EndrTimes

How Much Stress Can the System Take?

2012-02-14T06:37:00.001-08:00

Uploaded by TheEconoMonitor on Feb 8, 2012

Nouriel Roubini, co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, sits down with Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China for a discussion on the likelihood of a hard landing in China and consider the short and medium term implications of policy adjustments, leadership transitions, and technology advancements.
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AGENDA 21: THE END OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION

2012-02-14T06:12:00.003-08:00

PART 1

By Kathleen Marquardt
January 21, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

Wake-up call, Part 1

“Global sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.” -Professor Maurice King

Birth of an abomination

In simple terms Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is the end of civilization as we know it. It is the end of private property, the elevation of the collective over the individual. It is the redistribution of America’s wealth to the global elite, it is the end of the Great American Experiment and the Constitution. And, it is the reduction of 85% of the world’s population.

In 1992, twenty years ago this summer, Agenda 21/Sustainable Development was unveiled to the world at the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio. (While Agenda 21 was introduced in June, 1992, it was already installed as public policy in communities across the country as early as 1987.)

In his opening remarks at the ceremonies at the Earth Summit, Maurice Strong stated: “The concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful. The global community must be assured of environmental security.” If this is true, then he and his cohorts must be even more against individual sovereignty. Keep this quote in mind as you read about Agenda 21.

George H.W. Bush was in Rio for the ceremonies and graciously signed on for America so that our Congress did not have to spend the time reviewing the treaty and learning then what dastardly deeds were in store for us -- that protecting the environment would be used as the basis for controlling all human activity and redistributing our wealth.

Definitions of Sustainable Development

U.N. definition of Sustainable Development:

“meeting today’s needs without compromising future generations to meet their own needs.”

In actuality, Sustainable Development is not sustainable unless the population actually is reduced by the 85% called for by the globalists. The true purpose of Sustainable Development and all of its policies is the control of all aspects of human life -- economic, social and environmental (see 3 Es of Sustainable Development further into article).

Here is how the UN described Agenda 21 in one of its own publications in a 1993 article entitled “Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save our Planet:” “Agenda 21proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced.”

So George H.W. Bush signed the Rio Accord and a year later Clinton established his President’s Council for Sustainable Development which would render the guidelines of Agenda 21 into public policy to be administered by the federal government via all departments. In doing this, Bush and Clinton set up Agenda 21 as ruling authority, i.e, implementing a U.N. plan to become U.S. policy across the whole nation and into every county and town. And every succeeding president has fully endorsed and implemented Agenda 21 through every department of the federal government.

If one were to research the source of U.S. policy, one would find that much of our policy of the last few decades is the outcome of agreements we have entered into via treaties with the U.N. And that policy has trickled, no gushed, down into every state and into almost every other jurisdiction -- county, city, town -- in the nation; Sustainable Development is the official policy of our country even though many citizens are yet ignorant of its existence. And this policy encompasses an entire economic and social agenda.

So what is Sustainable Development?

According to its authors, the objective of Sustainable Development is to integrate economic, social and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social equity, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity (the 3Es of sustainability). They insist that every societal decision be based on environmental impact, focusing on three components; global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction.

Look at these words, they are part of the new vocabulary:

Free trade, open space, smart growth, smart food, smart buildings, regional planning, walkable, bikeable, foodsheds, viewsheds, consensus, partnerships, preservation, stakeholders, land use, environmental protection, development, diversity, visioning, social justice, heritage, carbon footprints, comprehensive planning, critical thinking, community service, regional planning.

All of these words are part of the Newspeak, the altering of the English language as a tool to promote a global government through a diabolical agenda called Agenda 21. In fact, the world will be retooled from top to bottom through this agenda and using the new vocabulary. This is not just policy but a complete restructuring of life as we know it. We not only will be taught how we must live, but where we are allowed to live; taught how to think and what is acceptable thinking; told what job we will be allowed to have; taught how we can worship and what we will be allowed to worship; and we will be brainwashed into believing that the individual must cede all to the collective.

Private property will be a sin that will be eradicated as will be free-market economics which will be replaced by public private partnerships and a planned central economy. Individualism will be rooted out and social justice will rule the land. Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people "to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment." – in other words, the redistribution of wealth. This will be achieved through an organizational structure of land use controls; control of energy and energy production; control of transportation; control of industry; control of food production; control of development; control of water availability; and control of population size and growth. And all of this will be decreed under the guise of environmental protection.

The 3 Es of Sustainable Development

The 3Es of sustainability which make up the Sustainable Development logo consists of three connecting circles labeled Social Equity; Economic Prosperity; and Ecological Integrity. These Es together encompass every aspect of human life.

First E - Social Equity

Social Equity is based on a demand for “social justice.” -- in non-Newspeak, redistribution of the wealth.

Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people “to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment.” Redistribution of wealth. Private property is a social injustice since not everyone can build wealth from it. National sovereignty is a social injustice. Universal health care is a social injustice. [To understand Agenda 21, click here]

Equity is a system of “social justice” that works to abolish the American concept of equal justice in order to pursue the globalist ideal of the “common good.” Individuals rights must be abolished for the good of the collective, just as in Communism; in fact, Karl Marx was the first person to use the term social justice. Social justice is an unnatural leveling of all wealth (other than that of the global elites); no one person is supposed to profit more than another.

Second E - Economic Prosperity

From Wikipedia comes this discussion of economic prosperity promoted under Sustainable Development:
Economic growth is often seen as essential for economic prosperity, and indeed is one of the factors that is used as a measure of prosperity. The Rocky Mountain Institute has put forth an alternative point of view, that prosperity does not require growth, claiming instead that many of the problems facing communities are actually a result of growth, and that sustainable development requires abandoning the idea that growth is required for prosperity. The debate over whether economic growth is necessary for, or at odds with, human prosperity, has been active at least since the publication of Our Common Future in 1987, and has been pointed to as reflecting two opposing worldviews.

Keep in mind that almost every concept under Agenda 21 is written in Newspeak -- words often have the opposite meanings of those in your Webster Dictionary so that the general public might be deceived, at least for a time (and it has been). Economic prosperity under Agenda 21 is anything but prosperity -- other than for the global elites who are controlling the system. It is economic ruin for the ordinary people of the entire globe.

Agenda 21 proponents would have you believe that all of the wealth in the world was made on the backs of the poor and that the only way that this inequity can be corrected is to redistribute that wealth. While they claim that the wealth must be taken from the American middle class and given to the poor of the world, in actuality the money will be taken from that American middle class and given to the global elite (as if they didn’t control most of the world’s wealth already -- but that is not the issue; it is to reduce us to slaves at best). The poor, in Africa and other parts of the world, will never see a dime of the redistributed wealth, they are only the pretense for taking our money.

Agenda 21 encompasses the so-called free trade movement that created both NAFTA and Public/Private Partnerships which were incorporated into a government-driven economy called “corporatism.” These public/private partnerships are nothing more than government sanctioned monopolies -- Mussolini style economics.

Third E - Ecological Integrity

To understand the power of the transformation of society under sustainable development, consider this quote from the UN’s Biodiversity Treaty (which also was introduced at the Rio Earth Summit:

“Nature has an integral set of different values (cultural, spiritual and material) where humans are one strand in nature’s web and all living creatures are considered equal. Therefore the natural way is the right way and human activities should be molded along nature’s rhythms.”

This quote says it all; that we humans are nothing special – just one strand in the nature of things or, put another way, humans are simply biological resources. No better than slugs or dung. In fact, in the eye of the globalist, we are of less value than slugs or dung. Their policy is to oversee any issue in which man interacts with nature – which, of course, is literally everything. This is necessary, they say, because humans only defile nature.

And private property ownership and control, along with individual and national sovereignty, are main targets of Sustainable Development. Consider this quote from the report of the UN’s Habitat I conference:“Land …cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore, contributes to social injustice.”

This mixture of socialism, fascism and corporatism (as Tom DeWeese so aptly pegs it), called Agenda 21, is the ruling force in our government today from the federal to the local. Not one of those ingredients would be allowed by our forefathers and not one is in sync with the Constitution; so how have we allowed all three to be combined into a recipe for global government and served to our unwitting nation? For part two click below.

Click here for part -----> 2,

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US Christian unity summit identifies common challenges

2012-02-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

February 13, 2012

From Our Store: Essays in Apologetics, Volume I (eBook)

At the invitation of Cardinal William Keeler, the retired Archbishop of Baltimore, representatives of four ecumenical organizations--Christian Churches Together in the USA, Churches Uniting in Christ, the National Council of Churches of Christ, and the National Association of Evangelicals--met at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore in January to discuss common challenges.

“Among these challenges are reduced financial resources in many communions and organizations, a post-Christian secular environment, intensified interfaith engagements, and both continuing and new challenges regarding poverty, racism, the environment and religious freedom,” according to a statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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Atlanta River Home - Reduced 60k

2012-02-13T07:21:00.000-08:00

Normally, I don't use this venue for advertising; I decided I didn't want to compromise my intended goals, or have a conflict of interest with ads. This is a totally non-profit endeavor. However, my longtime friend Irving Rivera is selling his home in the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area, and I thought this would be an exception to the rule. Irving is offering a remarkable 3 story home on 3 Acres, for an incredibly low price. Anyone looking to move south into the Sunbelt should consider this spectacular home. It's priced to sell quickly! Please take a look at the info below and contact him for any questions:

Listing ID 21941257 | Updated today

$508,000

Willing to negotiate

For Sale, Lease-to-Own

341 Euharlee Rd

Cartersville 30120, GA 30120

5 beds, 5.50 baths

Single Family

Ask the Owner

1-800-THE-OWNER

(800-843-6963)

Enter Listing ID 2194125

http://www.forsalebyowner.com/listing/40826

UD women freshman draws crowd during game

2012-02-13T07:02:00.001-08:00

JIM WITMER

University of Dayton freshman Andrea Hoover launches a 3-point shot Wednesday against Charlotte. Hoover, who was cheered on by students from her former school, Spring Valley Academy, finished with 18 points in UD's 91-68 win.

By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer12:39 AM Thursday, February 9, 2012

Terri Hoover didn’t mince any words:

“I don’t want my daughter made into a poster child for controversy,” she said with a bit of an edge in her voice. “She’s just a 19-year-old kid. Please don’t use her as a tool to create controversy.”

Mama need not worry.

A day after those concerns were voiced, at Wednesday’s annual Math Day women’s basketball game at UD Arena, her daughter wasn’t relegated to any unwanted poster. Instead she was celebrated on a large, proudly-held sign that simply said “Andrea 24.”

It was being waved all game long in Section 102 by sixth-grader Zachariah Alexander, who had gotten up early to make his tribute. And once the University of Dayton women tipped off against Charlotte at 11 a.m., he was surrounded by nearly 200 other kids from his Spring Valley Academy, all focused on one special Flyer.

And by game’s end, most of the other 5,800 kids and accompanying adults were focused on No. 24 — Andrea Hoover — as well.

No matter how you added it up on this Math Day (including the game UD won 91-68), the freshman guard from Bellbrook was a star of the show.

She and senior Justine Raterman each had 18 points to lead UD, but Hoover’s effort was especially eye-catching because she mixed long-range 3-pointers with hard-nosed drives to the basket and contortionist shots — “really tough shots, acrobatic shots, circus shots,” coach Jim Jabir called them — and the same in-your-face defense that her teammates played.

In this 16-5 Flyers season, it was yet another installment by Hoover in what is becoming one of the best freshman seasons in UD women’s hoop history. She has started 17 of 21 games and is second on the team in scoring (10.3 points per game), rebounding (5.1) and steals (27 total).

“Hoover is an interesting kid ... I just love her,” Jabir said. “She just loves to play. She’s not aware of a lot of the other stuff around her. She doesn’t get caught up in a lot of the superfluous stuff. She’s not emotional, not needy, not full of drama.”

And when you’ve been in her situation that’s not always been easy to do.

Terri Hoover might not have wanted her daughter posterized, but some other folks didn’t have such reservations.

Spring Valley, where Hoover was a much-beloved student just a year ago and is its only Division I college basketball player ever, is a small Seventh Day Adventist college preparatory school in Centerville.

The sports teams there — in accordance with the Seventh Day Adventist faith — don’t play games on the Sabbath, which is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

An extraordinary basketball talent (as well as a devout Christian who believes she is “honoring Jesus with the basketball talent he has given me”), she also played AAU basketball for the Ohio Attack and often traveled and played on the Sabbath in years past.

It didn’t become an issue with some folks until she became a highly-sought college prospect and committed, as a junior, to play for the Flyers.

Suddenly her faith and how she practices it became a lot of other people’s business. Most people supported her basketball journey, a few did not and some became vocal about it.

“Unfortunately Andrea got a lot of flak from some people,” Jabir said. “She went through a lot, but she always took (the high road).”

The same issues are being faced now by Jermaine Lawrence, a 6-foot-9 junior prep sensation in New York who is also a Seventh Day Adventist. He’s being recruited by several major colleges, including Xavier* and last month he became such an unwanted poster child of debate that he abruptly left his high school and went to another that is not a basketball power.

A generation ago Magic Johnson — raised a Seventh Day Adventist — faced similar decisions.

“I’m a person who wants to avoid conflict at all costs and it was rough there for a while,” Hoover said quietly. “I love my church and all the people and don’t want to hurt anyone. Most support me and those who don’t? Well, we agree to disagree.

“I believe I can honor God every day of the week with the gift he has given me. I think people can tell I’m a Christian by the way I carry myself and act on the court — helping players up, not cursing or slamming the ball, showing respect — and I think that’s practicing your faith, too.

“I think there are a lot of ways to love and honor Jesus and show just how great he is.”

Turned down Stanford

Like her two older brothers, Hoover was home schooled through grade school, then went to Spring Valley.

Although the school is not known for its athletics (it offers just a few sports, is not a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association and has trouble scheduling local teams), Andrea’s talent was so pronounced that she was playing varsity as an eighth- grader and soon was leading the program to new heights.

“In the beginning, though, I never thought about being a college basketball player,” she said. “When you go to Spring Valley no one ever talks about playing college basketball.”

But once she joined the Attack, she showed she could hold her own against some of the best in the nation. Although that began to draw some national interest, she said she didn’t like the flirtations of the recruiting process.

“She likes to be under the radar,” her mother said. “She’s very uncomfortable being the center of attention and the red carpet treatment that comes with recruiting made her uncomfortable.”

That worked in UD’s favor. The Flyers had begun recruiting her before anyone else and she felt so comfortable with the school and the coaches that she turned her back on programs like Stanford — which came to Spring Valley to recruit her.

“It was kind of funny,” Jabir said. “One of her last (AAU) games (after she had committed), I was sitting there watching her play and a lot of people still didn’t know her.

“A Vanderbilt assistant was sitting next to me and after she’d been watching Andrea a while, I see her take out her phone and start Googling her to find out more about her.

“I never said a word, I just sat there kind of giggling and the next thing she ends up punching me in the arm when she realized Andrea was coming to us. They loved her, too. Andrea could have gone almost anywhere.”

A loyal following

Wednesday morning at UD Arena, everyone saw much of Hoover‘s talent on display.

And no one was watching more closely than the contingent from Spring Valley. For the first time the school sent its entire student body — kindergarten through eighth grade — to join the Math Day kids from 45 other Miami Valley schools in what ends up being a party-like atmosphere that sprinkles a bit of schoolwork around a college basketball game.

The Spring Valley students — wearing blue or gold T-shirts that said “Know ... Follow ... Share ... Jesus” on the backs — commandeered all of Sections 101 and 102, putting them next to the players’ tunnel and UD bench and within shouting distance of their hero.

Thanks to Hoover, three of the Spring Valley students served as ball girls for the Flyers. Another student was part of a winning halftime challenge and a third — seen by all on the overhead video boards as he correctly answered a math question — won a pizza for himself and his friends.

“This has been good for all of our students today,” said Spring Valley vice principal Kari Schebo. “They’ve had fun and they all love seeing Andrea.”

Actually, Hoover has quite a following — students from her high school, former teachers, many from her church congregation, including her pastor — at every game.

“This is a huge deal for the school, they’ve never had anyone play on the Division I level before,” Terri Hoover said. “It’s really drawn a lot of our whole community together.”

And Wednesday as Zachariah waved his sign and the kids in the “Know and Follow” shirts cheered her every move, Andrea — who said she knew almost all of the Spring Valley students — seemed to feed off that on the court.

“I was feeling it out there today,” she said. “This ... was great.”

No more poster child, she was just “Andrea 24.”

Source
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*Xavier is a Jesuit institution:

Xavier University - Cincinnati, Ohio

www.xavier.edu/

A Jesuit, Catholic University in Cincinnati, Ohio since 1831.

Helping others adjust to life in the U.S

2012-02-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

Published 07:21 p.m., Friday, February 3, 2012

Francis Sengabo, Project Director, Refugees and Immigrants Support Services of Emmaus(RISSE), stands in the santuary at Emmaus United Methodist Church Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Francis Sengabo: Project director of Refugees and Immigrants Support Services of Emmaus and member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Albany

Background: Born and raised in northwest Rwanda where he graduated from National University of Rwanda with a degree in economics.

He and his wife, Nabaguma Justine, who works for Catholic Charities, live in Albany with their three children: Cynthia, 11; Jonathan, 7; and Sarah, 16 months.

You were one of six sons and two daughters growing up with your parents. Was it a religious household?

I was raised in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, where my uncle was a pastor. I attended Seventh Day Adventist schools through high school. We spoke French in school and Kinyarwanda at home.

What was your job after college?

I worked in 1990 for the country's census department. The population count was seven million, with 15 percent of them Tutsi ruling the 85 percent Hutu. My mother was Tutsi and father was Hutu. In October 1990, civil war broke out and my life took a different turn.

Rwanda had undergone a revolution in 1959 from a Belgian colony to a republic. In 1990, internally displaced persons began coming from Uganda to Rwanda. From 1990-94, the International Red Cross used me to assist with distributing food and putting my EMT training to use.

In 1994, the airplane that the Rwanda president and his advisers were traveling in was shot down. The president was Hutu, and it was assumed that Tutsi killed him. That is how the genocide started, which resulted in 800,000 people being killed, both Tutsi and Hutu.

Were you forced to flee?

I went to Tanzania in 1994 and wound up in refugee camps. The first one, where I lived from 1994 to 1996, had 400,000 people in tents. The second camp had 1,700 people. It was for people deemed "at-risk." The Tanzania police protected us. I helped organize a high school there for seventh through 12th-graders. UNICEF and local humanitarian agencies provided school supplies and built the school. I taught math and later became principal of 300 students and 19 teachers. I applied for scholarship in Tanzania and lived there, in Dar es Salaam, from 1996 to 2001. It's where I met my wife, who is Congolese.

How did you wind up in Albany?

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants arranged it. We arrived in March 2007 and I remember it was very cold. It was a big adjustment for us. We didn't speak English. The houses were not what we were used to. Even the bathrooms were different.

The Emmaus United Methodist Church in Albany helped me a lot, a lot. They helped us integrate into life here. Somehow I succeeded. My wife works with Catholic Charities.

You're now the project director of the Refugee and Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus, which is based at Emmaus United Methodist Church in Albany. What does RISSE do and what do you do?

The program began in September 2007 with Rev. Denise Stringer, who was the pastor then, to help refugees and immigrants build a fruitful life in America. We now help 147 families, or 498 individuals, from Ethiopia, Rwanda, the Congos, Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Eritrea. The refugees need help from zero. I was teacher, cleaner, driver. Rifat Filkins, an immigrant from Pakistan, and I run the program, with help from volunteers from colleges and the community. The community is big, but resources are few. We help the refugees learn English, teach them to fill out forms and arrange for homework help for their children.

As a result of our training, 25 people have gotten jobs, many in hotels, restaurants, factories and group homes.

—Azra Haqqie

Source: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Helping-others-adjust-to-life-in-the-U-S-3001806.php#ixzz1mH2GIyTK

Challenges to our mission today:

2012-02-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

Sent to the frontiers

In this new world
of instant communication and digital technology ,
of worldwide markets ,
and of universal aspiration for peace and well being ,

we are faced with growing tensions and paradoxes

We live in a culture that shows partiality to autonomy and the present
and yet we have a world so much in need of building a future in solidarity ;

we have better means of communication
but often experience isolation and exclusion ;

some have greatly benefited ,
while others have been marginalized and excluded ;

our world is increasingly transnational ,
and yet it needs to affirm and protect local and particular identities;

scientific knowledge has reached the deepest mysteries of life ,
and yet the very dignity of life itself
and the world we live in are threatened.

In this global world marked by such profound changes
we want to deepen our understanding of
the call to serve faith,
promote justice
and dialogue with culture and other religions

in the light of the apostolic mandate to establish right relationships

with God, with one another, and with creation

[35 ^th General Congregation Society of Jesus, 2008, Decree 3]

Jesus: A fire that kindles other fires

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The House Of Rothschild - The Money's Prophets

2012-02-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

Who is threatening whom?

2012-02-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

Honor Authority

2012-02-12T05:54:00.000-08:00

13Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

14Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

15For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

16As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

17Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

18Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

19For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

1 Peter 2: 13-19.

Catholic Bishops Oppose Compromise on Birth-Control Insurance

2012-02-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

FEBRUARY 11, 2012, 1:17 P.M. ET.

By LOUISE RADNOFSKY

Catholic bishops said Friday night that they would not support the Obama administration's proposed compromise on a controversial rule that requires most employers to fully cover contraception in their workers' health plans.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had led opposition to the regulation, issued a statement saying that they didn't believe their concerns were addressed by a new policy offered by President Barack Obama on Friday morning to allow religious employers who object to the use of birth control to turn over responsibility for covering it to insurance companies.

Under the new policy, religious employers that don't want to offer contraception could exclude it from their policies. Insurance companies instead would be required to provide access to contraception for plan participants who wanted it, without explicitly charging either the religious employer or worker.

Previously

Obama Retreats on Contraception

The shift is intended to ensure that women working at religious hospitals, schools and charities who want to use contraception can obtain it in the same way as women who work for secular employers. It also means the cost of providing the coverage for those women is likely to be spread across all policyholders by insurers.

The bishops had earlier expressed cautious optimism about the announcement, saying that it was "a first step in the right direction" but that they would have to study it.

In their later statement, they said they still had "serious moral concerns," noting that the proposal didn't contain provisions for religious employers who self-insure, meaning the employer takes on the underlying risk of covering employees' health care.

The bishops also said that the current structure of the proposal meant that if an employee and insurer agreed to add contraception coverage to a health plan, it would still be financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the employer.

"These changes require careful moral analysis, and moreover, appear subject to some measure of change. But we note at the outset that the lack of clear protection... is unacceptable and must be corrected," the statement said.

The White House declined to comment.

Under the health-care law passed in March 2010, insurers must cover preventive care at no out-of-pocket cost for consumers. The Institute of Medicine recommended that all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration be included on the list of covered services.

The bishops also said that they were unlikely to be satisfied by changes that affected only religious employers, since they still had "grave" objections to the overall mandate, which includes the morning-after pill and sterilization.

The later statement came after leading members of the conference reviewed the proposal, among them president Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the two men who chair its committees on doctrine and what the church calls "pro-life activities," the cardinals Donald Wuerl and Daniel DiNardo. Archbishop Dolan will be elevated to the rank of cardinal next week.

President Obama telephoned the archbishop to tell him of the announcement Friday morning. The bishops said they hadn't been previously consulted about the proposal.

"We note that today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions....The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is... to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services," they wrote.

It isn't clear what effect the bishops' objections will have on the Catholic community, which had already been divided in its initial response to the proposal, and to the health-care law as a whole.

Several Catholic organizations praised the administration compromise after it was announced, including the hospitals group the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Donald Wuerl is a cardinal. In an earlier version of this article, he was incorrectly identified as a bishop.

Source

Birth-control issues largely settled for Catholic institutions here

2012-02-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Originally published February 10, 2012 at 9:22 PM | Page modified February 10, 2012 at 11:51 PM

As President Obama deals with issues surrounding religious freedom and women's demand for contraceptive coverage, it's worth noting that such battles have already been waged in Washington state.

By Carol M. Ostrom

Seattle Times health reporter

In Washington state, the Battle of the Pill has already been waged in many venues over the past two decades as judges, lawmakers and state regulators attempted to balance religious freedom with women's demands for contraceptive coverage.

President Obama on Friday changed his earlier stand that religious organizations be required to pay for birth control for their workers. Instead, he said, insurance companies would be required to provide the coverage for free.

By most accounts, Obama's compromise policy, which could force commercial-insurance companies to bear some new costs, likely will bring little change to Catholic institutions in the state.

For example, at Seattle University, a Jesuit Catholic university, two employee plans and student plans already include oral-contraceptive coverage "consistent with state law," said Gerald Huffman, vice president for human resources and university services.

Wait and see

Providence Health & Services, a multistate health system that recently entered into an affiliation with Swedish Medical Center, wouldn't say whether its plans cover contraceptives.

Spokeswoman Colleen Wadden would say only that plans vary and Providence won't talk publicly about the details of any benefits except with employees.

"When we get actual regulatory language we will review it to better understand the implications for Providence," she said.

Swedish, on the other hand, which remains a secular institution, according to the affiliation agreement, will continue to provide employees access to prescription contraceptives, said spokesman Ed Boyle.

The Archdiocese of Seattle didn't respond Friday for comment.

Insurers here say they can't yet predict how the policy will affect them.

In a statement, Regence BlueShield said it was "evaluating how the contraceptive-coverage mandate will impact our members." But, the company said, "expanded coverage and benefits have a direct impact on the total cost of coverage."

Eric Earling at Premera Blue Cross said it was too early to say how the president's policy would work in practice. "We'd have to look at how the exact rules are laid out ... the actual details," Earling said.

Group Health Cooperative said it was not prepared to comment.

The issue's history here

The balancing act between freedom of religion and women's health-care rights is not new in Washington state.

Over nearly two decades, the issues have been debated and ruled on in the Legislature, in court and through insurance regulation.

Some arose during the crafting of Washington's own comprehensive health-care legislation, which passed in the early 1990s. Many of the heated debates then had to do with abortion, but birth control went along for the ride.

A 1995 law guaranteed that "no individual or organization" would be required to buy coverage for a health service it considered religiously or morally objectionable.

But in 2000, in response to a lawsuit against Bartell Drugs, a federal judge said the self-insured company must treat contraception just like other drugs or devices in its health coverage, because not doing so violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against female employees.

That prompted a state regulation requiring all insurance plans that cover prescription drugs to also cover contraceptives.

However, the state's insurance commissioner doesn't control self-insured companies, which include Swedish, Providence and other large employers. For the most part, though, those employers recognized they could run the risk of violating civil-rights laws if they covered prescription drugs but not oral contraceptives.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @costrom.

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Special Nevada caucus draws complaints

2012-02-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

February 5, 2012 9:58 AM

By Lindsey Boerma

February 5, 2012 9:58 AM
- PRINT
- TEXT
Special Nevada caucus draws complaints
By
Lindsey Boerma

LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 04:

(Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS - Hours after Nevada presidential caucus locations had closed on Saturday, more than 300 voters wrapped around the Adelson Educational Campus here to participate in an unusual exception to the state's election laws: a chance for orthodox Jews and Seventh-day Adventists to cast their ballots after sundown.

But near the table where participants were to sign an affidavit stating under penalty of perjury that their religious beliefs precluded their ability to vote during regular caucus hours, a cluster of voters who did not meet that requirement slowed the line as they were turned away, one by one. Most had come at the urging of the Ron Paul campaign, which had placed calls to its supporters informing them of the "second chance" to vote Saturday night.

"I received probably 10 phone calls today saying if you didn't make it this morning to your caucus, you can come down here - 30 minutes away from my home - and they would let you vote, get a second chance at it," said 23-year-old Henderson resident Michael DiCicco, a Paul supporter who said he was not aware the late caucus was reserved solely for those who practice certain religions. "It's discrimination."

Stephen Melancon, another Ron Paul supporter who was a delegate in 2008, said he was aware that the exception was to accommodate based on religious beliefs, but, "I thought there's no way they're gonna be able to restrict registered Republicans who were not able to vote in the caucus." Melancon, a high school teacher, said he was working a second job in the morning during the regular caucuses.

Critics weren't limited to Paul backers. Newt Gingrich supporter James Grindstaff, a Seventh-day Adventist who made it inside and knew the conditions of the late caucus, called the exclusion of those who did not meet the religious requirement "ridiculous," and was asking around for someone with whom he could lodge a formal complaint.

Clark County GOP Chair David Gibbs said the exception was approved under caucus rules, and had been vetted by attorneys. Asked why the county chose to make an exception for religious purposes and not other circumstances that would potentially prevent attendance on a Saturday morning, Gibbs reasoned, "there's a difference."

"If somebody wanted to be there but they don't have the means, they have friends, you know, they have other opportunities," he said. "I know folks who took the day off at work today in order to participate in the caucuses this morning."

Gibbs added that the exception "had nothing whatsoever to do with anything other than the fact that these folks who could not participate because of religious observances. Nothing."

Prior to the event, skeptics questioned the coincidence that the late caucus would take place at a Jewish school named for casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has poured millions of dollars into a pro-Newt Gingrich Super PAC. Adelson, who attended the caucus, has denied any involvement in organizing it.

After a delayed start and more than an hour of hearing arguments from various candidate supporters, Paul was declared the winner of the special caucus with 183 votes over Mitt Romney, Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, who received 61, 57, and 16 votes, respectively.

Source

Searching Questions

2012-02-11T08:20:00.000-08:00

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Psalm 24:3, 4.

A soul united with Christ ... will war against all transgression and every approach of sin. He becomes every day more like a bright and shining light, and more victorious. He goes on from strength to strength, not from weakness to weakness.

Let no one deceive his own soul in this matter. If you harbor pride, self-esteem, a love for the supremacy, vainglory, unholy ambition, murmuring, discontent, bitterness, evil-speaking, lying, deception, slandering, you have not Christ abiding in your heart.... You must have a Christian character that will stand....

There must be thorough conversions among those who claim to believe the truth, or they will fall in the day of trial. God’s people must reach a high standard. They must be a holy nation, a peculiar people, a chosen generation—zealous of good works. Christ has not died for you that you may possess the passions, tastes, and habits of men of the world....

No man enters the portals of glory but he who sets his heart thitherward. Then let the questions come home, Do you mind earthly things? Are your thoughts pure? Are you breathing the atmosphere of heaven? Do you carry with you the miasma of pollution? ... Are you earnest and devoted, serving God with purity and in the beauty of holiness? Ask sincerely, Am I a child of God, or am I not? ...

We need a thorough reformation in all our churches. The converting power of God must come into the church.... Put not off the day of preparation. Slumber not in a state of unpreparedness, having no oil in your vessels with your lamps.... Let not the question remain in perilous uncertainty. Ask yourselves earnestly, Am I among the saved, or the unsaved? Shall I stand, or shall I not stand? He only that hath clean hands and a pure heart shall stand in that day.

It is the privilege of every son of God to be a true Christian moment by moment; then he has all heaven enlisted on his side.

Maranatha, p.50

And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life

2012-02-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

19Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

20For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

21For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

22For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

23That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

25Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

26For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

27And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

28Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

30I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

31If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

32There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.

33Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.

34But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.

35He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

36But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

37And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

38And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

39Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

40And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

41I receive not honour from men.

42But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.

43I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

44How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

45Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.

46For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.

47But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

John 5

Catholic TV network sues US over birth control mandate

2012-02-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

The measure would require religious-based employers to provide insurance coverage for birth control that church teaching forbids. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.

By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

The Obama administration's rule requiring religious employers to cover birth control services is going to court after a Catholic TV network sued Thursday to block the mandate.

The order, which the Department of Health and Human Services finalized last month, eliminates a federal exemption that allows religion-affiliated institutions to opt out of the law requiring employers to cover contraceptive services in their health insurance packages.

Churches themselves would remain exempt, but when it goes into effect Aug. 1, the rule will require church-affiliated universities, hospitals, clubs and the like to cover "all [federally] approved forms of contraception."

The Roman Catholic Church bans artificial methods of contraception, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has fiercely opposed the new rule, which it said "forces religious employers and schools to sponsor and subsidize coverage that violates their beliefs" and "forces religious employees and students to purchase coverage that violates their beliefs."

Read the full statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Bioethicist: Bishops' birth control stance harms workers

Thursday, EWTN — a Catholic television network carried on thousands of cable systems in more than 100 countries — filed suit in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala.

"We had no other option," said Michael Warsaw, president of EWTN, which stands for Eternal Word Television Network.

"Under the HHS mandate, EWTN is being forced by the government to make a choice: Either we provide employees coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and violate our conscience or offer our employees and their families no health insurance coverage at all. Neither of those choices is acceptable," Warsaw said.

On at least one point, Warsaw is wrong, said Erin Shields, HHS's top spokeswoman.

While the rule covers "emergency contraceptives" like Plan B and Next Choice, it doesn't cover drugs that cause abortion, Shields told NBC station WYFF of Greenville, S.C.

The HHS rule is also being challenged in Congress, where Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have sponsored legislation that would restore the option for religious organizations to opt out of coverage.

"This is about whether the government of the United States should have the power to go in and tell a faith-based organization they have to pay for something that they teach their members shouldn't be doing. It`s that simple," Rubio said.

Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., detail their bill to let organizations opt out of the contraception rule.

But advocates say the measure is an advance for women's reproductive rights, pointing to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that studies sexual and reproductive issues, which reported last year that nearly all sexually active U.S. women had used birth control. That includes 98 percent of Catholic women, the study reported.

Read the Guttmacher Institute report (.pdf)

"I am dumbfounded that in the year 2012, we still are fighting about birth control," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "Our opponents will look for any excuse to impose their ideology on women's rights."

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said the administration is willing to work with Catholic universities and hospitals to find a way for them to cover contraception without abridging "anyone's religious freedom," NBCLatino reported.

So far, the administration hasn't said how it plans to do that.

NBC station WYFF of Greenville, S.C., and NBCLatino.com contributed to the report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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High-ranking members of US military part of ‘Knights of Malta,’ ‘Opus Dei,’ reporter claims

2012-02-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

By Stephen C. Webster

Friday, January 21, 2011 12:28 EST.

Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has broken some massive stories in his day, but uncovering secret societies within the highest echelons of America’s military would probably be the biggest of his career.

Well, get ready for the media storm, because that’s essentially what Hersh told an audience in Doha, Qatar recently, according to a report published earlier this week by Foreign Policy.

Speaking at a campus operated by Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Hersh said he was working on a new book that details “how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government.”

“It’s not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it — how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced,” he continued, according to the published quotes.

Hersh also lamented President Obama’s continuance of the Bush administration’s worst abuses.

“Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn’t get one,” he reportedly said.

The Foreign Policy report added that in 2003, those “in the Cheney shop” were not concerned about the havoc the invasion of Iraq was destined to cause.

“[The] attitude was, ‘What’s this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they’re all worried about some looting?” Hersh was quoted as saying. “Don’t they get it? We’re gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody’s gonna give a damn.’ That’s the attitude. We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC].”

He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the “Knights of Malta” and “Opus Dei,” two little known Catholic orders.

He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent “the whole notion that this is a culture war” between religions.“They do see what they’re doing — and this is not an atypical attitude among some military — it’s a crusade, literally,” Hersh reportedly continued. “They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”

It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a “crusade” in the region.

The “Knights of Malta” were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine “Crusades,” where Europe’s Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.

“Opus Dei,” popularly depicted in the Hollywood film “The DaVinci Code,” was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group’s website claimedtheir principle calling was to bring about a “Christian renewal” around the world.

Doubts, denials and a distinctive trend

Raw Story reached out to Hersh and The New Yorker to confirm the accuracy of his quotes, placing this report on hold until they responded. Both declined to make any further statement, neither confirming nor denying the quotes.

However, one source close to Hersh who spoke to Raw Story off the record, suggested thatForeign Policy‘s report was indeed correct.

Raw Story followed-up on the quotes due to a widely-reported false claim attributed to Hersh in May 2009, where he’d allegedly said former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The report, which appeared to have originated in Pakistan, was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the conservative-leaning American Spectator, but both removed the links after Raw Story published a denial from Hersh. A link to Raw Story’s original report was unavailable due to a database malfunction.

Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author and reporter, has previously reported that the JSOC was set up by former Vice President Cheney as something of an “executive assassination squad” that operated outside of congressional authority.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings quoted him mocking the US civilian command, led JSOC before taking command of America’s war effort in Afghanistan.

In an email to the military’s Stars and Stripes publication, McChrystal’s spokesman, David Bolger,panned Hersh’s claim.

“The allegations recently made by Seymour Hersh relating to General McChrystal’s involvement with an organization called The Knights of Malta are completely false and without basis in fact,” he reportedly wrote. “General McChrystal is not and has never been a member of that organization.”

The religious indoctrination of US soldiers has been in headlines in recent weeks as soldiers who “failed” the “spiritual fitness” portion of the “comprehensive soldier fitness” test claimed they were forced to attend Christian ceremonies and become “born again” by professing love for the Christian deity.

Similarly, GQ magazine uncovered last year a series of top-secret military briefings prepared by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that included passages from the Bible.

Trijicon Inc., a defense contractor, was also discovered last January to have been for years placing scriptural references on gun sights used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their actions revealed Trijicon was forced to provide the Pentagon with kits to remove the codes.

Stephen C. Webster

Stephen C. Webster is the senior editor of Raw Story, and is based out of Austin, Texas. He previously worked as the associate editor of The Lone Star Iconoclast in Crawford, Texas, where he covered state politics and the peace movement’s resurgence at the start of the Iraq war. Webster has also contributed to publications such as True/Slant, Austin Monthly, The Dallas Business Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Weekly, The News Connection and others. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenCWebster.

Source

Detention of U.S. Persons: What is the Existing Law?

2012-02-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

February 6th, 2012 by Steven Aftergood

When Congress passed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, it included provisions that authorized U.S. armed forces to detain persons who are captured in the conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces. However, Congress also said that those provisions did not provide any new authority to detain U.S. citizens or others who may be captured in the United States.

“Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authority relating to the detention of United States citizens…,” section 1021(e) of theAct states. “We are simply codifying existing law,” said Sen. Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the time.

But this was an evasion, since existing law regarding the detention of U.S. persons is indeterminate in important respects.

A new report from the Congressional Research Service fleshes out the law of detention, identifying what is known to be true as well as what is unsettled and unresolved.

It is perfectly clear, for example, that a U.S. citizen who fought alongside enemy forces against the United States on a foreign battlefield could be lawfully detained. This was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Hamdi v. Rumsfeld.

On the other hand, the CRS report explains, “the President’s legal authority to militarily detain terrorist suspects apprehended in the United States has not been definitively settled.”

Nor has Congress helped to settle it. “This bill does not endorse either side’s interpretation,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein on December 1 about the defense authorization act, “but leaves it to the courts to decide.”

So if a detention of a U.S. person does occur, the CRS said, “it will be up to a court to determine Congress’s intent when it enacted the AUMF [the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force], or alternatively, to decide whether the law as it was subsequently developed by the courts and executive branch sufficiently established that authority for such detention already exists.”

Up to now, “Lower courts that have addressed questions the Supreme Court left unanswered have not achieved a consensus on the extent to which Congress has authorized the detention without trial of U.S. persons as ‘enemy combatants,’ and Congress has not so far clarified its intent.”

The new CRS report traces the development of U.S. detention policy from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 through the Civil War, the two World Wars, and the Cold War up to the present day. See Detention of U.S. Persons as Enemy Belligerents by CRS legislative attorney Jennifer K. Elsea, February 1, 2012.

Some other new (or newly updated) CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News that have not been made readily available to the public include the following.

Terrorist Watch List Screening and Brady Background Checks for Firearms, February 1, 2012

War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance, February 1, 2012

The U.S. Postal Service’s Financial Condition: Overview and Issues for Congress, January 27, 2012

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Arizona Lawmakers Target Public Workers' Unions

2012-02-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

by TED ROBBINS

Listen to the Story

Morning Edition

[3 min 39 sec]

February 9, 2012

Labor unions plan to rally in front of the Arizona State Capitol on Thursday afternoon to protest four bills quickly moving through the state Legislature that could make last year's Wisconsin labor laws look modest by comparison.

Three of the four bills restrict the way unions collect dues and the way workers get paid for union activities. The fourth bans collective bargaining between governments and government workers: state and local. Unlike Wisconsin, it affects all government employees, including police and firefighters.

"It seems as though those employees or at least the unions that represent them don't care what the burden is on the taxpayer as long as they get theirs," says state Sen. Rick Murphy, a Republican who is sponsoring the bills.

Murphy says collective bargaining lets public workers put themselves ahead of the public they are working for.

You're not in government, you know, to collect a fat paycheck. You're in government to serve.
- Nick Dranias, Goldwater Institute
Nick Dranias of the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, a libertarian/conservative think tank that helped Murphy write the bills, says public-sector workers in Arizona make about 6 percent more in salary and benefits than their private-sector counterparts.

"You're not in government, you know, to collect a fat paycheck," Dranias says. "You're in government to serve. And if you get paid reasonably, that's nice, but the moment you feel the need to organize collectively and create laws like collective-bargaining laws that give you special privileges to negotiate and extract compensation not seen in the private sector, you've gone too far."

Arizona is also different from Wisconsin in that it's a right-to-work state: No one can be forced to join a union. So unions in Arizona already have less clout. Still, 80 percent of police in the state choose to belong to a union.

Brian Livingston, who represents the Arizona Police Association, which is fighting the bills, says police and firefighters typically get paid less in salary, but he acknowledges that they negotiate better benefits and retirement plans. Livingston says police deserve it.

"By the time we retire, we know that most of us will not live beyond what the average private citizen does," he says. "And I'm speaking specifically about public safety, the rigors of our occupation, the hazards of our occupation take a lifelong toll on our longevity."

Democrats in the Arizona Legislature are outnumbered by Republicans 2-to-1 in the House and by more in the Senate.

Senate Minority Leader David Schapira says he is appalled by the bills.

"These bills are clearly the most anti-worker, anti-middle class, anti-union bills in the history of the country," he says.

These bills are clearly the most anti-worker, anti-middle class, anti-union bills in the history of the country.
- Arizona Senate Minority Leader David Schapira
Schapira says the bills are purely political. They're being considered, he says, because union leaders tend to support Democrats over Republicans.

"These are people that the Tea Party leadership at the State Capitol in Arizona disagree with, and so they're punishing them and that's the purpose of these pieces of legislation," he says.

Murphy, the bills' sponsor, acknowledges that public worker labor unions are a political problem for him. The elected officials labor leaders are negotiating with, he says, are afraid to give in to unions for fear of political reprisal.

"When the unions are the ones who are disproportionately influencing those elected officials, the elected officials are very rarely on the side of the taxpayers in those negotiations," he says.

The swiftness of this new attempt at cutting the power of public worker unions took labor leaders by surprise. The bills were introduced just last week, passed through committee and are ready for a full Senate vote.

Source

Avoiding Labor Conflicts

2012-02-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

[Appearing in pamphlet, Country Living, 7, 9, 10-12.]

The time is fast coming when the controlling power of the labor unions will be very oppressive. Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies.—Letter 5, 1904. {2SM 141.1}

Avoid Party Strifes

Men have confederated to oppose the Lord of hosts. These confederacies will continue until Christ shall leave His place of intercession before the mercy seat, and shall put on the garments of vengeance. Satanic agencies are in every city, busily organizing into parties those opposed to the law of God. Professed saints and avowed unbelievers take their stand with these parties. This is no time for the people of God to be weaklings. We cannot afford to be off our guard for a moment.—Testimonies for the Church 8:42 (1904). {2SM 141.2}

The trades unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began.—Letter 200, 1903. {2SM 142.1}

Conflicts Between Trade Confederacies and Labor Unions

The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force. In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business. Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men.—Letter 26, 1903. {2SM 142.2}

Preparing for the Issue

The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them, and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them. Because of these unions and confederacies, it will soon be very difficult for our institutions to carry on their work in the cities. My warning is: Keep out of the cities. Build no sanitariums in the cities. Educate our people to get out of the cities into the country, where they can obtain a small piece of land, and make a home for themselves and their children {2SM 142.3}

Our restaurants must be in the cities; for otherwise the workers in these restaurants could not reach the people and teach them the principles of right living. And for the present we shall have to occupy meetinghouses in the cities. But erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities, that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues. This is the light that is given me.—The General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903. {2SM 142.4}

To Preserve Our Individuality

For years I have been given special light that we are not to center our work in the cities. The turmoil and confusion that fill these cities, the conditions brought about by the labor unions and the strikes, would prove a great hindrance to our work. Men are seeking to bring those engaged in the different trades under bondage to certain unions. This is not God’s planning, but the planning of a power that we should in no wise acknowledge. God’s Word is fulfilling; the wicked are binding themselves up in bundles ready to be burned. {2SM 143.1}

We are now to use all our entrusted capabilities in giving the last warning message to the world. In this work we are to preserve our individuality. We are not to unite with secret societies or with trades unions. We are to stand free in God, looking constantly to Christ for instruction. All our movements are to be made with a realization of the importance of the work to be accomplished for God.—Testimonies for the Church 7:84 (1902). {2SM 143.2}

In Disregard of the Decalogue

These unions are one of the signs of the last days. Men are binding up in bundles ready to be burned. They may be church members, but while they belong to these unions, they cannot possibly keep the commandments of God; for to belong to these unions means to disregard the entire Decalogue. {2SM 143.3}

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” (Luke 10:27). These words sum up the whole duty of man. They mean the consecration of the whole being, body, soul, and spirit, to God’s service. How can men obey these words, and at the same time pledge themselves to support that which deprives their neighbors of freedom of action? And how can men obey these words, and form combinations that rob the poorer classes of the advantages which justly belong to them, preventing them from buying or selling, except under certain conditions?—Letter 26, 1903. {2SM 143.4}

Unions that are Formed or shall be Formed

Those who claim to be the children of God are in no case to bind up with the labor unions that are formed or that shall be formed. This the Lord forbids. Cannot those who study the prophecies see and understand what is before us?—Letter 201, 1902. {2SM 144.1}

Selected Messages, Book 2, p.141-144.

The American Crusade

2012-02-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The final Battle for America has begun, and The Catholic Knight is calling upon all my Catholic readers to rally to an ongoing crusade for the religious liberties of Catholics in the United States. Recent passage of gay-marriage laws, and other elements of the militant homosexual agenda, have caused the religious freedom of Catholics to be attacked in various states. Catholics are now becoming victims of frivolous lawsuits by militant homosexuals, backed by the ACLU, designed to systematically use means of legal coercion to exterminate all trace of traditional Catholic religion and culture. This is nothing less than a form ofcultural genocide.

This is an act of war! Many American states have given the militant homosexuals the tools they now need to effect the extermination they desire. The time for passive defense is over. The situation is dire. The United States was founded on religious liberty. If religious liberty for traditional Catholics is lost, than no religious group is safe, and the very reason for America's existence is lost as well. This is not only a battle for the religious freedom of traditional Catholics in America, but for America itself, because if we lose, America has completely lost it's reason for existence.

The good news is that Leftist- Liberals actually FEAR us Christians. They really do, and some of them are very candid about their fear of us. So the time has come to stand up and defend our rights vigorously. They will back down if we don't back down. They will compromise with us of we refuse to compromise with them.. They will because they already have an innate fear of us, and they don't believe in anything worth sacrificing their comfortable lives for.

Therefore, The Catholic Knight calls upon all of my readers to engage in the following crusade. Remember, we are Catholics. We are an honorable and civilized people. We do not resort to violence unless violently attacked by physical force. Nearly a thousand years ago, our Catholic ancestors crusaded against the Muslims only after they had been violently assaulted by Islamic jihad for centuries. Their military campaign (the crusades) against the violent jihadists were justified. We, however, have not had to deal with that kind of violent threat -- yet. For now, our crusade is limited to a legal and political fight, so we shall respond in kind with the same type of force.

OUR BATTLE STRATEGY...

Pray to Our Lady of America, The Immaculate Conception, for assistance, and familiarize yourself with the devotion to her.
Financially support the Thomas More Law Center with your tax deductible donations. No amount is too small. Give regularly, as this will be our front line.
Be prepared to file a lawsuit wherever and whenever your religious freedom is violated. Be aggressive about this, and encourage other Catholics to do the same. Contact the Thomas More Law Center for sound legal advice first, and do not be afraid.
Begin organizing religious freedom rallies. Start talking to the TEA Party organizers about this, as they are well connected, well funded, and will likely support such an effort. Contact should be made on both the national and local level. We must form an alliance here, or we will fail. We need their numbers, and they need our support. Remember, we must all hang together, or it won't be long before we each hang separately. (I'm not kidding here folks, this is the radical Left's agenda for us, if they get their way.)
Recruit faithful priests and bishops to come to our aid. Talk to your local priest, if he is somebody who cares, and not some leftover from the hippie generation. Tell him about the dire circumstances, and what you're trying to do to defend the rights of Catholics and Holy Mother Church. Get him to come to some meetings and speak up for our religious freedom.
Begin local letter writing campaigns to both state and federal legislators, demanding our religious freedom be protected against the militant homosexual agenda, and don't be afraid to tell them that if they don't help us, you will actively work to find their replacement.

This is just the beginning. There are more radical steps at our disposal, and we may have to use them, but for now this will do just to mobilize the troops and get the ground war going. Please pass on this article to every Catholic you know. Feel free to use the "share" icons below, or you may cut and paste the following link to an email:

http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/2011/07/american-crusade.html

Source: http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html

Marrying a Nonbeliever Won't Work, Says Prominent Pastor's Wife

2012-02-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

By Brittany Smith , Christian Post Reporter

Christians should not marry nonbelievers. It just won't work, says Kathy Keller, wife of well-known pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

The Kellers have dealt often with relationships between Christians and non-Christians. But rather than lecture couples on all the biblical reasons why marriage would be unwise, Mrs. Keller said it would be easier to let those already married to unbelievers do the talking.

"If only I could pair those sadder and wiser women – and men – who have found themselves in unequal marriages (either by their own foolishness or due to one person finding Christ after the marriage had already occurred) with the blithely optimistic singles who are convinced that their passion and commitment will overcome all obstacles ... Only ten minutes of conversation – one minute if the person is really succinct –would be necessary," Keller wrote recently on her blog.

She said that you can quote Scripture like 2 Corinthians 6:14 where it says not to "be unequally yoked," but while "you can find those passages in abundance," "when someone has already allowed his or her heart to become engaged with a person outside the faith, I find that the Bible has already been devalued as the non-negotiable rule of faith and practice."

The most effective pastoral approach, she wrote, might just be to "find a man or woman who is willing to talk honestly about the difficulties of the situation, and invite them into a counseling ministry with the about-to-make-a-big-mistake unequal couple."

Keller defined being "unequally yoked" as also including "genuine, warm Christians who want to marry an in-name-only Christian, or someone very, very far behind them in Christian experience and growth."

In her post, she outlined three outcomes for Christians who marry nonbelievers, and none of them lead to a happy ending.

The first is, that in order to be in-tune with one's spouse, the Christian in the marriage "will have to push Christ to the margins of his or her life," she said. This will affect things like a devotional life, tithing, raising children and fellowship with other believers.

Another outcome can include the non-Christian partner being marginalized instead, if the believer in the marriage ends up holding on to a healthy Christian life.

"If he or she (the nonbeliever) can't understand the point of Bible study and prayer, or missions trips, or hospitality, then he or she can't or won't participate alongside the believing spouse in those activities," she noted. "The deep unity and oneness of a marriage cannot flourish when one partner cannot fully participate in the other person's most important commitments."

What usually ends up happening, Keller said, is that the marriage undergoes a lot of stress and breaks up, or "it experiences stress and stays together, achieving some kind of truce that involves one spouse or the other capitulating in some areas, but which leaves both parties feeling lonely and unhappy."

Mike Fox, co-author of the book Marriage for Today: A Practical Guide for Couples, echoed Keller's analysis. He told The Christian Post in an email that "marrying an unbeliever brings a lot of negative baggage with it."

And even though "the Bible is definitely full of scriptures that discourage and redirect believers from marrying unbelievers, it is nonetheless a fact that it happens all too often," Fox stated.

Fox, who is also a certified marriage coach, said that couples "should never marry with the idea that [they're] going into a marriage to 'change' the other person." Oftentimes couples think they can change the other person or convert them in the marriage.

He said this idea of change also "goes for spiritual as well as emotional or personality wise. So, if the reason to marry the other person is to change their spiritual perspective, then it may backfire in a very devastating way."

Keller stressed that this issue is very important for those in the church. She wrote, "We need to hear the voices of men and women who are in unequal marriages and know to their sorrow why it is not merely a disobedient choice, but an unwise one."

Source

Like It Was In Noah's Day

2012-02-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. ........Luke 17: 26,27.
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Before the Flood God sent Noah to warn the world, that the people might be led to repentance, and thus escape the threatened destruction. As the time of Christ's second appearing draws near, the Lord sends His servants with a warning to the world to prepare for that great event. Multitudes have been living in transgression of God's law, and now He in mercy calls them to obey its sacred precepts. All who will put away their sins by repentance toward God and faith in Christ are offered pardon. But many feel that it requires too great a sacrifice to put away sin. Because their life does not harmonize with the pure principles of God's moral government, they reject His warnings and deny the authority of His law. {PP 102.1}

Of the vast population of the earth before the Flood, only eight souls believed and obeyed God's word through Noah. For a hundred and twenty years the preacher of righteousness warned the world of the coming destruction, but his message was rejected and despised. So it will be now. Before the Lawgiver shall come to punish the disobedient, transgressors are warned to repent, and return to their allegiance; but with the majority these warnings will be in vain. Says the apostle Peter, "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning." 2 Peter 3:3, 4. Do we not hear these very words repeated, not merely by the openly ungodly, but by many who occupy the pulpits of our land? "There is no cause for alarm," they cry. "Before Christ shall come, all the world is to be converted, and righteousness is to reign for a thousand years. Peace, peace! all things continue as they were from the beginning. Let none be disturbed by the exciting message of these alarmists." But this doctrine of the millennium does not harmonize with the teachings of Christ and His apostles. Jesus asked the significant question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8. And, as we have seen, He declares that the state of the world will be as in the days of Noah. Paul warns us that we may look for wickedness to increase as the end draws near: "The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Timothy 4:1. The apostle says that "in the last days perilous times shall come." 2 Timothy 3:1. And he gives a startling list of sins that will be found among those who have a form of godliness. {PP 102.2}

As the time of their probation was closing, the antediluvians gave themselves up to exciting amusements and festivities. Those who possessed influence and power were bent on keeping the minds of the people engrossed with mirth and pleasure, lest any should be impressed by the last solemn warning. Do we not see the same repeated in our day? While God's servants are giving the message that the end of all things is at hand, the world is absorbed in amusements and pleasure seeking. There is a constant round of excitement that causes indifference to God and prevents the people from being impressed by the truths which alone can save them from the coming destruction. {PP 103.1}

In Noah's day philosophers declared that it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water; so now there are men of science who endeavor to show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire--that this would be inconsistent with the laws of nature. But the God of nature, the Maker and Controller of her laws, can use the works of His hands to serve His own purpose. {PP 103.2}

When great and wise men had proved to their satisfaction that it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water, when the fears of the people were quieted, when all regarded Noah's prophecy as a delusion, and looked upon him as a fanatic--then it was that God's time had come. "The fountains of the great deep" were "broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened," and the scoffers were overwhelmed in the waters of the Flood. With all their boasted philosophy, men found too late that their wisdom was foolishness, that the Lawgiver is greater than the laws of nature, and that Omnipotence is at no loss for means to accomplish His purposes. "As it was in the days of Noah," "even thus shall it be in the days when the Son of man is revealed." Luke 17:26, 30. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:10. When the reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God's judgments; when religious teachers are pointing forward to long ages of peace and prosperity, and the world are absorbed in their rounds of business and pleasure, planting and building, feasting and merrymaking, rejecting God's warnings and mocking His messengers--then it is that sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3. {P

Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen G. White, pp. 102-104.

.P 103.3}

Fire and Brimstone, Chevy and Twinkies...

2012-02-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

Chevy - Apocalypse - Super Bowl Commercial

FBI Enlists Internet Café Owners to Spy on Customers

2012-02-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Monday, 6. February 2012

The Government’s Pretexts for Arresting Virtually Anyone

The US government has developed massive surveillance capabilities to monitor communications, travel and financial transactions in this country and abroad. But, even the government cannot monitor everything Americans do—not directly, anyway. Thus, it created the Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program to enlist your friendly local businesses as spies for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The CAT program, funded by the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training program (SLATT) is described as a “tool to engage members of the local community in the fight against terrorism.” The program interprets “local community” to mean businesses, and only registered businesses may access the program’s flyers listing “potential indicators” of terrorist activity.

Each flyer is designed for a particular kind of business. For example, this list was prepared for owners of internet cafes. Unquestionably, someone planning a terrorist attack has engaged in one or more of the “suspicious” activities on that list. But so, too, have most of the estimated 289 million computer users in this country.

The government’s flyer designates people as suspicious if they “always pay cash” at an internet café. That’s a jaw-dropping assumption considering that we’re talking about businesses that sell $2 cups of joe, not $600 airline tickets. Good luck paying with a credit card for a purchase under $10.

Evidence that one has a “residential based internet provider” (such as Comcast or AOL) is another pretext for government snooping. If your home internet connection is unreliable, if you are on travel, or if you simply relish a good cup of coffee with your internet browsing, you run the risk of acquiring an FBI file. Trying to shield personal information on your computer screen from the prying eyes of others will mark you as a potential terrorist, also.

It is officially creepy to use a café hotspot to download “photos, maps or diagrams” of a stadium, metro rail stop, or any “populated locations.” To be safe, confine your travel plans to the Alaskan tundra. And, should there be another terrorist attack, do not demonstrate any “preoccupation with press coverage” of the attack. Just move along–nothing to see here.

If you engage in these or any other “suspicious” activities listed on CAT flyers, businesses are encouraged to “gather information” about you, including “license plates, vehicle description, names used, languages spoken, ethnicity, etc.” At least 25 CAT flyers, collected by Public Intelligence, are known to exist.

The CAT list of “suspicious” internet café activities suggests appalling ignorance of the ways ordinary Americans use computers. Those who are computerless can become surveillance targets, too, if they own guns or precious metals, store a seven-day supply of food, buy a flashlight, believe in conspiracies or participate in peaceful demonstrations.

The government’s paranoia would be laughable were it not for the potential consequences for citizens who find themselves in its crosshairs. Under the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, the government may detain indefinitely any terrorism suspects–including U.S. citizens. And, since the government has created pretexts for arresting virtually anyone, no one is safe.

The consequences for public safety are no less grim. If the FBI cannot distinguish between legitimate computer use and credible evidence of terrorist activities, it cannot zero in on genuine threats. So, what is the purpose of Big Brother and his business partners spying on millions of Americans if it doesn’t make us any safer? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

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Linda Lewis is a policy analyst with degrees in emergency management and geosciences. Her experience includes 13 years as a policy analyst and planner for the U.S. government. During that time, she brought attention to serious deficiencies in government preparedness prior to the disasters that confirmed her analyses. Those included emergency communications (9/11 terrorist attacks), federal assistance (hurricane Katrina) and decision making (Columbia shuttle disaster).

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Obama Administration, Catholic Leaders Clash Over Contraception Mandate

2012-02-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

Uploaded by PBSNewsHour on Feb 6, 2012

Catholic leaders are pushing back against a new Department of Health and Human Services ruling requiring employers who offer health insurance to provide contraception free of charge. While churches are exempt from the rules, Catholic hospitals and universities must comply. Betty Ann Bowser reports on the controversy.