May 12, 2007

Livni: Israel must hand over parts of West Bank for peace (May 12, 2007) - Any future Palestinian state will require Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in an interview to Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram on Saturday. According to Livni, Israel is ready to move forward in negotiations with the Palestinians, and is waiting for the Palestinians to take responsibility for the violence and extreme forces within Palestinian society. "The majority of the Israeli nation understands not only the need for peace, but also the need to compromise for a solution to achieve this peace. "And in this context, I present the vision, shared by the majority, of a two-state solution, one for Jews and one for Palestinians… the path to the [creation of] a Palestinian state begins with the denunciation of terrorism. I am convinced that this reflects not only the interests of Israel, but also the interests of the Palestinians. During the interview, which took place as part of the foreign minister's visit to Cairo, Livni said that the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was a necessary and crucial step in the peace process. Livni said that in order to complete this process and create a Palestinian state, Israel will need to withdraw from the West Bank as well. "I can assure you that Gaza is not the last step, we are convinced that to establish a Palestinian state, we have to withdraw from other areas," she said. "We do not want to control the Palestinians." Livni's visit culminated in a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah Al-Khatib in Cairo, where the Arab League peace initiative was discussed. | Israel | Islam |
The Secret Name (May 11, 2007) - Unsealed Prophecy: Very interesting news bit from reader and friend Steve McHenry’s Blog. Thanks, Steve. "One of the most prominent Rabbis in Israel was Yitzhak Kaduri. When he died a year ago at the remarkable age of 108, over 200,000 attended his funeral. A few months before he died, he wrote a small note, which he requested should remain sealed for a year after his death. It has been recently unsealed; it is now obvious why his last wish was to wait one year after his death before revealing what he wrote. (The custom is that for one so long departed he is less vulnerable to post-mortem derogatory attacks.) The secret note (written in Hebrew) reads as follows: Regarding the Reishei-Tivot of Mashiach: He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid. Written with my signature in the month of Rachamim [Elul], 5765, Yitzhak Kaduri. The term Reishei-Tivot is a reference to a common mode of kabbalistic “coding,” wherein a name or phrase is spelled using the first letters of the words in a sentence or paragraph. The Hebrew sentence (translated above in bold) contains the hidden name of the Messiah as an acrostic: Yarim Ha’am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omidim The initial letters form an acrostic for Yehoshua (or Yeshua, which is the same name [Cf. Zechariah 6:11; Ezra 3:2. The same priest adds the holy abbreviation of God’s name, “ho”, in the father’s name and Yeshua.]), derived from the same Hebrew root for “salvation.” Yehoshua is the English spelling for YHWH (”Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves”). Most English Bibles mistakenly translate YHWH as “the LORD.” But God said, literally, “I am YHWH; that is my name (Isaiah 42:8). The Messiah’s name is Jesus! When the name of Yehoshua was revealed in Rabbi Kaduri’s message, Jewish rabbis–especially the ultra-Orthodox–have found this extremely unsettling. There were some initial attempts to deny the authenticity of the note (even by Kaduri’s son, Rabbi David Kaduri), but they have proven futile. Israel Today has confirmed the reliability of the report."
No Organic Bee Losses (May 10, 2007) - "Sharon Labchuk is a longtime environmental activist and part-time organic beekeeper from Prince Edward Island. She has twice run for a seat in Ottawa's House of Commons, making strong showings around 5% for Canada's fledgling Green Party. She is also leader of the provincial wing of her party. In a widely circulated email, she wrote: I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies. Her email recommends a visit to the Bush Bees Web site at Here, Michael Bush felt compelled to put a message to the beekeeping world right on the top page: Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites. I'm happy to say my biggest problems are things like trying to get nucs through the winter and coming up with hives that won't hurt my back from lifting or better ways to feed the bees. This change from fighting the mites is mostly because I've gone to natural sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter. What most people use for worker brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in diameter. If you translate that into three dimensions instead of one, it produces a bee that is about half as large again as is natural. By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems. One cause of this is shorter capping times by one day, and shorter post-capping times by one day. This means less Varroa get into the cells, and less Varroa reproduce in the cells. Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue? These are important questions to ask. It is not an uncommonly held opinion that, although this new pattern of bee colony collapse seems to have struck from out of the blue (which suggests a triggering agent), it is likely that some biological limit in the bees has been crossed. There is no shortage of evidence that we have been fast approaching this limit for some time. We've been pushing them too hard, Dr. Peter Kevan, an associate professor of environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, told the CBC. And we're starving them out by feeding them artificially and moving them great distances. Given the stress commercial bees are under, Kevan suggests CCD might be caused by parasitic mites, or long cold winters, or long wet springs, or pesticides, or genetically modified crops. Maybe it's all of the above... | Technology | Maybe we should just keep God's creation as He made it? Love of money is the root of all evil and it seems that the lust for more profits may be behind the problems we're seeing now. Expect more stuff like this as the "scientists" mess with genetics to create more profitable crops and meat sources.
Iraqi bill on troop pullout discussed (May 10, 2007) - A majority of Iraqi lawmakers endorsed a draft bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday. The legislation was being discussed even as U.S. lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force in the coming months. The proposed Iraqi legislation, drafted by the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, said Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc. The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 parliamentary seats and sees the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this was the first time it garnered the support of a majority of lawmakers. The bill would require the Iraqi government to seek approval from parliament before it requests an extension of the U.N. mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq, al-Rubaie said. It also calls for a timetable for the troop withdrawal and a freeze on the size of the foreign forces. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in November to extend the mandate of the U.S.-led forces until the end of 2007. The resolution, however, said the council "will terminate this mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq." more... | Islam | America | I wonder why the supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr would want America to pull out? I really think that the suggestion of moving the U.N. to Babylon may be the way out for everyone that also fulfills Bible prophecy putting the European government in Babylon.
Boy, 10, guilty of beating homeless man (May 10, 2007) - A 10-year-old boy was convicted Thursday in the beating of a homeless Army veteran that left the man so severely injured he required reconstructive surgery. Prosecutors say the boy, another 10-year-old and Jeremy Woods, 17, ganged up on John D'Amico, 58, as he and a friend walked through a Daytona Beach neighborhood on March 27. The older man was beaten and stoned with a concrete block. Circuit Judge John Watson found the boy guilty of aggravated battery and set sentencing for May 24. The boy, who appeared in court in shackles and an oversized jumpsuit, could be held in the juvenile system until he turns 21 if the judge considers him a habitual offender, or he could be given probation or counseling. D'Amico, who still has a bandage over his left eye, testified that he never provoked the boys as they claimed. "The judge saw through the nonsense," D'Amico said outside court. "They need to hold him until he can prove that he'll never do this to somebody else because next time he can kill somebody." more... | Signs of the Times | Violent outbursts like this are occurring with younger and younger kids. Shootings in schools and other such crimes didn't happen just 50 years ago did they? Have the young always acted so evil or are the effects of the principalities and powers, spiritual darkness in the world, showing forth their fruit? It certainly isn't the fruit of the Spirit of God.
Body satisfaction reflects self-esteem for most teens (May 10, 2007) - The happier most adolescents are with their bodies, the more they like themselves, a new study shows. But among black boys, the researchers found, there was no connection between body image and self esteem. This could be because these young men have a unique resilience to the "toxic" stream of media images emphasizing the importance of personal appearance, or it may be that such messages simply don't target them, lead researcher Dr. Eliana Miller Perrin of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill told Reuters Health. "If they represent a group that doesn't show this connection between body-esteem and self-esteem, it may be quite interesting to do more research looking at their attitudes about their bodies and their self-esteem," Perrin added, noting that black male adolescents are a traditionally understudied group. Perrin and her colleagues surveyed 1,017 seventh- and eighth-graders to investigate how gender and race affect the link between body satisfaction and self-image. Among all teens except for black boys, the researchers found, high body satisfaction translated to high self-esteem. White girls who were highly satisfied with their bodies were seven times more likely to have high self-esteem, while black girls with high body satisfaction were three times more likely to have high self esteem. All teens who said they wanted to lose weight were less likely to be satisfied with their bodies, and this association was particularly strong for white girls. While black boys who were overweight or at risk of being overweight were less satisfied with their bodies, this was unrelated to their self-esteem. More research is needed, Perrin said, to better understand how some teens but not others are able to feel good about themselves whether or not they are satisfied with their bodies. Perrin and her colleagues will be following the boys and girls in the current study over time to try to answer this question. more... Focus is on the physical-material when it should be on the spiritual. Our self-worth should come from what God thinks about us, not what the world wants us to look like. We are not of this world, but have been chosen out of it.
Earth's Magnetic Field May Be About to Go into Reverse (May 10, 2007) - The weather in space is controlled by events at the centre of the Earth. A pity, then, that the magnetic field generated there may be about to go into reverse.
GREENLAND was discovered without the use of magnetic compasses. The Viking longboats that arrived here in 982 relied on the stars and the sun to maintain their orientation. But it was the compass (a Chinese invention) that enabled later European navigators to bestride the world. It was the compass, too, which revealed that the Earth itself has a magnetic field and thus led to the first serious question about the planet's internal structure: what is down there that generates this field? Such a question is not merely academic. Besides directing compasses, the Earth's magnetic field reaches out into space to direct the flow of the solar wind around the planet—forming a structure called the magnetosphere (depicted above). When the wind hits this field it creates a shock wave known as the bow shock. Most of the protons and electrons of the wind go round this shock wave, and lots of dangerous radiation from the sun is thus diverted away from the Earth. There is, however, a growing body of evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is about to disappear, at least for a while. The geological record shows that it flips from time to time, with the south pole becoming the north, and vice versa. On average, such reversals take place every 500,000 years, but there is no discernible pattern. Flips have happened as close together as 50,000 years, though the last one was 780,000 years ago. But, as discussed at the Greenland Space Science Symposium, held in Kangerlussuaq this week, the signs are that another flip is coming soon. more... | Earth Changes | 4th Bowl | I believe this will be part of the cause for the fourth bowl of God's wrath: Revelation 16:8, "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire." With a weakened magnetic field around the earth and a solar flare directed at the earth, we would see plasma from the sun scorch the earth.
Physicist Claims He Can Prove the Existence of God (May 9, 2007) - It's been a debate for centuries. But now a physicist from New Orleans says he has definitive scientific proof that God does exist. Frank Tipler, Ph.D., is a professor of math and physics at Tulane University. He says he can prove that god is real. "It's coming out not of paleontology or religious mysticism but that of hard-nosed physics, which is what I like." To hear Tipler explain his ideas, click here.
New Age Ecologist Calls for World Population Reduction by JDShelton (May 9, 2007) - Chris Perver at Prophecy in the News always, in my opinion, has some of the best insight into events around us and their relation to fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Today, he discusses one of the banner programs of the UN, and how a very popular program started by a very popular person is entangled in it. "Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has proposed world governments should work towards a reduction in the global population, which now stands at some 6 billion souls. It’s not the first time Mr Watson has caused controversy, having previously compared human life to an AIDS virus that has infected the planet. Watson believes that in order for earth to be sustainable, the population should be levelled out at around 1 billion. It is not immediately clear if Watson was offering to end his own life to save the rest of the planet (joke). Quote: “”No human community should be larger than 20,000 people and separated from other communities by wilderness areas.” New York, London, Paris, Moscow are all too big. Then again, so are Moose Jaw, Timbuktu and even Annapolis, Md. “We need vast areas of the planet where humans do not live at all and where other species are free to evolve without human interference.” “We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion.” His views may sound extreme, but in fact they are quite widespread. Paul suggests we reduce world population to around one billion, the UN suggests a more conservative figure of two billion. This is why I was so against campaigns like “Make Poverty History”,( The One Campaign, started by Bono, my comment ) which actively support the implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. One of the UN’s development goals is to reduce world population to what they call a sustainable level, and some of the means they seek to achieve this is by contraception and abortion (read “no-consequence-sex and murder”). Very non-Christian methods, yet some Christian organizations such as Wycliffe Associates chose to support their endeavours. It was even recently admitted that the UN Development Goals are not achievable without legalizing abortion in many countries. This view is not evolutionary in origin, for evolution teaches that man is the most evolved being on the planet, while these people see mankind as refuse, marring what would have otherwise been a perfectly good planet. It’s a form of New Ageism, the belief that Gaia (Earth) is a living, breathing entity, that mankind is destroying. And it seems the UN is rife with it. Yes, the world’s weather is changing. And mankind has a responsibility to look after the planet God has given us, and we have largely failed in that respect. But the reason why these are happening is explained in the Scriptures… Mankind is destroying the earth because of sin, not because we are some AIDS virus or evolutionary mistake. Adam was given a responsibility to tend the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). After his sin, God cursed the ground with weeds and thorns (Genesis 3:18). Today Satan’s cohorts are suggesting that we let weeds and thorns retake control of the Earth, through various “re-wilding” schemes. God did not create the Earth just so it could be covered in weeds, he created it to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18). The world’s weather is changing, not because of pollution (although that has an affect), but because the Scriptures state that in the last days God’s judgment would be poured out on this wicked world (Revelation 16:8). Satan does not want mankind to realize that his sin is a major cause of the way things are today. He does not want people to realize the events spoken of in Revelation are soon to come to pass, and that unless they are saved, these things will come upon them. The Lord commanded Adam and Eve to fill the earth (Genesis 1:28) with their descendants, not to remain in some obscure part and let nature take its course with the rest. This world is capable of sustaining much more people, but our governments and businesses are not generally not interested in sharing their wealth and food, and that is mostly why we have such problems today. Satan and his cohorts want us to murder our children in the belief we are helping the planet, rather than obey God’s command to subdue the earth and take dominion of it. As you can see, the New Age agenda is in complete contravention of God’s Word. Satan’s ultimate goal is to get mankind to do the opposite of everything God has commanded us. He thinks that by destroying God’s creation, he can ultimately get back at the One He hates the most - the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we need to obey God’s Word, first of all, in accepting His Son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and secondly, by obeying His will in our lives. Maranatha."
2007: Nuclear Attack and Invasion of United States (May 9, 2007) - According to Hal Lindsey of WorldNetDaily.com, Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, has threatened to unleash an army of operatives already inside the United States, if the U.S. attacks Iran. In other words, mass murder by armed gangs already in U.S. cities. WND: Chavez threatens to 'unleash operatives' already in U.S. MS-13, most likely the 'army of operatives' Chavez threatened to unleash, is the most violent gang in the United States, numbering in the tens of thousands, responsible for murders across the country and the subject of congressional investigations. At one point they were reported to be in over 3,500 U.S. cities. Approximately 70,000 more are in Central America where many receive paramilitary training, and from the sound of things, have been sneaking in by the thousands from Mexico into the United States. MS-13 gangs have set up in many American cities, and are reported to have created a national command hierarchy, with some gang members on the East and West coast reporting directly to and paying gang dues to leaders in Central America. FPIF: MS-13 'command hierarcy' in U.S. cities Now it gets scary. Brigitte Gabriel, the author of "Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America," tells Larry Elder of "The Larry Elder Show" (a nationally syndicated daily talk show for ABC Radio Networks): "We have terrorists coming through our borders. Al-Qaida is working with the MS-13 gang, smuggling al-Qaida terrorists into the country. Hezbollah is doing the same... We estimate thousands have already been smuggled into America... Hamas is here..." Update: 5/9/2007 MSNBC: Hezbollah builds Western base in South America In addition, MS-13 is reported to have smuggled in a variety of nuclear weapons for Al-Qaeda, including suitcase nukes and even a few nuclear missile warheads, and Al-Qaeda's arsenal may even be bigger than that. Which is probably why a nuclear attack on U.S. soil is now considered the number one threat by Homeland Security. If you live in America, you should be worried. If you're not worried, you're not paying attention. The government is slowly telling us what's going on, but they're doing a great job of not creating panic. The threat is real. It can happen any day. CHICAGOTRIBUNE: Cheney: Nuclear attack on U.S. cities 'very real' Hugo Chavez - the 'Missing Link' to Nuclear Terror Why the interest in Chavez? Chavez, if you recall, made threatening remarks to the United Nations back in September of 2006, predicting the fall of the 'United States Empire', and also speaking Arabic, ending his heated speech with inshallah, which means God willing. Why is the President of Venezuela, a country in South America, speaking Arabic? Why did he predict the fall of the United States? CNN: Chavez predicts fall of 'United States Empire' According to WorldNetDaily.com, Chavez has been reported by a defector to have given atleast $1 million to Al-Qaeda. Obviously Hugo Chavez has ties to Iran, hence the threat to unleash operatives if the U.S. attacks Iran. He also has direct ties to MS-13 in Central America, with many originating from his own country, Venezuela. WorldNetDaily.com writes, 'MS-13 has ties to Adnan El Shukrijumah, a top al-Qaida lieutenant believed to be plotting new attacks against U.S. targets. El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha [MS-13] gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States.' If this sounds crazy, that's because it is. Crazy. If news reports are correct, the United States is in immeninent danger of nuclear attacks and mass murder across the country. Of course no country, especially Venezuela, wants to be linked to Al-Qaeda. The U.S. is a sitting duck for an Al-Qaeda nuclear attack because there is no country we can nuke back. Al-Qaeda doesn't have a return address. You can bet though that a handful of countries would willingly help Al-Qaeda, as long as they can do it without being traced. Like Iran. Like Chavez. Like Fidel Castro. more... | Islam | America | We must remain in Christ always. Trust in the Lord and He will direct our paths.
4.6-magnitude earthquake causes damage in Montana (May 9, 2007) - An earthquake damaged an apartment building and knocked bricks off the facades of Main Street buildings in southwestern Montana on Tuesday, authorities said. The 4.6 magnitude quake, reported at 9:46 a.m., was centered about nine miles northeast of Sheridan. It was felt in Helena and as far away as Idaho, according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. Students at Sheridan Elementary School were under their desks Tuesday morning, in some cases before teachers realized an earthquake was shaking the area, the school secretary said. "It was a hard jar, and really loud," said secretary Jenny Burke. "It was like somebody just shook the heck out of us for two seconds." The school was not damaged. One Sheridan family was evacuated from their damaged downtown apartment until it can be proven safe, said Frank Ford, Madison County's former emergency management director. Madison County Commissioner Jim Hart was on the third floor of the courthouse when the earthquake hit. "We all just kind of held onto the table for a second or two, and then went, 'We need to get out of here,"' Hart said. | Earth Changes |
Goodbye U.S. dollar, hello global currency (May 9, 2007) - The director of international economics at the Council of Foreign Relations has launched a scathing attack on sovereignty and national currencies. Benn Steil, writing in the current issue of CFR's influential Foreign Affairs magazine, says "the world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn." In the article, "The End of National Currency," Steil clearly asserts the dollar and the euro are temporary currencies, perhaps necessary today. He argues "economic development outside the process of globalization is no longer possible." His inevitable conclusion is "countries should abandon monetary nationalism." Steil tempers his embrace of one world currency, writing, "Governments should replace national currencies with the dollar or the euro or, in the case of Asia, collaborate to produce a new multinational currency over a comparably large and economically diversified area." He concludes: "It is the market that made the dollar into global money – and what the market giveth, the market can taketh away. If the tailors balk and the dollar falls, the market may privatize money on its own." The "tailors" Steil has in mind are the world's central bankers. He advises that the U.S. needs "to perpetuate the sound money policies of former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan and return to long-term fiscal discipline." In our current era of large and growing trade imbalances and over $35 trillion in GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounted federal deficits, these targets appear unlikely. more... | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | NewWorldOrder | America |
French minister condemns anti-Sarkozy violence (May 9, 2007) - Violent protests against Nicolas Sarkozy's election as president took place for a third night, the French interior minister said on Wednesday, with around 200 cars torched and some 80 people arrested. "For the last three days, since the night of the election, we have had an unacceptable situation," said Interior Minister Francois Baroin, blaming the far-left for the violence. Police reported trouble in a number of places overnight, including around Paris's Bastille Square which has been the epicentre of anti-Sarkozy violence in the French capital since Sunday's presidential vote. "This past night around 200 vehices were torched and there were slightly more than 80 arrests. It is clearly politically motivated and linked to the extreme left," Baroin told France Info radio. "The electorate has spoken, we have seen a remarkably vigorous democracy in our country. Changes of mood should be reflected at the ballot box and not in the street." Between 200-300 demonstrators blocked Paris's Bastille Square late Tuesday chanting: "Fascist Sarko! The people will have your skin". Local residents said large numbers of police sealed off the area and took around two hours to restore order. There was also violence in and around the southeastern city of Lyon, where an office belonging to Sarkozy's UMP party was set ablaze by youths throwing Molotov cocktails. French radio reported that arsonists had also set fire to an infant school in a Paris suburb. Socialist party leaders have called for calm, saying such violence would only boost support for the UMP ahead of next month's parliamentary election. Sarkozy has a reputation as a law-and-order hardliner, making him a hate figure for the left. The Socialist party's presidential candidate Segolene Royal warned last week there would be violence if he won Sunday's election. The UMP accused her of looking to incite trouble. | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom |
The Assault on Assyrian Christians in Iraq (May 8, 2007) - A militant Islamic group in Iraq recently issued a fatwa, or religious edict, to the Assyrian Christian residents of the Baghdad suburb of Dora: Convert to Islam within 24 hours, or face death. At the same time, Muslim neighbors were instructed, over the loudspeakers of local mosques, to confiscate the property of Christians and enforce the edict. The response was as swift: The majority of Assyrians remaining in Dora immediately gathered whatever they could carry and fled the city. Iraq's Assyrian Christians know quite well that these latest threats are not empty promises. Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, over 25 churches across Iraq have been bombed, in highly symbolic and coordinated manners. The Islamic group claiming responsibility for the bombing of four churches in August 2004 issued a warning. "To the people of the crosses: Return to your senses and be aware that God's soldiers are ready for you. You wanted a crusade and these are its results." Several priests have been abducted and beheaded, one in apparent retribution for the pope's public musings about Muhammed and the nature of Islam in October 2006. In March, two elderly nuns were reportedly stabbed to death in Kirkuk. Several Christian women have been beheaded or doused with chemicals for failing to wear the veil. And last October a 14-year-old Assyrian boy was crucified near Mosul. For the Islamists, the violence has certainly had the desired effect: The massive exodus of Assyrian Christians from Iraq. The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that as many as a third of the 1.8 million refugees now outside Iraq are Christian. A similar percentage of the 1.6 million internally displaced within Iraq are likely Christian, many of whom have fled Baghdad, Basra and Mosul to the relatively stable Northern Iraq. The Catholic Bishop of Baghdad, Andreos Abouna, recently stated that as many as half of Iraqi Christians, perhaps half a million people, have fled the country since the 2003 invasion. Assyrian Christians, the indigenous people of Iraq, the inheritors of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization and the world's earliest converts to Christianity, are at risk of being completely eradicated from their homeland. In a case of tragic irony, the "liberating" international forces have done nothing to protect Iraq's Christians. Not wishing to admit the catastrophic security failure nor be seen as intervening on a religious basis, U.S. officials have simply stood aside and watched. The State Department's recent offering of 7,000 visas for refugees is not only woefully inadequate but will merely encourage the flight of Assyrians from Iraq. The United States has been complicit with the destruction of an entire people and should be held liable for the rectification of this misfortune. Many Assyrians have pled for the establishment of an autonomous region for Christians in Iraq. This zone would likely be situated around the Nineveh Plains, the Assyrians' ancestral homeland, where Christians still comprise the majority. Sargis Aghajan, the finance minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government and himself an Assyrian, has called for autonomy in the Nineveh Plains. He also has financed the construction of thousands of homes in the area and to the north, to prevent those Assyrians fleeing Baghdad and elsewhere from leaving the country altogether. In March, I joined 1,200 Assyrian intellectuals and civic leaders, both from the diaspora and around Iraq, in attending a conference in Erbil which formalized Iraqi Christians' demand for autonomy. An autonomous region for Assyrians will convince those remaining in Iraq that their faith, language and way of life has a future in Iraq and persuade many of those who have fled to return. The Bush administration and its Iraqi allies should support this development and ensure its realization. The fate of an entire people lies in the balance. more...
Bush OKs 'integration' with European Union (May 8, 2007) - President Bush signed an agreement creating a "permanent body" that commits the U.S. to "deeper transatlantic economic integration," without ratification by the Senate as a treaty or passage by Congress as a law. The "Transatlantic Economic Integration" between the U.S. and the European Union was signed April 30 at the White House by Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel – the current president of the European Council – and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. The document acknowledges "the transatlantic economy remains at the forefront of globalization," arguing that the U.S. and the European Union "seek to strengthen transatlantic economic integration." The agreement established a new Transatlantic Economic Council to be chaired on the U.S. side by a cabinet-level officer in the White House and on the EU side by a member of the European Commission. The current U.S. head of the new Transatlantic Economic Council is Allan Hubbard, assistant to the president for Economic Policy and director of the National Economic Council. The current EU head of the council is Günther Verheugen, vice-President of the European Commission in charge of enterprise and industry. The Transatlantic Economic Council was tasked with creating regulatory convergence between the U.S. and the EU on some 40 different public policy areas, including intellectual property rights, developing security standards for international trade, getting U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices) recognized in Europe, developing innovation and technology in health industries, implementing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies, developing a science-based plan on bio-based products and establishing a "regular dialogue" to address obstacles to investment. At a joint press conference, Bush thanked the other two leaders for signing the "trans-Atlantic economic integration plan," commenting that, "It is a recognition that the closer that the United States and the EU become, the better off our people will be." Barroso said the Transatlantic Economic Council is meant to be "a permanent body, with senior people on both sides of the Atlantic." As WND has reported, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez repeatedly has pushed for North American integration, much as the April 30 agreement proposes closer U.S.-EU integration. Mexico's ambassador to the U.N., Enrique Berruga, has called for a North American Union to be created in the next eight years. But the Bush administration's push for North American integration is facing increasing opposition within Congress. WND reported Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40, which opposes the administration's Security and Prosperity Partnership, blocks a NAFTA Superhighway System and expresses opposition to the U.S. entry into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada. WND also has reported a movement led by Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum has led to an increasing number of state legislatures proposing resolutions opposing a North American Union. | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | NewWorldOrder | America |
Report: Hamas threatens to kill Schalit if IDF enters Gaza (May 8, 2007) - Hamas on Tuesday denied reports that it had threatened to kill kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit if the IDF invades the Gaza Strip. The Israeli-Arab weekly Panorama quoted Abu Obaidah, a spokesman for Izzadin Kassam (Hamas's military wing), warning that Schalit would be killed in the event of a military offensive in the Gaza Strip. But Abu Obaidah denied that Hamas had any intention of killing Schalit. "The invasion of the Gaza Strip [by the IDF] will endanger the lives of many Palestinians, including the Israeli soldier," he said. "Schalit was captured to trade him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. We are ready to hold him for months and years to achieve our goal." Abu Obaidah warned Israel against launching a military operation to stop the Kassam rocket attacks, saying it would pay dearly for such an offensive. The possibility that Hamas would execute Schalit if the IDF invades the Gaza Strip was a consideration for the defense establishment, but ultimately will not prevent the decision to launch an operation, senior defense and diplomatic officials said Tuesday. Government officials said the possibility Hamas would execute Schalit was being taken into consideration. "This is one of the aspects that are taken into consideration when considering whether to go into Gaza," the official said. "But that doesn't mean you don't do it if you feel that you need to." more...| Israel | Islam |
Muslim Extremists Attack Gaza Elementary School (May 8, 2007) - Muslim extremists in long white robes attacked a children's festival at a U.N.-run elementary school with guns and homemade bombs Sunday, killing a politician's bodyguard in plain view of terrified youngsters — just the latest incident of lawlessness engulfing the Gaza Strip. The new Palestinian unity government, formed two months ago, appeared powerless to end growing clan fighting, kidnappings and attacks by shadowy extremist groups on foreigners, music shops and Internet cafes. Hours after Sunday's attack, which also left seven people wounded, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were meeting in another attempt to put together a security plan. Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh, the author of the plan, has threatened to resign because security commanders refuse to cooperate with him, mainly because of rivalries between coalition partners Hamas and Fatah. In Palestinian-Israeli violence on Sunday, two Israelis were seriously wounded. A security guard for a tanker truck was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank, and the other was hurt by a rocket fired from Gaza. The rocket exploded near a gas station next to the town of Sderot, a frequent target of rockets from Gaza. In other violence, a grenade was thrown in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya at sunset Sunday, police said, and one person was wounded. Police said it was apparently a criminal attack. Nahariya, not far from the Lebanon border, was hit hard by rockets fired from Lebanon during last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. New statistics, meanwhile, illustrated the sharp increase in internal violence in Gaza. more... | Israel | Islam |
Western homeschoolers need political asylum from democracy (April 15, 2007) - A growing crackdown on homeschool families – most of whom are Christian – is the "edge of the night that's coming" for believers, according to an expert in the field. Michael P. Farris, cofounder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, says his concern is not just for Germany, where the government is being especially intolerant, but other democracies too. "Germany is the only Western democracy taking this incredibly hard-line approach, but there are growing clouds on a number of national horizons," Farris told WND in an interview after his recent travels to review the status of homeschooling. One stop was in Germany, where in recent months homeschoolers have been fined the equivalent of thousands of dollars, had custody of their children taken away, had their homes threatened with seizure and in one case, that of Melissa Busekros, had a team of SWAT officers arrive on a doorstep with orders to seize a homeschool student, "if necessary by force." Farris, who visited with Melissa's parents, Hubert and Gudrun Busekros, during his trip, also met with other homeschool families under attack from a government that has held the activity illegal since before the Nazi juggernaut failed to conquer the world. One of the families is paying a fine each month for refusing to turn children over to a mandatory public school system that advocates alternative sexual lifestyle choices and promotes other beliefs objectionable to Christians. "Most homeschoolers have concluded when the family courts begin to get involved, their only realistic opportunity is to seek asylum in another country," Farris said. "You don't expect to apply for political asylum from a Western democracy but that's what's happening and with greater frequency." "One of the people we met with said as it pertains to the family, parents and the policy of the government towards children generally, it wasn't so much that the [Berlin] wall came down after the fall of communism, but that the wall moved to the left," he said. "The East German government's philosophy seems to be the style adopted by today's German government as it approaches children." He said even the United Nations, a regular advocate for governmental intervention and influence over most matters, has concluded Germany is stepping over the line because it forbids parents from having significant control over their children's education. The internationally recognized laws acknowledging parental authority in the education of children were adopted, after all, in response to earlier education standards enforced in Germany. The issue of German parents and their decision-making authority for their children's education was covered in this once-enforced statement: "And this [government] will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing." Adolf Hitler issued the dictate when his government, in one of its first actions when he came to power, took control of all educational institutions and issues. German social service workers, Farris told WND, are using the same lines of argument as in other nations, including the United States, except that while social workers in the U.S. are using a "PG-rated" script, in Germany, it's "R-rated," he said. "The philosophy that the government knows best how to raise children is really becoming a worldwide phenomenon," Farris said. "I think Germany represents the edge of the night that's coming." He said what Germany fails to recognize is that a crackdown on Christian homeschoolers isn't going to eliminate any problem. In fact, it's actually attacking pluralism. In the Busekros case, he said, the government actually is creating a "parallel society," which it so abhors, by isolating Melissa. "When she was homeschooled [at home] Melissa got to see her friends, got to go to church, be out and about," he said. "Now she's being taught the same curriculum but she's entirely isolated. "It's the German government that has robbed her of her normal life, including life with a family, which is supposed to be a child's right under the international law that Germany supposedly adheres to," he said. more... | Signs of the Times | It sickens me to see this coming. The idea that some government can force the brainwashing of children into an education system that teaches them about sex at such an early age and forces acceptance of ideals contrary to ones beliefs is mind-blowing. How can this happen? Because it is understood that society can be changed and redirected by brainwashing the youth. The History of the Mystery of Iniquity shows how the mindset of the world has been shifted slowly over time to the depravity it is currently in. America's population is becoming more and more inclined to join with the international community. The push to become global in all things is going to get stronger and groups like Christians and others will increasingly be viewed as outcasts from society because they don't want to conform and mix into their life those things they don't agree with. The media of today is sex-driven much of the time because sex sells and everyone wants to get rich. Notice both of those are completely physical, material desires - lust of the flesh. This is at odds with how Christians are supposed to live. But now society will increasingly hate us for not wanting to be like them and integrate. It is that mixing througout history that got Israel in trouble and away from God. God wants no other but Him because all the rest are lies... He will let us believe a lie though, so we must guard our minds with the Truth of God's Word. Want an example? 'Gay' cowboy love scenes 'traumatize' schoolgirl, 12 - "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," is what the substitute teacher told eighth-grade students at Ashburn Community Elementary School after showing the R-rated movie, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court. I wonder why so many kids are so screwed up today? Indoctrination into political correctness and acceptance of anything falls in line with the "do what thou wilt" attitude from centuries past and pushed by Satanist Aleister Crowley in recent times. Rock N' Roll had and still has a lot to do with that. It's working and the love of many grows cold as selfishness and self-centeredness overtakes the world as they fulfill the lusts of the flesh while ignoring the spiritual as they have been programmed to do in the current education system that doesn't allow the spiritual.