in the Moslem world means death!

The real key to that is prayer. God is moving supernaturally.

With the Jews. In 1967 there was not one Messianic congregation in the world. Now there's over 500, 50 of them in Israel! God is bringing a salvation of firstfruits before He saves that great remnant at the end of the tribulation period.

The fields are white, they are ready for harvest, we've gotta get the workers out there as never before!

These things underscore the possibility of the impossible!! And they certainly reavel that man is not in control.

And what does this mean to you?

1 - Bible prophecy is true - how can a person that reads the Bible conclude that the regathering of Israel is an accident of history?

2- It proves that God is in control. He knows what's going to happen in the future - He has the power to see that it comes to pass!

3 - We are living on borrowed time. Do not take time for granted. Do not keep putting off the Lord!! Live for Him and let Him live in you now!!

The exponential curve is just one of many, many signs that Jesus is about to return! The signs of the times are literally shouting from the heavens that Jeus is Returning Soon!!

Cont'd...

"Are you taking time for granted, or are you turning a deaf ear to the signs of the times? So many people are doing that - they think they've got time. But the time is very short.

Let me give you an illustration:

Mount St. Helens, in the winter of 1979, was very serene, very beautiful. But in the winter of 1979 that mountain began to shake, and I mean brother, it began to shake. Volcano experts, geologists, seismologists, came from all over the world, put all their instruments all over the mountain, and they said 'this baby is gonna blow, and it's gonna blow big'. And everyone got off the mountain except 1 person. He was a colorful character named Harry Truman. He was 83 years old, had 23 cats, and he wouldn't come down.

They had him on the news every night, standing there with 23 cats hanging around him, and the mountain would be shaking back and forth, and they kept saying, 'Harry, when are ya comin off the mountain?' He said, 'I was born on this mountain, I lived on this mountain 83 years, I know more about this mountain than those 'experts' know about it, this mountain will never blow, they're all just full of hot air. I don't care what they say. They say there are signs. But I don't care about the signs, it's not gonna happen.'

One day his daughter, who was 60 years old, begged him, 'Daddy, please come off the mountain', but he said, 'Honey, don't worry, it's not gonna happen.'

Well, at 8:32am on Sunday, May 8, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with a 24 megaton explosion that reduced the height of the mountain by 1,300 feet, leaving a crater 1.5 miles wide and 2,000 feet deep - darkening the sky all the way from Seattle to NY, and as far south as Oklahoma. And to this day, no one has ever heard a word from poor Harry Truman or his 23 cats.

Folks that's where we are. The signs are shouting from the heavens 'JESUS IS COMING' and no one understands what's going on. Those getting the warnings are saying, 'Well, I've got some time'. Well our time is running out. And I urge you, if you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, before this day is over to receive Him. Get on your knees before the Lord and cry out to Him and say 'God I am a sinner, I confess that I'm a sinner, I repent of my sins and I need Jesus Christ to come into my life. Send the Holy Spirit to energize me. May I be born anew. May I become a child of yours with the hope of spending eternity with you.'

And if you're a person whose put your hope in something else rather than putting your hope in Jesus Christ, I urge you to transfer that hope to Jesus, and away from the things of the world. I urge you - because the time is short. Jesus is Coming Soon! And on the day that He breaks through the heavens I want you to be able to look upon Him as your blessed hope. I want you to be able to cry out from the depths of your heart, 'Maranatha!!!! Come quickly Lord Jesus!!"

Amen!

For many that time may be even sooner. Today, right now is the time.

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek.
Rom 1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith
to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Salvation, salvation from death under the law by God's perfect grace.

Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh
after God.
Rom 3:12  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned:

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in
unrighteousness;

Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of
works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through him.

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance?

Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no
difference:

Rom 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.

Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.

Rom 4:21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was
able also to perform.

Rom 4:24  But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Rom 10:13  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Something that I just found out that is quite interesting and fits into the Biblical end times scenario.

First it is important to know what a dhimmi is according to sharia law. The word dhimmi basically means protection or protected. In sharia law dhimmi's are those that are non-muslims that pay what is called a jizya which is basically a capitol tax or poll tax just for non-muslims. Those that pay this tax are protected and allowed to own a home, property, and supposedly allowed freedom of religion and to worship (naturally there are huge restrictions on this).

One of the things that is required is that a dhimmi must be marked in order to recognize them from those that do not give their total loyalties to sharia law. In the past it has been acceptable that dhimmi's were made to wear certain clothing to distinguish them. Recently they are requiring that dhimmi's are to be tattooed in a place that is easily seen at all times. (forehead or right hand is recommended) Any non-muslim that is not tattoed becomes a target for forced conversion and punished even by death for not converting.

AMEN AND AMEN!

Sister Barbara, the article from David Reagan was great - THANKS! Pastor Roger, I also found the markings according to sharia law to be fascinating. Could this be the MARK OF THE BEAST? I don't know, but it would make sense. In fact, it makes more sense than anything I've read in a long time, and it does fit Bible Prophecy like a glove.

Brothers and Sister, every Christian should be very sad about the great hosts of lost people around the world. They must remain a high priority and a matter of prayer for every day we have left on this planet. HOWEVER, we should not be sad that ALMIGHTY GOD is about to fulfill Promises HE made thousands of years ago. For Christians, GOD'S Promises are a matter of JOY and PEACE!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Europeans to join Israelis in anti-Islam summit
September 03, 2008

A right-wing Israeli lawmaker announced on Wednesday that some 30 European parliamentarians have agreed to attend an upcoming conference at the Israeli Knesset dealing with the threat posed by Islam's spread across Europe.

National Union representative Aryeh Eldad said that the conference, entitled "Facing Jihad: A Lawmaker's Summit," is planned for December 14-15, and will also be a showcase of support for the Jewish state by his European guests.

The centerpiece of the gathering will be the short film "Fitna," created by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders earlier this year to demonstrate how Islam and the Koran promote terrorism and pose a threat to modern European and Western society.

Wilders will join the other European lawmakers at the summit, and is scheduled to give the keynote address.

Eldad hopes that the summit will end with the Israelis and Europeans forming a new Judeo-Christian alliance to confront the spread of Islam and the violence that inevitably follows in its wake.

The summit plans are being furiously opposed by Arab members of Israel's Knesset like Ahmed Tibi, who accused Eldad and his European friends of being racists.

Tibi was formerly an aid to Yasser Arafat, and has spent his years in the Knesset encouraging Israel's Arabs to subvert Israeli authorities.

He and other Arab lawmakers, along with the more left-leaning Jewish Knesset members, are urging Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to deny Eldad permission to host the summit.

Eldad says that if Itzik denies his request, he will petition Israel's Supreme Court on the grounds of freedom of speech. He also warned Itzik against alienating a group of European parliamentarians who are brave enough in today's politically-correct atmosphere to still unconditionally support Israel and its right to sovereignty over all its God-given lands.

Europeans to join Israelis in anti-Islam summit (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=17078)

Let A World Council Decide The Fate Of Jerusalem, Temple Mount
4 Elul 5768, September 4, '08
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has proposed to Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that the international community participate in helping to determine the status of Jerusalem. He will meet with Abbas on Sunday, probably for the last time before Kadima party members go to the polls in less than three weeks to elect his replacement.

The international community's role would be that of advisors, but would give it large media exposure in attempts to divide the city and make it a shared capital of both Israel and a new Arab country. Leaders of the European Union (EU) and other Western countries have suggested that Jews not have exclusive sovereignty over its holy sites in the city.

Yasser Arafat, Abbas's predecessor, rejected a similar offer by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000. His rejection of the proposal stemming from the Oslo Agreements helped spark the Oslo War, also referred to as the "second intifiada," that unleashed suicide bombings, machine-gun ambushes and rocket attacks that have killed more than 1,000 Israelis.

Prime Minister Olmert as recently as two years ago stated that Jerusalem is Israel's "undivided and eternal" capital, and the Shas party has said several times it will leave the coalition and topple the government if the status of Jerusalem is negotiated.

However, the Prime Minister has successfully maneuvered negotiations around this obstacle while the Knesset remains out of session, and the media generally has avoided restraining him or questioning him or Shas on its previous promises. Technically, the agreement could allow Shas to claim that Prime Minister Olmert only is placing into effect a mechanism to discuss the status of Jerusalem in the future and that dividing the city is not being negotiated at the moment.

Possible international monitors under consideration are Jordan, the Vatican, Egypt and the Quartet, which includes Russia, the United Nations, the United States and the EU.
 
Prime Minister Olmert's proposal calls for a final status agreement to be reached within five years. If Abbas agrees, the deal could effectively bind the next government through international pressure.

Let A World Council Decide The Fate Of Jerusalem, Temple Mount (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127403)

Georgia mobilizes commando units near S.Ossetia - Russian military


Global Research, September 2, 2008
RIA Novosti

02/09/2008 19:06 MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia is mobilizing commando units near its border with South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official said on Tuesday.

Russia officially recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on August 26, saying the move was needed to protect the regions after Georgia's August 8 attack on South Ossetia.

"According to our information, Georgian security forces are trying to restore their [military] presence in Georgian populated villages in South Ossetia. With this aim, Georgia is mobilizing its special forces from the interior and defense ministries near the administrative border with South Ossetia," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said.

He also said that Russia had deployed 19 peacekeeping observation posts in South Ossetia to provide security and stability in the republic, adding that South Ossetian military detachments were also mobilizing near the border to counter any possible Georgian attacks.

Georgia attacked South Ossetia on August 8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which split from Tbilisi in the early 1990s. Most people living in South Ossetia have Russian citizenship and Moscow subsequently launched an operation to "force Georgia to accept peace." The operation was concluded on August 12.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Russian support for South Ossetia and Abkhazia envisaged military as well as economic assistance.

Georgia mobilizes commando units near S.Ossetia - Russian military (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10038)

 LIBYA: GADDAFI APPOINTED "KING OF KINGS" BY TRIBE LEADERS


Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was appointed 'King of Kings' of Africa on the occasion of an unannounced meeting between a few dozens of African tribe leaders held yesterday evening in Benghazi, in east Libya.

"We decide the recognition of our brother leader as 'king of kings, of sultans, of princes, of sheikhs and of mayors of Africa' and his appointment 'king of kings' from today," a final statement of the 'forum' which gathered over 200 African tribe leaders on initiative of the Libyan leader, reads. "The forum of the kings, princes, sultans and sheikhs of the traditional tribes in Africa," which from now on will meet every year, also decided the creation of a permanent secretariat general, whose seat will be in Sirte, Libya.

The Libyan leader, in his turn, invited the tribal leaders to take their responsibilities in the capacity of local leaders "to put pressure on the governments of their countries in view of Africàs unification and the creation of the United States of Africa", whose architect is Gaddafi. "I incite the tribes to move quickly and to put pressure for the creation of the United States of Africa," he said during a speech, adding that he has allotted funds for those who will pursue this goal.

Dressed in animal leather and feathers, with crowns of massive gold on their heads, the tribe leaders followed one another on the tribune with their traditional coloured clothes to "praise the efforts of the Leader" of the Libyan revolution for the unification of Africa and to offer their congratulations on the occasion of the 39th anniversary of the revolution on September 1, 1969 when he rose to power. Gaddafi was given 'a royal throne', a Koran of the 18th century, ostrich eggs, traditional clothes and products of the local handicraft.

Signs Of The Times

The bible gives us many "signs of the times" to show us of the coming age of the end times. Jesus tels us in Matthew 24 that many will come in His name claiming to be Christ, that there will be wars and rumors of wars, yet even though these things happen it still is not yet the end. He continues to tell us that nations and kingdoms will rise against each other, that there will be famines, pestilences (diseases and an abundance of insects), and earthquakes. and that these are just the beginning of sorrows. These sorrows will include worldwide persecution of Christians with many false prophets, sin will be widespread and that any semblance of true love for others will diminish. We see many of these things just now starting to take place. Yet it is still not full blown. When it does come it will be like no other time in the history of the earth. Remember this as we continue on in this subject ... it will be a time unlike any "since the beginning of the world".

Also take note here that there is no mention of anything that resembles global warming or the hype that is associated with it such as more hurricanes or extensive flooding.


Global Warming Is Not Biblical

I am really surprised as to how many Christians have jumped on the global warming bandwagon. Global warming is a complete myth that was started by pagan environmentalists. This is a group that actually worships "mother earth" and sometimes is even called Gaia, which is a Greek mythological character that is the mother and gaurdian of the earth. Al Gore even mentions this Gaia in his book "Earth in the Balance".

Now how can I say it is not Biblical? If we but do a little looking we can see that we have God's word on this. All the way back to Genesis He tells us that we will continue to have seasons both hot and cold as long as the earth remains.

Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Going back to Matthew 24 Jesus tells us that there will be winter even after the appearance of "the abomination of desolation".

Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

There are so many end times scenarios that are preached that add in this global warming hype as though it were a Biblical fact when in truth it is not there at all. In doing so they are actually hurting their ministry, they are helping lead many astray by aiding in the pagan beliefs and even the worship of Gaia.

Let's make sure that we keep that which is committed to our trust, to avoid the profane and vain babblings of these false prophets and to insure that we oppose science that is so falsely called science.

Excellent PR!  Thank you!

Uhhhhhhhhh brother, look back a page, Post 58 - Africa's 'king of kings' Gaddafi (http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?topic=22303.msg255590#msg255590) (http://bestsmileys.com/lol/4.gif)

My comments remain the same................

Is the era of mass immigration to Israel over?

Prophecy News Watch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last great immigration wave — Ethiopian Christians of Jewish ancestry who convert back to Judaism for resettlement in Israel — has just ended, and with it an iconic chapter in Israeli history.

The persecuted and the poor of world Jewry are for the most part already here. So most future immigrants will be people like Schwab, making a private, individual choice.

Israel's appeal to the Jewish Diaspora used to be as a small feisty nation fighting for its survival, or as a socialist alternative to the capitalist rat race. There were kibbutzim to farm and deserts to make bloom.

But today the Jewish state is in many ways a normal industrialized democracy. Its immigrants today are as likely to be job-hunting non-Jews from Africa and Asia, many of them here illegally, as Zionists in search of spiritual fulfillment.

Diaspora Jews are also less likely to leave everything behind for Israel. It's much easier today to be a dual national, living part-time in both worlds. Meanwhile, Israelis have also become frequent fliers. The tech-savvy nouveaux-riches of Tel Aviv joke that a visit to New York is more common than a 40-mile pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Schwab arrived a year ago from Maui, where she practiced Judaism in an informal "Aloha-style kind of way." She is fluent in Hebrew and studies at an Israeli university. Her boyfriend is a "Sabra" — a native-born Israeli. She lives in Tel Aviv, which next year celebrates its centennial as the world's first purpose-built Jewish city.

She's part of an old ideal, "the ingathering of the exiles" — the raison d'etre of the Zionist movement from its beginnings more than a century ago.

Even before Israel became a state, the Jewish population grew to 600,000 in five great waves of immigration as European Jews beset by pogroms and then the Holocaust realized an age-old Jewish dream of returning to Zion after 2,000 years in exile.

More than 3 million more have followed, and Israel's Jewish population now stands at 5.5 million, plus 1.4 million Arab citizens. Of the world's population of just over 13 million Jews, Israel's is the biggest portion, having surpassed America's in 2006.

"There is no place in the world where the number of immigrants is five times the number of the people who were there. It is unprecedented," said Sergio DellaPergola, a prominent demographer at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

The 1950s, according to the Jewish Agency which handles immigration, saw the arrival of 765,000 Jews from North Africa and the Middle East, driven out by the Arab backlash that followed Israel's creation. Next came tens of thousands from the European communist bloc, and then another million from the collapsing Soviet Union.

Starting in the early 1980s, Israel clandestinely airlifted 80,000 members of Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community, nearly 15,000 of them in just two days in 1991.

Today, with no immediate threat to world Jewry, and with the most endangered communities already in Israel, such drama is a thing of the past.

Jews in America and other prosperous Western countries have no pressing motivation to leave everything for Israel, a country founded to provide a safe haven for Jews but which has become one of the most dangerous places for a Jew to live, because of war and terrorism.

Indeed, while the U.S. Jewish community is one of Israel's most important backers, only 120,000 American Jews have immigrated here.

"I am going to destroy a myth here," said Ori Konforti, the Ethiopia envoy for the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency. "Waves of immigration have never been because of the pulling power of Israel but rather because of the pushing power of where those people came from."

Most Jews in poor countries have already left, and for the first time, Israel is nearing zero growth from immigration, with the number of those leaving closing in on the number of those coming, DellaPergola said.

"We have brought all the needy and the situation of the rest of the Jews is pretty well off," he said. "There is not a lot of distress in the Diaspora today so the question is what kind of quality of life Israel can offer these people."

For Israelis, "aliyah," is a revered term symbolizing the hope of a persecuted nation returning to its ancient homeland. Conversely, leaving the country is known as "yeridah," meaning "going down."

But these distinctions have lost their emotional charge. Israelis who leave to further their education or to earn more money are no longer pariahs.

The end of mass immigration comes as Israelis have lost some of their self-confidence, bogged down in their 41-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, perceiving their country to be under weak, corrupt leadership, nostalgic for the frugal socialist era.

But Israel isn't giving up. Ingrained in Israelis' consciousness is the conviction that their country is the world's only guaranteed escape hatch for Jews in peril. They are steeped in the memory of boatloads of Jews fleeing the Nazis, only to be turned away at every port and ending up in gas chambers.

Since France suffered a wave of anti-Semitic violence a few years ago, widely attributed to rising passions over Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Israeli real estate agents have reported a sharp increase in house-buying by French Jews.

Last month, when war broke out in the Caucasus, some 40 Georgian Jews fled to Israel, and another 120 have applied to immigrate, according to the Jewish Agency.

So while it may no longer dream of mass immigration, Israel feels an imperative to keep in touch with the Diaspora.

Birthright Israel offers a free trip to Israel for young Diaspora Jews who have never been here. Another nonprofit, Nefesh B'Nefesh, offers economic incentives and helps immigrants navigate Israel's notorious bureaucracy.

Birthright estimates that some 8 percent of its participants return to Israel within two years, and 5 percent eventually immigrate.

Schwab came with Nefesh B'Nefesh, sensed an idealism she needed in her life, and decided to make it permanent.

"Israel is a lot like the U.S. but there is something a bit more meaningful," Schwab said. "There is a kind of mission for some higher ideal."

Due in part to such projects, immigration from North America has picked up in recent years, with 3,200 arriving in 2006 — a tiny number by past standards, but the highest in 23 years.

Natan Sharansky, the Soviet Jewish dissident who spent more than a decade in prison, immigrated to Israel and become a Cabinet minister, said people like Schwab are proof that Israel's ideology is still alive and well.

"These people decided that Israel is a place that they want to live their life," he said. "That is a victory of Zionism."

According to this documentary, Iran has the most number of Jews after Israel in the Middle East.

This is a video, and what I got off it. The video is 13:10 minutes long. I only watched a few minutes of it.

'Jews Undercover - Iran' (http://www.searchles.com/channels/show/2722)

Despite suffering discrimination and facing a harsh financial situation, Jews from Iran are immigrating to Israel in smaller numbers each year. Between the years 2000 and 2007–approximately 1,200 Jews arrived from Iran. In 2000: 384, 2001: 207, and year by year the numbers have diminished. However, while 65 Jews arrived from Iran in 2006, thus far this year 77 have arrived.

This is despite The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, of which Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is president, which guarantees a grant of $10,000 to each Iranian Jew who comes to Israel. Efforts are being made to put together a package of incentives to entice them further.

Yossi Shraga, Director of Middle East immigration at the Jewish Agency, there are between 25,000 and 28,000 Jews now living in Iran–though the Iranians themselves put the number much higher: 100,000. Either way, averaging 100 Jews from Iran per year is a minuscule amount.

The coming 1-world currency
Some set 2010 as date for monetary union

On Wednesday, finance chiefs of five of the six-member, oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council approved a proposal to create a monetary union as a move toward adopting a single currency, according to the AFP.

The six Islamic states constituting the Gulf Cooperation Council are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Oman pulled out of the agreement last year.

Five states in the compact have agreed to set 2010 as the target date for the creation of a monetary union and the adoption of common currency.

The emergence of an Islamic single currency among these oil-rich Middle Eastern countries marks a significant step in the emerging worldwide movement to abandon national currencies in favor of regional currencies, along the model where the EU states have abandoned their national currencies in favor of the European Central Bank and the euro.

In 2002, the finance ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council states sought out the assistance of the European Central Bank, as the model for their single currency, according to BBC reports.

The council was created in 1981 to promote the development of the member countries.

The monetary union will entail the creation of a central bank to issue the single currency.

At the Wednesday meeting in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, the finance and economy ministers reviewed the European Union's response to the council's view on eliminating obstacles that have blocked a long-stalled free trade agreement with the EU.

Progress was also made on key convergence factors required to underpin the common currency, including setting the ratio of budget deficit and public debt to the gross domestic product, target interest rates and reserve requirements. Progress yet remains in reaching a consensus on inflation, the last remaining stumbling block to creating the common currency.

International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who met with the Gulf Cooperation Council finance ministers in Jeddah, hailed the move by the Gulf states toward economic integration, though he continued to express doubts the single currency would be adopted within two years.

"Achieving monetary union by 2010 will be a major challenge, as much remains to be done to enable the creation of a single currency within two years," Straus-Kahn. "Overcoming the current inflationary pressures, developing a clear vision of the powers of the future common central bank, choosing an exchange regime of the common currency, and harmonizing financial regulations and structures will be critical in this process."

One factor easing the transition toward a single currency is that the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states all currently peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar.

Small Asteroid Entered Atmosphere Monday Night
Tuesday , October 07, 2008

A very small asteroid was to streak into the skies over Sudan Monday night, astronomers announced. It was expected to burn up in the atmosphere, creating a show.

It was not expected to strike Earth.

It would have been the first time an asteroid "impact" has been predicted with near certainty, astronomers said.

The space rock is only about 6 feet in diameter (3 meters) and poses "no risk to those on the ground," said David Morrison of NASA's Ames Research Center. A similar-sized object during the day would likely go unnoticed, he said.

The fiery entry likely appeared to be a very bright shooting star known as a fireball, or what astronomers call a bolide.

"A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand," explained Gareth Williams of the Minor Planet Center. "This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison!"

The object, named 8TA9D69, was discovered by an ongoing survey at Mt. Lemon run by the University of Arizona.

The entry occurred at 10:46 p.m. EDT (0246 UT) on Oct. 7 over northern Sudan, according to Steve Chesley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It was expected to be visible from eastern Africa traveling rapidly across the sky from northeast to southwest.

"We're eager for observations from astronomers near the asteroid's approach path. We really hope that someone will manage to photograph it," Williams said.

Based on 26 optical observations, "the probability of impact is between 99.8 percent and 100 percent," said Andrea Milani of the University of Pisa. "In practice the impact can be considered sure and is for tonight."

Milani continued: "The effect of this atmospheric impact will be the release, in either a single shot or maybe a sequence of explosions, of about 1 kiloton of energy. This means that the damage on the ground is expected to be zero."

Small Asteroid Entered Atmosphere Monday Night (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,433541,00.html)

Huge New Planet Defies Explanation

Tuesday , October 07, 2008

Astronomers have sighted a very dense planet-sized object that orbits its parent star in just four days and six hours.

The object, COROT-exo-3b, fits into the category of a failed star known as a brown dwarf, but the team that made the discovery has not ruled out the possibility that it is a planet.

Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They burn lithium but are not massive enough to generate the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium that powers real stars. Planets do none of that.

"It has puzzled us; we're not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs," said Hans Deeg, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain.

The object has a mass 20 times greater than that of Jupiter, but is roughly the same size. It falls outside the range of planets and stars discovered to date, with the largest planets having 12-Jupiter-mass and the smallest stars 70-Jupiter-mass.

If astronomers confirm the object as a planet, it would weigh in as the most massive and densest planet found so far. A full study will be detailed in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"COROT-exo-3b might turn out to be a rare object found by sheer luck", said Francois Bouchy, an astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris. "But it might just be a member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars more massive than our sun. We're now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet."

Ground-based telescopes around the world helped pinpoint the object, including observatories in France, Chile, Germany, Hawaii, Israel and Spain's Canary Islands.

The hunt for exoplanets has intensified over recent years, with astronomers usually finding such objects indirectly by observing their gravitational influence on parent stars.

Another team showcased what might be the first direct image of an exoplanet around a sun-like star in September.

Huge New Planet Defies Explanation (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,433521,00.html)

 Preparing for a Charismatic Meltdown

fireinmybones.com

Foreclosure. Eviction. Bailouts. We’re hearing those terms a lot these days, and not just in the newspaper’s business section. In the last two weeks three charismatic churches that once enjoyed huge popularity have fallen on hard times.

In Tampa, Florida, Without Walls International Church is facing foreclosure. The megachurch, which once attracted 23,000 worshipers and was heralded as one of the nation’s fastest-growing congregations, shrunk drastically after co-pastors Randy and Paula White announced in 2007 that they were divorcing. On Nov. 4 their bank filed foreclosure proceedings and demanded immediate repayment of a $12 million loan on the property.

In Duluth, Georgia—northeast of Atlanta—sheriff’s deputies arrived at Global Destiny Ministries and ordered Bishop Thomas Weeks II to leave the property. According to documents filed in state court, Weeks—who divorced popular preacher Juanita Bynum in June—owed more than $511,000 in back rent to the building’s owners. He was escorted out of the building on Nov. 14 while a church service was in progress.

In the case of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, many parishioners walked out 16 years ago when it became known that Earl Paulk and other staff members were involved in wife-swapping. Paulk created a bizarre culture of secrecy to cover the immorality, which included his affair with a sister-in-law—and resulted in the birth of Donnie Earl (who thought he was Earl Paulk’s nephew until last year). The church has only had a few hundred members in recent years.

Today, Donnie Earl has embraced the inclusionist doctrines of Oklahoma pastor Carlton Pearson, who left the faith in 2003 and was labeled a heretic by a group of African-American bishops the following year. The younger Paulk now preaches that all people, not just Christians, are saved. He told Charisma last week that the Cathedral “has expanded to include all of God’s creation—Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, gay, straight, etc.” And this distorted message is broadcast from a pulpit that hosted the premier leaders of the charismatic movement during the 1970s and 1980s.

Even before Weeks was charged with assaulting Bynum in a hotel parking lot in August 2007, the pastor of Global Destiny Ministries defiled his pulpit during a “Teach Me to Love You” marriage conference. He told married men they should use profanity during sex to heighten their experience, and he brought couples on stage to play a game in which men were asked to name their favorite female body parts.

Lord, help us.

Was it supposed to end like this? How did a movement that was at one time focused on winning people to Christ and introducing them to the power of the Holy Spirit end in such disgrace?

I hear the sound of bricks and steel beams crashing to the ground. The wrecking ball of heaven is swinging. It has come to demolish any work that has not been built on the integrity of God’s Word.

All of us should be trembling. God requires holiness in His house and truth in the mouths of His servants. He is loving and patient with our mistakes and weaknesses, but eventually, if there is no repentance after continual correction, His discipline is severe. He will not be mocked.

Romans 11:22 says: “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (NASB).

God is not married to our buildings. If He allowed foreign armies to burn Jerusalem and its glorious temple, He will also write “Ichabod” on the doors of churches where there is no repentance for compromise.

I pray the fear of God will grip our hearts until we cleanse our defiled pulpits. Let’s examine our hearts and our ministries. Let’s throw out the wood, hay and stubble and build on a sure and tested foundation. It is the only way to survive the meltdown.

British government's identity card plan begins
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer Gregory Katz, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 25, 5:08 pm ET

LONDON – The British government began its identity card program for foreign nationals Tuesday — six years after heated debate over whether the costly plan is an effective tool against terrorism, identity theft and welfare fraud.

The last time Britain had ID cards was at the end of World War II.

The program will start with roughly 50,000 foreign students and spouses of permanent residents who will receive cards if they qualify for visa extensions.

Other foreign nationals living and working in Britain will not be immediately affected, but they will eventually need cards as the program is expanded. Officials have not provided details about the national plan, although airport workers are expected to need cards next year out of security concerns.

Government officials say the cards, expected to be used by about 90 percent of Britain's foreign nationals within seven years, should provide a tamperproof way to determine a person's true identity and whether they are eligible to work in Britain. They say they will be more accurate and harder to forge than passports.

"This will give employers a safe and secure way of checking a migrant's right to work and study in the UK," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who estimates the cost of the program at 5.1 billion pounds ($7.8 billion).

The plan has drawn fire from opposition lawmakers who say it will be costly and unproductive and from privacy advocates who complain that the British government is compiling an unprecedented database on British residents.

"This is a huge infringement of our privacy," said Mairi Clare Rogers, a spokeswoman for the Liberty group. "As they extend it to more and more people, we will keep repeating our objections. But the government seems to be plowing ahead, even though the timetable has slowed down a bit."

She said there is no evidence the cards will be a useful tool against terrorists.

Chris Huhne, a spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said the "hugely expensive" plan would have no impact on crime, terrorism, or illegal immigration. He called it an unneeded intrusion on British liberties.

The opposition to the concept has forced the government to slow implementation of the program and scale back some of its more ambitious aspects.

The cards will contain a computer chip with fingerprint information and other data, including date of birth and nationality, but will not contain religious or ethnic data.

They will cost 30 pounds ($45).

National ID cards are widely used for identification purposes in many European countries, although they are not used in the Nordic countries. Many people are able to cross Europe's inner borders without passports, if they have valid national ID cards.

There have been few problems associated with card use, although there were protests in Greece after European Union officials forced Greeks to drop the religious classification that was part of the ID card system.

The situation is very different from that in Latin America, where people have become accustomed to carrying identification papers with them and are less worried about privacy issues.

Brazil's card includes a photo, fingerprint, bar-code, both parents' full names, nationality, country of birth and date of birth.

These cards are necessary to for almost any economic transaction — Brazil's stores ask for it when consumers make purchases, even when they pay cash.

In Argentina, police can hassle anyone who hasn't kept their National Identity Document in perfect condition in their billfolds or purses.

Britain's two prior experiences with national cards have not ended well.

Cards were used in World War I in large part to establish the number of young men available for military service, but they were not well liked and were dropped in 1918, said Jon Agar, a science and technology professor at University College London.

They were reintroduced in World War II and kept in place until 1952, when a court challenge spurred harsh judicial criticism of the use of the cards in peacetime.

That led Prime Minister Winston Churchill's government to scrap the system.

The court challenge stemmed from a routine traffic stop in which a policeman asked the motorist to produce his ID card, Agar said.

"That was not the intent of the card," he said. "It was originally for national security and food rationing, not for police using it as a routine form of identification."

He predicted Britons will generally accept the new cards until their use becomes compulsory for everyone. That will spur resentment, he said.

The current push for reintroducing the system developed in the nervous months after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington when British officials decided they needed a better way to monitor people coming into Britain.

Opponents' argument that the government cannot be trusted with sensitive personal information was buttressed by several recent instances when the government misplaced computers disks — or actual laptops — containing data on British citizens.

Last November, two non-encrypted computer disks containing the addresses and bank account numbers of 25 million Britons was placed in the government's internal mail system but never delivered, leaving officials unsure about its whereabouts.

British government's identity card plan begins (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_identity_cards/print;_ylt=AuCYTP_dSwBCbBfztfrvgHNbbBAF)

Pope to make rare visit to Israel in May, following months of Jewish-Catholic tension
By Anshel Pfeffer
27/11/2008

Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in May 2009 after accepting an invitation by President Shimon Peres. The Vatican and Israel are said, thus, to hopefully end the high tension of recent months between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people over the initiative of canonizing Pope Pius XII.

This visit, which would be the third visit of a pope to Israel since the establishment of the state, has not yet been officially confirmed.

Peres met about two weeks ago with Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, the pope's envoy to Israel. Franco told the president that Benedict would respond positively to an invitation from Israel. The president sent the invitation, and a positive response was indeed reportedly received.

Since the visit has not yet been publicly confirmed, no preparations are underway in the Foreign Ministry or the Vatican. However, the Pope's arrival is apparently planned for the second week of May.

The tension began after calls came by ultra-conservatives at the Vatican to expedite canonization on the 50th anniversary of Pius' death. The process began during the time of the previous pope, John Paul II, but both he and the present pope were aware of the harsh criticism such a move could engender in the Jewish world, which accuses Pius XII of remaining silent and not protesting the extermination of European Jewry during the Holocaust.

The debate was fanned by the Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, who said a month ago that the pope would not visit Israel until a change was made in the caption to two pictures of Pius XII in the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, which state that Pius' response to the murder of Jews during the Holocaust is controversial. The captions also state that when Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, Pius did not intervene. (This is true, Pius XII could have said something. DW)

The caption caused a diplomatic storm in the past when the papal nuncio threatened to boycott the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem in protest over the caption, although he did attend the ceremony.

The Vatican has since distanced itself from Gumpel's statements. Pope Benedict's spokesman said the caption is not a factor in his decision on whether to visit Israel or not. Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog also contributed to the dispute when he told Haaretz a month ago that Pius' canonization was "unacceptable." The Vatican demanded that Herzog apologize for the statement.

However, Benedict praised Pius' actions during the Holocaust and criticized historians who said he did not help to save Jews. In a meeting a few weeks ago with Jewish leaders, Benedict was asked to delay the canonization process until all the documents in the Vatican archives involving the period of the Holocaust were released, a process that is expected to take about another seven years. The pope told the delegation he was "seriously considering" the matter.

In other meetings at the Vatican, understandings were obtained that the canonization process would not be rushed.

Another source of tension between Jews and the Vatican was Benedict' decision to bring back the ancient Latin mass which calls for the Jews to recognize Jesus. Following Jewish protests and the announcement by Italy's Jewish community that they were severing ties with the Vatican, a representative of the pope said the verse in question was a wish, and not a call on Catholics to missionize among Jews.

The pope is also expected to visit the Palestinian Authority, apparently in Bethlehem. This could be one of the diplomatic obstacles of the visit because of the legal ambiguity of the PA's presidency in light of the struggle between Fatah and Hamas.

Another stumbling block could be a papal visit to Yad Vashem because of the controversial captions. This matter might be resolved by having Benedict visit only the monuments at Yad Vashem, not the museum.

Rabbi David Rosen, head of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations said of the expected visit: "If the information is correct, I am sure the pope will be warmly received by Israel's leaders and its people."

The President's Residence declined to comment on the report. The secretary of the Apostolic Nuncio's office in Israel said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.

Pope Paul VI visited Israel in 1964, even before the Vatican recognized the state. In 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the country.

Pope to make rare visit to Israel in May, following months of Jewish-Catholic tension  (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041322.html)

Brothers and Sisters,

As Christians, we should know that tensions between Israel and the rest of the world is going to get increasingly worse, and that will include harsh thoughts against Christians. This is Bible Prophecy, and it's nothing for us to feel offended about. It's simply another matter of prayer. In fact, our work as Christians won't change, regardless of what happens in this sick, evil, and dying world. We will simply continue to march until CHRIST takes us HOME. If we watch and listen, we might rightfully think that time is growing near.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Philippians 2:1-2  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,  2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Poll Finds No Boost in Church Attendance during Economic Crisis      

christianpost.com

While tens of thousands of Americans have been laid off in recent months and religious leaders have blamed corporate greed for the economic crisis, churches have not seen a jump in attendance numbers as many might have expected, according to a new poll.

Over the last three months, about 42 percent of Americans reported that they attended church, synagogue, or mosque weekly or almost every week, which the Gallup Poll found to be the same percentage reported earlier in the year.

History has shown that a significant crisis usually results in fuller pews, as was seen after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. During this latest crisis of economic challenges, some reports have indicated that houses of worship have drawn larger crowds.

But while some churches have seen higher numbers, the recent Gallup Poll found "absolutely no change" in church attendance after reviewing almost 300,000 interviews Gallup conducted throughout this year.

Since mid-February, the percentage for church attendance has remained the same – around 42 percent. And the latest poll, conducted Dec. 4-7, showed that only 39 percent said they attended church or synagogue in the last seven days.

"It is also possible that certain specific churches or even types of churches ... have seen an increase in attendance but that on a percentage basis, these represent such a tiny part of the universe of all churches that this increase is not reflected in broad, national church attendance percentages," the Gallup report stated.

The report speculated that the magnitude of the economic crisis might not have been big enough to alter church attendance patterns across the country.

At the same time, Gallup pointed out that church attendance within any given week may be different from the self-reports it collected in 2008 since the Gallup Poll does not ask respondents to specify attendance in a recent period or for a generalized average.

And while it is possible that short-term worship service attendance could increase while Gallup's self-reports of attendance remain constant, the Gallup report stressed that "if real-world church attendance had gone up this fall in some type of meaningful way, this increase would be reflected in the response patterns to the church attendance question."

Gallup has been interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008 on how often they attend church for its Daily tracking survey.

Pope says humanity needs 'saving' from homosexuality

The Pope has said that "saving" humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforests.

By Nick Allen
Last Updated: 7:31PM GMT 23 Dec 2008

Pope Benedict XVI sparked a furious reaction from other Christian groups as he also suggested that a blurring of the distinction between male and female could lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

The pontiff was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff and his words were later released to the media.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that, while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

It opposes gay marriage and, in October, one leading Vatican official described homosexuality as "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound".

In his address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, the Pope himself described behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work".

He said the Roman Catholic Church had a duty to "protect man from the destruction of himself" and urged respect for the "nature of the human being as man and woman."

The pontiff added: "The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."

His remarks were immediately denounced as "totally irresponsible and unacceptable in any shape or form" by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.

Its chief executive, the Rev Sharon Ferguson, said: "It is more the case that we need to be saved from his comments. It is comments like this that justify homophobic bullying that goes on in schools and it is comments like this that justify gay bashing.

"There are still so many instances of people being killed around the world, including in western society, purely and simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

"When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God's work in ridding the world of these people."

The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney and president of Inclusive Church, the pro-gay Anglican movement, said: "I thought the Christmas angels said 'Fear not'.

"Instead, the Pope is spreading fear that gay people somehow threaten the planet. And that's just absurd.

"As always, this sort of religious homophobia will be an alibi for all those who would do gay people harm. Can't he think of something better to say at Christmas?"

Pope says humanity needs 'saving' from homosexuality (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3916804/Pope-says-humanity-needs-saving-from-homosexuality.html)

German leader calls for "global economic charter"
By Carter Dougherty
Published: January 30, 2009

DAVOS, Switzerland: Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany called Friday for the creation of an international economic body, similar to the United Nations Security Council, to help avert the kind of wrenching financial crisis currently engulfing the world.

Economic principles need to be enshrined in "a new charter for a global economic order," Merkel told the business and political leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

A meeting of the Group of 20, an organization of industrialized nations and emerging markets, could begin laying the groundwork for change at a meeting in London in early April, Merkel said. From there, she said, the matter could go to the UN.

"This may even lead to a UN Economic Council, just as the Security Council was created after the Second World War," Merkel said.

She acknowledged that the UN might be an unpopular choice because of its deliberate pace. "We all know it is a fairly slow, a fairly cumbersome body, " she said. "But it is the only one of its kind."

Striking a contrast to the gloomy atmosphere this year at a meeting that usually brims with optimism, Merkel argued that the economic crisis had laid bare serious weaknesses in financial regulation, but that the world had to look beyond the immediate.

"Incredible opportunities are opening up," Merkel said. "We are now seeing only the crisis."

Merkel urged world financial leaders to implement the points that the G-20 leaders had agreed on in November in Washington. A major theme of that meeting was the need for more information on the complex financial constructs that lie at the heart of the crisis.

In her speech Friday, Merkel took a dig at the United States and Britain, which blocked German calls for greater openness by hedge funds when it headed the Group of 8 industrialized nations in 2007.

"I don't want to cast my gaze back," Merkel said. "But I would like to remind people that in vain did Germany in the G-8 presidency try to inject transparency" into financial markets.

Merkel also explained the backdrop to Germany's initial reluctance to embrace government spending to stimulate slowing and contracting economies.

Her government has approved two packages, the second worth €50 billion, or $64 billion, after a "lively debate" that reflected the painful steps the country took to curtail borrowing before the crisis began in 2007, she said.

Eventually, Germany will have to return to more austere ways, she added.

"We have won ourselves a little freedom of maneuver," Merkel said. "But we are also saying we need limitations on public borrowing." She called for an "automatic brake" on public indebtedness that could be incorporated into the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.

She emphasized that "the forces of free market economy" had to underpin the rules that emerge from the crisis. She lauded the German system, which mixes capitalism with a strong social safety net and potent regulators, but said she had no interest in "socialist command economies" and alluded to her own past as a child of the communist system.

"I grew up in what was East Germany," Merkel said. "Today I am chancellor of a united Germany. This shows me that nothing is impossible."

German leader calls for "global economic charter" (http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/30/business/davos.4-419512.php)

MORE:

Merkel suggests world economic council (http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/01/31/Merkel_suggests_world_economic_council/UPI-39161233404910/)

Merkel calls for establishment of UN Economic Council  (http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6582356.html)

Merkel proposes UN economic body  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7861156.stm)

Italy: Global Action Needed To Fight Recession
Thursday February 19th, 2009

ROME -(Dow Jones)- The Italian and U.K. prime ministers Thursday said global action is needed to fight the recession, but Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi admitted that no concrete measures had yet been reached.

Berlusconi, who criticized some U.S. and French measures to fight the global slump as protectionist, said one of the steps being looked at is nationalization of banks.

"It's still something we're pondering," Berlusconi told a news conference after a working lunch with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown focusing on preparations for the meeting of leaders from the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations in London April 2.

Italy holds the presidency of the Group of Eight leading nations this year, while the U.K. is heading the G20, a group that includes emerging economies like China and India. Both groups are struggling to come up with global measures to counter the recession.

The world will see "unprecedented cooperation" in addressing the global financial crisis, Brown said, urging the G20 to find a "global deal in which each continent will make a contribution to the recovery of the world economy."

Brown called for greater international financial supervision to close national gaps, singling out hedge funds as needing "proper disclosure and transparency." But he didn't provide specific details ahead of the London G20.
"There still isn't agreement on what concretely must be done," Berlusconi said.

The two leaders vowed to fight protectionism, with Berlusconi singling out France and the U.S. for taking measures that "have a flavor of protectionism."

France last week came under fire from other European countries for an auto-sector bailout that is part of President Nicolas Sarkozy's effort to protect jobs in his country as the economic downturn deepens.

A "Buy American" clause in the U.S. stimulus package approved last week - which requires that virtually all goods used in public works projects funded by the stimulus plan come from U.S. companies - has also raised concerns about protectionism.

Berlusconi emphasized that no shared view has emerged on a solution for banks' troubled assets, which have frozen credit markets and represent a major concern for investors worldwide.

The nationalization of banks "is for now just a hypothesis that was brought forward by someone," the Italian premier said.

Bank of England Deputy Governor John Gieve Thursday said the nationalization of banks should only be a last resort.
So far, the U.K has nationalized one of the country's fastest growing lenders, Northern Rock, and brought the smaller Bradford & Bingley under its wing. As part of October's rescue plan, the government injected GBP37 billion into three U.K. banks, taking what has now grown to a 70% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) and a 43% stake in the newly merged Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.LN).

Berlusconi said no Italian bank had asked for help to boost its capital, although he added that some lenders may request help in the future.

The Italian government is finalizing a plan that may be worth up to EUR20 billion to buy bank bonds for those lenders wanting to strengthen their capital.

The G8 comprises the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Canada and Russia.

Italy: Global Action Needed To Fight Recession (http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/2nd-updateuk-italy-global-action-needed-to-fight-recession-620116)

Clinton to press Israel on Gaza as children suffer
Dale Gavlack, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 26, 2009

GAZA CITY | Assistance to the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands of displaced people are living in flimsy U.N. tents despite freezing winter temperatures and rain, will be "at the top of [the] agenda" when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits the region next week, a U.S. official in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

A month after a cease-fire ended Israel's military offensive in Gaza, many sleep on thin mats on the muddy ground and traumatized children burst into tears at any loud noise. Lots where they once played are littered with crushed concrete and other debris.

Mrs. Clinton, who flies to the Middle East Saturday, has privately expressed anger at Israel for steps that have interfered with the delivery of humanitarian aid to help the Gaza residents, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported Wednesday.

A U.S. official in Jerusalem, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said not to read too much into the Ha'aretz article but added, "You can bet this will be an issue at the top of the secretary of state's agenda. ... We respect the Israelis' need for security, but there are genuine humanitarian needs in Gaza."

More than 1,300 Palestinians, many of them civilians and a third of them children, died in Israel´s 22-day military offensive last month. Thousands more were injured, some permanently disabled.

But the enduring damage is mental as well as physical, and it is most evident among the children such as 9-year-old Amir Musbah. His family of eight initially hid in their house in the border town of Beit Lahiya as Israeli F-16s flew overhead.

"Planes came and started bombing us. The attack forced us to flee our home and head to a nearby school," Amir said.

When Amir's father and uncle ran to try to rescue their brother, who had been hit by artillery, they were killed by a helicopter gunship hovering overhead, said Amir's grandfather, Khalil Musbah. He said Amir's house collapsed after a bomb landed on it.

"Initially we thought Amir's father had been arrested and taken away. It was later that we discovered that he had died," Mr. Musbah said. "I buried him, after the planes and the tanks left, under the big tree."

Mr. Musbah said the grief-stricken boy ran to the tree and dug in the dirt with his hands to find his father.

Israel said the offensive was necessary to halt rocket fire into southern Israeli towns from the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said conflict also has traumatized Israelis.

"To be fair, you have a whole generation in southern Israel who are growing up in constant fear and trauma," he said. "I went with my prime minister to a grade school in Sderot. There were kids who have known nothing else but sirens and running to bomb shelters because of rockets from Gaza. ... I know the conflict has caused pain and suffering to children on both sides. The goal of our operation was to bring about an end to the violence."

Meanwhile, psychologists, teachers and community workers are training caregivers and offering a variety of activities to help Gaza children cope.

At the Zahwa Rosary Catholic School in Gaza City, counselor Fadl Abu Hein said children are given balloons to vent stress while affording them a sense of control. But when a green balloon popped and then a red one, eliciting squeals from about three dozen 6-year-olds during a recent outing, one child clapped his hands over his ears.

"Most of the children cry when they hear an explosion or any loud noise," said Mr. Abu Hein. "Many are bed-wetting. They bite their nails or have nervous twitches. They become afraid, especially at night."

Mr. Abu Hein, a psychologist and consultant for UNICEF, said the therapy is a kind of "first aid" for the people of Gaza. Further stages of the program, which will span six months to one year, include behavior modification for cases of severe depression and violent anger.

"We have a large number of highly stressed and traumatized people. It's a big suffering," said Mr. Abu Hein, who heads the Community Training and Crisis Management Center in Gaza City.

A survey carried out by the center after the war among 3,000 children and 1,000 adults revealed that 97 percent of children are afraid of the dark and cling to their parents, 76 percent exhibit behavioral problems such as social withdrawal, 70 percent are depressed, and 71 percent have trouble sleeping.

Mr. Abu Hein said the support program is aimed to help more than 8,000 people, mainly schoolchildren. A Washington-based group, American Near East Refugee Aid, and Norwegian Aid are providing financial assistance, he said.

Mr. Abu Hein said that all of Gaza's inhabitants had been "psychologically injured" to some extent by the bombardment, even though Israel insisted that it sought to limit civilian casualties.

"Nowhere in Gaza was safe," he said.

Although initial reports of Israel targeting a U.N. school proved inaccurate, more than a half dozen schools were destroyed and about 175 damaged.

"The emotional problems children face result not just from three weeks of severe conflict, but prior to that, a year and a half of essentially being under siege," said Ashley Clements, a spokesman for the charity World Vision. "They have been unable to get out and do not live what most of us would regard as a normal childhood."

Mr. Clements said assessments made before the offensive showed "disturbing numbers" of children who were afraid of being separated from their parents and other family members.

"It was bad before the recent conflict, but now it's been exacerbated significantly," he said.

When you see your family killed in front of you and you're unable to save them, it's a big shock," said Almaza al-Sammouri, 12, as she and her classmates drew pictures during a therapy session at the An-Jalout Islamic Girls School in Gaza City.

"I want to draw about when the Israelis kicked us out of our house and how I found my family martyred when a missile hit the place where we sought shelter," she said of the air strike that killed her mother, four siblings and several uncles.

"I found them piled on each other. Some were dead. Others died a little later because we couldn't get an ambulance. It was a huge shock. I couldn't move or do anything," she said.

"I want to become a first-aid nurse because if this happens again, I would be able to treat them so they wouldn't die," she said.

Psychologists and aid officials expressed concern about the long-term impact of the offensive, warning that it could persuade more young people to turn to terrorism.

"One thing we'll have to be very aware of is how these children engage politically in the future," Mr. Clements said. "Certainly, I hope these children can be helped to confront these experiences so they can become a productive part of the Gaza life."

But when 6-year-old Aseel of the Rosary School was asked whether he could see a future peace with Israelis, he responded with a determined, "No." When asked why not, he said, "That's just how it is. They're afraid of us, but we're not afraid of them."

Clinton to press Israel on Gaza as children suffer (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/26/clinton-to-press-israel-on-gaza-as-children-suffer/print/)

They will use the plight of the children of Gaza even though it is Hamas' fault. The rest of the world only sees what it wants to see. One way, or another the government will abandon Israel.

Hello Brother Bob,

YES - Bible Prophecy tells us this is exactly what will happen. All who study Bible Prophecy know that things are going to get much worse. The earth will be full of chaos and insanity, skilfully established and escalated by the devil. The most ironic thing is that anyone can read all about what will happen in GOD'S WORD.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Romans 10:16-17 ASV  16  But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?  17  So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Iran Eyes Mexico in Deepening Latin America Ties
February 26, 2009

MEXICO CITY -- Iran is exploring ways to expand anemic trade with Mexico as part of stepped up efforts to deepen ties with Latin America, a top Iranian diplomat said Thursday.

Annual trade between Mexico and Iran is a mere $50 million, compared to $2 billion with Brazil, said Ali Reza Salari, Iran's deputy foreign minister for the Americas.

"We are here to investigate, why so low?" Reza Salari told reporters in Mexico City, where he was to meet with diplomats and business leaders. "With Mexico, there is absolutely no political problem between us. No cultural problems. It shows we have many shortcomings in our trade relations."

Iran has a deepening alliance with some leftist-led Latin American countries, based partly on mutual antagonism toward the United States. Housing projects have brought hundreds of Iranian engineers and specialists to Venezuela, and Tehran has opened new embassies in Nicaragua and Bolivia.

Deeper ties with Mexico's U.S.-friendly conservative government would necessarily be more practical in nature. Mexico has been trying to find new markets for its exports in a bid to ease economic reliance on the United States _ especially since being dragged to the brink of recession by U.S. financial turmoil.

That could provide an opportunity for Iran as it seeks to ease its international isolation. Reza Salari said he sees opportunities to expand tourism and energy cooperation with Mexico, but acknowledged that such efforts are at a tentative phase.

Reza Salari said President Barack Obama's election raised hopes in Iran for better relations. But he suggested that concrete steps toward easing tensions are a long way off and complained that the Obama administration has sent mixed messages about its stance toward Iran's nuclear program.

"After President Obama, we think that the tone has changed in America," Reza Salari said. "We want to be patient, give them some more time to thoroughly investigate and see for themselves what are the real solutions for the ambiguities and the crisis."

Obama has signaled a willingness for dialogue with Tehran, particularly over its nuclear program. But Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday that the Obama government would seek to end Iran's nuclear ambitions. That immediately prompted an angry rebuke from Iran's U.N. envoy.

Iran insists its nuclear program has only peaceful energy purposes, while the U.S. and many European countries accuse it of secretly trying to build atomic weapons.

Iran Eyes Mexico in Deepening Latin America Ties  (http://www.newsmax.com/international/lt_mexico_iran/2009/02/26/186132.html)

Brothers and Sisters,

I'll just be honest and say that I have ZERO confidence in our government doing anything right. At this point, my confidence is in GOD and HIS WORD.

I also know beyond any doubt that Bible Prophecy is going to be fulfilled! I think the time is growing near. As Christians, we are in GOD'S HANDS and we need to remember this above all things.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Hebrews 9:27-28 ASV  27  And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;  28  so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

Russia, China call for restraint on Korea peninsula
By Guy Faulconbridge
Wed Mar 11, 8:32 am ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and China said on Wednesday they were concerned about rising tensions on the Korean peninsula after North Korea warned that shooting down a long-range missile it plans to test would be an act of war.

Pyongyang said on Monday it had put its armed forces on full combat readiness in response to the start of annual military exercises by U.S. and South Korean troops, which it condemned as a provocation.

The reclusive state also said it planned to test-fire a long-range Taepodong-2 missile and warned any attempt to shoot it down would amount to an act of war. The missile is designed to fly as far as Alaska, but has never successfully flown.

"Both sides expressed concern about the worsening situation on the Korean peninsula," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on Tuesday.

The ministers called on those involved "to show restraint and composure, and to refrain from any actions that could undermine security and stability in this region," it said.

Long-running six-party talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States on the North's nuclear programs have stalled, with implementation of an initial energy-for-disarmament deal stuck on Pyongyang's refusal to allow nuclear material to be taken abroad for tests.

Moscow and Beijing are crucial to diplomatic efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear program because they maintain closer ties with the government in Pyongyang than the other participants in the talks.

"Russia and China want all contentious questions to be resolved peacefully by political and diplomatic means via consultations and negotiations," the ministry statement said.

North Korea, which has tried to brush aside speculation about the health of leader Kim Jong-il, has repeatedly warned in recent weeks it could reduce South Korea to ashes in anger at Seoul's attempt to link aid to the North's nuclear disarmament.

It has complained that aid is not being delivered as promised.

The conservative South Korean government has cut back the flow of aid, making it conditional on the North moving on pledges to stop trying to build nuclear weapons.

The North has said it is preparing to launch a satellite and has the right to do so as part of its peaceful space program. North Korea is barred from test-firing its ballistic missiles under United Nations sanctions.

Russia, China call for restraint on Korea peninsula (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090311/wl_nm/us_korea_north_russia/print;_ylt=Arxb8gCWcSemdrtvL28y9zBn.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--)

Obama Considering Deploying Troops to U.S.-Mexico Border
Obama tells regional reporters it is "unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens."

FOXNews.com

Thursday, March 12, 2009

President Obama says he's considering whether to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, after Texas Gov. Rick Perry made an urgent call fort 1,000 more "boots on the ground" to deal with the growing violence.

The president weighed the option during a meeting with regional reporters Wednesday afternoon.

"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense," Obama said, according to an account by McClatchy Newspapers. "I don't have a particular tipping point in mind. ... I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens."

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Mexico in drug-related violence this year, and officials warn the violence is spilling into some U.S. cities, such as Atlanta, Phoenix and Birmingham, Ala.

Lawmakers have held a series of hearings on the violence on Capitol Hill in recent days, with one House panel holding a hearing Thursday on what the Homeland Security Department can do to secure the Southwest border and prevent Mexican drug cartel violence from spreading.

The top Republican on the House of Representatives' appropriations committee criticized the Defense Department on Tuesday for not making the situation in Mexico as big a priority as Afghanistan.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, a Republican, said the situation in Mexico is far more important than Afghanistan at this point. "We need to raise this to a higher level," Lewis told The Associated Press.

Perry said late last month that he was asking the Department of Homeland Security for extra resources and troops.

"As along as they are boots on the ground that are properly trained to deal with the border region, I don't care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents," he said.

Obama suggested to regional reporters Wednesday that he's taking a cautious approach.

"We've got a very big border with Mexico," he said. "I'm not interested in militarizing the border."

Obama Considering Deploying Troops to U.S.-Mexico Border (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/12/obama-considering-deploying-troops-mexico-border/)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each of the states have the National Guard. I see no problem with these troops being deployed, to arrest, and protect the border states. If the druggies or illegals what to shoot it out with the National Guard, the Guard should be allowed to shoot back. Unlike what the border patrol is allowed. The border patrol shoots back, and they get arrested. THAT IS NOT RIGHT!!

Is Barry going to send troops or diplomats to protect our borders?? The article says he is considering it. I hope Obama gets more serious about our national security and that this is more than rhetoric to appease people.

Though with Obama, only time will tell.

Brother Bob,

This seems to be a NO-BRAINER AND ONLY COMMON SENSE. What is there to think about? The government either handles a primary DUTY to protect the people OR IT IGNORES THIS DUTY AND OBLIGATION. In that case, we'll protect ourselves. We'll end up having to protect ourselves anyway.

It appears that our so-called government is just paying lip service, and that's just about it. The bottom line is that the people have a RIGHT TO MORE. We could care less about left-wing agendas EXCEPT TO STOP THEM, and a part of that will be our own security for our families and ourselves. This is not a matter of POLITICS, rather a matter of BASIC DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES THAT ARE BEING IGNORED AND NEGLECTED!

NON-Christian college creates homosexual housing
'It's a chance for students to be part of a unique experience'

The church-affiliated Texas Christian University has announced plans to allocate apartment housing on its Fort Worth campus for homosexual students and their supporters.

According to a report in the city's Star-Telegram newspaper, the school plans to open a section of the Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartments for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students and allies."

The school also will have two living groups that are designated "Christian-based" and others for fine arts and other themes, the report said.

"It's a change for students to be part of a unique experience," David Cooper, associate chief of residential life, told the newspaper.

Shelly Newkirk, a TCU sophomore who applied to create the homosexual residence lifestyle, told the newspaper her vision is that homosexuals and straight students will interact and hang out.

Cooper said the university opened its "living-learning communities" to student ideas.

Others coming up include the "Leadership and Strengths Community" for those who want to lead, environmentalists who are collecting in the "Green House" and the Health and Wellness Community.

"I think it's wonderful that TCU is offering this," Nancy Tubbs of the LGBT Resource Center at the University of California-Riverside told the paper.

The report said a fraternity for homosexuals opened at the University of North Texas in 1998 but lasted only a few years before closing.

On the paper's forum page, the reaction ranged widely.

"So let me get this straight. TCU now supports segregation?" wrote one contributor.

"Some of you will no doubt be SHOCKED to learn that 'Christian' does not necessarily mean 'anti-gay.' TCU is affiliated with the Christain (sic) Church (Disciples of Christ), a denomination that does not have anti-gay policies. … I'm just glad that some are trying to turn 'Christian' back into a term for love rather than the curse word that so many of you have caused it to be," said another.

Yet another was terse: "sick."


2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

I believe the National Guard is under control of the States unless it is Federalized in an emergency, which means the Texas governor could himself send it to the border at any time. My guess is he doesn't want to either take the heat for doing so or bear the expense.

There is some truth to this but when Congress passed the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq the National Guard was used to help fill the requirements of this bill.


_______________________


States Push to Take Back National Guard

Going on its seventh year, the Iraq war has taken its toll on not only the US military, but also on the states's National Guard units, which were called up when Congress passed the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq. Now a growing state-level movement is working to keep the Guard at home.

    Its logic: The AUMF's goals have been fulfilled. The authorization's explicit purposes were to defend the US against the "threat posed by Iraq" and to enforce UN Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq's alleged ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein - along with his supposed threat - is gone, and the UN resolutions are no longer relevant, so there's no longer a mandate to keep troops in Iraq.

    The president can call up the states's Guard units in a time of war. But when the mandate for war becomes obsolete, say members of the Bring the Guard Home: It's the Law (BTGH) campaign, sending those troops overseas is illegal. BTGH members and their allies are now sponsoring a chain of bills and resolutions in states across the country, demanding an investigation into the legality of deploying the Guard to Iraq, and a refusal to comply with any illegal federal orders.

    "There is not Congressional authorization for the use of the Guard today," Vermont State Rep. Mike Fisher told Truthout. "One Guard member improperly called into federal service to fight a war - that's a real problem. Choosing to go to war is one of the most serious decisions that we make. The very least we can do is follow the Constitution."

    The state legislators involved in the campaign argue that it is their duty, along with the governor's, to ensure Guard members' welfare. Although a governor can't order the Guard's return, he or she does have the right to challenge federalization orders (mandates to call up the Guard) in the first place. Every month, another set of call-ups sends more Guard members overseas. Should a state decide to refuse a federalization order, the case would likely be brought to the courts.

    "We believe that it would be a good thing for a court to be asked the question of whether a state Guard can be brought into federal service to fight in an overseas war - other than in an emergency - that does not have a proper Congressional authorization," Fisher said.

    The campaign began back in 2007, after Fisher had written and passed a resolution in the Vermont legislature to urge the withdrawal of US military forces from Iraq. He wanted to intensify this state-level action against the war by asserting the war's illegality, and relating it back to Vermont law. So, Fisher joined with attorney Benson Scotch, formerly the executive director of Vermont's ACLU, to spearhead an effort that would both advocate for Vermont's Guard members and challenge the legal basis for continued US involvement in Iraq.

    The effort is premised on the National Guard's dual chain of command. Usually, the governor is the commander in chief of a state's Guard. With Congressional authorization, the Guard can be called into federal service. However, since that Congressional authorization has expired for Iraq, control reverts back to the states - or at least it should, under the Constitution, according to Scotch and Fisher.

    Regardless of legality, the federalization orders continue, with more Guard troops called up every month. The state Guards have seen some of their largest deployments since World War II. In New Jersey, for example, the planned deployment represents about 50 percent of the state's National Guard.

    This transfer of the Guard out of state not only reduces its ability to respond to local emergencies, it also fuels a frightening shift in US foreign policy, according to Ben Manski, executive director of the nonprofit Liberty Tree Foundation.

    "We're supposed to have a national defense that's based on the citizen soldier, and decentralized as a result," Manski told Truthout. "What the federal government has done, and what states have allowed it to do, is it has transformed the National Guard into the reserve for an expanded military and for a policy of empire building."

    In the process, the federal executive branch has taken over many of the rights and responsibilities of both Congress and the states. The War Powers Act of 1973 states that the president can wage war only by Congressional authorization, unless the US is under attack. Now, since Congress's authorization is no longer applicable and troops remain in Iraq, the standard is being set for a very weak Congressional role in war powers, according to Scotch.

    Under the current, Bush-conceived system, "Congress can start a war but cannot stop a war, or even impose enforceable limits to a war it authorizes," Scotch, who is now legal counsel to BTGH, told Truthout. "The president in today's US initiates, conducts, limits (or not) and ends wars (or not)."

    The Guard legislation promoted by the BTGH campaign reasserts not only the states's power to refuse illegal Guard orders, but also calls attention to the fact that Congress should determine whether or not a war is allowed to continue.

    At its heart, BTGH is a push to reverse the quiet ebbing away of the balance of powers that took place throughout the Bush administration. Now is the time to make sure the precedent of executive, federal domination doesn't become set in stone, according to Fisher.

    "Article 1 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and Article 2 gives the president the power to be commander in chief, "Fisher said. "It seems our founding fathers intentionally delivered us this tension, because they understood the dangers of executive power. They also delivered us tension between the states and the federal government - they positioned a large part of the military in the states's control."

    The Guard initiative also activates another "branch" of opinion that was neglected throughout the Bush administration: the American people. Since state-level legislation hits closer to home, and since state legislators interact with their constituents more regularly and on a more immediate level, the BTGH campaign intends to provide a new, effective outlet for citizens's voices.

    "We had seven years that the most people thought they could do to change foreign policy was to march, to vote or to participate in direct action," Manski said. "At the state level, it's much easier for people to get involved in legislation."

    For example, instead of writing letters to members of Congress, advocates for BTGH often request to speak directly with their state representatives or senators. National groups like Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and Peace Action have worked through their local chapters to communicate with legislators.

    Grassroots efforts directly led to Wisconsin state Rep. Spencer Black's involvement in the campaign.

    "The issue was brought to my attention by community activists," Black told Truthout. Wisconsin's version of the bill will be introduced in March.

    As the new session of Congress gains speed, the Guard legislation is quickly moving forward. Versions of it have been introduced in 14 states, and eight more have active campaigns pushing for the bill's introduction.

    In Oregon, bipartisan Guard legislation was introduced last week. Leah Bolger, vice president of Veterans for Peace, is hopeful that the upcoming deployment of 3,000 Oregon Guardsmen overseas will be halted and the case will be brought to the courts.

    "Our hope for the campaign is that if just one state can get this legislation passed and stand up to these illegal federalizations of Guard troops, it will have a ripple effect across the country," Bolger told Truthout.

    The legislation's sponsors firmly believe it is still relevant under the Obama administration. Bush not only left Obama with a foreign policy disaster to clean up, according to Fisher, he also left him a "legal mess." The state legislation is intended to redirect war powers back to their legal order.

    "I have a great hope for Obama - I really believe he is many times better than Bush, in many ways," Fisher said. "But if it was illegal for Bush to demand the state Guard deploy to Iraq, it is for Obama as well. We can't let that precedent stand - that a president can federalize the Guard without Congressional approval."

    In fact, according to Scotch, the ascendancy of a new president with "a humane ethic and a sound view of the Constitution" opens up new possibilities for the BTGH movement, just as it does for health care advocates, environmentalists and civil rights activists. Scotch hopes that Obama might become the first president to endorse the War Powers Act of 1973.

    "The Bush years and the Iraq war experience teach us that the smart sharing of war powers is still the best response to an increasingly dangerous world," Scotch said.

Hello Pastor Roger,

Brother, I'm very sad to hear this about TCU. Facilitating and promoting sin didn't used to be part of the TCU mission. Many of my family members will be very upset with this horrible news. This is yet another example of the devil destroying Christian education.

Why Is The Military Covering Up Fireballs From Space?   

foxnews.com/

For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere — but no longer.

A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned.

The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists.

The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified.

"It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work. "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy ... a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn't be done any other way. It's a regrettable change in policy."

Scientists say not only will research into the threat from space be hampered, but public understanding of sometimes dramatic sky explosions will be diminished, perhaps leading to hype and fear of the unknown.

Incoming!

Most "shooting stars" are caused by natural space debris no larger than peas.

But routinely, rocks as big as basketballs and even small cars crash into the atmosphere.

Most vaporize or explode on the way in, but some reach the surface or explode above the surface.

Understandably, scientists want to know about these events so they can better predict the risk here on Earth.

Yet because the world is two-thirds ocean, most incoming objects aren't visible to observers on the ground. Many other incoming space rocks go unnoticed because daylight drowns them out.

Over the last decade or so, hundreds of these events have been spotted by the classified satellites.

Priceless observational information derived from the spacecraft were made quickly available, giving researchers such insights as time, a location, height above the surface, as well as light-curves to help pin down the amount of energy churned out from the fireballs.

And in the shaky world we now live, it's nice to know that a sky-high detonation is natural instead of a nuclear-weapon blast.

Where the space-based surveillance truly shines is over remote stretches of ocean — far away from the prospect of ground-based data collection.

But all that ended within the last few months, leaving scientists blind-sided and miffed by the shift in policy. The hope is that the policy decision will be revisited and overturned.

Critical importance

"The fireball data from military or surveillance assets have been of critical importance for assessing the impact hazard," said David Morrison, a Near Earth Object (NEO) scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. He noted that his views are his own, not as a NASA spokesperson.

The size of the average largest atmospheric impact from small asteroids is a key piece of experimental data to anchor the low-energy end of the power-law distribution of impactors, from asteroids greater than 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter down to the meter scale, Morrison told SPACE.com.

"These fireball data together with astronomical observations of larger near-Earth asteroids define the nature of the impact hazard and allow rational planning to deal with this issue," Morrison said.Morrison said that fireball data are today playing additional important roles.

As example, the fireball data together with infrasound allowed scientists to verify the approximate size and energy of the unique Carancas impact in the Altiplano — on the Peru-Bolivia border — on Sept. 15, 2007.

Fireball information also played an important part in the story of the small asteroid 2008 TC3, Morrison said.

That was the first-ever case of the astronomical detection of a small asteroid before it hit last year .

The fireball data were key for locating the impact point and the subsequent recovery of fragments from this impact.

Link in public understanding

Astronomers are closing in on a years-long effort to find most of the potentially devastating large asteroids in our neck of the cosmic woods, those that could cause widespread regional or global devastation. Now they plan to look for the smaller stuff.

So it is ironic that the availability of these fireball data should be curtailed just at the time the NEO program is moving toward surveying the small impactors that are most likely to be picked up in the fireball monitoring program, Morrision said.

"These data have been available to the scientific community for the past decade," he said. "It is unfortunate this information is shut off just when it is becoming more valuable to the community interested in characterizing near Earth asteroids and protecting our planet from asteroid impacts."

The newly issued policy edict by the U.S. military of reporting fireball observations from satellites also caught the attention of Clark Chapman, a planetary scientist and asteroid impact expert at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"I think that this information is very important to make public," Chapman told SPACE.com.

"More important than the scientific value, I think, is that these rare, bright fireballs provide a link in public understanding to the asteroid impact hazard posed by still larger and less frequent asteroids," Chapman explained.

Those objects are witnessed by unsuspecting people in far-flung places, Chapman said, often generating incorrect and exaggerated reports.

"The grounding achieved by associating these reports by untrained observers with the satellite measurements is very useful for calibrating the observer reports and closing the loop with folks who think they have seen something mysterious and extraordinary," Chapman said.

Medvedev: World Needs New Reserve Currency

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

YEKATERINBURG, Russia —  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday the world needs new reserve currencies.

Medvedev told a regional summit that the creation of new reserve currencies in addition to the dollar is needed to stabilize global finances.

Medvedev has made the proposal before. It reflects both the Kremlin's push for greater international clout and a concern shared by other countries that soaring U.S. budget deficits could spur inflation and weaken the dollar.

Airing it at a summit meeting underlined the challenge to U.S. clout.

Medvedev spoke at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China and four Central Asian nations.

Later Tuesday he hosts a summit of the BRIC group of leading emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The Kremlin's top economic adviser said Russia may put part of its currency reserves in bonds issued by Brazil, China and India.

Arkady Dvorkovich said Russia could make the move if the other three nations reciprocate. Brazil, Russia, India and China are the members of the BRIC group of leading emerging economies.

Dvorkovich told a briefing Tuesday that the move could be part of efforts to diversify financial instruments.

He also proposed revising the way the International Monetary Fund's obligations are valued. He said the ruble, the yuan and gold should be part of a revised basket of currencies to form the valuation of the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs.

Medvedev: World Needs New Reserve Currency (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526541,00.html)

What makes our generation unique to the Signs of the Times?     

Prophecy News Watch

Whenever I present an overview of the signs of the times that point to the soon return of Jesus, I am often confronted by someone — often a professing Christian — who will say, "Come on David, these signs you are talking about have always existed in one degree or another, so what else is new?" They will then proceed to point out that there have always been wars and rumors of war, there have always been natural calamities, and throughout history Christians have always been persecuted. Then comes the inevitable challenge: "Show me something really new and unique that clearly points to our day and time as the season of the Lord's return."

The challenge is understandable, but it is not entirely legitimate. That's because Jesus said the end time signs would be like "birth pangs" (Matthew 24:8 ). In other words, the signs would increase in frequency and intensity as the time draws near for Jesus to return. There would be more earthquakes, and more intense ones. Wars would be more frequent and more horrible in their degree of devastation. And that, of course, is exactly what happened in the 20th Century. The signs began to increase exponentially in both frequency and intensity, and they continue to do so to this day.

But still, it is legitimate to ask if there are any signs that are truly unique to our day and time — signs that have never existed before. Are there new signs that clearly point to this period of history as the time of the Lord's return? The answer is yes.

A Key Prophecy

A verse that immediately comes to mind in this regard is found in Daniel 12. Daniel was given many prophecies by the Lord. Those relating to his day and time he clearly understood. He even seemed to understand prophecies that the Lord gave him relating to distant times, such as the succession of Gentile empires that would ultimately lead to the establishment of the Roman Empire. But when it came to prophecies about the end times — the period leading up to the Lord's return as King of kings and Lord of lords — Daniel did not understand what was revealed to him.

He wrestled mightily with the prophecies and finally cried out to the Lord in despair. "I have heard," he said, "but I do not understand! What do these events mean?" (Daniel 12:8 ). The Lord, in effect, responded by saying, "Cool it, Daniel, because it is not for you to understand!" The Lord's actual words were: "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time" (Daniel 12:9). It was Daniel's responsibility to deliver the prophecies, not to understand them.

Note that Daniel was told the prophecies would not be understood "until the end time." In fact, in the very next verse the Lord told Daniel that at the proper time "those who have insight will understand" (Daniel 12:10).

Accordingly, there are many end time prophecies that have never been understood until now, either because their understanding depended on historical events or because they were dependent upon technological developments. The fact that these prophecies have become understandable in recent years for the first time ever is proof positive that we are living in the end times. Let's look at some examples from the book of Revelation.

Revelation Examples

1) The Tribulation Slaughter — Revelation 6 says that the Tribulation will begin with a series of judgments that will result in the death of one-fourth of Mankind. The world's population is approaching six billion. That means one and a half billion people will die in the initial judgments, reducing the world's population to 4 1/2 billion. The next series of judgments, recorded in Revelation 8 and 9 will kill another third of Mankind. One-third of 4 1/2 billion is another one and a half billion. Thus, in the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation, a total of 3 billion people will die. That's half the population of the world!

Is this possible apart from the use of nuclear weapons? Only if it is a supernatural intervention of God. But God normally works through natural processes.

The unparalleled carnage of the Tribulation seems to me to point to nuclear weapons. Revelation 8 speaks of one-third of the earth being burned and one-third of the seas being polluted (Revelation 8:7-8). Later in the Tribulation, near the end, we are told that people will suffer from "loathsome and malignant sores" (Revelation 16:2). That sounds like one of the effects of radiation poisoning.

The advent of nuclear weapons makes possible for the first time the overwhelming Tribulation carnage portrayed in Revelation. I think nuclear power was what Jesus referred to in His Olivet Discourse when He said that the end times will be characterized by "men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken" (Luke 21:26).

The prophecies concerning the Tribulation carnage have clearly depended upon a major technological breakthrough for their understanding. That breakthrough occurred on July 16, 1945 when the first atomic bomb was exploded in New Mexico. When the first hydrogen bomb was exploded in 1952, we entered the era when, for the first time in human history, we could inflict upon ourselves the kind of carnage described in the book of Revelation.

2) The Army of 200 Million — Chapters 9 and 16 of Revelation state that an army of 200 million soldiers will march "from the east" toward Israel. Daniel 11 indicates that this will be an army representing nations in revolt against the Antichrist (Daniel 11:44).

Demographers estimate that the total population of the world at the time the Apostle John wrote Revelation (95 A.D.) was only 200 million. How could an army that size march out of the east? It made no sense. In fact, it took 1,650 years for the world's population to double to 400 million! At the beginning of the 20th Century the total world population was only 1.6 billion, still too small for an army of 200 million to march from the east.

But the 20th Century has witnessed an exponential increase in population. The population count is now at 6.7 billion, and just one country to the east of Israel — namely, China — could field an army of 200 million.

cont...

cont....

Here we have a clear example of a prophecy about the end times that could never be understood apart from historical developments.

3) The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11 reveals that two great witnesses of God will preach in the city of Jerusalem during the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation. Then, in the middle of that terrible period, the Antichrist will kill them.

We are further told that their dead bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 1/2 days and that all the people of the world will look upon them. How could that be? Prior to 1957 that prophecy was not understandable in natural terms. There was just no way that all the people of the world could look upon two dead bodies in the streets of Jerusalem.

All that changed on October 4, 1957 when the Russians sent up the first satellite called Sputnik. Today, 52 years later, our planet has many man-made satellites circling it, making possible all sorts of instantaneous communication.

When those two prophets lie dead in the streets of Jerusalem, all someone will have to do is point a TV camera at them, send the signal up to a satellite, and all the world will be able to look upon them. Once again, modern technology has made an ancient prophecy understandable for the first time.

4) The Nation of Israel — Revelation 12 focuses on the nation of Israel. It makes clear that in the middle of the Tribulation Satan will motivate and empower the Antichrist to annihilate the Jewish state and its people. A remnant of the Jews will flee into the "wilderness" where they will be supernaturally protected by the Lord (Revelation 12:14).

At the time the book of Revelation was written, Jerusalem had already been destroyed by the Romans and the worldwide distribution of the Jews had begun. Until the 20th Century, there was never any prospect that the nation of Israel would ever exist again. There were, of course, prophetic scholars who pointed to the many promises in Scripture that say the Jews will be regathered in the end times and the nation of Israel will be reestablished once more. But people laughed at these scholars and wrote them off as "dreamers" who were out of touch with reality.

Then, on May 14, 1948 the "dream" came true. The independence of the nation of Israel was proclaimed, and the Jewish state came back into existence for the first time in almost 2,000 years.

All the end time prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures make it clear that the Lord will return when the Jews are back in the land (Ezekiel 37) and back in their capital city of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12). Jesus emphasized these two events in His teaching. He pointed to the reestablishment of the state in his fig tree parable (Matthew 24:32-35), and He stressed the importance of the reoccupation of Jerusalem in His Olivet Discourse (Luke 21:24). He stated point blank that when Jerusalem is no longer under Gentile control, all the end time events would take place. Jerusalem ceased to be under Gentile control on June 7, 1967.

The central piece of the end time world political puzzle is now in place for the first time.

5) The Image of the Beast — Revelation 13 says that the Antichrist's religious leader, the False Prophet, will make an image of the Antichrist that will appear to come alive and speak. This trickery will amaze most of the world's population and will cause many of them to give their allegiance to the Antichrist.

What is the explanation of this event? Many have concluded that Satan will empower the False Prophet to give the image life. But Satan does not have the power to create life. Satan is a liar and a deceiver.

So, again, how can the False Prophet give an image life? I don't see any way for him to do it apart from modern technology. The illusion can be created in several ways through the use of modern robotics or holograms.

In 1967 I took my family to Disneyland. We went into a theater where we saw a man who looked exactly like Abraham Lincoln get up out of his chair in stage center, walk to the edge of the stage, grab the lapels of his jacket, and proceed to quote the Gettysburg Address. When he finished, a lady behind me exclaimed, "Wasn't he a good actor!" He was not an actor. The "actor" was a robot.

That was forty years ago. Think what could be done today with the advances that have been made in robotics and computer technology.

A couple of years ago the Dallas Morning News reported that the governor of Texas had "appeared" at a technology conference being held at the University of Texas at Dallas. Actually, the governor's appearance consisted of a three dimensional hologram that was projected from his office in Austin, Texas!

I recently shared this hologram story at a Bible prophecy conference. When we opened up the session to questions, a man in the audience made the point that the hologram technology was nothing new. When I asked what he meant, he replied, "They've been doing that for years on Star Trek. Haven't you ever seen them stand on a special platform and say, 'Beam me up, Scotty'?"

6) The Mark of the Beast — Another prophecy in Revelation 13 that is dependent on modern technology is the famous one that states the Antichrist will control the world's economy by requiring people to bear his mark or name on their hand or forehead in order to buy or sell anything.

Again, how could this be possible before the invention of laser and computer technology combined with the positioning of orbital satellites?

Such technology is already greatly advanced. In the year 2000 when I was in London, I discovered that taxis in that city were being tracked by satellite. Semi-trucks here in America are being tracked in the same way. Veterinarians are advertising that they can implant microchips under your pet's skin. These chips can be read by a scanner in the event your dog or cat gets lost. It will only be a matter of time before a more advanced chip will enable your pet to be traced by satellite.

cont...

cont...

We have almost become a cashless society, with most purchases being made by credit card. The problem with the cards is that they can be lost or stolen. A good solution would be to use a laser to put your credit card number on your hand in such a way as to be capable of being read by a scanner.

The point is that for the first time ever the technological tools are in place for the Antichrist to exercise control over the world's population.

7) The Euphrates River — Since all good prophecy teachers always have seven points, let me add another modern day sign from the book of Revelation.

As I mentioned previously, in chapters 9 and 16 we are told that an army of 200 million led by "the kings from the east" will march across Asia toward Israel during the Tribulation, most likely in revolt against the Antichrist. Revelation 16:12 indicates that this army will be held up at the Euphrates River until its water is suddenly dried up, enabling them to cross and proceed to the Valley of Armageddon.

Now, the Lord could dry up the water of the Euphrates River without any trouble at all, just as He parted the Red Sea for Moses and dried up the Jordan River for Joshua. But I think it is very interesting that this can now be accomplished over night through natural means. In 1990 Turkey completed the construction of the massive Ataturk Dam on the Euphrates, and they in fact cut off the flow of the river in order to fill up the lake behind the dam. This action almost resulted in a war with Iraq.

Other Unique Signs

The list of modern day signs given above is not an exhaustive one. They are simply some that I have pulled from the book of Revelation. There are others that are unique to our day and time that can be found in prophetic scriptures outside the book of Revelation. Let me just mention a few.

The first that comes to mind is the acceleration of life. In Daniel 12:4 we are told that the speed of transportation and the volume of knowledge will vastly increase in the end times. We have witnessed the fulfillment of this prophecy in our life time. When the 20th Century began, the vast majority of people were still traveling the same way they had been since the dawn of human history — namely, walking and riding a horse. Today we have autos, bullet trains, supersonic airplanes, and space ships. And all of this developed in only 80 years!

Similarly, the growth of knowledge has been overwhelming. Technical knowledge is doubling every two years. One edition of the New York Times Sunday edition contains more information than the average person in the 19th Century was exposed to in a life time! Through the World Wide Web, I can almost instantaneously access research resources all over the world. With the click of a computer key, I can go to the Vatican Library, and from there to the Library of Congress, and from there to the Jerusalem Museum.

The growth in communication speed is breathtaking. In the 19th Century it would have taken months for the news of the recent Mumbai terrorist attack in India to reach the United States. Even during the first half of the 20th Century it would have taken several days to a couple of weeks. But today, the news arrives instantaneously. Consider the years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million people: Radio, 38 years; Television, 13 years; Internet, 4 years; I-Pod, 3 years; and Facebook (an Internet sharing community), 2 years. That is truly exponential acceleration!

Spiritual Signs

Some of the most exciting signs that are unique to our day and age are spiritual ones. In Joel 2:28-32 we are told that there will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the end times, right before the return of the Lord. This chapter also tells us that this outpouring will occur after the Jews have been regathered to the land of Israel (Joel 2:18-28).

The nation of Israel was re-established in May of 1948. One year later the ministry of Billy Graham took off like a rocket, resulting in the Gospel being preached to more people than ever before in history. This important development was followed by the birth of the Charismatic Movement and the explosive growth of the Pentecostal Movement, both of which put an emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit and the importance of worship.

Spontaneously, all over the world, the Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11) began to be resurrected as churches returned to Davidic praise worship. This movement accelerated in the early 1980's when the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem started a yearly celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Thousands of Christians came from all over the world, and many were introduced to Davidic worship for the first time. They took the concept home with them in their hearts and introduced it to their churches.

In like manner the Holy Spirit has empowered world evangelism. Seventy per cent of all the missions work done by the church in its two thousand year history has been accomplished since 1900. Seventy per cent of that has been done since 1948, and 70% of that has been accomplished in the last ten years! In other words, the proclamation of the Gospel is on an exponential curve.

Much of the modern increase in missions outreach is due to technology, through the use of radio, television, movies, satellites, and the Internet. In April of 1996 Billy Graham preached a sermon that was broadcast to 200 countries in 40 different languages. It is estimated that 2.5 billion people heard or saw the message. The presentation was followed-up with the distribution of 445 million pieces of literature in over a hundred languages.

"The Jesus Film" produced by Campus Crusade in 1979 has been shown to over 6 billion people worldwide. Based upon the Gospel of Luke, the film has been translated into over 1,000 languages and is currently being shown in almost every country in the world by more than 2,500 teams.

The "10/40 Window Project" has focused the attention of Christians to pray for the success of evangelistic efforts in the area across Africa and Asia from 10 degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator. Of the 55 least evangelized countries, 97% of their population lives within this geographical window.

The result has been a great harvest of souls. More Muslims have come to Jesus in the past twenty years than in the previous one thousand years.

What we are witnessing in missions outreach is a fulfillment of Jesus' words when He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father" (John 14:12). The accelerated success of missions worldwide is also a partial fulfillment of a prophecy Jesus spoke in His Olivet Discourse: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come" (Matthew 24:14).

The Uniqueness of our Age
After reviewing the prophecies listed above, I don't think we need any handwriting on the wall to indicate to us that we are living in a unique age. Historical developments and technological inventions are making it possible for us to understand many end time prophecies for the first time.

Even the phenomenal success of Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth, is a modern day sign of the times. Keep in mind that this book was the number one best seller in the world, with the sole exception of the Bible, for ten consecutive years, from 1970 to 1980 (as authenticated by Time Magazine). What was it that the Lord told Daniel? — "Seal it up to the end of time when those who have insight will understand."

The bottom line, my friends, is that we are living on borrowed time, because Jesus is coming soon!

Hi grammyluv!! How are you?
Thought this was an interesting story for this thread:

"ABC's Alien Invasion Drama 'V' Is Too Real for the Obama Administration"
News Real Blog, Nov. 25, 2009

When I first heard liberals howling about anti-Obama messages in ABC's new sci-fi drama 'V' - I rolled my eyes...Any resemblence between the 44th president and 2 faced space lizards had to be coincidental...at least, that's what I thought before Sean Hannity aired clips from the new show.
...Hannity hightlights a scene in which an attractive, smooth talking 'V' representative sits down for an interview:
"V: Be sure not to ask anything that would paint us in a negative light.
Host: Excust me?
V: Don't ask any questions that would portray us negatively.
Host: This is just how it's done, I swear I'll be fair.
V: You'll need to be more than fair if you want to proceed. We can't be seen in a negative light...We want to provide complete medical services to all.
Host: You're talking about universal healthcare?
V: I believe that's what you call it, yes.
          Cont'd...

Cont'd...
    Just prior to this TV interview, we learned that the smooth talking humanoids called the "Visitors" or simply "V", are really horrid, reptillian monsters who have taken human form in order to decieve all mankind. We further learn that these Reptillians plan to annnihilate all mankind under the guise of helping all mankind.
     Suddenly we see these deceptive reptilians announcing Universal Health Care, and we know that their real plan is to destroy all humans on this planet. Fast forward to Obama's proposals for Universal Health Care being sold on the same basic premise as the "Vistitors" are selling their massive health care plan, and you can easily make the connection.
    Obama's positive spin on his Universal Health Care might prove to be just as deadly to Americans as the health care of the "Visitors".
     No opponent of Obama's health care plan could have delivered such a body blow to his Fascist health care proposals. I was frankly speechless when that dialogue popped out! I guess that gov't censorship has not yet started.
     However, not so fast! Political repercussions over this type of dialogue seem to be unfolding. This shows producer has been demoted!
     "Naturally when a show debuts to huge ratings and mostly great reviews, the producer's career is golden. Not this time.                                        Cont'd...

Cont'd...
Apparently the network...decided to replace the show runner Scott Peters before the pilot even aired. Peters has been demoted to the shows exec-producer, a largely honorary title..."
     Furthermore, last night, at the end of "V" the network stated that the series will resume in March, 2010. Evidently, it will take that much time to rewrite the script to conform to the new 'politically correct' guidelines.
     Now, let's examine another incidence in which the dialogue of "V" might have offened the Federal Gov't.
Last night, in the segment "Its Only the Beginning", the visitors spokeswoman, Anna, announced that the "V's" were going to begin offering a free innoculation to all humans in order to improve their health. Anna said that people could think of this vaccination as a 'vitamin supplement.'
     However, we learn that the real agenda behind this vaccination was to kill humans by the millions. As the FBI agent and her partner track the clues, they discover that the "Visitors" really plan to mix this deadly "vitamin supplement' in with the humans own seasonal flu vaccinations!"
     The FBI agent lament that humans are so easily decieved and vulnerable, because we have been conditioned to meekly accept vaccinatios --- even demand them--- for every slight illness which we face. This agent simply feels that humans are vulnerable because they are gullible and predictable.                                Cont'd...

Cont'd...

Wow! We who oppose Swine Flu vaccination...could not have found a better way to warn people. This TV movie is warning people that they cannot blindly accept the promises of a government. This warning is especially pertinent when we realize that it is dedicated to the full goal of a New World Order..."

The above is very interesting...I'm sorry I didn't see the show!
     

Yes I watched the show and yes, it reminds me of Obamanation too.

I did like the original "V" better, corny, goofy, and silly yes. The original "V" also had a pretty good moral storyline.  ;D   But that is just my .02¢ worth........... :P :P :P :P

Ten Students Suspended for "Kick a Jew" day in Florida
Jerusalem Prayer Team

:We expect anti-semitism to rear its ugly head in the radical Islaamic madrasses of Iran and Saudi Arabia. We've grown accustomed to pictures of Palestinian schoolchildren chanting "death to Israel". We've learned by bitter experience that hatred of the Jewish people is not a thing of the past. We don't expect to see it right here in America...but it is growing.

Ten middle school students in Naples, Florida, were suspended after taking part in what they called "Kick a Jew Day". School authorities assured worried parents that they were taking the incident seriously, and would institute "sensitivity training" and encourage students not to be bullies. "You have Jewish students being singled out, harrassed and assaulted," David Barkey of the Florida anti-defamation league told the Naples Daily News. And Rabbi James Perman, of Temple Shalom in North Naples, called the situation "alarming".

Didn't everyone say "Never Again" after WWII?  ???

Yes, and we heard those same words in regards to our Soldiers after Viet Nam. It is wonderful goal but with so much inheritant hatred it is not one that we will see until the return of Jesus.

I'd like to know what insane thoughts these 10 students are using to arrive at their hate. Whatever it is, it's warped.

Warped is right, blackeyedpeas!!!! What my dad fought against in WWII is all coming back again  :'(

Here's another 'warped' event...

Newsmax.com

Schools Complain Over Supplies with Obama Logo
Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, 4:21 pm

COLUMBIA, Mo -- Several Missouri schools are complaining about notebooks and pencils with designs similar to the logos from Obamas campaign. The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that complaints from unhappy officials at 3 Missouri schools have prompted the supply company responsible for the materials to travel across the state recalling notebooks and pencils.

     The design at issue includes a picture of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Above the coins is the phrase "CHANGE" and underneath it reads: "WE CAN BELIEVE IN". Below the words is a circle used by Obama's campaign in which the top half is blue and the bottom is red with 3 white lines passing through it.
     
     At least one notebook and pencil with the design have been purchased from a school supply machine at a Columbia Elementary school! Two families have complained about the design, and principal Mary Sue Gibson said she planned to complain to the supply company."          ::)

More indoctrination in the schools.

This indoctrination stuff is impossible to stomach. In my opinion, all parents should stand up and say NO! to all of it in any form. I also firmly believe that all Christian parents should organize their lives so that changes can be made if homeschooling becomes necessary. FIRST, all parents should know ALL that is going on in public schools. This is a duty we have to our children. It could easily become a necessity to use alternatives to public schools. All parents should be educating themselves and preparing for those alternatives. START NOW AND BE READY!

Amen blackeyedpeas!

    As homeschoolers ourselves we're very aware of this administration's hostility toward those of us who believe in Jesus Christ and want a Christian upbringing for our children. We get law updates from our homeschool legal defense team often, and know that things are moving very fast toward outlawing homeschool, just as they did in Germany. It is disgusting! We've lost our country but they cannot take away our faith or what we've already taught our children!!!!!!!!!

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!!!

More 'Signs of the Times' from Bill Koenig, a believer in Jesus Christ, a White House reporter, and the author of 'Eye to Eye':

"...The most recent major hurricane seasons were 2004, 2005, and 2008 - the three years the President G W Bush Administration was actively pursuing the dividing of the land of Israel. Dr. Gray is one of the top hurricane experts in the world.
     Interestingly, Tropical Storm Ida began on Nov. 4, 2009, 48 hours after Hillary Clinton met with Arab leaders in Morocco on Nov. 2 - and 24 hours after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Nov. 3.
     On Mon. Nov 2, Clinton praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for taking "positive steps" towards peace talks with Israel, while suggesting that Israel could do more. Her remarks came amidst criticism from the Arab world that she had sided with Israel by calling their offer to limit, but not halt, settlement growth an unprecedented step forward.
     Ida hit the southern Gulf Coast on Nov. 9, the day Netanyahu met with Obama at the White House. Ida then moved up the east coast of  the US.                   
                        Cont'd...

Cont'd...

Ida's aftermath traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and set a 24 hour rain record on Nov 20 in Great Britain - the highest total since record keeping began in 1727. Britains Met Office said a record 12.3 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in the Cumbria area - the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the UK.
     Queen Elizabeth II said she was "deeply concerned and saddened by the dreadful flooding across Britain."
     Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday, Nov 3, British Foreign Sec'y David Miliband criticized Israel's construction of settlements in the West Bank as "illegal" and said they represented an obstacle in the path of peace.
     "Settlements are illegal in our view and an obstacle 'that impedes efforts which seek to work out a final settlement between the Israelis and Palestians,' Miliband told a press conference at the end of a one day visit to Jordan and talks with King Abdullah II.
      Miliband supported the establishment of an Independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and expressed concern over Israeli violations in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War."
             
It seems Jerusalem is becoming a burdensome stone...and from what I've read in my Bible, Israel is not leaving. Our leaders just don't get it, do they? God doesn't like His land divided...

Most politicians around the world have no clue at all, certainly including the politicians in Israel. There is more than enough in the Old Testament for the Old Testament Bible Scholars in Israel to know what's going on, but they're temporarily blinded. I mentioned this because most in Israel reject the New Testament. I'm convinced that the vast majority of the people in Israel have no clue what is about to happen. By the way, I firmly believe that it could start happening any day now. I don't say this claiming any special revelation, just common sense in looking at world events through the lens of God's Word.

Nobody knows what the world will do to the borders of Israel during the Tribulation Period, but Christians know what Jesus Christ will do with Israel's borders after His Second Coming. I find it very sad knowing that the people of Israel have no clue that they will have their Promised Kingdom, King, and Messiah. When will Ezekiel 38 and 39 be fulfilled? Only God knows, but students of Bible Prophecy think it will be soon. Why? - The conditions and players are lined up and ready to go. The fuses for the powder kegs appear to be lit and edging ever closer to the powder.

In the meantime:

Romans 11:7-10 (KJV)  7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded   8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.   9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:   10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Bible is most-stolen book during holidays
Reported by: Janet Kwak 

SAN ANTONIO -- Noah's Ark Christian Bookstore sees about one to two Christian items stolen every year.

This holiday season, it's seeing three to four items missing from its shelves.

"I can see the need people have, they need to buy more but don't have the means to do it," store manager Maria Obregon says.

You can't ignore the irony of the situation. The book that read, "Thou shalt not steal" is also one of the most-stolen books in the world. In San Antonio, Bible bandits are on the rise. Local bookstores say it's a problem they see year-round. They attribute it to a slow economy, and people turning to God in tough times.

"It hurts the cash register," claims Obregon.

Bibles at Noah's Ark can cost anywhere from $10 to $70. So the holy heist could hurt the bottom line. Security cameras are put in place to watch those going astray, but Obregon doesn't expect the thieves to return with their stolen goods.

"So I just bless them that they can [use it] and read it," she says.

Obregon also works out deals with her customers who are spending on a budget. Oftentimes, she says she gives discounts, or even hands out free Bibles for new believers.

Bible is most-stolen book during holidays (http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Bible-is-most-stolen-book-during-holidays/4cX6kLwOE0m-DNmXr8fKrA.cspx)

Fascinating article! It is the most needed book by the world.

Jesus the Socialist
by Cal Thomas

Apparently not content with his congressional majority that wishes to force Americans on a long march to health care disaster, Obama has invoked the name of Jesus to broadcast his gospel of spreading the wealth.
     Speaking Monday afternoon to a group of children from Wash D.C, Boys and Girls Club, Obama delivered a mini-sermon on "why we celebrate Christmas." He asked the children if they knew.
     Obama spoke of what Jesus "symbolizes for people all around the world", which he said is "the possibility of peace and treating each other with respect". And then in the best tradition of community organizer, he said Jesus is about "doing something for other people."
     Even the three wise men were invoked to support Obamas idea of wealth redistribution: "...these guys have all this money, they've got all this wealth and power, and they took a long trip to a manger just to see a little baby."
     And what conclusion should be drawn from that journey? Obama told the children, "...it just shows you that because you're powerful or you're wealthy, that's not what's important. What's important is...the kind of spirit you have."

 Contd...

Cont'd...

To Obama, this means the spirit of government taking from the productive and giving to the nonproductive. To him, Jesus is a socialist or perhaps an early Robin Hood. Any first year seminarian (if the seminary is a good one) could destroy this flawed exegesis.
     Jesus of Nazareth was NOT a symbol. Neither was He just a good teacher as some who do not fully accept His teachings about Himself would like to claim. As Paul, the apostle put it "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst." (1 Timothy 1:15, NIV).
     The call of Scripture is to do for other people as we would like to have them done to us, but that call is personal, NOT CORPORATE. That's because only people can be compassionate. A government check too often brings dependence and a sense of entitlement. A personal touch builds relationships horizontally with others and vertically with God. 
KOENIGS PERSPECTIVE: Today it is accepted in major international religious meetings to portray Jesus Christ as one who was interested in social issues, BUT there is immediate rejection of those that say HE IS THE MESSIAH, the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, and the ONLY PATHWAY TO GOD.

Hello Sister Barbara,

All I can say is that it makes me SICK to learn that Obama is invoking the Holy Name of Jesus Christ to advance his communist/socialist/fascist agenda. Obama is two-faced, and I seriously doubt that he knows Jesus Christ at all.

LAPD plans to run its youth program without Boy Scouts
From news services
Posted: 12/22/2009 04:57:15 PM PST

The Los Angeles Police Department's Explorers youth program will end its nearly 50-year relationship with the Boys Scouts of America, pledging not to tolerate discrimination.

As of New Year's Day, LAPD Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger said the department will run the youth program under a different name independent of the Boy Scouts, with the program being funded in part through donations.

The Boy Scouts started the Explorers program in 1949 as a career-oriented program for boys.

The LAPD began participating in 1962. Since 1998, the LAPD has been running the Explorers program while Learning for Life - an organization created by the Boy Scouts - provided insurance coverage to participants.

But the Police Commission voted last month to sever ties with Learning for Life, saying the Boys Scouts' policy of barring gays, atheists and agnostics from being troop leaders violates the city's non-discrimination policies.

"It's bittersweet in the sense that the Boy Scouts or Learning for Life have been part of this for a long time - in name only - but the LAPD is committed to a better program and we can do that without having discrimination," said Police Commissioner Alan Skobin.

Commissioner Robert Saltzman, who is openly gay, said that because he cannot support the Boy Scouts, he has invested a lot of time to ensure the new youth program is "as good or - I'm confident - better than the program it replaces."

"The Boy Scouts are clear that they discriminate based on sexual orientation, gender identity and religion, and the result of that is I could not be active on the Boy Scouts," Saltzman said.

LAPD's Explorer program provides training to youths ages 14 to 20 who are interested in law enforcement careers. About 1,000 Explorers are assigned to the 20 police stations around the city.

Wearing special uniforms, they help officers with searches for evidence and provide crowd control at special events. They also provide tours of police stations, assist with clerical work and participate in educational camping trips.

The Boy Scouts' policy of banning gays from being troop leaders faced legal challenges in the 1990s. However, the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts had the right to decide who can join its ranks.

The Boy Scouts had argued that accepting gays would violate its constitutional right to freedom of association and free speech.

LAPD plans to run its youth program without Boy Scouts (http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_14051803?source=rss_viewed)

Par for the course of an Ultra-Liberal city government and a gay commissioner. This is extremely sad for the good kids involved in that program. The people there need to take their government back.

Mediterranean Union to name Arab head


(http://www.globalresearch.ca/articlePictures/EU%20Expansion%20and%20Mediterranean%20Union%20(Nazemroaya).JPG)


The nascent Mediterranean Union is “very close” to naming its first secretary general, who will be from an Arab country, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Tuesday.

He was speaking at a news conference in Madrid before leaving for Cairo to attend a meeting of representatives of member states.

The Mediterranean Union “is very close to naming its secretary general,” who will be a representative of an Arab country, Moratinos said.

He said an announcement, which could come as soon as Tuesday evening, would allow the Union to prepare for its second planned summit, scheduled for Barcelona in June as part of Spain’s six-month EU presidency.

Launched at a Paris summit in July 2008, the Mediterranean Union groups EU member states with countries in North Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world as well as Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world’s most volatile regions.

But the project was the victim of the 22-day war in the Gaza Strip that ended on January 18 last year as Arab countries have refused to sit next to Israel.

France announced last month that the foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Jordan, Spain and Tunisia would meet in early January in Cairo to try to revive the grouping.

Thanks Pastor Roger!

It's fascinating to watch things develop.

Music can be banned if it even sounds religious
Supreme Court won't hear case where officials censored melody
Posted: March 22, 2010
8:09 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

A public school has banned performance of an instrumental version of "Ave Maria" at its high-school graduation simply because the superintendent fears it might sound religious – and the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the ban to stand by refusing to hear the case.

Kathryn Nurre, a former student at Henry M. Jackson High School in Everett, Wash., brought the action against Carol Whitehead, superintendent of Everett School District, alleging that she engaged in unjustified censorship of expression.

Nurre, a member of the Jackson High School Wind Ensemble who played alto saxophone, received her high school diploma in June 2006. The group was expected to perform at the graduation ceremony, and 17 students unanimously chose Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria" as their selection.

Their performance would be purely instrumental, with no singing or lyrics.

However, upon learning of the selection, Jackson High School Principal Terry Cheshire contacted District Executive Director Lynn Evans, who in turn contacted Superintendent Whitehead.

"Without student input or involvement, the administrators unilaterally decided to prohibit the seniors from playing 'Ave Maria' at the graduation," the complaint states.

Whitehead testified, saying "We made the decision that because the title of the piece would be on the program and it's 'Ave Maria' and that many people would see that as religious in nature, that we would ask the band to select something different."

According to court documents, no one at the meeting admitted to knowing the meaning of the words "Ave Maria" – "Hail Mary" in Latin. However, they agreed that it seemed to have a religious connotation.

At Whitehead's direction, an e-mail was sent to high school principals with guidelines on music selections for graduation ceremonies. It insisted that the music be "entirely secular in nature."

The students asked if they could play "Ave Maria" if they identified it only as "A selection by Franz Biebl" on the program. But Principal Cheshire said doing so would not be "ethical."

Instead, the students were forced to perform a movement from Gustav Holst's "Second Suite for Military Band" at the commencement ceremony.

Attorneys for the Rutherford Institute filed suit against the school district in June 2006. Nurre alleged the school district deprived her of her rights under 1) the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, 2) the Establishment Clause of the 14th Amendment and 3) the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The district court ruled against Nurre, and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment.

In a 2009 dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Milan Smith expressed his view that Nurre's First Amendment rights were violated and his fear that the decision could lead "public school administrators to chill – or even kill – musical and artistic presentations by their students ... where those presentations contain any trace of religious inspiration, for fear of criticism by a member of the public, however extreme that person's views might be."

The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit legal group, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case in December, but the Court has now refused the request.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blasted the court for rejecting the case.

"When a public school purports to allow students to express themselves, it must respect the students' free speech rights," Alito stated in his six-page opinion on the case. "School administrators may not behave like puppet masters who create the illusion that students are engaging in personal expression when in fact the school administration is pulling the strings."

Likewise, John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said he is disappointed in the Court's decision to let the lower court ruling against Nurre stand.

"Free speech in the public schools is on life support," he said. "With this decision, the Supreme Court may have pulled the plug. It's a sad day for freedom in America."

Yes, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.